Max Israel's Ironman Arizona Race Report

max is long time coaching client, ironman, adventure racer, entrepreneur and just all around great guy. although i didn't train him for this ironman i worked with him all year last year. i'm posting this because i think it's a good read and we can always learn from others experiences... congrats max!
read the report here.

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Ironman Arizona Race Report

Overview: I came, I saw, I melted.

Swim: 1:14:00 [4] 2.4 mi (30:50 / mi)

Swim: about 00:01:50 minutes slower than last year. Not terrible considering I did only very minimal swimming in favor of run and bike. I'll gladly give up two minutes to push this time into other areas.

Got out of the water feeling fine. Probably could have hammered harder. Did get a hard kick in the lower lip about a minute into it. Resisted the urge to grab the guy’s ankle and pull him under, though. ;-)

Bike: 6:06:12 [4] 112.0 mi (3:16 / mi)

My bike clocked this at just a touch over 6 hours, but I guess the race clock doesn't lie. My race strategy came apart here. Here is what I think happened...

Let's start with my goal: An Ironman overall PR at 11:30 based on a conservative swim, solid bike where I might shave a few minutes off my usual 6-hours and a transformative run of around 4:00. My last two IM runs were 4:40 and 4:24, respectively.

I wanted to come out of the water and be on the bike and working by 1:20, which was conservative. I did that. I then wanted to have a 6 hour bike split, but if I could do it without hammering too hard I wanted to bank another ten minutes. Then I wanted to run a 4:10 or so marathon and land right at 11:30.

It didn't happen.

Lap 1/3: Came out strong but didn't push hard. Headwind was immediate. Unlike last year, the headwind came at you as you rode out of town uphill. Chatty and smiling, didn't hammer and focused on staying comfortable. The final results aren't posted yet, so I can't get the exact split. (The three laps are all slightly different distances owing to how the move traffic around the hub.) Came around that first round and felt like I was roughly 3 minutes ahead of a six-hour pace.

Lap 2/3: Felt a bit tired coming back out of Tempe, but my plan was to have the middle leg be the work horse of the day. I found a fast looking guy and picked up my pace to match him. As the hillclimb began, I just felt like a million bucks. People were dying in the heat, which began climbing into the 90's. The wind got noticably stiffer. I passed people effortlessly climbing out of town like they were overweight school children. Turned at the top and with a steady tailwind pushed 30 MPH or so back to the bottom.

A little discouraging...All that work had really only bought me about 2 additional minutes in the bank. In retrospect, my math was probably off a bit because the distance on lap 2 was a couple of minutes longer. But that wind...

Lap 3/3: I really didn't feel like I had worked it that hard on lap 2. I had been drinking straight water roughly 1 bottle per aid station and supplementing with endurolyltes (3x per hour), around 280 or 300 calories per hour via Power gel which was the aid station choice.

I just came out onto that third lap and simply didn't have the juice to work back up that hill. I gave away tons of time. In the end, I made the decision not to force the issue. I knew I was giving back some time, but figured a retreat here was smart. Better to survive the heat and wind and make my stand on the run. I crossed into transition at 6:02 or so per bike clock. Don't know why the clock said 6:06. Shit. All that gain given back...and then some.

Run: 5:08:37 [5] 26.2 mi (11:46 / mi)

IM Arizona marathon. What a depressing marathon.

I can't say why things went so badly, but here's one possibility. Temperatures on the run course hit 100 degrees. It couldn't cope. Helpfully, I read Hammer's website *after* the race and noticed that their recommended dosage for my size in that environment is 4-6 caps per hour. I took 3 per hour. I probably missed one or two hours' worth over the day by accident.

This hurts my pride to write. I knew early that I was not going to have a good run. My plan was to try to stick a 9:00 mile for the run, with some hustle-walk aid stations thrown in there. I did this for a lot of Sundays over lots and lots of miles, practicing that pace.

I just couldn't turn those legs over, and the cramping started immediately. From there, I never got knocked down with cramps but I would start to cramp very quickly after moving my pace faster than 9:00. Before long, I struggled to keep 10:00. Then 11:00.

A few times the heat pounded on me so hard that my head swam and I simply needed to find a patch of shade to rest for 20 or 30 seconds or I was going to pass out.

What went wrong today, especially on this run? Why can't I run -- really run -- that Ironman Marathon the way I want to...the way I can run almost any other time?

Nutrition -- not enough protein in the mix?

Electrolytes -- not enough?

Weight -- is 200 pounds just too much to lug around?

Heat -- was it too much to expect that all my training was 35-50 F and race day saw 100F ? What could I have done, short of moving to the Sunbelt for training?

The Grand Columbian was absolutely a harder course in every respect, yet I did better. I don't think I was in better shape at all for that -- I'm almost certainly in better shape now. The course temp at GC was probably maxed in the high 70's on race day.

High points were the last half mile of running. Once the sun went low I started feeling a hell of a lot better. Crossing an IM finish line with a PR for me is great, but there's nothing cooler than a night finish under the lights. I ended up running with a great guy from Missouri -- a normally 10:20 guy who had been puking all day but was still great conversation and funny. We pushed and cajoled each other to pass the time and keep hustling as best we could. Saw the sun set running over one of Tempe's pretty bridges, which made me smile.

I need to regroup mentally. I'm just seething right now and want more than anything to have that day back to try some other things. I've got some ideas on how I'll spend the next month. Get some much needed time with Alex running trail and riding mountain bikes. I've got an invitation to row in a masters 8 at Greenlake, which could shake things up for a few months. Maybe I'll just do little serous exercise and just laser in on diet while I drop 10 pounds. Goddam.

This year they're changing this race date to be in November, so IM AZ will actually run AGAIN in November. That's a tempting shot at redemption.

I could also register for Grand Columbian in September. I know already that I'll be one of those places.

Note: Time not exact -- add 10 minutes or so for transition. Be warned...long post.

You Think I'm Crazy? How Bout a MARATHON on a Treadmill

well i have a coaching client... who... well i'll just share her email with you.

please note this wasn't prescribed by me as training. it was cheryl's idea, but i certainly didn't deter her!

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Good morning! So, I will attempt to account my underway marathon experience below (meaning on a coast guard boat).

For the planning phase of this run, I had to choose between treadmill and running laps around our ship. Three factors led to chose treadmill over laps:
1. I have issues counting laps for a 3-mile run, let alone a 27-mile run.
2. Running laps includes a jaunt up/down an outside set of stairs (or ladder, if you will). Knowing me, 20 miles into a run and my chances of eating shit go up to about 100%.
3. Non-skid is not gentle on the joints. So, I gave up a better view for an inside excursion.

I woke up at about 5 am on Saturday morning to the sound of us breaking ice enroute to Nome, AK. I visualized the ship breaking through the ice as a metaphor for me breaking through the monotony of running 4 hours on a treadmill. It didn't help. I procrastinated as much as I could (put in a couple loads of laundry, ate a bagel, checked email, etc) before finally hitting the treadmill around 5:40.

Here are the run stats:
Time: 3:48:11 (continuous watch time, 26.2 mark was 3:40::10)
Distance: 27.0 miles
Incline: 0 (except when the ship rides up on the ice, plus the treadmill is set up in our windlass room at a slight uphill angle)
Treadmill restarts: 4 (it only goes to 60 min before shutting off, first stop was after the first mile...read below)
Head calls: 1 (about 1 mile in, my body finally decided to wake up...um yea)
Music: 5.2 hours of my favorite songs
Tony Robbins cds: 1 (good motivation)
Camelbak: 1, filled with water (thanks Alex!)
Gels: 2
Bonks: 0
Treadmill: 1
Somewhat crazy JO: 1

Breakdown by hour (since that was the natural break of re-starting the treadmill everytime):

9:13 first mile, pace 6.5 mph, head break (4 minutes) not quite into it yet

Restart 1: got in the grove, listened to music, pace 7.0 mph (actually the treadmill shut off at 57 min for some reason so only ran 6.7 miles during this section. Took in water every 10 minutes.

Restart 2: pace 7.0 mph, this was the Tony Robbins hour. Good cd on fear vs stress (they are the same, it is just how you prepare for it), Trying vs. Doing (trying is just an excuse for failure), and the power of personal CANtations. Took in water every five minutes.

Restart 3: turned the volume up on the music and caught myself singing along to most songs, pace 7.1 mph, felt pretty good this hour...though knees starting to hurt. Took in water and a bit of gel every five minutes

Restart 4: Picked up the pace to 7.5. In the scale of relative pain, my heart was doing much better than my knees, lower back, and legs, so I figured I should hurry up and get it over with. Finished the last 5.23 miles and was happy to be done. Took in water and gel every five minutes.

I think this was good mental preparation for the Florida race I will be doing over Memorial Day weekend. It is not the most senic race, but has got to be better than staring at a anchor hawsepipe for 4 hours.

Have a great weekend!
-Cheryl

Carly Rocks! New Coaching Endurance Flyer

about a year ago now, rogue valley runner carly (yes, hal's carly) said to me in passing that if i needed to make an advertising flyer for my coaching business she would help me (out of the kindness of her heart). in a few installments i sent her photos and some brief and non-detailed descriptions of what i wanted. basically i kept stalling... i needed to get my head around the fact that i have to advertise myself. it's still something i struggle with, but last week i decided i would give it a try, so i sent carly an email saying "thanks for your time. please just send me whatever you have" because i didn't want to waste any more of her time.

well with little to no direction she came through huge for me!

THANK YOU SO MUCH CARLY!

**check out the rogue valley runners blog.

What's The Haps?

training: i'm enjoying the off-season. i'm coaching a lot and increasing my client list - i love this job!. i'm still healing from my double hernia surgery, so there is a bit of residual ab pain and even worse are my hips. i used to think my hip issues were related to the hernias, now i'm not so sure. i've gradually increased my volume since my surgery, 11:51; 12:13; 15:06; with this week around 19 hours and next week being my peak volume week of this meso-cycle at 25 hour-ish. got in a good 30 mile road ride today with kimberly and i'll ride 50 miles tomorrow... likely in a downpour. i've gotta be done by nuun so i can watch the seahawks with the boys.

skiing: this seattle weather is killing me! yesterday was supposed to be my first day in the backcountry on skis. the plan was to skin and ski mount rainier.. thwarted! crappy conditions had us then turn our attention to mt baker area, table mtn and ptarmigan ridge. woke up and the telemetry data said 1 inch of rain had fallen overnight and it was still raining below 6,000ft.



we hiked mailbox peak with 30 lbs backpacks instead. i'm still waiting on getting those first turns.

racing: i'm debating whether or not i'm going to do an early season 24 hour solo mtn bike race. i'm undecided partly because i really want to return to run big horn again. i won the 50k last year and would run the 50 miler in '08 if i went.. and i'd hope ty draney would run another distance! however if i did the round the clock 24hr solo i wouldn't be recovered for big horn, or even trained for it for that matter. recovery from a 24 hour mtn bike race is not joke, so i wouldn't be able to race for over a month after, maybe longer. which makes me think maybe i'll do it as two person team. when i think about local mtn bikers to race with... it would have to be my dart-nuun adv racing teammate ryan vangorder - doods a monster.

december 1st is the western states lottery. "there are a record number of entries in the Western States lottery this year (1,352!)... and a dismal 16% chance of getting selected." this is from ajw's blog, he then goes on to list the top male contenders who have signed up. it's an impressive and intimidating list. gets me all fired up to run it!

coaching: coaching has been an absolute joy lately. i've just finished a 5 week session of weekly track workouts and demand was so high i'm doing another one in december!! i've also added to the client list a couple of adventure racers getting ready for primal quest 2008 - very exciting.

quote of the day:
"We have found that there is no conflict between our business model of everyday low costs and everyday low prices and being a more sustainable business," Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott said in the Wal-Mart Environmental Report.

coaching endurance, and success

just wanted to give a public congrats to two runners i've coached that have done outstanding!

congrats to ellen parker who ran her first 50 miler on july 28, 2007 at the white river 50! that is one tough first 50 too. ellen ran a strong 9:55:01.

also congrats to matthew noell who has done so much for me i can't even tell you.. he's one of my best friends and has been a huge part of my success in ultra distance racing. he's an amazing friend, bike mechanic and motivator (aside from being an amazing dad, business owner, martial artist and microsoft exec!).. yeah he's that good. it was a blast helping him train for his first marathon.. and in true coaching endurance form he didn't just decide to do a marathon, he decided to do one of the hardest marathons in the country as his first - the crater lake marathon!.. and he rocked it in 5:24:07. nicely done dood.

the photo is from the 2005 24hr solo mtn bike norba national championship - matthew was my mechanic and crew. he's balancing his son wilder who was part of my crew as well. here is another photo of matthew "doin work!"

i threw an email out to my close friends asking if anyone wanted to come to the teton mtns and help crew me for what i described as "one of my biggest challenges yet". lots of my friends talk a big game about wanting to be a part of my crew, year after year. as usual matthew was the one who stepped up. he will be my main crew person for my first 100 mile ultramarathon - the grand teton 100 sept 1-2! i can't tell you how excited this makes me. i was truly touched when he threw down and booked his flight. =)

i am lucky to have such a good friend. with him crewing and montrail ultra stud ty draney pacing me the last 25 miles - i have no excuses, and no worries.. just one foot in front of the other.. for around 273,600 steps or so.

the sweet nectar of coaching

i've been injured. it is true that while some doors shut, others open. with a bit of extra time i really started to dig in and work on my other job - coaching. i have a passion for coaching and with a new batch of clients i found renewed energy for it. i am having a blast! it comes naturally really because i'm a dork and am always reading and or thinking about training, and training principles.

i've recently received 4 new clients through word of mouth and it's been an absolute joy. all are serious athletes.. i've got the ironman, the black belt bad ass (pictured), the brown belt bad ass and the natural - who will be winning ultra marathons near you very soon so watch out! she's the one who runs by you more than once on your mount si hike. all are smart and motivated and so much fun to work with.

another thing i've been up to is volunteering at some very cool races...

• carnation time trial put on by my new physical therapist - neal goldberg.
  
• the beast! these are after work adventure race put on by eric bone (national orienteering champ) and roger michal (who also puts on the 4th dimension adv races) of adv racing team mergeo.