Flashback: 2017 Ironman Mont Tremblant Part I

 

Even though the thought of doing another Ironman seems like an impossibly distant goal right now, given my cancer battle, I think about it often and thought it might be fun to reminisce about my first (and only, so far) Ironman experience in 2017. But I'll divide this into a couple of posts. This post will go over the decision process and training leading up to the event. I'll do a future post that describes the actual event and venue - Mont Tremblant Canada.

Marathon or Ironman?

I'll start this story about a year before the actual event - the summer of 2016. Maybe I got a little cocky coming off of my second triathlon season. I had completed some longer events a 10k road race, and Olympic distance triathlon and the Narragansett Bay Half Marathon. I was running longer distances mostly injury-free, after decades away from the sport, and had delusions about doing something even longer. 

I was torn between putting my efforts toward trying to do my first marathon and possibly trying to qualify for Boston, or instead doing an Ironman Triathlon. My thought process went a little like this. My running is tenuous due to being very injury prone. If I only have one marathon in me, do I do it as a straight marathon, or do it as part of an Ironman? I was pretty confident in my ability to do the 112-mile bicycle leg. Years ago I had done some 150-mile, 2-day charity rides with my sons. The swim also didn't completely spook me, despite the fact that I'm a crappy swimmer and had had a near drowning experience trying to complete a measly 400-meter swim as part of my first sprint distance triathlon back in 2015. 

My friend Mark who has done over a dozen Ironmans, was acting as my coach and mentor. He helped me see how doable the long-distance triathlon really was. 

I had made up my mind, I wanted to do an Ironman!

Most Ironman events require an early sign-up. One year out is not that unusual. So in September of 2016, I took a huge leap of faith and registered for Ironman Mont Tremblant! I knew hotels would also be in short supply, so I booked a room large enough to entice my family members to come cheer me on.

Then, it came time for training!

Fall/Winter Training

To be completely honest, I wasn't doing nearly enough training in the fall and winter months before the Ironman. Here go the excuses. My first half-marathon the previous July hadn't completely gone without incident. I developed a severe calf sprain after the event that completely sidelined me from running. I did a few months of PT in the fall without any running. The ramp-up was very slow after that. 

In the chart above, you can see that running (blue) and swimming (orange) were pretty minimal in the fall of 2017. The only thing that kept fairly steady was cycling. My employer at the time was pushing fitness and had opened an onsite gym which included fitness glasses. There was a noon spinning class that fit my schedule 2 times a week. The class was well run, with great instructors, good equipment and only about 5-10 people per class. Even though the sessions were only about 45 minutes in length, this was a nice way to keep my cycling legs in shape heading toward winter. 

By January, I started ramping up all 3 disciplines: pool-swimming, biking and running. I also tried to get a few weight sessions in each week. I probably should have been doing closer to 90 minutes to 2+ hours of training a day, but I was still only averaging about an hour.

Spring/Summer Training in Portsmouth NH

In May of 2017 my wife and I sold our house in the burbs and moved into a chic 2-bedroom apartment in downtown Portsmouth NH. In June I took a buy-out from my company. In true American corporate practice, my employer of 22 years was "encouraging" older workers to leave by using some nice perks as incentives. I was ready for a change and not sure what staying would have meant, so I decided to take it. The resulting move and freedom opened up a whole new world of training. I'd also need all that exercising to work off dinners at all of those amazing restaurants in downtown Portsmouth!

Swimming

I joined a local YMCA with a nice indoor pool and tried to hit it every other day. I found a nice open swim slot just after the "Rusty Hinges" senior hour. At 57, I was tempted join the older ladies, but wasn't quite ready for that. Plus they probably would have kicked my ass anyway. 

My time at the pool started off modestly. There were no 2 mile pool swims. Rather, I was started off with easy 15-20 minute swims. The Y had a nice weight room, so before or after the swims, I'd tack on a full body weight workout to make the trip to the Y worth it. 

There is only one way to eat an elephant: a bite at a time

After about a month or so of steady increases in swimming times, I got my swims up to about an hour. It was time to move to open water swimming. Hello ocean swims in the cold Atlantic!

One of the most beautiful beaches in New Hampshire was a short 20-minute drive from downtown Portsmouth where we lived. By May the ocean temperatures were still in the 50's - a bit chilly. So I put on my wetsuit, waded in, dunked my head under the water, got the ice-cream headache over with, treaded out past the surf (and surfers!) and would try to swim 30 minutes in one direction and then turn around and come back. Despite the cold temps, I loved it and eventually got this up to an hour in each direction. It was also a plus that sharks don't generally like the cold northern waters. Doing these open-water ocean swims was a huge confidence booster for someone who is a pretty marginal swimmer. I figured if I can swim in 50-degree ocean water with surf, I should be able to handle the mid 60-degree lake water at Mont-Tremblant.

Biking and Running

If swimming in the chilly waters off the New Hampshire seacoast was invigorating, then biking and running along the New Hampshire coast was downright inspiring! I was like a little kid in a candy store discovering new routes up and down the New Hampshire and Maine coastal roads and back roads. 

One of my favorite routes was a 35-miler from Portsmouth, past York Harbor and Long Sands Beach in Maine, to the picturesque Nubble Light House.

Running was equally beautiful. Most routes started or finished near the iconic Memorial Bridge and Prescott Park. I think my longest run was about 17 miles. I'm sure I would have benefitted from some even longer runs, upwards of 20-22 miles. Lesson for next time. 

Training Coming Together

By June and July, I was increasing my swim, bike and run distances decently and continuing with regular weight workouts, which I thought were table stakes for what I was about to put my body through. 

I also started doing more brick workouts. I would stash (re)supplies in the garage of our apartment building and head out for a 40-mile ride and then come back, grab a light snack, throw on the sneaks and head out for a 10-mile run or so. I believe that progressively longer Brick workouts, mainly bike + run, are an absolutely essential component of any Ironman training program. In hindsight, I wished I had gotten in more of these.  

Two Tune-Up Races in June

On June 10th, 2017, I ran the local Portsmouth Market Day 10k. My goal was to run this at 8 min/mile pace, but on this day, the legs felt good, so I was able to push this to just under a 7:30 pace. 

The following week, I participated in the Patriot Half Ironman. This one sort of snuck up on me! I had signed up a year earlier because it tends to sell out early. For some reason, I had put this completely out of my mind, thinking it was in July. So when I realized this was coming up in a few days, I scrambled to get my stuff together and booked a cheap hotel nearby the event. Fortunately, my son was visiting and he joined me as my pit crew! 

Honestly, I was really not into this. It was pouring rain when we got to the parking lot and started making our way to the transition area which was a mud bath. Plus I was tired and not feeling the love. 

The swim went ok, and by the time I jumped on my bike, the sun was starting to peak through the clouds. The bike course was scenic with rolling hills. I was trying to practice maintaining my heart rate in Zone 2, when a couple of young ladies went flying past me. For some reason my competitive spirit kicked in and I foolishly went after them, putting everything I had into the next series of hills. I can't honestly remember if I ended up finishing behind or ahead of them, but I had definitely dipped into my reserves that I should have been preserving for the run. But in spite of this, the run actually went well. I only started hurting during the final few miles. 

My split times were decent, but one of the running jokes in my family is how bad I am at transitions! I'm not sure if it's a lack of coordination or lack of preparation, but my transition times are usually abysmal! In one of my earlier triathlons, I made the mistake of putting on a running singlet after the swim. (I later learned the old triathlon adage - no wardrobe changes during transitions). Because I was still wet from the swim, I couldn't pull the damn shirt over my head and my arms got all twisted in the arm holes - similar to how a toddler learns to dress himself. So in true fashion, my transition times at Patriot Half were, well, horrible! But overall, it was a great day!

I continued my training through the summer and included a taper in August. Could I have done more training? Definitely. But at that time, I felt eager and ready to tackle Mont-Tremblant in August!

Stay tuned for Part II - Race Day!