Ironman Lanzarote 2014

Last year’s ironman Lanzarote was fun. Yes, I dare say it! I had a ball and a fantastic result. With a full year of proper training and all indicators telling me I had made massive progress across the board, this year should have been an absolute blast. I had good hopes of smashing it even more, and was even eyeing a top ten finish, close to the magical 10h mark. It didn’t quite go that way, but I still had a good race.

With my improved abilities this year, 10h seemed doable at first sight: 1h05 swim, 5h25 bike, 3h20 run. Plus 10min for my snail transitions with a coffee, cake, hair do and whatever else I feel like on the day :-D The 5h25 bike was still a tall order, but if conditions were OK, I was confident I could get pretty close to that. But this was all on paper.

Reality on the island can be brutal, and even though last year’s race was windy by all accounts, this year was even windier.

It’s been very windy on the island the previous week, and during the days prior to the race the wind was mostly blowing from the south-west. If it was fun to climb Fire Mountain flat out with a tail wind in training, the thought of race day going back towards town on the the LZ-1 motorway in a headwind wasn’t particularly something I fancied. The wind direction went back to normal for race day, but it unfortunately picked-up more and was already well established before we had even started…

“In a washing-machine with Greco-Roman wrestlers on spin cycle”

Like last year, I started my swim on the right hand side, but this time, I was almost at the front, closer to the 60min marker. Training told me I should be able to be close to the hour and a few minutes, and with plenty of fast feet to follow on the first lap, I should get a decent tow and I was hoping to break 1h05. Neither happened, and I had a bad swim. No, I had a properly shit swim! I’ve since been told that I should not say this since I’m still faster than many aspiring triathletes and “completers”, but I’m only being honest with myself here: it’s crap for my goals.

As expected, it was rough. But I didn’t anticipate it being that rough. I’m not sure if it was due to the increased number of entrants - raised from 1800 to almost 2300 - or the slightly different course design, but the first lap was carnage all the way around. I didn’t even see the first buoy and barely caught a glimpse of the line of yellow floats on the outside leg. That’s how far out I was. And it was impossible (or desirable for me to be honest) to get closer to the ropes. I got pummelled, swam over, swam under, my swim hat got pulled off, my goggles knocked away and I had limbs flying into me from directions I can only imaging a contortionist swimmer would be able to do. In the melee, I managed to grab my swim hat and tuck it in my wetsuit, readjusted my goggles and I kept on going to finish the first lap in… 32min. Like last year.

I wasn’t too worried at this point, but I knew I couldn’t hang around too much if I wanted to get close to 1h05. The second lap was calmer, and this time I managed to actually see the buoys at the turns and get pretty close! That lap felt substantially faster and simple maths tell that 32' x 2 = 1h04', right? No. Not at all. That second lap had been terrible. Exiting the water, the race timer was nearing on 1h08, so I knew straight away that it was already game over for my (ambitious) goal of hitting 10h.

Like last year, I faded out in the second lap. And out of all the improvements I made in training, I got nothing for my swim. It was even 1min slower this time around. I’m not sure how accurate the Garmin data is, but it told me I swam almost 4.3K!! If that’s correct, it gives me a pace closer to what I know I can swim, but still, that’s not a great result for me.

Speedy gear change

Since the memorable 70.3 Zell Am See and its glorious 13min of combined transitions, I tried reduce the time I spend having a coffee and a natter on the T1 benches, and I’m almost pleased with my T1 this time. No socks, no gloves, just a helmet and the cover for my shoulders and arms. Those are the ones that cost me time, but if you’ve got my complexion, you have to be careful! 9h of bike + run in the blazing sun would ensure I kill my skin in a single event. Just under 6min including the runs on the beach and outside of the bike racks isn’t too bad.

T1 was over in 5'46", and I was out of the zone about 5min later than I wanted overall, with a lot of work to do. But I had a nice target to catch as Jo, my coach, was up the road. Well, I hoped she was anyway, and the initial plan was to make the pass by the top of Fire Mountain, about 50Km into the ride.

Shit swim = bike overtake galore!

This year, I started hard. I didn’t want to cruise the first bit and have way too much left in the tank later. Last year, I didn’t know what I could do, and I ended up riding about 20W under what I should have been doing. So this year I pushed on. The wind was already strong early in the day, and I knew it would be a tough ride, but the bike is where I usually make my time, and everyone is on the same course, so I hit it hard and started my usual overtaking frenzy.

There was still a bit of cloud cover after the swim, so it wasn’t searing hot just yet, and I was pleased to see that I was a lot closer to the lead pros than last year. I could only see the 2 lead guys getting out of the El Golfo loop when I was going down towards its start. Last year, there was a stream of pros already coming back up the LZ-2, so this gave me a bit of an extra boost.

El Golfo is always special to ride. It’s always almost traffic free as there is pretty much nothing around it, and is fast rolling terrain on silky smooth roads, with just enough inclines and tight turns to remind you to work a little bit. It wasn’t the 24min blast I did on camp a couple of months ago though, and while the legs where still relatively fresh, I had to fight my head against hammering the 10mi loop. It wasn’t a day to try and “set new course records”…

But what the camp experience gave me was something else than my watts to focus on. And while I was thinking about the camp ride, the miles passed, the second aid station as well, and in what felt like no time at all, I was back grinding it up towards Yaiza, and ready for the left turn for Fire Mountain uphill.

I like that climb up Fire Mountain. But that’s because I know it now. Its massive fields of serrated lava rocks, and that single, long, straight, uphill road, in a nice and strong headwind can destroy you mentally. When you have reached the first bend you can see from the bottom, you think you’re there! No. There’s another bend. It must be the top! No. There is still a little bit of hard work in what is now a funnel for all the wind Lanzarote can howl at you. And it’s still going up. If you don’t know that, or haven’t ridden it before, you’re in for a surprise. But well, you’re in a hard place and you came for it, so suck it up!!

Fire Mountain over, whizzing down that left hand bend on the other side. Avoiding a line of cars who decided to stop dead in the middle of the road to get into the National park. Thinking about nutrition. And pace. And Jo… Where is Jo? I know my swim wasn’t great, but it wasn’t THAT disastrous. And I’m sure she didn’t plan for me going that hard in the first climbs either.

It’s only after Mancha Blanca and Tinajo, at the beginning of the descent towards La Santa, that I caught her. And it was all pretty hard work. Usually, the wind around there is across the road, trying to blow away the big guys with disc wheels. This time it was pretty much head on. So the downhill was now as hard as a hard flat stage, and that would need to be paid for later.

However, one thing that was working well this year was nutrition. Even pushing quite hard, I managed to get down some food and gels, and I didn’t regret the decision of going with only one frame bottle, ditching the massive bracket from under my saddle. Weight saving from both the bracket and a 750ml bottle that I would have carried around the course like last year… It was also a lot more reassuring as I didn’t have to constantly check that my bottles were still there, which is handy around some special bits of road on the island!

Ticking off the miles, it wasn’t as easy as usual, especially when I reached the climb to Mirador de Haria. This is the hardest one because of its length. After that, it’s almost job done. Ok, there are still a few kicks to get to Mirador del Rio, and a further 60K to follow, but I find Haria to be the hardest with the switchbacks and the head wind. There, I passed a few other competitors and a couple of pro women, including Kristin Möller - last year’s winner - who was visibly not having the best of days. She would eventually storm past me on the run, but that was still encouraging. Focusing on the climb was made a bit easier having my Black Line London bottle at the front of the bike.

Having just been asked to join the group was a massive boost to my confidence, and a kick to the backside knowing at least a few would be following.

By the time I reached the top of Mirador del Rio, I could feel my hamstrings being very tense, so it was a relief to hit the downhill.

I passed a couple of guys there, including one who almost dragged me outside a bend and had me hit my brakes like I never did before. I now know that the Zipp cork pads have amazing stopping power if you squeeze them enough. The smell of burnt cork afterwards was however a warning sign for me not to do that kind of stuff too often! Still, I was now on my own and blazing down towards Arieta and the LZ-1. I would hopefully get a good tailwind and a push before the struggle back up towards Teguise.

This section wasn’t as easy as I remembered it - probably because of the previous efforts this time - but I was still maintaining my target wattage, and managing my legs. The right turn for the climb towards Teguise brought the usual headwind and I put my head down to reach the “Paris-Roubaix” section as fast as I could, passing dad for a quick photo and a “thumbs up”, then hung on to the bars for 3Km, dodging potholes and the few water bottles that were already there.

When I reached the other end, a sigh of relief is all I had! I was now only looking forward to my next mental checkpoint: the 100 miles mark right by the El Griffo winery. We stopped there on camp during our IM route ride on the last day as it was Simon’s first 100 miler. It was the perfect reminder that there were only 12 miles left of riding, with only a tiny little crest to go over before the massive downhill of Coníl and the “donkey track”. 80kph towards Tias and a flashback of the burnt cork in the north of the island reminded me to brake a little earlier this time, but I could also smell the restaurants along the sea front. They would tickle my nostrils for the next 3.5h or so…

Yet another natter

Dismounting for T2 was a breeze. Now with my velcro strap shoes, long gone are the problems with my boa shoes I had at Zell am See, and I could run quickly over the carpet. Legs were working ok, speedy feet, run, run, run more… Damn where is everyone!

Like last year, I had ridden myself in a nice position overall, and had to push my bike for an age before picking up my run bag. Although I tried and tried again this year, I didn’t manage to really pee on the bike. So I needed a long pit stop before the changing tent. That toilet stop on its own was not short, but then time must have accelerated, or disappeared, or distorted, or done something funny… I have no idea what happened, but I spent 6min in T2. And I have absolutely no flipping idea HOW I managed to stay that long in the zone! Granted it’s a long one, but there’s literally nothing to do! Do you guys sit in transition? I did. Maybe that’s where I also had a nap, redone my hair and adjusted my kit… I am happy with T1, but T2 was crap.

Snack stops

But hey, there was still a marathon to run so off I went. I was a bit lighter than last year, having chosen not to carry two flasks of coke all the way around the course.

After a flurry of complaints after last year’s race about the complete lack of cola on the run leg, they brought some back this year, but ONLY at aid stations not giving red bull. It tells you a thing or two about the goal of big brands and their monopoly on big events such as this one. It’s all a big money making machine, and the organisation doesn’t fully care what you as an athlete would prefer or would need. They just go for big $$$ contracts. At least they’ve done something this year, but it didn’t seem that this was really something they really thought through.

Anyway, I started my run quite well, hitting my race pace straight away with what seemed ease at the time… This became harder about 6Km in the run when I reached the airport, where the headwind hit hard until the turnaround. The course had changed this year - possibly to avoid overcrowding of the run course in town due to the increased number of entries - and there was now two long laps instead of a single one. This would prove challenging, especially in the wind and heat along the airport strip.

After I reached the first turnaround point, my pace went up again and I was feeling just about ok, pushing myself to stick to my target pace. I have pushed substantially more this year on the bike, but I knew I would need to be stronger mentally to get my run properly done. I wasn’t far off my target pace, and I was ticking aid stations alright, thinking about the first special needs.

Once again, my dad was with me on the island this year, and we had agreed that he would be at the special needs aid station. I asked him to hand me some crisps when I was passing by, but what I should have done is to brief him on how to do it.

I didn’t tell him to have a bowl or something from which I could snatch a few crisps. So he did what he thought best: hand over an open packet. That was impractical, and that gave me an excuse to stop. Big tactical mistake: I was now stopping, taking some crisps, talking to him, and basically wasting a long time there. Getting deeper into the run and in the mental state where you should be battling yourself and push on, I had lost the focus I needed. Over the next laps, he wasn’t even ready with the salty treats, instead taking photos from the other side of the road first, then only crossing to giving me the precious salt. He did only what I asked for: handing me crisps. At no point did he comment on how I looked or how he think I was doing, he was only following my instructions, and he did real well. This mistake was my fault entirely, and I should have told him to give me a kick in the backside to keep going and not stop for that long a time. I should have asked him to urge me on, and lie to me that I was only 20s behind the guy in front of me or something like this. Hell, next time, I’ll ask him to time me if I really have to stop!

But because I now had a reason, I stopped, twice, on each lap. Not even seeing Jo being only about 2km behind me on the way out for the second lap changed this. I can sadly say that I had pretty much given up mentally at this point. And there was absolutely no reason to do so! Legs were a bit tight, but not doing too bad. I could pick up the pace when I wanted (cue the last 5km), and pouring ice everywhere I could on me and in my pants helped to keep me cool. (I blame Chrissie Wellington for the idea, but it works!) A massive ice cube in each hand for a few kilometres is also a fantastic way to feel cooler, and have a little distraction from the airport heat and the sand flying in your face. So my run has been a bit up and down with a few walks and 4 stops.

On the last lap, the short one, I walked a couple of aid stations again, but I wasn’t feeling too bad. The run course was getting very busy, though, especially coming back into town. But I managed to gradually pick up the pace up to the final 2km, at which point I felt really good. I was and passing guys who were also on their way to the finish, but looked substantially more tired! “Blue band scalp, yeah!” I was gaining places! As I did so, I heard heavy breathing and fast feet getting close to me. Feeling good, there was NO WAY I was going to let anyone through without a fight at that point!

Being around 2km from the line, and having still quite a bit of energy in the legs, I dug deeper, keeping the “heavy breather” behind me, dodging spectators, other runners (and the idiot from Club la Santa on his bike who was not opening the way but pissing everyone off on the narrow lane). I finished with a 4'17" last Km in order to maintain position. Sadly, because of all my snack stops though, I didn’t really improve on last year’s run time when I really had the legs.

I didn’t see dad in the finish chute either, but he was there and took a few shots as I “sprinted” to the end. For having supported Ellen at a long race in the past (not even a full IM!), I know how hard it is. So thanks to you dad for being there.

Finish time: 10h21. PB by 13min, improved last year’s time on this course by 16min, mostly on the bike and transitions, even though that’s not was I came for. I wanted a sub 1h05 swim, and I’m sure I had something a lot closer to 3h20 in my run legs. I could spend an age trying to find excuses, but there are none. I just need to work (a lot) more on my swim, and get stronger mentally for the run and avoid silly mistakes.

Looking at my splits positions in my AG, it’s pretty obvious what I need to work on: swim: 110th, bike: 15th, run: 21st. Top 10 was 15min away, top 5 a crazy 29min away! Lanza is hard, but it’s equally hard to qualify there. I’ll want to be more careful in the races I chose next year if I want to qualify for Kona. The more I think about it, the less I want to commit to that, but I’ll probably make it my goal for next year, and if it doesn’t happen, forget about it. There are some fundamentals about WTC that I really start to dislike, but that’s for another post…

Unlike after any race before, I had a massive post race blues this time. No motivation to do anything at all, and not just training. That’s something I never experienced in the past. I’m not sure if it was because I didn’t meet my ambitious goals or because I had completed THE race for 2014, but it has now more or less passed.

I finish writing this post almost a month after the race, and 2 days before the next: 70.3 UK, which promises to be a tough one. This time, since I’m already qualified for the 70.3 WC, I have no other pressure than completing and have fun.

Thanks everyone who still supports me despite thinking I’m mad. Thanks to Ellen my other half, once more coping with my training until now and caring for my niggles when they appeared. Thanks to the Black Line for the mental strength. Thanks dad…

Results and data

In terms of ranks, I finish overall 4 places further down than last year, but since there was a lot more pros this year, and 10 more ahead of me at the finish, I actually moved up overall by 6 places, and by 4 in my age group. It’s not what I hoped for, but it’s definitely not bad either.

I finally broke my PB set in Barcelona 3 years ago on a flat course. Next one will have to be under 10h!

Finish Overall position: 121th, 114th male and 21th in my age group.