Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

After receiving my medal and swag, I waited and waited around the food area for Karel.  Karel and I typically don't have a "meet-up" place after an Ironman because by the time Karel crosses the line ahead of me, gets some food/drinks and possibly changes into clean clothes (from his pre-swim bag), he is waiting for me to finish. But this time around, Karel did his normal post race to-do's..... Smile for the camera for his sub-10 hour, IM Kona debut performance of 9:55 2.4 mile swim - 1:13:47 T1: 3:36 112 mile bike: 5:06:50 T2: 4:04 26.2 mile run: 3:27:12:29 57th AG (35-39) 252 Male 271 Overall And almost pass-out. After Karel waited for over an hour, he heard from a friend that I had DNF'd soon after the energy lab (as that is what it showed on the IM tracker). Karel became very worried about me and he went to the timing people inside the Queen K to figure out what was going on with me. The timing people had...

After transitioning from bike to run, I jogged out of the transition area, started my Garmin 910 (which I powered on in the last mile of the bike - already set on the run function) and was feeling a lot of energy from the crowds. My plan was to use the first 5 miles or so to find a good rhythm as I had no pace goals for this run. My Garmin was simply there to record data but it was not controlling how I raced my race. While shuffling my way up Palani, before turning right onto Kuakini Hwy, I tried to not confuse feelings with actions. Even though I didn't feel great coming out of the transition tent and my Ironman swim and bike performance had me feeling as if I was not having a good day, I did everything in my power to not let it get to me. I told myself that I could still put together a great run and amazing things could still happen. I suppose I had two options at this point - to settle for the day that was far from my best or to convince myself that today was a...

Thank you Erin   for the pic.  As I rolled away from the transition area, I noticed that my power meter was not picking up on my Garmin 810 and all I could see was speed (this season, I haven't worn a HR monitor when I race). This is not the first time that this has happened as sometimes power meters just don't pick up and I have to restart my computer. I made the mistake of trying to get the power to show in the most "technical" part of the course - the first 8-10  miles in town. I should have just waited until I was on the Queen K hwy with no distractions instead of trying 3-4 times to turn it on, wait, turn it off, turn it on, wait, turn it off... Although several athletes were "racing" right from the start, Karel and I both used this first section to find our legs. I tried to avoid the thoughts of "how am I going to feel on the bike" while swimming so instead, I used this first section to wake up my legs. I kept the effort easy a...

It was a very restless night of sleep for me. Oddly enough, I tend to sleep very well on the night before my races but this pre-race sleep (or lack thereof) was unusual. Karel, on the other hand, slept amazingly well. As I watched the clock, which seemed like every hour, go from 1am, 2am, 3am...it was finally time to wake-up at 3:45am.  Karel started the coffee and we both ate our pre-race meals and started to get hydrated. The overall mood in our condo was positive as we were both ready to get this 140.6 mile party started.  After getting dressed in our race gear, filling my powder-filled bike and run bottles with cold water (Karel froze his special needs bike and all of his run bottles - which didn't help as they both were warm when he got to them) and double checking that we had everything, we walked out of our condo (Kona Plaza) and to the race venue, just a few minutes away.  It is very motivating to see the finish line (aka final destinati...

After writing many race reports on my blog over the past 9 years, I've learned two things about how valuable it is to write a race report: 1) It is so great to be able to go back to a race report and "re-live" the race experience and to learn from the race after it happens.  2) It is always better to write a race report soon after the race happens as that is when emotions, thoughts and feelings are most real, raw and true. Reason number two is why I chose to  record a video recap  just a few hours after crossing my 10th Ironman and 4th IM World Championship finish line. But, reason number two is also why I have waited over a week since crossing the 2015 IM Kona finish line to start my series of race reports from the race. I was filled with a variety of emotions, thoughts and feelings in the 72 hours after the race.  There were some smiles and some tears as I was on a roller coaster of emotions.  I'm sure I don't have to describe what I...