starting over…

a little over a week post ironman and i feeling good… really good.  my physical recovery is going way better than expected.  the muscles soreness faded by the end of last week and thanks to sleeping 8-9+ hours every night since the race the mental fatigue has lifted.  I don’t know if it’s the relief of not having a massive race looming over me but I feel re-energized and excited for fall and things to come.

one of the best parts about fall is cyclocross.  i was planning on racing this past weekend up  in irvine, but heard there was a good chance of the races being sold out before we could up there on saturday so we bagged it.  probably a good call any way.  more rest and i hadn’t even been on my new CX bike yet.  so instead on saturday i got out the door for a perfect 3 hour ride with boys…. i was mostly sitting in and letting them pull me around.  of the course the ride was finished at Gordy’s for coffee & shit talking.  as it should be.

sunday was a weird, rare day in the walsh household.  we both slept until past 7am and were in no rush to do anything.  we spent the morning doing some long overdue chores, cleaning up the house, and beth was in the kitchen baking another healthy creation.

gluten free pumpkin, chocolate chip oat scones/cakes.  If you want the recipe you will have to ask her.

then after a morning of doing nothing we knocked our first cross ride of the year.  just and hour of getting a feel for the bike on our local trails.

notice the sweet scab my face… i smashed my face on the bottom surfing earlier in the week.

i also started my new job last wednesday and am really excited about it.  i am working for one my old bosses and for a company that is growing and stable.  it’s a great a opportunity and great time of year for focus on other things besides training.

so my “plan” for the coming weeks is to do whatever i want, stay active, and only do things that are fun.  It will mostly be riding with boys, cross racing, running here and there, and swimming very little… and hopefully surfing quite a bit.  I do have some big plans for next year and it will be a year filled will all kinds of racing…. and more going fast.

2011 Ironman World Championships Race Report

this is just going to be a post about the race. i have a lot of thoughts about what I learned in my “year of ironman”, my mindset going in, what I learned from the race, all the people and companies that helped me out and made this year possible, and what I want to do going forward… it’s just too much for the this post. so hopefully in the coming weeks i will have some good posts other than the typical training and racing thing.

here we go…

Pre-race.

The days leading up to the race couldn’t have went better.  I was super relaxed, feeling great in my workouts, eating awersome meals, and just really enjoying being with beth and catching up with all of our friends.  I posted them before but here’s the links to some pre-race videos I made.  I had fun messing around with the go pro and editing them.  It kept me busy and off my feet.

Day 1 & 2 and Day 3

we had an awesome pre-race meal at Carol’s Cafe in Kona Natural foods.

beth with her game face on.  this may be my favorite photo of her of all time.

Race morning.

so much to do the morning of an Ironman… but the most important is eating. I started the morning with my “power oats” (blog with recipe coming soon) and some 100% kona coffee.

Besides getting lost in the maze of bags dropping, body marking, and bathroom lines everything was pretty mellow and before I knew it beth and I were getting in the water.

Swim. 2.4 miles.

Beth and I decided to start just to the right of the floating Ford in the phot0 below (stolen from slowtwitch.com)

i knew the swim would be rough.  everybody who i had talked to who had done the race talked about how gnarly it was so I was prepared… or so i thought.  i 100 times rougher than I even imagined.  I took a total beat down during the first 1.2 miles out to the the turn around.  I don’t think I ever took more than 10 strokes without getting kicked, punched, dunked, grabbed, or swam over.

when i hit the turn around i glanced down at my garmin (*more on the garmin later) it was 31 something so I was doing ok.  at the turn around i took even more of a beatdown and took a kick to the face that i am surprised didn’t knock me out.  even though i was getting my assed kicked i didn’t let it effect me and just kept rolling.  my hopes that it would let up after the turn around were short lived.  after a pretty mellow couple hundred yards the mayhem started again and it didn’t really let up until the final 5 minutes of the swim.  I was stoked to get out of the water.

swim time 1:07

t1: 2:14

bike. 112 miles.

as usual i was pretty stoked to get on my bike.  i got into my shoes after the short climb on palani and started getting to work.  the first 5 miles flew by.  once out on the queen K i started to settle in and was feeling pretty good and reeling guys in.  guys were also passing me but I was trying to be smart.  i eventually rolled up on scott iott and was stoked.  he has done kona before and is a strong and VERY smart racer.  my plan was to work with him.  we went back and forth a bit and then he got a flat and I rolled on solo.  after the first hour i hit about a 45 minute low spot, not sure why.  calorie intake was good but I wasn’t killing it any more.  the rest of the bike would be kind of a roller coaster ride with about 30 minutes of feeling really good followed by 30 minutes of being flat.

at the turn around in hawi they didn’t have my special needs bags for me so i just kept rolling.  looking back i probably should have stopped.  i had a flask waiting for me in my bag with a mix of vitargo (carbs), base salt (electrolytes), and pre-race (caffeine).  i probably could have used the boost heading back into town.  now it was just me and the aid stations.  I felt good all the way from hawi back to the queen K and the wheels came off a bit.

we had a headwind the whole way back and it cracked me a bit.  i was still making some passes but getting passed more.  with the way i was feeling i decided it would be best to ride my pace and be able to run rather than turn myself inside out to hang with the guys who were dropping me.  my mind was also wandering quite a bit, not very focused. I rolled into t2 and was, for the first time in race, ready to get off my bike.

bike time: 5:06:14

t2: 2:31

*at mile 10 of the bike i glanced down at my garmin 110 and it was fogged up and dead.  i know it’s not “water proof” but beth has been swimming in hers all year without an issue. so of course the first time i swim with mine it dies.  so i headed out on the run without a watch.

run. 26. miles

my legs were feeling pretty good right out of transition which was kind of scary.  without a watch i had not idea of what pace i was running or how hard to push.  then i had a little bit of luck.  during the first mile i ran by a group of friends including J.C. and i yelled to them that i needed a watch. before i knew it J.C. was handing me his polar.  so stoked, i owe him beers for sure.

i was feeling good running down ali’i and having the crowed out there after a lonely bike was pretty awesome.  i passed a lot of the guys that passed coming home on queen K on the bike in the first couple of miles.  i got some really good advice from my friend Jim Vance when i got back in to town.  he told me to “stay positive no matter what happens”.  i repeated that over and over again in my head and it definitely helped me finish out the day.

running up palani i caught my friend chad who was having a solid race… even after gnarly bike crash early in the week.  dream crushing defined.

then we hit the queen K and i slowed a bit.  looking back i don’t think i took in enough calories in the first 10 miles.  live and learn.  chad caught and passed me but i just zeroed in on his back and didn’t let him get more than 25 yards a head of me.  he pulled me along and after what seemed like and eternity we hit the energy lab.  I was still making passes but didn’t feel like i was going fast.

I made it out the energy lab and was feeling a bit better and so stoked to only have 10k left. as soon as i hit the queen K pete and RV were there on their bikes and they leap frogged with me for a couple of miles and kept me from thinking about the suffering.  with 5 miles to go i saw jim again and he asked how fast my last mile was.  i told him i had no idea but that my ironman retirement party started in about 35 minutes!

i really can’t explain how excited was for the downhill on palani and then the final stretch down ali’i to the finish.  they say there’s not much like it in sport i would have to agree.  it was overwhelming and even though i didn’t have fastest day out there or the day I could have it didn’t matter any more.  i’ll admit i started to tear up a bit and I am not sure why… maybe it was the culmination for the year, but it was such a good feeling running that final 100 yards.  i was high-fiving every little kid or person that had their hand out and making sure to take it all in and never forget it.

run: 3:12:22

me and chad at the finish:

so that’s it…. that’s the race report.  i am at a very good place with my effort out there last saturday.  i think the right word would be “content”.  I KNOW I can go faster in that race but I have a lot of respect for the course, my competitors, and island.  there is a reason why it takes even the best multiple attempts to figure out how to race in Kona.  It’s the hardest thing I have ever done.  I also can’t believe how fast so many Ag’ers are.  It’s unbelievable and my hat is off to them for having the dedication to put in the training and doing what it takes to race the IM distance FAST.

The experience in Kona was more than just the race.  it was verything leading up to the race, the good times and suffering on the course, the post race beers, lounging at the beach, and k-swiss party is what I will remember and take away from it… and the fact that beth was with me through it all.

i have many, many more thoughts about my year of ironman, the future, and long list of people that I need to thank that helped make this year possible but this post is already WAY too long….

2011 Ironman World champs… Pre-race thoughts.

well tomorrow’s the day… can’t wait.

I am definitely ready to go.  This year has been a pretty epic and I wouldn’t change a thing.  I am feeling really good about what’s going to happen tomorrow and I am having a hard time explaining it.  I tried to explain it to beth and I am not sure it came out right.

I am not nervous… AT ALL… but maybe I should be???  It’s not going to be easy, not even close, and I don’t expect that.  I just know that I have trained hard all year, put in the work, and this race is a reward for me.  The only reason I did Ironman this year was to get here and to spend as much time with beth, my dream crushing wife, best friend, and training partner during this awesome journey.

So to not totally enjoy it would be a waste for me… It’s the 5th world championship race I have had the privilege to to race (Xterra worlds 3 times, this year’s 70.3 worlds, and now Kona).  Being that it is a world championship race and i feel it’s time to lay it all on the line and RACE.  I don’t want to cross the line, wake up sunday morning or some day next week with any thoughts that I didn’t give it all I have.  If that means I end up blowing up on Queen K somewhere so be it… I came to race and have fun, and that’s exactly my plan tomorrow.  No matter how the day turns out I am pretty confident that the first post race beer will taste just as good!

Here’s a couple of videos recapping our good times so far!

Days 1 & 2

Day 3… the day before the race.