The hardest yet most satisfying race to date
HOW I TRAINED IN PREVIOUS IRONMANS
For this race, I trained very different than my last two Ironman races. For Ironman Mont Tremblant’s 140, I heavily focused on swimming since I feared it. For IRONMAN Muskoka, I trained on my riding by cycling in Colombia. I also signed up to several local triathlon races to better understand the sport and use them as brick workouts while testing out my 2011 Scott plasma tt bike.
HOW I TRAINED FOR LAKE PLACID
For this race, I focused on running. Right after Muskoka’s IRONMAN race in 2023, I signed up to my first 100 mile ultra marathon believing it would help me. Although I got heavily injured from over training (running too much as an amateur runner), I dropped down to 50km in the ultra to mitigate any future issues. This allowed me to finish my first ultra marathon and also not be too worried for the Ironman run (and beat my old record). That race helped me dramatically. I can also confirm 100 mile ultra marathon is much harder than an Ironman. The goal is to complete 100 mile ultra by the end of the year. That has been eating me alive for not completing it earlier this year. I’ll talk about that in another post though. Back to IRONMAN!
TRAINING STATS
To give you an idea of how much I trained, here are some stats. I cycled 77 times this year and have done a total of 2100km with 16,000 metres of elevation of climbing.
My run workouts were very frightening to do since I had shin splints and IT band issues from doing an ultra marathon two months before my IRONMAN race. Stretching daily and taking time off fixed both of these issues. In short, listening to my body. Before the race, I did 36 runs with 435km in distance and 4,000 metres in elevation of climbing. I also did 38 swims in total with 35,000 metres in distance. Strava does not show the countless workouts I did at the gym which was calisthenics and compound lifting (bench, squat, deadlift). Lifting never stopped since I love lifting weights. I could have done more in training but procrastination is the devil.
ARRIVING TO LAKE PLACID BEFORE THE RACE
The amount of people I met who had done this race over 5 times was unreal. This race sells out quick and I can see why. Just driving to this magical town in the beautiful country of USA is stunning. I remember going through twists and turns on some beautiful forest looking path and mountains just started popping up on the horizon. It was beautiful.
On Thursday (4 days before the race), I swam the course and also rode my bike to Whiteface mountain. I felt confident after that swim and very confident after cycling up whiteface mountain. On Friday, I did another swim of the swim course and then just enjoyed the day eating and drinking lots of chocolate milk and pasta. I also bought a lot of Ironman merchandise. I used that newly purchased gear to race with. This year’s Ironman backpack was so beautiful. It’s now my daily backpack. On Saturday, I did nothing but stay in the hotel. My sister and mom went out and witnessed a poor cyclist get hit by a car and not race from a shattered bike and being in complete shock. I felt bad hearing the story. As a ritual, I do not train the day before a race.
THE MORNING OF THE RACE
I woke up around 3am and drank Gatorade fast twitch. The latest caffeinated drink that I consume before any workout to clean my system. It was working like a charm especially since I cut out energy drinks for 4 months. On this day it did not work. Again, everytime I’m going to a big race, the stress gets to me. I ended up puking instead. As usual, I was concerned. This is a thing. Racing is stressful and it’s just my body reacting to what I’m about to do. I went to the race and ended up going to the washroom twice to clean my system but I still felt horrible before it even started. I also drank a lot of dairy chocolate protein. This was my fault since I’m lactose intolerant. Normally I bring my own protein shakes with almond milk. This time I did not and I was going to pay for it all throughout the race. I screwed up big time.
THE SWIM – 1 HOUR, 14 MIN
This swim is violent. My goal was to swim and just follow the rope under the water. You follow the rope, it takes you up, around, and back. You do that and you don’t have to look up as much. You do this loop twice. There’s a catch though. Everyone else is fighting for that rope therefore everyone is hitting you, grabbing your legs to move, swimming over you, and you’re just taking a beating. That’s how I felt but it’s part of the sport. At one point I got kicked/punched so hard in the face I did not know what direction to go. I looked ahead and kept swimming. This was also my fastest swim ever. In my head, I’m always telling myself this is a race and it’s time to step up. I stepped up and did awesome on the swim.
My first Ironman swim I did in 1 hour 23 minutes. I smashed my PR. I was damn proud of myself. I then ran to T1 to crush the bike. Or did I?
THE BIKE – 6 HOURS, 38 MIN
This bike course was STUNNING. There’s a reason people love this course and it’s the bike course. It’s fun, challenging, and scenic. Keene’s descent sounded scary but once I descended down that mountain. The fear was gone. There’s flat areas, climbing, descents, and hilly areas. This course has it all. I went very fast on the first loop and the problems started on the second loop when I bonked at 153km and I had to take several washroom breaks from the dairy coming back to haunt me.
I made three mistakes. Eating/drinking too much dairy, not pre packing my protein and drinking mortal hydration. On these races, I drink Gatorade which is packed with tons of carbs. Mortal only has 10g of carbs per drink. This really affected me that I practically bonked. I stopped at a pit stop, smashed two bananas, two granola bars, and drank about three mortal drinks. I then felt somewhat better but the washroom breaks did not stop. I passed tons of people but the washroom breaks brought me back to square one. I kept seeing the same people over and over again. I accepted my fate and just kept going. My goal was 5 hours but my stomach prevented me from doing that.
Next time I will pre pack, avoid dairy, and bring my blender to the hotel. Although the ride was torturous, the ride was still fantastic and I’m happy I conquered it. Although I was slow, I really enjoyed seeing the mountainous areas. Towards the end, it was just climbing and I was able to pass several people since I love climbing. However…when I got off the bike, my quads twitched and some horrifying pain ensued. I worked through it and it went away. Good times, I still loved it all. Throughout the ride I just thought about the run, a lot. I was excited to run.
THE RUN – 5 HOURS, 2 MIN
This run was tough but I was mentally prepared for it. After doing the ultra marathon two months prior to this race, I was ready to take it on. I went slow right from the start. I also walked the hills at the start. I met many. They all started passing me but i didn’t care. I kept going at my pace and ensured I was not in any sort of pain. Every pit stop, I drank mortal hydration and ate chips. I was still going to the washroom from stomach issues.
Around the 18 mile mark, I decided to step it up and start trying. I was feeling good so I went for it. I ran faster and ran up and down the hills. I was doing it and there was no pain or suffering. In my head, I was just telling myself this is what i trained for and I am better than before. I kept telling myself that I may not be alive tomorrow or next year and I have to do my best. This is for me and I will eventually win one of these damn races!
The people who passed me earlier, I caught up to and passed easily. I was looking confident and I became emotional that I’ve improved so much on my running. I still feel emotional as I write this. My last Ironman run was 5 hours and 22 minutes. Improvement was made even with stomach issues and washroom breaks. I am so proud of myself.
FINISHED – 13 HOURS, 14 MIN
13 hours 20 minutes was tremblant. This was 13 hours 15 minutes. I beat my record even with my several washroom breaks, Stomach issues, and bonking. I believe this course had more climbing and had much more intense heat as well.
Could I have done better? Yes. Will I do better next year? Yes. Do I have new plans on how to break new records for next year? YES. I can make excuses that I have had many obligations affecting my training but realistically I haven’t been as consistent and disciplined as I should be. As I finish typing this out exactly 1 week later , I have so many new ideas in mind and I intend on doing them but for the next two weeks, I’m resting then going HARD on the training. If you’re looking to change your life, get out of your comfort zone and do it. Thanks for reading and see you soon!
On a side note. I wore Santini x ironman tri suit and it was fantastic until the end. I started to feel some chafing in the nipple area. this was only towards the end though. This felt much more comfortable compared to the castelli tri suit however castelli does not give me chafing issues.
2 replies on “IRONMAN LAKE PLACID – MY THIRD IRONMAN”
Congratulations Jay and great blog post! Really enjoyable read. Looking forward to the next one? What’s the recovery period for a race like this?
DAVE!!! It’s always a pleasure hearing from you. I am taking 3 weeks off to recover. I’ve been told 3 weeks is the way to go from many who have done these races. I attempted a ride after the first week and my body did not like that. I’m on week 2 and focusing on just eating and resting as much as possible. My next Ironman is in Ottawa. I will also blog about my 50km ultra marathon. I’m hoping the end of the year I will be ready for 100 mile ultra and completed a couple of additional ultras. I need to improve on my running and this will be the focus. I hope everything is well with you and you’re crushing your goals.