IRONMAN Ottawa – My Best Race to Date

Intro

If you’ve read my blog or watched my YouTube shorts, I’ve been focusing on the LSAT to get into law school and as much as I’ve wanted to train for my triathlons and ultra marathons, I’ve made the lsat a higher priority. I’ve put less time in training for a better future. Surprisngly, this is the best race I’ve done to date with my limited training.

What happened and how? My nutrition changed, my meal before the race changed, my training in Tenerife made the ride easy, my 78km ultra helped with my run and my mental barriers, and just so much more. Additionally, my endurance experience is now playing a large role on how to take on longer races. Those are some things that allowed me to finish 11 hours and 59 minutes on race day. To me, this was an accomplishment. My goal was 12 hours and I hit that goal. Next year I am aiming for 10-11 hours. I am being realistic with my achievements. The end goal is obviously single digits but everything requires patience.

How I trained for this race

• Cycled in Tenerife to get stronger (heat acclimatization training, elevation training, and climbing in difficult unknown territories)
• Ran 78 km for 12 hours straight
• Completed 1200km on cycling year to date
• Completed 350 km in running year to date
• Completed 33km in swimming year to date

What I wore and raced with

• 2011 Scott Plasma with di2 ultegra, with hunt wheels, and Favero pedal power metre
• 2 spares tubes, 3 cartridges, 1 pump, all of this was in two rear bottle storage holders on my bike
• 2 water bottles attached to the frame.
• Castelli sanremo tri suit (owned for 3 years)
• Mavic shoes (trained with them)
• My spirit (it was there with dog Chibi, rip)
• Ironman Ottawa short sleeve jersey
• Santini wind vest
• Santini gloves (recent purchase)
• Santini Tour de France socks (recent purchase)
• Garmin cycling computer
• Garmin forerunner 955 watch

The Days Before The Race

I arrived in Gatineau on Wednesday night. I slept, woke up the next day, and cycled Gatineau parc to conquer Champlain lookout and then went downtown to confederation park in Ottawa to check in. Friday night, my family arrived and I cycled around downtown Ottawa just checking out bike stores and riding through the city. On Saturday, I did nothing physical. I ordered pasta, wings, had a large slushy, and about 3 Alani protein shakes. I avoided anything dairy and anything that would affect my stomach. I ate and went to sleep around 9pm. As always I was excited but I was fearing the swim. There was a rumour that the water would be so warm that wetsuits would not be allowed. I found out, you could still use wetsuits if the temperature is too high but you can’t qualify for World’s (in France Nice) if you placed for a spot. I was ok with that, I would wear a wetsuit. I need more confidence in swimming. As a future goal, I will eventually swim without one to become more mentally tough.

The Morning of the race

I wrote the following yesterday.

It’s 3:00am, I woke up. I was sweating all night from the heat. I managed to wake up earlier. My phone was dead. That’s ok, I am awake. I ran down to the kitchen, smashed an energy drink, hit the bathroom. I then feel awake and feel good. As I prepare, I throw up, that race stress feeling is there, it lingers. It’s always there. The swim, I’m fearing it. I have three goggles on me so I don’t forget (like I did in Muskoka).  I’ve already hit the washroom three times. 

If you’ve read all my race blogs. I drink a lot of caffeine in the morning to clean my system. I do this so I don’t have to go during the race. I also get anxious, nervous, and excited before the race. The emotional build up causes this stress. The morning race day in Ottawa was no different than any other of my endurance races. Nerve racking. I think it’s the fear of failing after putting in so much work.

The Swim – 1 Hour, 24 Minutes 2:13/100m

First, I went in for a warm up before the race. The water was warm and it was too murky to see the bottom. The water was calm. I did 200 metres and felt good. The anxiousness began to leave.

The race then started. This swim was a bit difficult. It’s one big loop on Brittania beach. On this day, the river was wavy, the water was murky but warm, I used my clear goggles. I made the right choice. I couldn’t see the bottom from the murkyness but I could see everyone around me clearly and without an issue since there was no beaming sun. I felt so much resistance as i battled my way through the swim. The waters weren’t playing nice. The struggle was real but i kept going

Around the 1700m metre mark, I could see racers walking in the beach. It was shallow enough to walk and some areas you could not swim from the shallowness or you’d hit a rock and have seaweed all over your hands. I then got up and walked until I could swim without hitting the rocks. Yep, there’s rocks underneath the shallow part so it’s a bit of an uncomfortable walk. I live by Lake Ontario and if it wasn’t for being exposed to those viscous waves, seaweed, and rocks underneath, this swim would have been difficult for me. Towards the end when I was swimming to shore, the river was getting stronger waves, it felt like an eternity to get to the finish line. I could see it but the current was stronger. I eventually got out and was thankful it was over. I conquered another Ironman swim. I felt stronger and was in amazement on what I just endured and conquered. This is only preparing me for my swim across Lake Ontario.

The Ride – 5 HOURS, 45 MINUTES Averaged 31 kph

I went full gas on this ride. It was supposed to be a blazing hot day. In my mind, I was going to go as fast as possible to beat the heat and see how strong I really was. It also helped that this race is fairly flat. This was only 700m of elevation which is nothing compared to Mont Tremblant and New York lake placid.

I was going so hard, I feared the bonk would catch up to me so I stocked up Maurten bars at every pit stop and stuffed them in my back pockets. Additionally, I would get a bottle of Mortal hydration at every pitstop, stop, chug it at the pit stop, then head off. I also ate the bars constantly while riding. Next time, i will stuff my back pockets with 10 of those and just continuously eat them. It will help with my timing and it didn’t mess with my stomach.

I only used one bottle while drinking. Specifically, the front bottle closest to me. My second one was there just in case there was an emergency. It had two Gatorade packets poured into them with water. I was weaponized with nutrition and ready to take anything on. As I rode the last kilometre, my legs were feeling good. I was willing to blow out my legs to see how fast I could go. Overall, would do it again. I saw it as the best opportunity to see how strong I am in a somewhat controlled environment where I can keep going.

The Run – 4 Hours, 34 Minutes 6:32 /km

Throughout the bike ride, I was excited for the run and looking forward to it. I’ve trained so much on my running that I had millions of thoughts on how I was going to proceed with it. It then went like this. The goal was to run the first 10km and make sure there was no pain doing zone 2 especially after that intense bike ride. The next 10km was still doing zone 2 while focusing on pit stops to get lots of nutrition and hydration in preparation for the last half of the marathon. I then went full gas on the run for the last 22km. Suffer now and cry later was my mentality. I also kept telling myself i may not ever do this again so make it count.

I managed to somewhat do it. The last part of the run is a large steep hill (the last 2km) and I had to walk it, my legs could not run up, it was steep. I did not risk it. Other than that, the run was pretty flat with some minor hills. I believe if I keep doing ultras, I will keep improving on my running and get 4 hours or less next year. Additionally, this run felt easier because of the 78km run I did for 12 hours straight. 42km is now feeling much easier than when I first started in endurance racing. I used to think this was insanely hard but the more I do these, the easier they somewhat get. My mindset has changed drastically from these races. Anything can be conquered and what was once is impossible is possible.

The Result: 11 Hours, 59 Minutes

I’m happy with this result. This was the first IRONMAN in Ottawa and it was special just like every other one I’ve done. What’s next? I’d like to do my next IRONMAN in lanzorate and conquer the ocean swim. I also heard it’s very hard and if I have a fear for it (which I do), I’m going in to conquer it to keep getting stronger. I also plan to do 100 ultramarathon by the end of the year. I have an endurance race high to do more. I’m also in tons of pain and am in bed ordering take out to recover. Any questions, feel free to ask or comment. I think i covered it all.