BlogApril 17, 2007 Man are my quads sore! Ironman Arizona took place in very windy conditions on April 15th and I was lucky to be among the 2200 participants who took to the water. Everything went well race morning and my mind and body were filled with positive feelings as I swam a couple of hundred warm-up yards out to the start buoy. Lining up on the far left, I chatted for a minute or two with my friend, Doctor Jeff Kootman, from Gainey Village. He was in one of the race lifeguard kayaks and I told him I couldn't see anything because the sun was rising in roughly the direction we were to swim. "Hey Jeff, where do I swim?" He replied,"It's really hard to see, even from up here, you've been in this lake enough, just swim toward the sun!" That was good enough for me, and it put my mind at ease. When "one minute to the cannon" was announced I started to joss le a little bit for the front with one of the female pros. I felt a little uncomfortable with this, especially when it was clear that I wasn't joss ling with female super-swimmer Joanna Zeiger. She was the only one i expected to make the lead group of men. It was important to me that I got off ahead of whomever she was. Noticing my apparent struggle, just behind me big-famous-German-Ironman-Champion-Lothar-Leder tapped me on the shoulder. I hadn't raced Lothar before and I think he was very willing to throw his hat in the ring and take over my struggle on the front line. He said,"What will you swim?" I quickly quipped,"51 minutes." He gave me a shrug and a little smile as if to say,"That's good enough for me, I'm right on your feet!" The cannon sounded and we were off! I got off to a clean start and had fresh water for about 100 meters, at this point I threw myself into the pack and it appeared that I was right in the middle of it all, it's always tough to tell. After about five minutes a few people were getting ahead of the guy whose feet I was sitting on. I made a fairly major effort to come around him, but only drew even with him and then realized I had better just sit on his feet. When I swam up next to him I saw blonde hair out the back of his swim cap and I knew it was Swen Sundburg. He's a good swimmer, a great guy to follow. It's always a problem I run into and I vow not to be in this situation next year. It's too easy to follow in the draft, but too hard to lead myself. All ready I was wishing I had gotten out one place quicker and made that lead split. Not knowing if there were four or fifteen in that lead group, I had to be confident that Swen was good on the day and that he would swim well enough. At the 1.2 mile turn around I noticed there were only a few ahead, maybe 5-6 people. Also, they were about 45 seconds ahead, which normally turns into about three minutes by the time we get back, but this was reasonable in my mind. As I made the turn my good friend Hillary Biscay came whipping by. YES, I was on a good swim! Hillary always swims around fifty minutes and I had been easily following Swen for a while. Now following her, I knew I would be OK. A quick look back and I noticed that the group was pretty large. Just like cycling, it's easier to draft a pack than draft one or two dudes. For this reason, I swung off to the right and decided to take "inventory" to see who made this group. As I drifted back a bit I saw Lovato, Lothar Leder, Beke, lots of big names. Perfect. I made my way back up to the front again and sat on Hillary's feet for the rest of the swim. I assumed that Deboom and Rhodes were ahead in that lead group, this was to be expected and for this reason I focused on backing the kick down to nothing and conserving myself for the bike and run. It was amazing how easily I was able to swim in this group. Without a downloadable heart rate monitor it's hard to tell, but I'm guessing I got down to zone 1-2 toward the end of the swim. Perfect to set me up for a hard bike. Out of the water I ran past everybody in our large group racing to my bike. Great Dane and European long-course champ Jens Koefold gave me pre-race advice to hit the front as quickly as possible and don't wait around for the race to come to me. I had left everything I needed at my bike. (Helmet, shoes, race belt) Last year I lost lots of time as my transition bag was lost and I had to wait around until they found it. Nothing was being left to chance now! Out onto the bike I heard a few splits going through Tempe. My friend Clodey yelled "3 minutes", another person yelled "you're in sixth". I also heard fifth. This was all music to my ears. I rolled out of town quite comfortable and took one look back on Hayden. Behind me about 50, and then 100 meters, I saw Lovato and Beke. Knowing it was in my best interests to throw them off their race-plan I charged fairly hard out to the first turn around at 18 miles. Around then Jimmy R. flew by me on the official motorbike and said something like,"good swim dude" On my way out I caught Caron Bonney and some other guy. Glancing back I saw Lovato and Beke were gone, this was good. Right before the turn around Jay Prashaun from Triathlete Magazine came up next to me and said,"Beke's at 1:20 behind you, Lovato is 2 minutes back!" Making the turn I saw Tim Deboom leading and a guy who I believe was Neidrig riding a few seconds behind him. I made the turn and got a split of 45 seconds. This was perfect, I would catch these two guys and then take the race into my own hands, just like Jens had told me to do. Jens being my partner-in-crime out at California 70.3 two weeks ago, he gave me pre-race confidence as to what I may be capable of. On my way back to town I got splits of about 20 seconds behind the lead. Up just ahead there was a lead caravan with motorcycles, police vehicles, and cameras around the two leaders. This was incredible, my plan was to fly by them and lead back into Tempe and start going to work on establishing a good gap heading into the run. About this time I took a right onto Rio Salado and had about three miles left in the lap. My left quad, then my right LOCKED up. It was so strange. I couldn't pedal anymore... By the time i covered those three miles the twenty second margin had ballooned up to a minute! Yes, now I was losing major time. Too hard, too early? Was I paying for it all ready? I don't think so, my effort wasn't that large. Besides, it was not a hot day and cramping like this 2:30 into any race is NOT NORMAL for me or anyone else that i know of... These were major cramps. Epic stuff. As I made the turn to head back out onto my second of three laps I was in huge distress. Age groupers that were just getting out of the water and a lap down were blowing by me. Ironmanlive reported that I was having mechanical bike problems, I'm sure it appeared that way! I jumped off my bike for a quick stretch and vowed just to get to the first age station. I took on everything, whatever was going wrong with my body would need to be corrected immediately. Back in my cycling days a coach once told me if nothing else works to go with what you're craving. For some reason, I was really craving water. So, when I got to that aide station I took three bottles of water, and chugged them frat-party style... Now I had a big belly, but it felt like I had done something to improve myself. Tony Robbins would be proud. Around then Beke and Sundburg flew by me and this was ok. I thought to myself,"Well, except for these vicious muscle cramps you do feel OK, and you're halfway through the bike and in fifth place with third in sight, that's pretty good!" I rolled along. The next hour I just tried to stay aero knowing that my watt-output was not good. Just try to keep rolling I thought. To my surprise nobody went by me. Any erratic moves or hard pedaling caused cramping, so I just stayed steady and tried to pedal evenly Up the slight hill to the final turn around with 18 miles to go the cramps hit again, this time even worse. It was probably hilarious for any witnesses, they nearly threw me off my bike. Lapped age-groupers were yellin' obscenities at me to get out of the road. I was really getting in the way, and probably wouldn't finish now. There was also some serious wind blowing, this didn't help my cause at all. After stretching my thighs out again, I hopped back on and at the aide station a mile down the road chugged three more big bottles of water. "Hey, it worked last time..." Heading back into town the last few miles Lovato screamed by. At this point my focus was to pedal without getting cramps, he didn't concern me at all. He wouldn't win today I thought, but he always runs well, perhaps a podium for him. I made it back to town and was overwhelmed with the support I received from my hometown. I was in 5th or 6th, a light-year behind Deboom and Beke, and not too confident that I would be able to run a step. In my favor I had packed a new pair of soft, thick-soled, Nike trainers with my custom E-Sole insoles in my transition bag. Perfect for running for 26.2 miles on this hard freakin' cement. Cramps usually hit people late on the run, starting the run with cramps I'd been battling for three hours was not an optimistic scenario. Surprisingly I felt OK right away. Lots of things were in my transition bag like Ibuprofen, electrolytes, and caffeine, I took it all right there. My rational was that I was going to run the race as far as I could, and there was no use giving me high-octane fuel now, I needed rocket fuel just to get out've this tent. Realistically, with every stride my quads would tinge as if they were about to lock, I would have to run conservatively. I caught Neidrig at mile 2 and was now in the top five. After a horrific day it was ironic that I had made it to the run and was running myself into fifth place. Around the fifth mile I could see former University of Texas swimmer James Bonney just ahead. That was 4th place! Ok, just get through the first of three laps I thought. Everything stayed about like this until later in the run when a couple super-fast runners came flying by. Vabrousek passed me for fourth place and he's always friendly. There was about a lap to go, there's no way I could try to stay with him (he ran 2:52 on the day) in my physical state. He said,"There's nobody behind, they're all dying back there, keep going." This encouraged me. Hey, they're dying, all I have is quadriceps cramps! I made my way through the wall and ran home in 8:53 in 8th place, only about 3 minutes out've sixth place! All things considered, it was fantastic! A 3:10 marathon on a tough course with my body feeling like that gave me some high hopes of what I could do on a normal day. Also, finishing in the money was some justice after suffering for that long. As Will Ferrell so famously said in Talladega Nights,"Gotta make that money, ouuuuwwwhhhhh!" The next day at the awards breakfast I got my long-awaited Kona slot to IM Hawaii World Championships this October! This is pretty hard to do as a professional, especially in a field like this. Ironman Arizona was the only race I was going to do that had professional spots this year and I'm so happy I gutted this thing out and got that spot. Perhaps this will change my racing plans during the late summer a little as I will not go into Hawaii under or unspecifically prepared. My training partner and good friend, Marc Rubin, left it all on the line and did a 10:10 on a tough day! What a stud. This guy did 14:30 or thereabouts in 2005, then 11:36 I believe last year. I'm not a mathematician but if anyone out there is graphing this I'm pretty sure I had better be watching my back next year! Way to go Rub!!! As far as the cramps go, there are two possibilities in my mind. The first is that I did a big effort at California 70.3 two weeks ago. Most of the people whom I spoke with, whom I perceive as experts, said this was much too close, especially for a big effort. I went all out in California, I hope this isn't why I got these cramps so early in the IM as it would be an unfortunate decision on my part. In an even-more-unfortunate-turn-of-events Marc and I made a huge error the final evening of before the race. For those of you who don't know, I get a lot of my inspiration from that dude Jared in the Subway commercials. I always eat a foot-long sub, from Subway, the night before the big races. Unlike Jared, I profess that I order extra cheese. This always prepares me well and has served me well. I feel light race morning, but not underfed. Unfortunately Marc and I sniffed out an all-you-can-eat buffet in Tempe and went about getting our money's worth. This isn't something I do even annually, and I'm guessing this is the most likely culprit as to why body seemed to be playing tricks on me. So, perhaps I sabotaged myself, and maybe not. The cool thing about this Ironman sport is that we get to go back and try it again, and again. Also, every time we do it we get to come up with a laundry-list of excuses as to why we didn't perform to all of our expectations. How cool is that!!!? I hope to see you all very soon. Congratulations to all of my current and future buddies who participated in IMAZ 2007. Cheers, Lewis « Back to Blogs |
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