When I signed up for Austria, over a year ago now, I suspected that the course wouldn't suit me as well as the Ironman France one did. I was right. The long lake swim was very unforgiving, unlike the Mediterranean sea off the coast of Nice. The rolling roads, and steep climb near the end of the bike course made it both a less interesting route, and a more stressful one. The run, though predominantly flat, had enough little inclines to be annoying, and the horizon was never very far away so there was little feeling of making any progress.
I did beat my France Ironman time, but not by nearly enough.
Pre-Race
Preparation on the weekend went OK. I don't get as much sleep as I need due to some kind of sinus problem that wakes me up in the night so I'm always pretty tired. Getting used to that. On Saturday night I also woke up approximately every hour from 11pm - 4am when I had to get up for breakfast and the coach trip to the start. Had some water and a banana; the only other food I planned was a caffeine gel about 30 minutes from the start. I stayed in a camp with the travel company Nirvana, and it was really nice to head off together on the coach. The pre-dawn weather was perfect.
Borrowed a pump from my friend from work Nigel(1412), and said hello to my brother-in-law Jonathan (1411). Taped a blister pack of pro-plus tablets to my frame, and an energy bar, got changed and was ready to go. Decided to check my gears as I'd not actually done it properly, and panicked a bit when the rear derailleur locked up as I spun the chain backwards. I finally got it to spin freely, but knew it just wasn't right...
Swim - 1:40:48
Stood at the back and calmly walked into the water when the fireworks started the race. Kept very calm and sighted the first blue buoy. Had no problems swimming the 1500M straight out into the lake to the turnaround buoy. Once there the water got a bit more choppy and there was a smell of diesel from the nearby ferrys which wasn't pleasant. After the next and final turnaround buoy we were swimming back into the rising sunshine, and trying to find a narrow canal entrance. I think I went off course, too far right, and lost a few minutes getting back on track. My arms were tiring now and when I entered the canal, it was a very long, slow final 800M to the exit.
Time was 15 minutes off my target and 10 minutes slower than France. I had some catching up to do.
T1 - 6:32
In France, I had a relaxing transition, but today I had decided to storm through as fast as I could. A helper pulled my wetsuit off for me and applied some suncream while I got my socks/shoes/helmet/sunglasses/gloves/race belt on, and after a short toilet break (I must have drunk a lot of lake water) I was off. Pleased with my time.
Bike - 5:54:12
The race plan was clear - 30km/h average. The race plan was wrong. Looking at everyone elses results, I see I should really have been about 30 minutes faster for this course. I'm not saying that I found my bike section easy - far from it - but there were times when I settled for 30km/h when I should have been pushing more. And people were passing me on the downhill sections. It's a race, not a training ride. Having said that, I was tired from the swim, and my arms hurt when I stood up to climb the hills. but I don't think a faster bike would have made my run any slower.
I had 8 gels in a 750ml bottle topped up with water. I sipped this all through the ride. I took on about 4*500ml of water, some banana sections, ate my energy bar, and had a couple of portions of powerbar. I'd planned on eating more bananas, but couldn't face them. My stomach never felt very good, and all the eating I did was force feeding stuff I didn't really want.
Did I enjoy the bike ride? - sorry to say I didn't. The first section along the lake should have been easy, but I was pushing hard as if there was a headwind to try and get my speed up to target. It was quite fun going up the first steep hill at Egg - with a real Tour de France atmosphere from the supporters at the top. But the big climb at Rupertiberg was very unsatisfying - no spectacular view as a reward at the top - unlike the hill climbs in Nice. Passing the halfway mark, and knowing I had to do it all again on the second lap was also dispiriting. I did enjoy some of the descents - reaching 63km/h at one point - and the final push for the finish was OK. Pleased that I slightly beat my target time.
T2 - 6:59
How I managed a longer T2 than T1 i'm not sure. Perhaps my toilet break (the first for 6 hours) was longer :-) Still, it was much better than France, and faster than I expected.
Run - 4:53:50
This is where the race completely fell apart for me. I started running and immediately wanted to stop. In France I ran to heartrate of 150bpm, and I was instantly 156bpm here. So I slowed down and walked a bit. Then my left hamstring started to hurt, so I stopped to apply pressure to that, to avoid it cramping. Finally, an aid station. Another walk and some water and banana. I repeated this performance for the whole race. My hamstring gradually stopped hurting and was OK by about 15km. I took coke/infinit/water and either gel/orange segment at each stop. I just couldn't manage to run for more than about 500m without stoppping. The track consisted of short stretches then a turn then another straight bit, then a turn, so you could never see very far into the distance. In France the aid stations were every 1 mile and you could see the whole course at all times - this worked for me well in terms of planning and expectations. The meandering nature of the Austrian course in Klagenfurt, and the irregular stops for nutrition, meant I was unable to plan as well, and gave myself more excuses to stop than I should have. My stomach was feeling uncomfortable all through the run, and I made a toilet stop at about 16km. However, I was complately dehydrated, so that wasn't it. I just kept eating and drinking to try and keep energy levels up - perhaps there is some other strategy I should have followed - just regular sips of water from a bottle or something.
Checking my watch, I noticed I was going to struggle to beat my IM France time (12:55). I would rather have not finished than be slower. So I kept trying to run more than walk. A heavy thunderstorm broke the 32 degree heat for a while which helped. Finally with 2km to go I said no more walking, and ran to the finish. It's interesting I was able to do it. Could I have done 3km, or 4km? Do I need to be mentally tougher?
Finish - 12:42:21
Beat my France time by 13 minutes, on a faster course when I should have beaten it by 40 minutes. I was very disappointed and have been analysing what went wrong constantly since.
Update: Feeling a little better. I did what I could on the day, and i did finish it, which would have been a top result for me just two years ago. Think my whole nutrition strategy was rubbish. Didn't eat enough pre-race, particularly breakfast. Didn't drink enough on the bike. Ate too much on the run. Didn't get nearly enough rest in the weeks preceeding the race. Also, before attempting anything like this again, I have to make sure I can run a long way. My training for this was as good as injury allowed, so i shouldn't kick myself over that, but next time I need to either run more in training, or lower my expectations.
PS - I wrote another race report on TriTalk - it is slightly less pessimistic :)
