BLUF

IRONMAN #19 done and in the blog. A great swim in perfect temperature and crystal clear Mirror lake of 1:03 had me out of the water in 7^th of the M35-39 A/G swimming 75yards longer than planned. A good transition running in wetsuit for 400m to the tent. Onto the bike and I got to work hitting 54.6MPH on the decent to Keene good enough for 9^th/1,229 total on the day and 43/11,954 overall lifetime for the Strava segment clocking 5:02 at 44.7MPH. I stayed consistent and on the nutrition for the bike getting off in 5:18 making up one spot to 6^th by the end of the bike. The run was great with a 1:50 for the first half and not one bit of walking till M18 where I had to hit the loo and then where you realize this is an IRONMAN. I ran up the major hills seeing Mom & Tony, Tom, and of course Fiona all day long. I ran around the speed skating track under the arch “Kevin Coyle You Are an IRONMAN” finishing in 10:25 and 12^th in my A/G. A race I’m proud of with a course that is THE BEST COURSE I have ever done from NZ, Australia, Canada, across the USA, and Hawaii. For sure, my best race in 5 years when I took 2^nd at IMAZ.

The Details

The sand was between my toes. And there I was, standing looking out over Mirror Lake listening to the announcer pump up the crowd to the music of Alesso and Gaga. The sun was quickly rising above dark green Adirondack forest. Pastel colors on the clouds far out. In front of me were a hundred triathletes below the sub 60 swim and beyond the IRONMAN Arch were 9 yellow buoy’s heading out more than half a mile, just the “out” section of the 2.4mile swim. The two loop 112 mile bike course was ready. And the 26.2 mile marathon run later in the day, unbeknownst of what was going to come its way.  But behind me were another 1,800 competitors including my wife Fiona. Together we would be competing in our 12^th IRONMAN together and 33^rd IRONMAN between the two of us. From beyond the eyes came the tears. Tears of pure joy. Gumption. As the great Meredith Kessler proclaimed to us back at IRONMAN New Zealand 2017, “We Get to do this”. And as the announcer said that we were about to do something “That only a small, a very small percent of the population will ever attempt or even contemplate to do.” This is IRONMAN, and I love it.

I visited Lake Placid, New York back in college on a road trip from Northeastern University to Montreal, Canada, Lake Placid, and then New Jersey. I saw the ski jumps, the speed skating rink, and saw live action of toboggan in the small Adirondack town that hosted the 1932 Olympics and 1980 Olympics with the famous “Miracle on Ice” when a bunch of college kids beat the Russian Ice Hockey team. Little did I know that I would be back nearly 19 years later competing in my 19^th IRONMAN in the longest running IRONMAN in North America outside of Kona (24^th year).

LP also has a history around the world and it’s a bucket list race for many athletes. Fiona and I had mentioned it for years and with Mom and Tony living in Keuka Lake only 5hrs away from the race set it up for a great holiday.

The Season Lead up

I’m self-coached and this season barely wrote anything down but tracked progress using training peaks and what I know I need to do as veteran of the sport since 2010. We came back from our Christmas Holiday trip to see family in Stawell, VIC, Australia and came back ready to work. Fiona is coached by Becca Kawaoka an Elite Amateur A/G Champion of multiple races. For the year I’ve biked 3,668 miles, Ran 1,204 miles, and swam 180,758 yards for a total of 427 hours. I averaged over 40miles per week with peak distance of a 22M run and a 53M Peak week. 12 rides of 5hours or longer (incl IMLP) with a long ride of 6.9hrs which is the Sonoita Loop in Tucson that Ben Hoffman (who took 2^nd) does frequently.  I also did 2 rides of Mt Lemmon (in which I was passed by Lionel Sanders, Sam Long, and Trevor Foley who took 1^st and 3^rd at 70.3 Oregon the same day as IMLP, less Long. The swim was relatively consistent but I didn’t do many long swims; only 12 swims of an hour or longer for the 6 months with 2-3.8K swim tests in our 25M HOA Pool at Rancho Sahuarita in 1:03:37 and 1:05:08 (day after Mt Lemmon summit) both with pull buoy and no wetsuit.

The diet was OK but steady weekend wine and #ScotchSunday kept me up at 183 pounds, never really getting under 180 where I have been on WFPB/Vegan diet of the past. I also spent most of the season working with my mechanic Tom Gonzales of www.tomsbicyclerepair.com who helped build up a brand new Argon 18 E119 Tri+ Disc worth around $17,000. (SRAM Red 56/10 12sp, Quarq power meter, and HED Wheel/Disc since my WheelScience set hadn’t arrived from Asia in time). I also had a very good bike fit from a legend at Tucson Endurance Performance Center who was building up Ben and Lionel’s bikes for their races.

The Week Build up

Work Mon/Tues at RTX as a Finance Manager. Mon off and Tues 5AM swim, and then Tues drove up to Phoenix to the 118F heat. Free night at Marriott thanks to the anniversary date of my Marriott card enjoying a very nice Old Fashion as my last alcohol drink, Fi went with a Margarita. Early 7AM flight to Chicago and then to Rochester. Mom/Tony pick us up, 90min drive to Keuka, off day. Thurs was a 20min swim in Keuka Lake with a 3M run. Drove to Saranac Lake (8m west of LP) and did a 30min ride with some 90s efforts at 280-300 watts. Friday was a 19min bike with some 90s efforts, 18min swim in Mirror Lake, and 3M run along the run course. Saturday was another 20min swim in Mirror Lake, 3M Run and 18min bike ride hitting up the annual pancake breakfast which was great. Thank you to the church! We didn’t have major carbo-loading adventures but did increase carbs for the final 2 days with pizza, pasta, bread, and bagels, but about half the 10g/kg of the past.

Mindset – Swim 1:03, Bike 5:05, Run 3:40. T1 5min, T2 4min, break 10hours with a 9:57. Have a race you are proud of. In the swim “On the Gas”, on the bike “Be Run Ready”, with the run “Preserve the Legs”. You will be an IRONMAN.

Race Day – Up at 3:30am. 3hrs before race time is the time to eat. Something new: 4 waffles with butter, syrup, a banana, and a medium redbull ~ 700 calories and 2 Imodium. Get dressed with my race kit. (Fast Forward it wasn’t till the next day I realized I wore a fitted cycling top from Team Zoot, and not my aero tri jersey I bought for the race… ultimately it probably cost me but how much will never be known… (2-5min). Drove to the school, shuttle to transition. Pumped up my first ever Tubeless Vittoria Pro race tubes to 60PSI, filled up 4 bottles of nutrition with the water provided in T1. I had 2 of Maurten 320 and 2 of LMNT with 1G of Salt and electrolytes. I also had 6 gels. For Special Needs I had 2 bottles: 1 Maurten 320 and 1 of LMNT. On the run Special Needs I had 1 bottle of LMNT to replace the 1 bottle of LMNT I carried out of T2 on my Camelpak run belt. That’s 6G+ of salt. Over to the swim. I had to fill up my SN bottle and drop that off. I saw Rach McBride, Matt Hanson and wished them luck. Hit the loo and used a spray glide for my arms and legs to take the wetsuit off easily and some Vaseline for the nether region. I did miss the nips which were a little bloody on the run. National Anthem, lots of praise to Fiona and lined up in the 1hr – 1:05.

SWIM 2.4M: 1:03:18, 7^th A/G, 77^th Gender, 106^th Overall 1:38/100m

I lined up to the inside along the line and 5s after the athlete in front of me took off, it was my turn. I jumped in and got to work sighting to the right into the bright sun and tasting the fresh lake water in my mouth. I sighted for the yellow buoys and stayed 10-20m to the left of them because I like clear water and being away from the masses. First quarter 15:00, Second quarter 15:32, Third quarter 15:31, Fourth quarter 16:05, and then the rest to the finish was about 1min10s. I’d say the consistency was pretty decent. I had a couple power push of 5-7 strokes through the swim, got on some drafts at times, swimming over people at other times, and into the back of people doing breaststroke. But it was fun and I was reminded in the days leading up to the swim of the mile swim I did back at Boy Scout Camp at Camp Turrell, New York back in my teens. For comparison, I have been extremely consistent across my IM journey. After learning to swim thanks to my wife with Pull Buoy and sculling I went from a 1:15, 1;09, 1:18 to a 1:02, 1:17. Since then I went 55, 1:03, 1:01, 1:03, 1:05, 1:02, 1:01, 59, 1:04, 1:03, 1:03, 1:03, 1:03, 1:03. As they say, consistency is key!

T1 4:36

I ran out of the water and lapped the watch and ran past the wetsuit strippers because I didn’t want to go from horizontal, to vertical, down to my back, back up to vertical, and then run. I decided just to run forward and keep goggles on the head. Then, watch off and held in mouth so I could take down top half. I ran into tent, sat on the seat, and had a volunteer pull off my wetsuit as I peed myself. I then put on helmet, sunnies, and bike shoes because I didn’t want the risk of leaning down and putting feet into shoes while riding on the steep descents out of T1. Coming up to the mount line, there was an older man about to mount his bike 10m in front of the mount line. I yelled “Don’t do that! You’ll get a DSQ!” He had his leg half way over the bike and then just fell over and crashed… I kept going and hoped he was OK but better crash than do the entire race and get a DSQ.

Bike 112M: 5:18:04, 6^th A/G, 55 Gender, 61^st Overall 22MPH

My strength is my bike and not because it’s crazy expensive because as it’s been said “It’s not about the bike”. I’m 183 pounds with big powerful legs. And cycling is just so much damn fun. I always set my sights too high and go out with way too much power so I wanted to hold back and not push 300 watts for an hour. This is an IRONMAN. I also realized that the power was going to drop significantly during the large decent and didn’t want to have negatively about that. I guided myself with a max power of 260NP for the first 30min (which I absolutely nailed). At IMAZ in 2022 I held 295NP for the first 30min (13.5% more powerful than LP). Looking back at results, I anticipated a 5:05 but realistically did a time that was comparable with the past (45minutes slower than most of the pro men). I past some pro females and early and during the event but it doesn’t matter.

Ok. Out of T1, downhill up to a climb. I head out pass a girl and then she quickly over takes me. Another guy zooms past me; these guys just don’t know what’s coming. We head into the cross country ski venue which was a surprise and absolutely awesome. We head back onto the highway and then comes the decent. We drove the course so knew it was coming… I hit 54.6mph with my disc and 56/10 gearing. I got to the bottom going through a speed gun reading 47mph into the 30mph speed zone. It was awesome. I wasn’t scared, I didn’t say prayers. At one patch the road was slightly bumpy but I felt sturdy. There was a turn around and at the bottom I was at 24.4mph avg. I’m like… “well this could be good” but I still didn’t know if I could hold 22mph/avg till the half with the climbs back. I was also thinking “I can’t wait to ride that descent again!”.

My Wahoo Bolt has an automatic alarm every 7minutes to drink. Every 30minutes I set an alarm to eat a 100calorie gel. So I was on around 420calories per hour with 1.5G of salt. This worked perfectly. Into the SN at the half I stopped very quickly to put in 2 more bottles form TheFeed.com. I went through the half in 2:36:50 (56M) or 2:34:31 (looking at the location of T2). This would equate to a 5:09:02 – 5:13:40. The first lap was 239avg/249NP, HR 126, 63F, 2,573’ of climb. Lap 2 was not as fast. Obviously, this is an IRONMAN and I was battling back and forth with a M50-54 who was with me a lot of the day. I also saw another guy who said “Everyone is so fast on the descents!” The guy had short rims and no disc… Lap 2 was 210avg/223NP, HR 121, 75F, same climb (10% reduction). I would say looking at the 2^nd half, I am actually quite disappointed. I kept looking for Maurten Caf 100 but could never find anyone. Looking back I would have another Caf 100 at Hr 3 and Hr 4 but I was trying to find them at the aid stations and none had them which was a bit disappointing. The goal was to “Be run ready” by not going out so hard and setting unreasonable expectations. I still ended up slowing down more than I would have liked to but still had fun especially getting to see the parents out there on the course. I didn’t see one road marshall and it was quite desolate at times with no athletes around. The scenery was stunning and I enjoyed seeing waterfalls, rivers, and WhiteFace mountain ski resort. I peed lots and had strong mental acuity but I don’t think I had that “Eye of the tiger” and that mental focus to push hard. As I prepared for the run I didn’t know what to expect but I was ready to run a marathon with a great sense of mental awareness.

T2: 3:29

Coming into T2 I took my feet out of my shoes and placed them on top of the cleats. I used to step onto one side of the bike coming in hot but at IRONMAN Arizona 2022 or 70.3 Arizona, my foot turned, popping out my cleat which had me crash and flip right over the handlebars. I don’t do this anymore. Pro Sarah Crowley did this in Australia and she also got very messed up with broken ribs. So, I just come to a complete stop and lose a few seconds. I ran around taking off my jersey and HR monitor because I use the Garmin Fenix 6 HR wrist HR during the run, picked up the bag and went into T2. I put on a singlet (because I am conscious of what I consider my fat stomach) but I also like it to be more free, less restrictive, and that’s what I always run in. Socks now on because I pee on the bike, and Hoka Cliftons on. I also put on the camelpak with 2 Imodium’s in an M&M container bouncing around, that I never took.

In T2 behind me I heard the voice, and there he was, Noel Mulkey. The guy has 84K followers on Instagram… 27K more followers than Joe Skipper who won the race. He has 2-3million total followers… look him up. By 20yrs old he dropped out of college with a $500/day heroin addiction. He sobered up, gained 60 pounds and then started to run. Dude is legit; a very qualified athlete who also trains with some Pro’s. He was dropping out because he had done several IM’s in a short amount of time and was going to the World Championship in Nice. Unfortunately, I didn’t say hello because I couldn’t remember his name at the moment and didn’t want to look stupid. So I went and ran a marathon… which isn’t stupid at all.

Run 26.2M 3:56:19, 23^rd M35-39, 148^th Gender, 193^rd Overall

The goal was 3:40-3:50. I think I did the best as I could on the day and was quite happy with my effort. I struggled with a partial stress fracture last year that led me to walk most of the 2^nd half of the IRONMAN World Championship in St George, Utah and I took 11 weeks off of running. Then, I didn’t have the run training in the legs for Arizona and we think we had a virus or COVID which led me to a terrible marathon of 5:02 where I could only run for up to 30 seconds before pain in my chest became so strong that I had to walk. So, I’m mostly now a 3:50’s guy and have been going 3:56, 3:54, 4:10, 5:02, and 3:56 for the last several races. At mile 4 a thunderstorm came through. It started pouring which was a very special moment because there were very few people around me and it was just so unique to have that moment; I’ve never run in the rain in an IRONMAN.

My goal was to run non-stop until I couldn’t run anymore which got me till M18. At that time I started to feel like I had to hit the loo so I stopped for 1-2min and moved on. By this time the wheels started to come off a bit and I said “The second half of the marathon”… “This is where the race begins”. I was doing very good on my nutrition having a Maurten Gel every 3 miles and sipping my LMNT bottle. But I didn’t drink enough salt and at M15 I skipped a gel because I simply didn’t want to eat any more sugar. That was my biggest mistake on the day. By M18 my mind started going fuzzy which I now know is a lack of salt that I have had for many IM’s now; I previously thought it was too much caffeine. So I started drinking Coke and Red Bull at the aid stations, throwing water in my face, and ice down my stomach that bounced around, melting inside my shirt. By this point I got to cheer on a lot of my favorite pro’s like Joe (who I barked at like a Junk Yard Dog every time), Ben, Cody, Rach. It’s super cool. And although I didn’t get a pain in my foot, the feet were definitely getting painfully sore from the pounding. The course was excellent to break down. 6M out mostly down hill and past the ski jumps, turn around with climbing back 4 miles before it levels out for 2miles. There were several steep but short climbs which I was motivated to run non-stop which I did at their up to 8%+ grade which was a great positive on the day. Past family, past Fiona. Coming into the Olympic Speed oval I started slight cramping in my core and I recalled Heather Jackson having the same fate in 2022. Down the chute seeing Mom and Tony at the finish and running in, an IRONMAN. Thank you to all of the volunteers who supported our day, you all were great. Thanks to our great cheer squad of Mom, Tony, and Tom. Also big thanks to my sponsor Tom at www.tomsbicyclerepair.com who has been in my corner going above and beyond for the last 6 years while we have been living in Tucson. Thank you Tom!

Whats next

I watched Fiona come in and we celebrated together with wine back at the VRBO. We headed back to Keuka Lake and vacationed for a week before heading back to Tucson. The next race is 70.3 Santa Cruz in California, 7 weeks after IMLP. After that we’ll do a 5 day cruise to Catalina Island and Mexico. Then, it’s the Tucson Marathon with the goal of qualifying for my 3^rd Boston Marathon (need around 3:05) which I’ve done 2X across my 48 total marathons (Incl IM and Ultras). Next year for my 20^th IRONMAN, we’ll be going to County Cork, Ireland where my ancestors are from in a race we’ve deferred for 3 years. We both qualified for Kona but we’re not going because we have already gone, it’s too expensive, it’s not the lure that it once was, and we already have 2 trips this year. Maybe again someday, if qualifying actually becomes something hard to do. Stay tuned.