Ironman Cairns 2014 - Since when was the tropical north supposed to be so cold?

You'd think that with seven ironman finishes under my belt, at only two different locations, that I'd have all the bases covered.  No surprises left, it should be nice and predictable by now and, dare I say it - boring?

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Cairns, that tropical paradise in Far North Queensland in Australia, decided to throw us a curveball on Sunday, in the form of rain.

17 hours of it in fact.

We started in the rain.  We finished in the rain.  In between there was rain, mud, puddles.  Oh, and some more rain just for good measure.

Did I mention it rained?

OK, enough of the rain - onto the day!

I had had a pretty low key build up and, as mentioned in a previous post, this race was all about practising strategies for Kona.  The Cairns climate has been likened to Kona conditions and so keeping it in the schedule meant I could try out Coach Dave's plan to ensure I survive the lava fields in good enough shape to soak up the experience.

That message obviously didn't get through to Mother Nature.

The day before, Lisa, Mel and I rode the bikes out to Palm Cove where the swim start and T1 would be located for the first time.  (Tip for anyone reading this and thinking about doing IM or IM70.3 Cairns - don't worry about the stress of having your bike transported out to T1 at Palm Cove. It's an easy 60 minute ride on bike lanes following the main road north out of Cairns.). It was here we got our first look at the new swim course.

Of course all the marketing shots show a gorgeous palm fringed beach with crystal blue, calm water. What we actually got was murky brown surf crashing onto shore with the palm trees blowing in the wind…  Surf session anyone?

Surveying the surf … not quite like the brochures...

It didn't make for confidence, especially when even now the swim remains my biggest psychological challenge with these events.  As a result our quiet, relaxed night-before-race-day became a wonderful breeding ground for doubts and nerves to show their ugly faces and it took all my secret boxes of tricks to deal with them.  Bad thoughts!

If only I could get excited about the swim like I do the bike...

Thanks Specialized!

Anyway, race morning arrived and I had slept really well and was in a good head space to go and have a great day. Raincoats on, we walked down to the buses that would take us out to Palm Cove.  Once there I went into T1 to do the usual pre-check on Black Beauty. Garmin Edge 810 set, electrolyte drink in bottle between the aero bars, water in the bladder and fuel cell loaded with food.  And a nice surprise waiting at some of our bikes - seat covers on the Specialized bikes, from Specialized, wishing us luck.  A nice touch which brought a smile to the face.  Tyres pumped up I made my way out tof the soggy transition area to find Pete. 

While I had been mucking around in T1 he had found a dry spot for us - the Pullman Hotel was just down the road and had opened its foyer to us, and so this is where around 100 athletes gathered to stay dry and as warm as possible.

Eventually it was time to go down to the start and I was hoping like anything that the sea would have calmed down since the previous afternoon.  Thankfully it had and, while it was still pretty lumpy, it was nowhere as bad as I feared it would be.  

The pros went off and finally it was our turn - the music was pumping and I got into my happy place - dancing on the beach! Let's do this!

The gun goes off and 1600 athletes make their way into the water and out through the break.  It felt like a couple of minutes before I could start swimming properly amongst the crowds but eventually we got going.  The new course is a big rectangle and we would swim two laps, exiting at the opposite end of the rectangle to the starting point.  As with Taupo this year, I seemed to be on the receiving end of a lot of contact, although I didn't seem to get as short of breath at the beginning as I usually do.

A really interesting aspect to this swim was that I had no time on me.  Because of the different race plan, I was going to use the Garmin Edge 810 on the bike so I could watch my heart rate and cadence and then put the Garmin 910xt on for the run.  That meant I had nothing for the swim and so my usual halfway time check didn't happen.  That meant I was able to just settle in and swim, find feet and think happy thoughts.

And that I did.  There was a bit of chop out there - enough to prevent getting into a proper rhythm and enough to get tossed against other swimmers (and vice versa) but not enough to really restrict progress. Even so I was a happy camper to land on the beach (or actually "get dumped on the beach"!) and make my way up through the showers and through into transition.  There was no clock on the beach and so I didn't have a clue how long I'd been in the water however there were a good number of women in transition with me so I took that as a good sign!

I took a bit of time in transition to make sure as much sand as possible was off my feet and made my way out to Black Beauty.  So much for thinking my feet were clean though - as we walked/ran out of the tent we walked/ran straight into a muddy quagmire.  I grabbed Black Beauty and tried rolling her to the exit but the mud was so deep I ended up picking her up and carrying her the 100m to the other end of transition.

Yuk!

On the bike finally, I saw St Pete as I got going and gave him a wave.  As I rolled by he called out that I had done a 1:28 swim.  Was that good, I asked myself?  I had been so disinterested in time splits this time round that I had done none of my usual reviews of past results and so spent a couple of minutes trying to figure out if it was an OK time.  I eventually gave up on that idea and decided that anything under 90 minutes was AWESOME (haha) and left it behind with the mud in transition.

Afterall I had 6 hours on the bike to deal with…

(My official swim time was 1:28:47, almost 5 minutes faster than IM Cairns the previous year.)

I've raved about this before in previous IM Cairns race reports so I won't go on much here, other to say that normally the bike course is one of the most gorgeous and scenic in the world.  Unfortunately we missed the best of it with the rain but the bonus of the day was that the wind we have had in the previous two years managed to stay away for the bulk of the leg.

It still meant for a cold, wet ride, however, and I suffered big time.

While I passed a lot of people (non-aggressively, this was just a training ride!) in the first half of the ride, I never managed to get the legs warmed up properly and so maintaining Coach Dave's desired 95+ cadence just wasn't on the cards.  I focused instead on getting my heart rate down after the swim and then riding conservatively enough to keep it as close as possible to 135 bpm (the second part of the race plan).  I did find myself thinking though that if I let my heart rate stay higher then I would also stay a bit warmer.  So I ended up with an average heart rate of 140bpm which, in the conditions, I was pretty happy with afterwards.

The weather also impacted on my nutrition and that would come back to bite me later on in the evening.  Because I was taking in rain water, and was cold, I didn't get the thirst that I normally come to expect.  That meant it was extra important to remember to take in fluids and so I focused on drinking my electrolyte drink throughout the ride.  Even so, over the 180km I found I had only taken in one bottle of water and one bottle of electrolyte - and while it felt fine at the time, as you'll see at the end I've come to the conclusion that I likely didn't take in quite enough.

Solid food was the other important strategy and for the second time I dispensed completely with gels and had "real" food only in the form of handmade balls and bars of dates, nuts, cacao, coconut and chia seeds.  They sat in my fuel cell on the bike and in my back pockets, individually wrapped in glad wrap.  They were really easy to take out, unwrap and eat and the glad wrap was simple to stuff into the back pocket of my tri suit.  The only slight problem with the nutrition plan was the schedule of taking a banana at each aid station.  For the first three aid stations (60km) it worked a treat.

And then they ran out.

Yep, by the time I got half way through the course there were no bananas available to hand out to us….who mucked up that calculation?!!!!!  Guess what feedback I'll be giving IM when their post-event survey comes out…

And then as if the weather wasn't causing enough challenges I started facing my second major challenge of the day.

My gut.

As I was heading to Port Douglas for the first time I started feeling really gassy, uncomfortable and bloated.  A portaloo stop was needed … and taken.  And straight afterwards I posted my fastest average  split on the bike leg!  Time obviously well spent :)

Posting a fast bike split within the leg wasn't to be sneezed at either.  Again the rain put a dampener on the party with caution having to be taken on the descents and roundabouts.  Where normally I'd put the hammer down on descents and power through roundabouts at 100%, the rain plus my slick racing tyres meant that I was approaching these sections much more cautiously.

But that's OK - I'm supposed to be riding conservatively anyway…

And I did, and all was well until one of the last bridges heading into Cairns.  I was probably only around 5km from the end and powering along the bridge when I come to the other end and realise I'm about to plow into a huge pothole.  It was full of water and so basically invisible until I was on top of it.   I had just enough time to stand on the pedals and start hoping for the best when I crashed through it, came out the other side (still on the bike thankfully - gotta love those old mountainbike skills!) but hearing a big thud down the road behind me.  I looked down and the fuel cell had jumped out and was bouncing down the road.  A couple of micro seconds were spent deciding whether to go back for it - but I decided it was actually worth stopping for and so hauled on the brakes and ran the bike back 50m to where it and half its contents were strewn across the bike lane.  The fuel cell was in two pieces, but thankfully they were the two pieces it was manufactured as, so I was able to put them back together, slot it back onto the frame and get back on the road without too much delay.

Reading all this you're probably thinking I had a miserable ride.  Well, no, actually it was awesome!  And maybe that's what makes us so passionate about this sport.  I spent over 6 hours dealing with all these issues on the bike but rolled into T2 wet, cold, but in one piece and really happy.  Even better I had suffered no punctures and was free of any aches and pains and ready for a bit of a run.  It had been planned as a conservative ride and I felt as though it had been a good conservative effort.  Awesome!

(A 6hr 18min split for the bike was 21 minutes slower than last year but still 34 minutes faster than the year before and so, for a training day, I was more than happy with that effort.)

I gratefully handed Black Beauty over to a volunteer in T2, grabbed my run bag and headed into the change tent.  Again, spent a few extra seconds making sure my feet were dry before putting my socks and running shoes on and, again, wondered why I bothered.

As I ran out of the tent I ran straight into yet another muddy quagmire and literally had to tiptoe my way onto the run course.  Not the way I had planned to start!

The plan for the run was to again take it conservatively.  Aim to walk each aid station and run the rest.  Ultimately, though, I didn't want to hammer the legs as we need to get them recovered as soon as possible so we can start the Kona buildup.

The run course at Cairns is now a 3 lap course entirely around the Esplanade.  The first 14km (first lap) went pretty much to plan with me ticking off the kilometres and taking in electrolyte at each aid station.

All was good with the world until I started getting the same gut problems as I had on the bike.  What's going on there?!  The second lap, then (after a toilet stop) became a low point and at one pass I remember telling St Pete to settle in for a long evening.  At several points I was debating with myself whether it would be better just to walk the remaining distance.  The pros for that being it wouldn't upset my gut any further and wouldn't stress the legs so much, after all this was just a training day.  On the downside, the more I walked the colder I was getting.

And that wasn't a good thing.

At a couple of aid stations, while I was pausing to pick up lollies, people would be stopping and asking for emergency blankets.  Silver-wrapped bodies became more prevalent as the night wore on and I
really didn't want to be one of them.

I persevered through the second lap and gratefully accepted my third wristband which signified that I was on that glorious last lap.  Not too much further along I caught up to another girl in my age group and we started walking/running together.  Sandi was also a bit of an ironman veteran like me and we found ourselves chatting away as we encouraged each other through the final lap.  She was struggling with toenails and I was struggling with the cold and gut issues, but we had enough conversation in us to take our minds off things for most of that lap.

Finally we were at the final turnaround and there was just a 4km stretch left back to the finish.  How good did that feel, except 3km out and my gut decides it needs another toilet stop.  Now!  I therefore tell Sandi to carry on and that I'll try and catch her or see her at the end.

I get running again and start picking off people looking to see if I can catch Sandi.  I can sense the finish line and am feeling strong and catch her with about a kilometre to go.  For about 100m I run with her and then I feel her dropping back and before I know it she's urging me to carry on.  By this stage I'm really starting to feel the cold quite badly and so we agree to find each other at the food tent and with that I put in a bit of a burst and have a strong and happy finish across the line in 13:56:04.

(For a conservative training day, this finish time was only 2min 30sec slower than Cairns last year. My run split ended up being 5:55:23, almost 15 minutes faster than last year.  Super stoked with that!)

After I crossed the finish line things felt great and the volunteer who walked me around to the recovery area deemed me OK to carry on and left me to have my finish photo taken and then find some food.  I walked through, got my T-Shirt and then started feeling not too flash.

This was a new experience.

I went and sat down for a few minutes and thought I'd try and walk over and collect my T1 bag.  Walked over there and had to sit down again.  I was suddenly feeling nauseous and faint, so took myself back to medical and they sat me down with an emergency blanket and some bottled water to sip on for 10 minutes.  Wow, those blankets really do keep the cold out!

After about 10 minutes I felt good enough to leave under my own steam and headed out to find a very happy St Pete and we slowly made our way back to the apartment and a very welcome hot bath!

All in all, then, a great day out, and the following pointers for next time:

• As a training day it went perfectly.  I raced conservatively and didn't feel too smashed the next day.  
• As a training day for Kona it wasn't that good - but you can't do much about the weather!
• Pack a polypro top for the run bag, even for tropical Cairns!  While the conditions were identical to my first ironman in Taupo, in 2011, there was a big difference in that this time I didn't have an additional 17kg of "insulation" to keep me warm.  Made a big difference...
• The visit to medical we've put down to my nutrition getting behind on the bike.  I possibly fell behind on the electrolytes and bananas and then didn't manage to recoup it on the run, resulting in being just a bit out of balance by the time I finished.
• The gut issues?  I've concluded that this was caused by the pasta we had at the welcome dinner.  I no longer have pasta as part of my normal diet and seem to react to it the few times I have had it over the last year or so.  Given this was the only thing I ate that was out of the ordinary, I therefore think it was just too much of a carb load for my gut to handle.  As a result I have added a very important reminder to the welcome party entry on the Kona itinerary:

STAY AWAY FROM THE PASTA!

Ironman Cairns - Will I or Won't I?

Today we have reached the 4 week countdown to Ironman Cairns.

As I was writing this, 4 weeks today I should be starting the run leg and will have hopefully executed a pretty good bike leg strategy in preparation for Kona.

Kona!  

Yep, the fact that St Pete and I are going is still a bit of a "pinch me" moment although, to be honest, a lot of the excitement has now been replaced by the reality of planning, saving and preparing for the day of my life.

A lot has happened in the last couple of months, primarily around planning for Kona.  The first question that people started asking was would I still do Ironman Cairns?  And then the first question Coach Dave asked (after we had collectively returned to earth!) was what my goal was for Kona.

Ironman Cairns was a tricky one.  On one hand I didn't need to do it anymore.  The primary focus of that race had been to serve as my 2nd IM of each year as part of my long term goal of getting 12 IM finishes and a Kona Legacy Lottery slot.  With a Loyalty Lottery slot that long term goal was now kicked out of the ballpark.  If I didn't do it we would save some dollars (which could be redirected towards the Kona trip) and annual leave (which could also be redirected towards the Kona trip!). On the other hand I wouldn't get back a lot of the entry fee for Cairns, so would lose out there.  There was also the question of recovery from Cairns - could I do the race and recover in time to then do a decent build up for Kona?

While we were busy tossing around Cairns pros and cons Coach Dave was busy tossing around a new training plan.  I had been able to give him some good guidance on my goals for the day - I won't be at the pointy end of the field and I know how tough the Kona conditions are likely to be.  People (including pros) are known to blow up and suffer big time in the heat and wind and it's a non-wetsuit swim, making my weakest discipline that much more challenging.  So with that knowledge in mind my whole objective is to not have any time expectation but rather focus on finishing (before midnight!), soaking in the atmosphere and appreciating the experience and opportunity I have been given to race at the Mecca of ironman.

The Kona Finish Line

On that basis Coach Dave figured that I could keep Cairns in the schedule.  He believed I would have enough time to recover, provided we use it as a training day only and a practice run for his Kona race day strategy for me. No ego allowed on the bike, no chasing of a PB...!

So Cairns here we come.  It'll be a flying visit, literally.  Pared to the bones, to minimize cost and annual leave, we'll be flying in on Thursday for a Sunday race and returning to Sydney the day after - afterall it's all about Kona!  And the funniest thing of all?  I've been guilty of that typical mad triathlete statement of describing my next half iron distance race to non-triathlete friends as "just a training day" and receiving their gobsmacked reactions.  Imagine the response when I start describing IM Cairns as "just a training day".

Maybe I'll just keep that little detail to myself...

Ironman Cairns 2013 - The Word from St Pete

Well it had been a big lead up to this day. 

On reflection it had taken the previous four races, lots of meals being cooked, lots of waking up a tired Irongirl from her power naps on the couch and, when necessary, kicking her out the door for another training session, either to the pool, the wind trainer in the garage, or for a run when it was wet, cold or just too hot.

The previous weekend I had taken a trip over the ditch to Christchurch and run a PB marathon, and on the Friday before irongirl's race I had paced our friend Mel (who was working at T2 on race day) over a 5k fun run. Although I don't think that it was much of a fun run for Mel as she had told me her target time was 32 minutes and we made it in 31:10.  In my typical running style I had set the ground rules of what is said on the run stays on the run, but I'm sure that over the last 2km Mel must have hated me.

Yes we smashed the target time and I smashed Mel along the way - I don't think that my attitude of being ready to go for another 5km impressed her, or the fact that after finishing Mel shared her breakfast with the grassed area just after the finish line!!!

But back to race day.

Sunday dawned fine, after a bit of overnight rain, after all it is the tropics, and Toni's biggest worry was that Black Beauty would be wet!!!

Now a seasoned pro at these ironman races, Toni was focused and after breakfast, put on her iPod and started to dance around the room for a few minutes. I frowned at this as it was unnecessary energy best reserved for the race.

At about 6am we headed over to transition to check the bike and add hydration to Black Beauty before soaking in the start area atmosphere. After I did a quick dash back to the hotel, which was all of 2 minutes away, to drop off the bike pump, I then walked Toni to the start area, before watching her head off down the pier to the start of the swim leg.

On heading back to the viewing area, I smiled to myself as other ironman athletes were rushing to the start area and, after hearing later reports that some were still entering the water as the gun had gone off, I wasn't surprised.

What is unique to Cairns is that they have the 70.3 on the same day as the full ironman. Some of these athletes therefore started more than 45 minutes ahead of the the full ironman start time and Transition 1 was soon a hive of activity, even before Irongirl actually started her race.

I positioned myself opposite the first drinks station of the day, just before the athletes enter transition.

At 7.55am Irongirl was underway and the waiting began.  I had signed up for the text alerts which were working well, so I knew when Toni had exited the water some 500 metres further up the course.  The split time was 1:33 so I knew someone would be happy and, less than a minute later, there she was, focused but I got the thumbs up, so I knew all was good.

A quick dash around the transition tent and I again saw Irongirl head across to the bike, then another 500 metre sprint to see her head out on the bike course.  A quick calculation and I knew what time Irongirl would have to be at T2 to make her aim of a sub 6 hour bike split.

As Cairns is an out and back bike course, with a good majority of the roads closed, my next opportunity to see Toni was going to be at T2 so it wasn't long before I was driving out to the transition area with Leigh who, with her husband Paul, was doing the 70.3 as a team.

It took over an hour to get to the transition area, but as Leigh was doing the 21.1km run leg of the 70.3 we were in plenty of time, and I was then busy getting the text bike splits and relaying them to Facebook as well as texting a group of people, on the events of the day.

I briefly caught up with Mel at T2 and then headed off to find a position to see the cyclists arrive.  From my previous trip to Cairns I knew where the best spots would be and I saw most of the pros arrive, and some of the age groupers.  Just after 3:30pm a black bike with a rider dressed in green came into view, the white bike shoes confirmed my suspicions, and I knew then that the main goal of a sub 6 hour bike split had been achieved.  Some 6 minutes later I saw Irongirl exit transition and, I didn't know it at the time, but Toni didn't know what her bike split was.  I again caught up with Mel and got Toni's bike bag from transition and met up with Leigh and Paul again as they had finished their team event and had driven back out.

We all then headed out on the run course and set up camp at a spot just after the 12km mark.  I got a text alert telling me that Irongirl had passed 10km in the marathon, so it wasn't too long before the green machine came into view.  I walked up the course and gave her a greeting, to which Toni asked if I knew what her bike split was.  I said 5:57 (officially it was 5:57:30) to which I got the response "really?" Having confirmed it again, I'm pretty sure I saw a little dance and both arms being raised in the air in celebration as Irongirl ran on. But that was quickly put in check as there was still the little matter of running another 30km.

 

Team Irongirl roadside.

Now let's remember people that this was irongirl's B race. The whole aim of the day was to smash the bike and, if necessary, walk the marathon.  Afterall Toni had taken about an hour off her previous best time at her A race in Taupo, finishing in 14:08. Although it should be noted that less than a week after Taupo, when I had analyzed the race data, I did mention that a sub 14 hour race was possible.  At the time I remember Irongirl screwing up her face at me, and may have called me a name or three!!!!

I saw Toni again about the 17km mark still on the highway, and again she was running.  Actually every time I saw her on the course she was running, maybe out of fear of the barreling I would have given her, as you would have read in Toni's blog there was a little bit of walking going on.

We then headed into town, getting regular run splits as the kms to go kept steadily coming down and I took up position along the esplanade, where Toni would pass five times on the out and back loops.

A lot of walkers passed me but lots of runners as well, one of them being Irongirl, and as Toni passed me going back out of town for the last time I did a quick calculation and worked out that a PB was indeed possible - even a sub 14 hour PB...

Surely I wasn't going to be right after getting a telling off in March.  However as time ticked down, and I got yet another text alert telling me Toni had less than 10km to go I posted on Facebook that a PB was possible and my Facebook followers erupted in positive energy.  That may have been something to do with me telling them all to make some noise...

It was time to move to a better vantage point as it was then just a quick dash to the finishing area and, sure enough, within a few minutes the green machine came into view, running and now smiling, taking the final bend before entering the finishing chute.

A quick dash and I was in a great position to see the finish line, and what a finish it was.  13:53, a PB, yes smashed by 15 minutes, and my prediction in March came true.  That means I'm right, umm I may have to dine out on that one for a little while to come.  :-)

So not a bad "B" race and, after analyzing all the data, IM6 in Taupo is looking like another history making event.  Let's just say Irongirl and I have had a discussion about a possible finishing time, and on this occasion Toni didn't screw up her face and call me a goose.

I think my support crew role may take a small hiatus but not for long, as soon I will be pushing Irongirl out the door, as training starts again soon.

Afterall St Pete is right.... 

Ironman Cairns 2013 - Race Report

Flying into Cairns last week was like returning to an old friend. There was an air of familiarity about it and yet my less than optimal performance last year made it feel like my friend and I had parted on strained terms.  (See last year's race report for all the details I wish I could forget but never will!)

This year was the time to kiss and make up.

The stars were aligned for a happy reunion. St Pete had had a great day at the Christchurch marathon, sneaking in a PB, and so he had returned to Sydney happy and ready to retain his mantle as the best support team ever. Good friends Leigh and Paul had arrived from Christchurch to experience Ironman first hand. They were doing the half ironman as a team and it would give them a taste of things to come when Paul comes to do his first ironman in Taupo next year. And to complete the ground crew, Mel had also flown in from Auckland and would be working the T2 tent on the day - I had already lined her up to be my personal sock changer!

And the athlete herself was feeling as good as she had ever been.

In some respects the pressure was off. Cairns had been set as my "B" race for the season. Ironman New Zealand had been my "A" race and, with a solid PB achieved, there was no expectation of pushing the overall time in order to finish the season off on a high.  As my second race of the season I was in the fortunate position of being able to use Cairns to try new things in preparation for New Zealand in 2014.

In my debrief with Coach Dave after Taupo I outlined my primary goal moving forward.  I was certain that I had a sub 6 hour bike split in me and that is what I wanted to focus on.

In the three months between Taupo and Cairns, then, my training was focused on bike strength and the game plan for Cairns was to do a good "warm up" swim leg and then hammer the bike leg. There would be no traditional pacing and conserving for the run.  Instead I would push the pace hard and see how close to 6 hours I could get. The run could then be expected to be a bit of a grovel but performance on that leg wasn't what we were looking for.

Training, then, had supposedly gone to plan, although this was all new so I had no idea whether (a) I would cope with two ironman finishes in the space of 3 months, and (b) I had actually improved my bike speed in that relatively short amount of time.

However our final few days leading up to race day had at least been trouble-free.

On Tuesday we flew to Cairns and appreciated again the balloon archway welcoming athletes in the luggage collection hall.  This was obviously a benefit of having Cairns Airport as one of the event's major sponsors, but it really added to the vibe and the feeling that you were part of something special for the area. Thursday was the Green Island Reef Swim, a 1.5km or 3km ocean swim which Leigh, Paul and I did and really enjoyed. We did the 1.5km option and I was able to treat it as an easy training swim.

Ready for the Green Island Reef Swim

The rest of the week was equally trouble-free and by Saturday afternoon nails were done, the requisite IM merchandise purchased, bike was racked, bags deposited at the transition areas and I was happily chilling out on the couch, nerves barely to be seen.

Waiting, waiting...

So Sunday morning duly arrives with the regular 4.00am alarm. Breakfast is a bowl of porridge with milk and brown sugar and then it's time for some more chilling out until 6.00am when we would head over the road to race start. During that time I returned to my happy place - my iPod loaded with favourite P!nk tracks, and a few select others, which had the unfortunate effect of "treating" St Pete to the vision of Irongirl dancing around the apartment to music he couldn't hear and then the delights of Irongirl belting out her favourite song, also to a track he couldn't hear.

Hmm, probably not the most pleasant of starts to his day!

At 6.00am we picked up Leigh and Paul and headed down to the Esplanade. The place was humming - nervous half and full ironman athletes and their supporters were everywhere. The main task before the start was to check the bike: water in the bladder, bottle of electrolyte in the cage between the aero bars and tyres pumped up. Black Beauty was a bit wet from the overnight tropical downpour but otherwise ready to go.
Wetsuit on and we bid farewell to Paul who headed down for the half ironman start before it was my turn to say goodbye to St Pete and Leigh and also wander down the pier to our start area.

Swim:
In the starting area we could watch the half ironman athletes already out in the water swimming around the course. They had wave starts and we full distance age groupers had a later start time than normal - 7.55am. We therefore had a bit of waiting around but before long we had access to the pontoon and 15 minutes before our start time I was jumping in the water and finding a spot at the start line - close to the inside of the course.

Finally the gun went off and we were into it. It appeared I had ended up closer to the front of the pack than usual and so the first 25m was spent doing polo freestyle as there were way too many kicking feet in close proximity to put my face under water. Thankfully Coach Dave had prescribed plenty of polo drills these last few months!

Finally the pack thinned out a bit and I was able to get going properly. The swim was, however scoring reasonably high on the contact front compared to my previous experiences, and would so for the duration of the course. The lack of visibility meant it was pretty difficult to follow feet and it also meant that you tended to swim into someone before you saw them. Of course that also meant I got a few limbs knocking me and my goggles - thankfully the goggles didn't leak once, despite the kicks!

Overall I was happy enough with the swim - we had the outward tide to deal with again and it also got a bit choppy coming in off the second lap so that final leg coming back in was a bit of a slog. I did a slightly slower time than in Taupo this year (1:33:25 versus 1:26:19), however I was happy enough given the conditions and I came in feeling 100% better than last year (when I spent 2 hrs 17min fighting the tide and leaking goggles, and had exited the water feeling completely shattered).  A check of my stats from Taupo shows that I swam pretty much the same pace as Taupo (20:29min/km).  However although I succeeded in sticking to the buoys and the inside of the course the Garmin's GPS reading claims I swam 4.49km versus 4.15km in Taupo.  This extra 340m therefore accounts for the slower time.  Interesting, too, that this year's 4.49km was also a longer swim than my nightmare swim in Cairns last year when I covered a "mere" 4.23km!

For the data geeks amongst you, here is a comparison of my three swims:

Bike:
As always it was great to get out of the water and I couldn't help but look back at the course as I ran up the pontoon to see plenty of people still swimming in behind me.  Yippee!

Onto the bike and I was feeling great.  We had a tailwind heading up to Port Douglas so I went hard as planned and used it as much as I could. It was then a headwind coming back to Wangetti and the turnaround for the shorter return back to Port Douglas. At the 90km mark I was sure I had done sub 3 hours but I also knew the bulk of the second 90km was the long drag in the headwind back to T2, so wasn't sure what I could do. Fatigue, headwind and the rolling hills could all combine to drop a significant amount of time.

Starting the bike leg

The wind was pretty gusty, sideways, as well. I imagined this must be giving me a taste of Kona! I saw a couple of ambulances, sirens going, and one guy lying on the side of the road not looking happy (and a couple of people helping him). (The following day we saw a couple of people with big doses of gravel rash down their sides and at the after party spoke to a guy who had come off his bike after misjudging a bottle handoff at an aid station and hitting the tent!). There were also plenty of punctures being repaired, so there was a bit of carnage out there.

But not for me.

I felt strong and pushed hard the full distance. The plan was for controlled aggression the whole way and that's what I did. On the aeros for all but the odd occasion where I'd stand on the pedals to accelerate over a crest (or out of the turnaround at Port Douglas) or pick up a bottle of water at an aid station.

Port Douglas turnaround

Black Beauty and I moved through the field like a well-aimed cruise missile. At one point I almost had to yell at a technical official who was watching a bunch I had caught up to and wanted to go past. The motorbike he was on was blocking me from moving around the pack and I was just about to yell at him when the rider saw me in the mirror and got out of my way.

I did let one guy go past me (but only one!) - he was on an S-Works and commented "nice bike" as he went past. With such obvious good taste I figured he didn't need to be chicked on the bike by this Irongirl.

The only time I really had to slow down was at the aid stations. After the experience in Taupo, when I kept running out of water and suffered dehydration as a result, I changed the game plan slightly. At every aid station I picked up a bottle of water and topped up the internal bladder. The bladder wouldn't need the full bottle so what was left over went over my head and down my front and back. If I timed it correctly I was able to pick up the water off the first volunteer in the line, top up the bladder, water myself down, throw the bottle away and have time to pick up a banana off the last volunteer before I hit the end of the aid station zone.  I inevitably lost time for all this but it shouldn't have been more than a couple of minutes overall and probably paid off in the long run.

How close I was to my 6 hour bike split, though, I had no clue.

What I had failed to do was check the time at the start of the bike and the Garmin was only showing total time (not time for the leg). I knew that I had come out of the water at around 1hr 33min but could only guess what my transition time was.

With 30km to go on the bike I had a headwind to deal with, fatigue (surprise, surprise) and a slight overall climb back to T2. I figured that I was at around 5 hours and so if I could maintain an average 30km/hr for the last hour then I could hit 6 hours. But it was all a big guessing game and I was starting to be ready for the leg to be over.  As we came off the coast and inland I started searching out the signs for Yorkey's Knob and the confirmation that the bike was done.

Finally it appeared and I sped into T2, happy and comfortable (love that Specialized Body Geometry Bike Fit from Jet Cycles!) and knowing that I couldn't have done any more in the conditions.  In my heart I knew that, 6 hours or not, the job had been done.

I didn't know it at the time but I had in fact shaved off 27 minutes from my Taupo bike time and a fantastic 59 minutes off last year's Cairns time, breaking 6 hours and coming in at 5 hours 57 minutes.  Even better - this bike split was the 3rd fastest in my age group!  (Pity I'm still a crap runner, lol.)  While I had been hopeful of getting close to 6 hours I really didn't think it was on the cards for Cairns and so this result exceeded all expectations.

Run:
It would be fair to say that by the time I started running I was pretty much over it.  However I maintained a positive attitude and focused only on an easy start and thought only about getting to the first aid station.  My first kilometre split was faster than planned (6:14), but once I got past the first aid station I started fading pretty fast and the mental wars began in earnest.

I had achieved my goal for the day and so the pressure was off.  For the first 12km, then, I was playing mental games.  Make it to the next aid station.  Make it to the next 2km distance marker.   And so it went on.  Fatigue was urging me to stop and one half of my head was saying "why not, you left it all out on the bike course, the race plan allowed you to walk" while the  other, more stubborn side, was saying "come on, let's get the job done".

At the first aid station I suffered my only real disaster - if you could call it that.  I stopped at the portaloo and, as I dropped my shorts, forgot about the gels sitting in the back pockets.  Two of them dropped into the toilet and, although they didn't drop down into the bowels of the portaloo, there was no way I was going to retrieve them and try to use them!  Thankfully there were two spare gels sitting in my special needs bag, so it wasn't too much of a crisis.

At around 12km I started feeling slightly better and started thinking maybe it's taken 12km to recover from the bike and now I'll be better.  Between then and 13km I saw St Pete and asked what my bike split was.  He had calculated (correctly as it turns out) it to be 5 hrs 57sec and so after asking if he was serious (and getting an affirmative answer) my spirits went sky high.  I seem to recall pumping my fists in the air and yahooing at the news, which would have no doubt been amusing for the other runners around me...

The news of my sub 6 hour bike split...

The news of my sub-6 hour bike split carried me through to the halfway point.  By that time we had reached the Esplanade where we had to run to the finish chute and then, in a cruel twist, do two full laps of the Esplanade before being allowed to turn onto that coveted red carpet.

In the meantime, though, I had further arguments to have with myself.  More walking and shuffling continued and more arguing with myself about being able to break 14 hours versus it doesn't matter, save it for next time.

I had pretty much accepted that I wasn't going to worry about the PB when I got to the 36km marker.

With 6km to go I looked at the Garmin and see it was just about to tick over to 13 hours.  Suddenly I was calculating the chances of doing 6km in 60 minutes (for sub 14 hours) or 68 minutes (for a PB).  Oh shit, goes my head, I could do this.  So with that I got going .... and did it!  As I reached the last turnaround at the far end of the Esplanade I knew I had a sub 14 hour finish in the bag and, sure enough, as I turned left off the Esplanade and saw Pete at the turn, the huge grin on my face confirmed to him that I knew that my finish time was starting with a 13.

No matter how many ironmans you do, I don't think anyone ever loses the pure joy and elation of hitting the finish chute.  And as I turned the last corner and looked up at the clock, to see that PB looking down at me was truly one of the most exciting things that could happen.  Not only did I exceed my bike expectations by doing a sub 6 hour bike split, I also managed to further drop my PB and break 14 hours at the same time.

And as I crossed the finish line, I recalled my reaction to the Kona video played at the Friday night Welcome Dinner when I uttered: "Man, I love this shit"!

The Best Weekend of the Year

Twas the week before ironman, and all through the house

 Irongirl was resting, her legs on the couch

Black Beauty was packed, by the Jet boys with care

In hopes that race day would be completed with flair...

It's Friday morning as I start writing this and I'm about to hit the weekend before Ironman. And I've come to the conclusion that this is the best weekend in the year.  Yes, the weekend before Ironman is even better than Ironman weekend, although that does come a pretty close second.

And for those who are facebook friends, and therefore know I'm home alone this weekend, no, it's not because St Pete has headed back to Christchurch to run the Christchurch marathon on Sunday. Shame on you all for even thinking such a thing!

The weekend before Ironman is particularly special because the training volume is down, I'm starting to feel strong, fit and ready to race, and all the fun packing stuff happens.

What also helps is that I'm no longer in that phase of freaking out about my first ironman event.  You know that feeling - asking eternal questions about whether I've done enough training; whether I'll last the distance; what will go wrong on the day and will I cope.   I've now got enough IM finishes under my belt to know what to expect on the day, understand that it's going to be a long day at the office and that there will be challenges (and pain!) to overcome, but nevertheless will still be looking forward to overcoming it all and coming across the finish line.

And that's what makes this weekend so much fun.

First of all there's not much training on.  The sessions I do have still have some intensity to them but the volume has dropped right away.  Today, nothing.  Saturday, a 1,000m time trial swim and 45min wind trainer session.  Sunday, a set of run drills, 50min tops.  It's hardly going to make a dent in my days.

Melting Marshmallows - Lush

Training-wise, then, it's all about recovery.  As much as possible I need to be putting my feet up and having some serious couch time.  It's a great time to be catching up on those books sitting on the coffee table, movies, or even a long, luxurious bath.  Mmmm, a quick trip to Lush tonight might be in order....

So serious is this recovery business that my good intentions about volunteering on Sunday at the MS Fun Run had cold water poured on it good and proper.  I saw the event come up and the call go out for volunteers a few weeks ago and realised that it was on the same day as St Pete would be running his marathon.  I figured I'll be home alone, not much training on, why not help out?  It'll be an easy way to pass some of the day and give something back to the community.

Well, was I ever wrong on that one.

St Pete thought I had gone insane even thinking about it (and told me so in no uncertain terms) and Coach Dave, normally the optimistic "make anything work" kinda guy, took a long few seconds pondering it over Skype before finally deciding that no, despite my good and honourable intentions, he couldn't make this idea work at all.  And with the final nail in the coffin from Mel who, as a race director herself, assured me that the volunteer coordinator wouldn't consider her day ruined by me pulling out, I did so, and left the day as a blank canvas.

So that brings me back to the fun weekend.

With training just a blip on the radar that leaves the packing and preparation.  Yippee - the fun stuff!  Last night Black Beauty went into Jet Cycles for her pre-Ironman service.  Tomorrow I take the bike box in and she gets packed up (they did such a great job last time I'm letting them do it again!). Wheeling her home in the box on Saturday is always a really cool thing to do - yeah, go on, I know you're thinking it....ironman geek!  It's almost as cool as wheeling her around the airport - I feel like a real athlete...haha.

And then there's the packing.  All the race gear gets assembled and laid out.  Gels get counted.  Battery chargers get put together and coiled into ziplock bags so they don't get tangled.  Spare CO2 canisters, tubes, clothing for all weather eventualities.  The gear gets left out for a day or two so I can check it against the checklist half a dozen times and then just check it visually another half dozen times while I mentally go over the course, through each transition, ensuring I have everything I could possibly need.

Finally it all gets loaded into the suitcase.  Race day gear goes into my carry-on trolley bag - all of our other gear into the suitcase.  I love this process!

IMNZ 2011

Another pre-race weekend tradition is the selection of nail polish for race day.  I'm not normally a nail polish wearer, but my good friend Ironjack started this when we did our first Ironman together in 2011, in Taupo.  She was all about wearing special nail polish on the day and so I joined in and it's carried on from there. My swim exit photo from Ironman NZ 2011 shows a bright flash of pink on my toes and catches my attention every time I look at it!  As a result every ironman now requires a special application of polish on the fingernails and toenails - the bonus being it hides my typically bruised and battered black toenails!  So another fun job this weekend will be securing a special colour to wear next weekend.

Finally there's the mental preparation.  A couple of weeks ago my training volume had peaked, I had been pushing myself hard and was sufficiently run down that I got sick.  It was only a cold, and a relatively minor hit at that.  But it was enough to put me at a low ebb in terms of feeling fit and ready to race.  As we get to this weekend, however, I've fully recovered and I can feel my mental focus enter a state of calm readiness.

Come Tuesday St Pete will have returned from smashing his marathon and we'll be getting on the plane to head to Cairns.

The weekend before Ironman - it's the best weekend of the year.

A New Goal

OK, I really am an Ironman junkie.

Or maybe just a sucker for punishment...

Today I entered Ironman Cairns for 2013.  Yep, 2013.  I know, I know - followers of my insane adventures will know that I'm doing Ironman New Zealand in March and now I'll be following that up with Ironman Cairns 12 weeks later...  And I'm excited about it - eek!!!

It became a bit of a no-brainer really.  Yes, really!  Despite the challenging day at Cairns this year I straight away knew I'd love to do it again.

Yes, the swim was tough - but I won't be making the same mistake with my goggles again and it just means I need to do some more ocean swimming and upper body work to improve my strength.

Yes, the bike was tough - but I was tanked from the swim.  More importantly, the course was stunning and my hillwork is slowly improving.

Yes, the run was a disaster - but next time I won't be so stuffed from the swim, and it's a flat run .

And Cairns is a great place to visit.  Our impromptu trip this year meant we didn't spend as much time there as we would like and St Pete and I quickly agreed that a return trip was essential so we could spend a bit more time going out to Great Barrier Reef, visiting crocodiles and generally enjoying the laid-back tropical environment.

Doing two ironman events in a year is no easy task.  But I figure I'm up to it.  Part of the inspiration came from my walking buddy this year - who was completing his third ironman in 12 weeks.  He had done Ironman Melbourne because it was the inaugural event.  He'd then done Ironman Australia (Port Macquarie) and was finishing the trio off with Ironman Cairns, again because it was the inaugural event.  Next year Stephen will be doing Ironman Australia for the 10th time and achieving "Legend" status.

And that's pretty good motivation to be loyal to an Ironman event.  I don't know about the other worldwide Ironmans, but in Australia and New Zealand, when you become a 10 time finisher at a particular Ironman you become a Legend at that event.  Legend status is pretty cool - a personalised race bib in silver (later going to gold as you accumulate more finishes) and the knowledge that you are part of a smaller, dedicated group of hardcore ironmen (aka "nutjobs"!).

For those of us who will never be fast enough to place in our age groups, becoming a Legend is a pretty worthy goal to work towards and it is something I'd love to achieve at Ironman New Zealand.  And who knows, it might also end up being the case for Cairns as well.  There is a certain appeal to the goal of having done every race since its inception and, with Cairns, I've started that journey.

And then there's Kona.  Again, I'll never be fast enough to qualify for that hallowed event by winning or placing in my age group.  However there is now the tantalising carrot of foundation slots - reserved for the hardcore group who have 12 Ironman finishes.  Well, once I've ticked off Cairns next year that will be #5 and almost halfway there. 

And you think I'm mad? 

It seems I'm in good company :)

When I first mentioned the idea of doing two IMs next year to Coach Dave he commented about how two ironman finishes a year will get me to Kona much more quickly.  "Don't worry", I said - "Pete's already done that calculation!"

It will be interesting to see how the body holds up.  Coach Dave has certainly got his work cut out for him, getting me through in one piece.  But two years of working with me means he's got a great understanding of my strengths, weaknesses and my mental approach.  And he's even less likely than me to shy away from a challenge!  So between St Pete and Coach Dave, and the undying support of my family, facebook friends and training buddies, I know I've got a great team around me and I'm up for my 2013 adventure!

Either that or the loony bin :)

Ironman Cairns - Race Report

What a friggin' day.

But I finished Ironman Cairns, officially Ironman #3, and am therefore a very content camper.

The race plan, however, got shredded up and thrown in the sea when I got out of the water and saw my time.  2 hrs 17 mins !!!!!!!  OK, there is more to that story, which I will come back to.
The day started out fine - the weather was a real pearler.  Clear skies, no wind and it promised to be hot - bugger!  After several days of rain, Cairns had turned it on big time.

We had the usual pre-race routine.  Alarm went off at 4.00am and I was up feeling fresh and ready to go.  A light breakfast and then it was down to T1 to check on the bike and pump up the tyres.  Then wetsuit on and off to the start area where the ironman athletes were corralled before being allowed into the water.

The swim started really well, I was happy and calm and had my breathing sorted out nicely, and then about 300m in got my goggles kicked off my face.  No problem, I emptied them out and carried on, but I would end up being plagued be continual leakages all the way round the course, inevitably slowing me up as I periodically stopped to empty them out and try to find a decent seal.

In hindsight I think I made a major blunder by putting sunscreen lotion on my face before the start. I'm pretty sure that's what caused my goggles to leak.

Doh.

I checked my time at the end of the first lap, though, and it was 51mins.  Considering the problem with the goggles, I was OK with that and on track for a swim time of 1hr 40min. 
I head out on the second lap then and that's where the fun started.  At about that time the tide started to go out.  I hadn't realised it at the time but I did notice the flotsam that I was starting to swim through heading out on the second loop.  Luckily it consisted of tree branches and not any of the local wildlife!   And so the 860m outward leg was OK but I kept being pushed off course and then the 830m back we were swimming against the tide.  It seemed to take forever to get back into shore and I was still getting pushed off course by the current as well.

I got out of the water, had swollen sore eyes from all the salt water, was feeling mildly sick as well from the salt water and then looked at my watch.

2 hrs 17 min.

What?  OK, so I wasn't dreaming that it was taking forever to get back in but 51 minutes PLUS an extra 35mins to get around that second lap and only 3mins inside the cutoff!  It would be fair to say I was mildly annoyed with myself/ironman/everything.  To add insult to injury the Garmin recorded a swim of 4.3km - 500m further than the course should have been.  I know I kept ending up being wide on the course but I can't imagine I swam that much extra distance to stay on track.

However one of the great secrets to success in ironman is that you must have the ability to roll with the punches.  Don't let adversity get to you, adapt to the situation and you'll make it to the end.  And so I did.  And at that point I threw away the race plan and it simply became a case of getting to the finish.

With the swim behind me I didn't consider the idea of trying to make up time on the bike but, even so, did try and do a solid effort.  However it was hard.  My neck, shoulders and arms were stuffed from the swim and I guess I would have been behind on nutrition and overall energy.  And it got hot - it got to 28 degrees and there was no wind.  In fact it was borderline too hot for the aero helmet and I struggled to keep cool enough. 

I was also chugged down the gels, bananas and electrolyte - I had 10 gels, 4 bananas, 3 bottles of electrolyte and 3 bottles of water. 

The first 90km on the bike was a bit of a grovel but I did improve in the second half and I think I came home strong, managing to maintain a pretty even pace throughout the whole course.  However it was still slower than I would have liked (6:52) - I guess a combination of the heat and additional swim time plus, the course is marginally hillier than Taupo.  The rollers are deceiving and would have slowed me up no doubt.  While Taupo has around 1900m of climbing concentrated at one end of the two lap course, the Cairns course totalled over 2000m of climbing, across a larger number of smaller undulations.

Despite the challenges of the course though, it was absolutely stunning.  The coastal highway up to Port Douglas had been closed down for the event and so we had the road to ourselves, and it was fantastic.  Gorgeous views along the coastline and through the rainforest more than made up for any discomfort being experienced. 

Even so, I was feeling pretty tanked by the time I got to the run and set off with a combo run walk - which lasted about a kilometre!  I kept trying different strategies to get running again (i.e. run to the next aid station; run 2 road cones, walk 1 etc) but my brain wasn't having any of it.  So power walking it was the outcome with some jogging interspersed for the first 10km.  At about that point a bloke who was walking as well teamed up with me and we power walked the next 21km.  He was setting a good pace - I think we managed an 8min km at one point, all the while having a great natter about Ironman.  Thankfully he was happy to talk while I focused on keeping up! 

That got us onto the esplanade where we had 2 1/2 loops to go.  At that point St Pete found us - he had come down to the far end of the Esplanade and proceeded to run ahead and stop in the dark to take photos.  It was hilarious to leave him behind and then suddenly he would pop up out of nowhere to say Hi again.  So much energy - and far more than I had at that time!

About half way through the first loop I was starting to struggle so I told Stephen, my walking companion, to go on.  We were at 14 hours at that point, and had about 10km to go, and he thought he might have a crack at 15 hours while I didn't think I had it in me.  My gut was starting to rebel at the electrolytes I was having at each aid station and for about a kilometre I had to slow my walk right down as I was feeling really close to getting light headed.  It was a real low point and I knew I needed to do something different to get to the finish.  At the next aid station then I changed tactics and went onto coke and lollies and that started to make a difference.

The last 8km loop, then, I was sore but feeling much stronger and overtook 3 blokes on the final 4km back to the finish.  Of course I managed to run the last 500m and had a total blast at the finish chute.  By the time I got to the chute the VIPs were lining the route to provide a cheering guard of honour and it was the most amazing experience to high five all these people cheering me to the finish.

Finish time 16hrs 10min. On the surface you could say it was disappointing, but given the start to the day I am over the moon to have finished.  An ironman finish is a finish, and more than anything, it teaches you something new every time. 

This time around I've learnt:

1. That my swim demons have been kicked into touch.  If you read my blogs from the start of my ironman journey you would have read about my first lake swim with Coach Dave.  In the past two years my swimming confidence has improved out of sight.  Despite the conditions, the threatening nausea, stinging eyes, leaking goggles and the experience of getting nowhere fast on Sunday, there were no panic attacks, no hyperventilating and no meltdown.  I just kept emptying my goggles, re-sighting, putting my head down and swimming until finally I was within touching distance of the exit steps.  A huge milestone.

2. Not to put sunscreen on my face before swimming.  I'm pretty sure this is what is what caused my goggles to leak, as when I tried to push them a bit more firmly on they would slide around rather than the more familiar sucking motion onto my face.  Doh would be an understatement, but an important lesson to be learnt.

3. That there is a lot of walking at the tail end of ironman, and there are an amazing number of great stories to hear if you slow down enough to listen to them.  I spent an unforgettable 21km walking with Stephen and listening to his tales of ironman and sharing in his absolute love of the sport (next year he becomes a "legend" at Port Macquarie and this year he not only did Port Mac but also Melbourne and Cairns, in the space of 12 weeks.  The latter two completed because they were inaugural events).  In my eyes he is already a legend.

4. My mental toughness got me through the tough bits and I was adaptable enough to accept throwing away the race plan and then changing the nutrition strategy when it had clearly stopped working.  In the latter half of the marathon, coke and lollies rule!

Recovery post-ironman has also been noticeably better than my maiden effort in 2011.  I have the usual chafing but, in terms of muscle soreness and tiredness, there has been much less suffering.  I guess that also reflects the improved condition my body is in - bonus!

And in the wise words of Coach Dave: 

The irongirl legend continues!