Ironman Hawaii 2010 update

Yesterday Jocelyn and I competed in the 2010 Ironman World Championship in Kona, HI. This was my second trip out to the Big Island to compete in the "Super Bowl of Triathlon", earning the opportunity to compete the first time last year, and Jocey's first attempt but only her third Ironman ever. We had arrived in Kona a week prior on Oct 2nd to adjust to the time difference and acclimate, and for the most part had a very enjoyable and relaxing week leading up to the race. The one low point was when Jocey was hit by a truck when cycling on Ali'i Drive on Wednesday, right in front of the triathlete people watching epicenter of Lava Java, which rendered her bike useless and bruised and battered the whole right side of her body. Not the sort of thing that you want to happen three days before the most challenging physical event on earth. The circumstances of this accident are even more surprising and disappointing, but this post will not devolve into a negative rant on that subject. On the contrary, this unfortunate incident led us down another path that we would not have otherwise gone down, and as a result met some incredibly helpful, compassionate, and great people here in Kona. Mad props go out to Brad, Mac, and Chris of Quintana Roo for stepping up completely unbidden and saving the day (race, week, sanity, etc.) for both of us. In addition to these lifesavers, there were a number of others who were so sympathetic and supportive, and we both are so thankful for this at this tough time. Jocelyn was going to make it to this race come hell or high water, and it would live up to all of our expectations.

Saturday morning started early as usual and we were down at the Kailua Pier by about 5am to setup in transition and meet up with the rest of our Pittsburgh crew out for the race, Chad, Matt, and Beth. My parents were there to cheer us on, in addition to husbands, wives, and parents of some of the others. The race was underway at 7am and then it was on for the next 9+ hours. At times the conditions were the challenge, and others my body, but sometimes you just have to bear down, knuckle up, and as Jens Voigt has said, "Shut up legs!" Or perhaps, "Puke and Rally!" It was very tough at times to keep the pressure on and to continue pushing so hard when quite often my body was in revolt, but that's when you learn the most about yourself, when the chips are down and as I constantly reminded myself, that this was the world championship, you are here to do your absolute best and to suffer mightily in the process. As hard as I thought I had it, my tough as nails wife was pushing through the 140.6 mile race with a bum knee, which was probably swollen to almost twice its normal size. Seeing her out on the course in addition to my close friends and also the sport's top talents gave me so much inspiration to draw upon, to allow me to reach deep within myself for every ounce of effort I could. Hearing people shout, "Go Jeremy" and "Go Ballou Skies" at every turn was so powerful and I couldn't help but smile and do as they asked. I came across the line at about 4:30 HST for an Ironman PR with the following splits on this most competitive, fulfilling, and magical of days.

0:59:57

05:13:01

03:13:05

09:33:14

My official race report is soon to follow, but I just wanted to put something out there before I undergo radio silence during the long journey back to Pittsburgh tomorrow. Thanks everyone for reading and for all of your support leading up to and during the race! Mahalo.

Portage Lakes Race Report

On September 19th, I raced in the Portage Lakes Olympic Tri outside of Akron OH. I decided only the day before to do the race, thinking that it would be a good change of pace from my typical weekend routine of long ride/long run, and a good tune-up opportunity with some speed three weeks prior to Kona. This would also be my first olympic distance race since 2007, so I was excited to once again try this distance and suffer in a little different manner than usual.

Jocelyn wasn't going to be making the trip with me for the race, but Ty and Kevin from the BallouSkies Team were both going to be doing the race so there would be some teammate company and friends to support. I drove up late Saturday afternoon and met up with Ty and Kevin at the Olde Harbor Inn for a drink, some stories, and some pre-race grub. After that it was off to the hotel to settle in for the night and to get some rest before the event. After some laughs, it was time for bed.

The next morning started with a modified race morning breakfast, maybe only taking in about half of the total calories I have become accustomed to eating before half and full ironmans. It was a short 15 minute drive to the race site where we picked up our packets, chips, and racked our bikes, all the morning of the race! It had been a while since I had done such a low key race, and it felt good to just go through the motions roaming freely in and out of transition with bags and gear strewn everywhere, mountain bikes, hybrids and road bike almost numbering triathlon bikes equally. I got out for a 15 minute or so warmup ride with some spin ups and tempo efforts, and then I was back to transition to grab the wetsuit and head down to the lake.

I signed up for the elite open category and started the race at the luxuriously late hour of 8:25am, after all of the sprint tri waves went off. I got in about a five minute warmup swim, some arm circles and pushups and then it was to the line. When the horn went off I ran through the shallows, dolphined out and was near the front and jockeyed a little for position. As usual the first 500 or so really hurt and I was sucking wind, but I made the first buoy in about 4th and that's where I stayed the rest of the swim. I found a decent rhythm and swam a pretty good course, only going a little offline once as I didn't spot one buoy early enough and zig-zagged a little. I came out of the water in 22:20 and was off to transition.

I was out of transition fast and did my 2nd ever flying mount with the shoes clipped in, and executed this flawlessly save for the slightly bunched up insole in my right shoe. I just pushed on, knowing that the ride should take less than an hour and I didn't have time to waste on comfort. Within the first two or three miles I caught and passed who I thought might be my main competition, while trying to strike that perfect balance between a high cadence, powerful pedal stroke, and a sustainable yet uncomfortable intensity. As the bike continued on I passed the remaining two athletes I figured were ahead of me from my wave and tried my best to keep the effort up. I found as the bike went on I really struggled to keep my HR at or above 170 as I was aiming, and saw it steadily dropping down toward my more well known HIM intensity. The bike still went well though on a fair and rolling, though short course where I biked a 55:30 for the fastest bike split.

T2 went fast and I was out onto the two lap run, just as both the swim and bike before were two laps as well. Each lap consisted of two out and back sections, giving you a great opportunity to get splits on your competitors. I started out with about a 30 second lead on the guy chasing me and went about trying to build on that throughout the run. My main goal for the race was to build throughout to a hard, nearly sprint tri, lactate type effort by the end. My HR was the highest it had been the whole race by the end and I had steadily built my lead over the 10k, keeping good form and quick feet throughout to run to a 35:46 and a 1:55:44 overall.
Coming across the line for the suspected, but uncertain win (no results whatsoever were available until two days later!)

Kevin finishing up strong.

Our fearless leader Ty coming in, proudly wearing the colors of BallouSkies.

In the end, it was a fun small town race, and a great tuneup for the big dance that gets underway now in 8 days time. It was fast and furious and I surely won't be reaching the same run speeds out in HI, but I know I will be racing with the same level of confidence and emotional intensity. Olympics hurt, but in a good way! Thanks for reading, and I hope everyone else is ready to rock their own end of season races as I am!

Ironman Louisville weekend and mini-camp

Today Jocelyn and I are headed west with the Holderbaums to Kentuckiana, site of Sunday's Ironman Louisville , where we have friends racing in the 140.6 mile event. We packed up Chad's car in WashPa this evening and set out with our bikes and all of our training gear.

Tomorrow morning we are going to get up and do a fairly long swim (1.5hrs) in the mighty Ohio River and the will be followed up by a long ride of th IM bike course and a short transition run.

Sunday morning will start quite early, almost as if we were racing ourselves, cheering on friends Steve, Matt, and Jason, as well as so me other Pittsburgh area triathlete we have gotten to know and become friendly with. The TT style swim starts at 7am and then everyone will start their individual 140.6 mile battles with the currents, heat, and humidity. After the guys head out on the bike we will do a long-run on the run course and then settle in for some serious spectating and support. Let's go Steve, MattyMo, and Jason!

Cooking with the Cornmans!

Earlier tonight, Jocelyn and I joined Gretchen McKay of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for her backyard and home-based cooking show, Cooking with Gretchen, that is to run online in the next couple of weeks. Jocelyn and I were her guests for this piece highlighting healthy, summertime meals, and we got to show off our non-existent cooking skills while talking about Ballouskies and Kona.

Gretchen, Jocelyn, and myself cooked up some Summer Salmon Pasta and some Hawaiian Chicken Kabobs, while Gretchen's associate Steve Mellon filmed it all and provided some creative direction.

This is the beginning of something of a media blitz that Ty setup in advance of Kona, whereby Jocelyn and I will be out promoting Ballouskies and our efforts at the Ironman World Championships! Next stop, NightTalk!

ups and downs in the NC heat

Training has been pretty good so far in Topsail, however there have been some ups and downs between individual sessions when dealing with the heat and my acclimation (or lack thereof) to it. The beginning of the week started off strongly, there was a slight fade in workout frequency in the middle due to dealing with some disruptive weather, but I plan to close out the week well with another long ride and a couple runs.

Sunday I got in my long ride for last week, doing a Kona-esque 114 mile ride in the heat and the wind. Starting out at 7am the air temps were already at about 78' (the typical low down here!) with the winds out of the ENE. While the terrain is quite flat, if the winds are kicking up, it can make for some difficult riding, and even to the point of hoping for some hills to break things up! With the lack of the hills as well there is no hiding from the wind and not much variation in gearing or body position. This necessitates getting out of the saddle more often than usual and doing some variable gear sets to mix things up and use the muscles to create force in different ways. I had hoped to ride out to and through Camp Lejeune, to continue on towards Cape Lookout and the southern point of the Outer Banks, but I was shot down by the young Marine sentry at the south gate to the base. I was hopeful that I would be granted entry as I was permitted to ride all through Camp Pendleton out in California two years ago, but it wasn't meant to be I guess. Starting out on the ride, I was dealing with a cross shifting over to a tailwind out to my revised turnaround point at the Duplin County line, but then of course on the return I was now dealing with about 23 miles back into the wind and it was certainly heating up now as I was approaching 10am. Hello Queen K flashbacks.

The highlight of the return trip was stopping at a very rurally located gas station, and trying to convince the incredulous clerk that I was actually in the middle of a ~110 mile bike ride. A close second was on my third water stop (I was drinking about 30% more on this ride than a typical training ride), where I filled up two of my empty water bottles with ice water, making the last 20 miles home the most comfortable of all, despite the now 87' heat.

Monday I attempted an eight mile run with my brother Chris, but made the mistake of waiting to start the run at 10am, and then the secondary mistake of getting caught up in a fraternally charged, running ego dynamic, starting at sub seven minute mile pace right out of the gate. Towards the end of the run, at 5 miles, when we were about to pull the plug, the paces were slipping drastically and the heartrates were completely out of control. Not good things at all. So the rest of the day I hydrated as much as possible and then had a surprisingly solid swim with Jocey that evening at a local gym that provided a bizarrely distanced pool of 24.5 meters.
Tuesday morning I did my long run for last weekend, or to start this week I suppose (Sunday is the long run day), and I started at 7am to avoid making the same mistake as the day prior. I also made it a point to start slow for the first couple miles, observing a HR cap of 145-150 bpm to let my body settle into the rhythm and adapt to the heat. This appeared to work and allowed me to accelerate through about 14 miles to average close to my goal IMHI marathon pace, however in my last two miles again the heat played the spoiler and the cadiac drift set in again. In the end though, I finished with 16 miles and the overall experience was much more satisfying and promising than Monday's run.

Wednesday evening the storms rolled in and ruined an attempted swim, but I got in an upper body strength session and worked some wall pushups and pullups so it wasn't a total loss. Today the storms again foiled mine and Jocey's long ride (for this coming weekend?) plans, but we snuck in a quick swim on tired arms for the first session of the day. Hopefully I can get in a run tonight if the storm stops and before dinner, but so far it has showed no signs of abating. At least this gives me an opportunity to do some blogging though! We will try again for the long ride tomorrow before leaving Saturday morning to start the long drive back to da Burgh. Next weekend is Ironman Louisville spectathloning and training camp, and the countdown to Kona continues! Cheers from Topsail (Top-suhl)!

beach week (#1!) 2010

This week Jocelyn, my family, four large dogs, two bikes and myself are headed south for a week's vacation in Topsail Island NC. This will be a perfect opportunity to de-stress and unwind, while catching up on some reading and catching some rays. And while I may be de-stressing in a general life/work sense, I am certainly planning on increasing the physical stress as Kona is now only 8 weeks away. Topsail training camp - shhh, don't tell the family! I have been slacking pretty bad on the blog posts recently and so I am going to make a concerted effort to get back on track this week and beyond. Updates to follow throughout the week from Topsail!

Ironman Lake Placid

This past weekend I competed in the Ford Ironman Lake Placid. Over the last year, I had big plans formulated for this race, especially to make another run at qualifying for Kona. Having taking care of this earlier in the year at Eagleman, I was left with a predicament - race Lake Placid to my fullest as I did last year (despite already having a Kona slot) and then race again 10 weeks later in Hawaii, or drop out of Lake Placid to focus on my build to Hawaii. Many wise long-course athletes advised me of the latter for last year, and while respecting their opinions, I decided to try the former and race both anyway, thinking that I was strong enough to do both to my upmost potential. I was wrong. Or, I may not have been that far off, but my recovery might not have been ideal and compromised by some ill-advised training choices in the leadup to Kona in 2009. Either way, this year I made the tough decision to sacrifice Lake Placid for a better build and hopefully performance in Kona. The idea of a DNS seemed like a waste to me, especially since the entry fee was paid long ago, so one idea was to just race a portion of the event and draw off of the competitive energies and closed course to get in a great workout, pulling out of the race before I did too much damage to my legs. This of course would result in the dreaded DNF. I had never not finished a race I had started in, and the idea of this did not sit that well with me, but ultimately the desire to perform really well at the World Championships prevailed.

So last Wednesday evening Jocelyn and I were off to start the long drive up with my parents, who were coming to watch us (or now just her!) race. We drove part way, stayed over in Batavia NY, and then finished the long drive Thursday, getting in late that afternoon. Immediately we started unpacking the car and trying to get in some vital pre-race workouts. I did about a 30 mile ride with my teammate Steve, who was up to volunteer and train for his upcoming Ironman Louisville, riding the long descent into Keene and then returning up the hill. When I got back I had some excellent food that my housemates (Jocelyn, Chad, Jen, Matt, Kristen, Nate, Bill, Steve, and Mark) had prepared and this was just to be the beginning of many wonderful meals and laughs we would all share from Thursday through the following Tuesday morning on this Lake Placid getaway.Thursday was also Jocelyn's birthday, and the housemates got her a cute and modified IM-themed card:

Friday morning, Matt Mo and I went out for another typical smashfest bike ride. He too was training for IM Louisville, and I was trying to trash my legs as one should in any good training camp, and also to try to ensure that I would not be tempted to do anything stupid like changing my mind to finish the race on no taper. Matt and I (we started with a few others who we would ride with for varying lengths before they were dropped) rode one lap of the bike course in normal, counter-clockwise direction, and then the 2nd lap in reverse direction. We got in about 114 miles, and split the 112 in 5:19. Would I have any legs left for Sunday?

Later that night we had a pasta dinner, and had all of the Pittsburgh area triathletes and families in town over for dinner, along with some additional friends and contacts.

Here is a pic of pretty much the whole group after a great meal-
And the Sunday race crew-

Saturday morning we were up and at-'em early to start all of the final, pre-race workouts, bike preps, and gear drop-offs at transition. Most of us went out for a swim in Mirror Lake first thing, swimming anywhere from 15-45 minutes (depending on how seriously you were or were not going to be taking the next day's race!), with yours truly doing one, 1.2 mile lap in about 30:30.

Jocey and I pre-swim.


Later that afternoon, degreasing my chain for the first time in a long while.... :-/
Chad and I, with Bill and Jocey in the background, after dropping our bikes and gear bags off at transition-
The staging area....
Jocey and I back at the house, working on our Infinit and salt concoctions-

Later that night we all relaxed around the house and had a nice, simple and safe pasta/chicken/salad meal and got ready for the next day. Kristen was working on this awesome sign, to wave with pride on race day and support all the housemates doing the event. Thanks Kristen!

Sunday morning started at 4am and we all did our own breakfast routine, whether fruit, cereal, oatmeal, bars, Ensure, coffee, etc., as I opted for the now standard Ensure/banana/bar combo with a little java thrown in for the hell of it. At 4:50 we were off, packing into Matty Mo's Element, clown-car style-
Getting body-marked:
Sharing some laughs pre-race-
Rocking out to Thunderstruck, getting pumped for the swim-
Almost go time-

At 7am me and 2,639 of my closest friends were underway. I went out hard for this swim, harder than usual and in keeping with my "experimental" themed training day, swimming maybe the first 400 meters or so at a pretty strong pace. I found myself in a decent position a little right of the line after about 5 minutes, however there was some stiff competition to get right on the close side, so I angled over between two guys to the near left side of the line to some open water. I would occasionally draft a faster passerby, and one guy and I took turns swimming on each other's hip for nearly 1000 meters. The turns were hectic as usual, but generally the first lap felt very strong and the arms productive. I came out of the water after the first 1.2 mile lap in about 27:30, and then made the run up and over the beach, and then dolphined back into the lake for lap 2. The 2nd lap didn't feel as strong and my approx split reflected this, swimming about a 29:47 for a total swim of 57:17. I bypassed the wetsuit strippers and ran hard up the beach, across Parkside and Mirror Lake Drives, and into transition. As I was running out of transition with my bike, I saw Chad as usual, on almost the exact same pacing schedule. Including the run, I was out and onto the bike in 4:24.

I started the bike and tried to settle into a steady but aggressive rhythm. The legs felt average, like they do on most standard long bike rides, but certainly not as good as I would have liked. The plan was to keep the HR aerobic on the rolling climbs out of town, and then hammer the long downhill into Keene and then to Jay and Ausable Forks along the river. The first lap felt very good and I was even catching and passing a few pro men and most women, and after a decent climb up through Wilmington Notch alongside Whiteface mountain, I came back into town in 2:35:40, averaging a HR of 149.
I started back out on the 2nd lap and continued to feel pretty good for the next 15 miles or so, but I also managed to have nearly my entire flat changing system (x-nut, inflater head, and two CO2 catridges) loosen and fall out the back of my x-wing on the big descent into Keene. That's another story though, and I decided to push on and not worry about this considering my non-race strategy. Once heading out of Keene, I noticed the first traces of the fatigue in my legs. It was beginning to get hard to keep my heart rate up when pushing, but luckily a couple fast guys caught up with me and that provided some motivation and opportunity for pacing. I was feeling ok but things were starting to go downhill. The last 20 miles of rolling and the climbing trend back to Placid really took it out of me, and I just struggled to try to keep the pace up high the rest of the way. I was really starting to feel it now, and did the 2nd lap in 2:44:06, about 8.5 minutes slower than the first lap with an average HR of 143. The entire bike split was 5:19:46, good for an avg speed of 21.02 mph at an avg HR of 146. The legs were pretty much trashed at this point, but I was pleased that I rode two separate 112 mile rides untapered in 5:19, spread over three days, and both of which were about 5 minutes faster than my tapered race split from last year!

I headed back into transition and as I was putting my running shoes on, I saw the familiar face of Chad run into the changing tent behind me to get ready to go on the run. I set out on the run after a 2:00 transition, unsure as to how long I would be out there. Spotting Matt, Kristen, and Jen, and making a cheeseball face for the camera-
Starting the short-lived run in 5th place in my AG-

I ran out of transition and starting running down the hill, getting about a mile before Chad came up behind me. I ran a little bit with him, told him that we were currently running about 6:50 to 7 minute pace, and then wished him well as he continued on ahead. I ran about another half mile to the two mile point and the top of the hill just past the airport and before the descent down towards the turn onto River Rd, and decided that this was the stopping point. I had thought about running a total of 4 miles and originally envisioned this as a two mile out, two mile back format, but I thought this could look weird as a random age-grouper was suddenly running ahead of the professional race leader, so I stopped running altogether and walked back into town. I took off my timing chip and held this in my hand, as I pulled down the top of my kit and turned my race number around. This was a very strange moment, and I felt a little ashamed for doing this, but I reminded myself why and thought about the big picture and the Big Dance in October and knew I was making the right call. I walked the two miles back into town and met up with my parents and the rest of the non-racing housemates to join in on the wonderful support and cheering on of our friends and family. I got some food to hold me over and then screamed my lungs out for Chad, Jocelyn, Bill, and Nate as they all raced to very strong finishes. Chad and Jocelyn raced their way to Kona slots, Bill to his first IM finish, and Nate to his second IM finish in about 10 weeks time!

Jocey racing towards the end of her first run lap, with a malfunctioning race belt number, and also looking tough, mean, and determined...
Jocey finishing strong for third place in the women's 30-34 age group, and a whopping 45 minutes faster that she did last year!!!
The women's 30-34AG results, with Jocey making the cut!!! (don't care much for the registered last name though!)
The next day, signing up for KONA!!!
Chad, Jocey, and I celebrating all of our upcoming races in Hawaii-

Jocey at the awards ceremony on Monday, representing BallouSkies on the podium with her incredible 3rd place finish!

The rest of the trip was spent relaxing and celebrating, closing out another successful race weekend and year in Lake Placid. I really love this town and the Adirondack region, and am really stoked to be racing there again next year! Next year I plan to be stronger and HTFU and do this race regardless of my race scheduling position. In the meantime, there is going to be plenty of additional hardcore training, a couple training camps, maybe an olympic thrown in, and then the IM World Champs on October 9th! Thanks for reading!