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Ironman copenhagan tracking
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After catweazles dig on the Mallorca thread I thought I'd better finish this:
The weeks leading up to the event were a bit manic. Work was mad busy and squeezing in training was getting more difficult. I had my last run on Wednesday evening and it felt great. I felt strong and was running with great ease. I should have started to pack my stuff earlier in the week but instead I decided to wait until the morning I was traveling. Some things never change. Long story short, I left Galway at 14:30 for a 17:50 flight. Not the smartest of moves considering I'd be hitting rush hour in Dublin but thankfully I made it to the gate with 15 minutes to spare.
The great thing about Copenhagen is that the airport is only 15 minutes from the city centre on the metro. I got off the metro and went looking for my apartment. Found the apartment alright but finding the key was an issue. Turns out the key was moved due to construction work. I knocked on the apartment next door and the guy didn't know who owned my apartment but was really helpful. As I couldn't contact the owner of where I was staying his neighbour helped me find a relatively cheap hotel and booked me a taxi. Half was there I found out where the key was and turned back. Finally got sorted and settled for around 00:30. Nice apartment and close to the swim start.
The plan for Friday was to get my bike from the Ship My Tri Bike guys and have a swim at the race venue. Mark from SMTB was sound and let me grab my wetsuit from the lorry and then collect my bike after the swim. I bumped in to a crew from Kilkenny TC and went for the swim with then. They were all in great spirits and were great craic. The water was colder than anticipated but what do you expect if this was only your 4th OW swim all year. Swim went well and felt good. It was a cracking spot for a swim course.
After the swim I dropped off the bike at the apartment I went to register in the maze that is Copenhagen. A bit more walking than anticipated but registration was a quick affair. I went in search of the race briefing and got lost. I gave up after and went for some food before going back to the apartment. After an hour or so chilling I decided to get a short bike in with an easy run off it. Everything felt good. Back in to CPH that evening to meet Brian from GTC who travelled with his daughter and also to track down the athletes lounge for the briefing. Mission accomplished. Bumped in to pmaldini and Lenny from LTC there also and the craic was 90.
I woke up Saturday morning with muscle aches all over and a head cold coming on. FFS was my initial thought but I just put it to the back of my mind and went for an easy run. I started to feel better as the run went on but somehow managed to get lost and ended up running longer than planned. Nice run and I got some honey & lemon after the run and took plenty of it during the day. I decided to skip going for a swim and just relaxed as much as possible.
After attending the race briefing it was time to pack my T1 & T2 bags before heading to the bike check-in. Indecision is all I'll say about packing these bags. A very smooth bike check-in with little to no queues. I bumped in to pmaldini & Lenny and shot the breeze with them on the way back to the apartment. Wished each other the best of luck and went our separate ways. My plan for the evening was dinner with my mother and sister. I wasn't great company so I decided to head back to the apartment once I finished eating. I paid the bill and somehow managed to walk in to the door beside the till. I gave my left knee a nasty wallop and limped off to the Metro. MUPPET!!!! Back to the apartment and I did some work on the knee and hit the hay at 22:30. My alarm was set for 05:00. The reality is I was tossing and turning until just after 02:00 when I finally fell asleep. I woke at 04:00 and couldn't get back to sleep.
Race day
Up at 05:00 and feeling tired. Knee a little tender to touch but nothing too serious. I wasn't limping so that was a positive. Breakfast consisted of a bowl of muesli, a banana and 2 boiled eggs. I was sipping water until 15mins before the swim start.
I spent ages waiting for a movement that wasn't forthcoming so I headed to the swim start at 06:15. I got there with around 40mins to go before my wave went off. I joined the queue and had my movement. I bumped in to a few people I knew and wished them luck. It was soon time to put on the wetsuit and get ready to go. Once I popped on the wetsuit my mouth went bone dry. It was all very real now. I popped a gel and made my way to the container for the street clothes after the race. I threw my bag in and walked away. Sh1t, my HR strap is in the bag. Rooted around and found it thankfully and then made my way to the swim start. My AG was called forward and I took my place 3 rows back and in the middle.
Swim (1:07:02)
All was fairly civilised until the hooter went. It was a beach start and once the hooter went the 426 men in the 40-44 AG tore in to the sea. The swim out to the first buoy was nuts. It was very physical and I swam Tarzan style for most of it. It reminded me of Kilkee last year but worse. I kept the cool and just focused on breathing and keeping cool. Once we turned the first buoy, around 80m out, things settled. It was still a bit bumpy and physical for the next couple of hundred metres but nothing major. I just settled in to a rhythm and went with it. I just wanted to be relaxed with a nice rhythm. This worked well and I sighted often. It was hard to see the buoys but easy to sight off the bridges. We went under 3 bridges in total.
By the time we were going under the first bridge I had started to catch some of the back markers from the earlier wave. I was feeling good at this stage and settling in to a nice relaxed pace. I seemed to be making ground on people in my wave too. Things were quite straightforward until the last bridge. At this stage it got very congested as I had caught a lot of the earlier 2 waves and had the fish from M35-39 coming through like trains. Sighting for the last 400m or so was tough in to a low sun but before long I was at the swim exit and feeling good. That was easier than I thought it would be. I couldn't see a time clock though so I had no idea what time I had swam. I didn't wear a watch either.
T1 (08:53)
Up the ramp and I grabbed my T1 bag, had a whizz before going in to a very crowded changing tent. There were bodies everywhere and no real space. I forced my way in and took off my wetsuit. I popped on my bib shorts over my tri shorts, put on my jersey and then faffed about trying to get my arm warmers and gloves on. I packed the T1 bag and ran out with my shoes and socks in my hand. I was told I had to put them on before going to the bike. I did this and realised my sunnies were in the bag. Unpacked it, put on the sunnies, packed the bag and headed for the bike after dumping the T1 bag in the appropriate wheelie bin.
Bike (5:19:05)
I found my bike easily, grabbed it and made my way to the mount line. There were people everywhere doing all sorts of stupid things. Why do people leave their shoes on the bike if they cannot do a flying mount and get their shoes in? Weaving around a narrow road trying to tighten your shoes is not the smartest thing in the world. Anyway, I was soon off and going.
Lots of roaring and shouting in the first few kms with the uber bikers hammering up the outside. Around 1k in a few people start shouting at me and I twigged what was wrong. My saddle bag had come lose and was barely hanging on. A quick stop to fix it and off I went again. What surprised me was that although it was a short stop to fix it took me nearly 10 minutes to catch the last person I passed before I had to stop. Anyway, the open few kms of this are technical as you're heading out of the city. I was soon out at the coast and I just settled in to a rhythm and focused on taking some fluids on-board for the first 30mins or so. I felt comfortable but noticed it was harder than it should have been to
hold my target numbers. I decided to ease back a bit and build in to it if appropriate. The opening portion of the course out along the coast was quite fast with very good road surfaces. There were some short rollers but nothing major. I was controlling my effort on the rollers but noticed that lots of people would hammer by me only for me to pass them again of the flats.
Before long I was turning left and inland. I really noticed the headwind as soon as I turned and figured it might be a long spin back to lap 2. The road surface got worse as I headed inland. I also started to notice a lot of drafting on this section. I found myself having to ease off as some groups weren't really driving on. I passed one group a few times before finally dropping them. They were blatant drafters but I decided not to let them bother me. The day was long enough without worrying about them. I'm not sure how long the section of bad roads was but it seemed like the longest portion of the course. It wasn't though and I think it was just a combination of the bad surface, pig of a headwind and rolling nature of it that made it feel long. There were also quite a few casualties along this section of road. Once I hit the 90 degree turn back towards Copenhagen the surface improved and I picked up some speed again.
It was on this section back towards Copenhagen that the only real hill on the course was. You could hear it before you saw it, such was the support on it. I was grinning from ear to ear gong up it. The whole climb was lined from top to bottom and around 4 people deep. There was some buzz there and the support was unreal. I was feeling really good at this stage and knew it couldn't be much further to the start of lap 2. I was soon at the cobbled area and once again the support here was unreal. Plenty of Irish support also. I sat up to be careful on the cobbles but there were plenty who just hammered through. Through 90k in 2:38 and feeling good. Happy days.
At the start of lap 2 I decided to try and push the effort a little bit. I bullied my way in to a pace line that seemed to be moving quite well and made my way up along it until I was behind the lead guy. He was holding a nice pace and I was still below my target numbers. It felt harder than it should have but I thought it was manageable. I noticed I was losing ground on the rollers though and worked a little harder than I normally would on these. I was holding around 18m back from the guy and feeling decent. However, one of the rollers before the turn inland was longer and steeper than the others. I pretty much got dropped here and didn't get back on. At this point I settled back to my own rhythm. I was soon turning inland and started to feel queasy coupled with my left knee feeling sore. I eased back off at this point and tried to pull myself together. I noticed there were quite a few people passing me on this back section and the wind had really picked up. At one stage a very nice blonde lady passed some comment, in Danish I think, as she passed and smiled. She also had a very nice derrière. With that I decide to try and keep within 30m or so of her and not let
her get too far away. This got me over the rest of the country roads and we were soon heading towards Copenhagen. The climb was much harder second time around but the crowds were brilliant and I felt energized by them. I grabbed a banana at the aid station and made for home. I was worried about the cobbles though as we had some rain and the last thing I wanted was to take a spill. I sat up again and got through the cobbles without incident. Great support on this section also and it was great to see some familiar faces and get some words of encouragement. The last 40k on the bike were pretty grim and I felt like crap. Strangely enough I got relief every time I had a pi$$ and felt better for a while. I eased off completely when we hit the technical sections as I was worried about my knee. Coming towards T2 I wasn't sure if I'd be able to run or not but I was finishing no matter what.
My plan was to eat on 30 (bar) & 60 (gel) minutes and go with something every 20 minutes after that. I stuck with this for the first 4hrs or so but then I started to feel queasy so I altered it a bit. I only drank water on the bike.
T2 (06:34)
There was a volunteer at the dismount line to take my bike. I found my T2 bag easily and before long I was in the changing tent and lacing up my runners. I was bursting for a whizz and stopped at the urinals before leaving T2.
Run (3:24:20)
My left knee felt funny but thankfully it wasn't limiting me or very sore. I had an awareness that something didn't feel right but it wasn't hindering me. The plan was to pop a gel every 20mins or so depending on how the aid stations fell. I also carried my own gels as I prefer IsoGels on the run. I carried 4 and had given 6 to my sister to give to me on the run course as I needed them. I settled in to my running and noticed I was running too fast so I spent the first few kms trying to rein it in. I soon found a nice pace and settled in to it. I was feeling strong on the first lap but knew there was a long way to go. With that I kept things very controlled. I walked every aid station and took on a minimum of a cup of water at each. I also used some sponges to cool myself down. What really struck me on the first lap was the support. The crowds were huge on the course and some sections were 5 deep.
The run was 4 laps around the city and out by the mermaid and the harbour area. The first few kms were great and except for a few twists and turns were quite straight forward. The section out by the mermaid was poor under foot as it was on cobbles but that only lasted 1km or so. After that were the only 2 hills on the run course and nightmares of Barcelona came flooding back. I remember wondering if I'd be able to run the hills for every lap. Thankfully I did. Before too long I was at the turnaround point and collecting my first armband. 1 down and 3 to go. The run back to complete the lap was fine and my legs felt good, even on the downhill sections. Lap 1 completed and feeling good. My only concern at this point was that I couldn't see my family and my gels were running low. My quads were tired but nothing major. Off on to lap 2 holding a similar pace and feeling good. I was bursting for a pi$$ though. A quick pit stop at the urinals under the bridge and away I went again. 1 more pi$$ stop on lap 2 after the turnaround and I was headed back to the finish area. It was around this time that there was an almighty downpour of rain and it felt great. It helped cool me down and if anything made the supporters even more vocal. Thankfully my support crew had arrived and they spotted me just before I finished the 2nd lap. A quick roar that I needed gels and to be ready when I came back around. Lap 2 complete and still feeling good.
The question now was should I pick it up or hold my pace. I was still feeling quite good but I had the words of so many in my head saying that it's the last 10k that's really the second half of the run. With that I held pace and grabbed my gels. Some words of encouragement and off I went feeling good. I was soon picking up my 3rd armband and starting to wonder how I was doing for time. I completed the lap and was starting my last lap still feeling good. When I came back around to my family, with around 8km or so to go, I asked them what time it was. Fcuk, I wish I had asked earlier. There's no way I'm running the last 8k fast enough for sub 10. With that I decided to pick it up and push the last lap. I got a lot of funny looks though as I was giving out to myself for not asking sooner and also for being a numpty and not knowing how I was tracking. I felt good and ran strong on the last lap and I was looking forward to the finishing shoot. I passed quite a few people on their last lap also in the last 2km. I spotted my family on the finish straight and grabbed the tricolour from them and soaked up the atmosphere of the last 100m or so. The buzz was unreal.
I went for a massage, grabbed my kit and went to retrieve my bike. We then went back to my apartment and packed before dropping bike and bags back to the Ship My Tri Bike lorry. These guys provide a great service and I will use them again.
A quick shower and back to the finish area to soak up the atmosphere for the last few hours of the race.
Learnings:
My transitions were a disaster. Packing too much in to the T1 & T2 bags didn't help either.
2 races a year and only 5 OW swims isn't nearly enough.
I need to adjust my nutrition and fluid intake depending on temperatures. I believe I drank way too much in Copenhagen.
Less walking in the days leading up to the race.
I also need to be more careful in the days before the race.0 -
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A tough last 40k or so on the bike. A 90 minute pb so very happy with that. Any update on pmaldini?
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