Tom’s IMLP 2008 Race Report
Official Stats:
TOM GLYNN
Official Stats:
TOM GLYNN
BIB AGE STATE/COUNTRY PROFESSION
1540 47 DANVILLE CA USA CPA
SWIM BIKE RUN OVERALL RANK DIV.POS.
1:15:19 5:45:21 4:02:00 11:12:58 347 of 2340 24 of 268
SWIM BIKE RUN OVERALL RANK DIV.POS.
1:15:19 5:45:21 4:02:00 11:12:58 347 of 2340 24 of 268
LEG DISTANCE PACE RANK DIV.POS.
TOTAL SWIM 2.4 mi. (1:15:19) 1:58/100m 1282 129
TOTAL SWIM 2.4 mi. (1:15:19) 1:58/100m 1282 129
FIRST BIKE SEGMENT 56 mi. (2:48:10) 19.98 mph
FINAL BIKE SEGMENT 56 mi. (2:57:11) 18.96 mph
TOTAL BIKE 112 mi. (5:45:21) 19.46 mph 445 36
FIRST RUN SEGMENT 13.1 mi. (1:54:25) 8:44/mile
FINAL RUN SEGMENT 13.1 mi. (2:07:35) 9:44/mile
TOTAL RUN 26.2 mi. (4:02:00) 9:14/mile 347 24
TRANSITION TIME
T1: SWIM-TO-BIKE 6:39
T2: BIKE-TO-RUN 3:39
Details:
Race week was very low key. Monday was a 2.5 hour bike ride, Tuesday, open water swim, Wednesday, travel day, Thursday, one loop of the swim course, Friday, 35 minute run, Saturday, 25 minute bike ride. Sunday was race day.
SWIM COURSE - 2.4 Miles (2 loops) (Last Year IMAZ 1:21:33) (Best Case 1:15:00) (Actual 1:15:00)
From the website: The two loop swim takes place in Mirror Lake, a calm, pristine lake right in the heart of Lake Placid. It is an excellent spectator course. The water temperature is typically in the high 60s to low 70s. Wetsuits will be allowed. The swim is a mass start keeping all swim bouys to your left. Each athlete will exit the water and run on the beach before entering swim entrance for second lap. After the second lap, exit the water and run down Lake Placid Club Dr., downhill totransition zone. There will be carpet on the road. The swim course will close at 9:20 am. (2hrs 20 minute time limit)
The mass start was a little deceptive. The start was a couple hundred feet from shore and a lot of people were out of the water at the start so I decided to line up about the center of the line and about 10 feet back. There was plenty of room around me when the gun off but quickly it got very crowded and there was a lot of bumping until almost the first turn. After that it opened up a little more and I just put in the time. The swim was effortless and I felt great at the end. The 1:15 time was 5 minutes better than my previous three IMs with 1:20 swim times. I was especially pleased with the ROI over the past season. I took the coaches advice a little too literally, swimming a total of 21 times since September. I mostly gave up pool swimming and worked on my open water skills and using my wetsuit.
Time for the bike!
BIKE COURSE - 112 Miles (2 loops) (Last Year IMAZ 6:07:38) (Best Case 5:35:00) (Actual 5:45:21)
From the website: The two loop bike course takes place on impeccably smooth roads. There is a major 9km downhill (good for the average speed). The rest of the bike is a mix of some rolling hills and some "small chain-ring climbs. Overall, you can move on this course!
Bike Details First Qtr Second Qtr First Half Third Qtr Fourth Qtr Second Half Total
Duration 1:21:30 1:28:01 2:48:57 1:23:41 1:32:23 2:55:13 5:47:17
Work 850 kJ 965 kJ 1814 kJ 827 kJ 959 kJ 1774 kJ 3597 kJ
TSS 68.1 71.6 139.4 60.2 64.6 124.1 265.5
IF 0.709 0.699 0.704 0.657 0.648 0.652 0.678
Norm Power 198 195 196 183 181 182 189
VI 1.14 1.07 1.1 1.11 1.04 1.08 1.09
Avg Power 174 watts 183 watts 179 watts 165 watts 173 watts 169 watts 173 watts
Distance 28.041 mi 28.06 mi 55.931 mi 27.988 mi 27.975 mi 55.757 mi 112.171 mi
Avg Cadence 80 rpm 80 rpm 80 rpm 79 rpm 79 rpm 79 rpm 80 rpm
Avg Speed 20.7 mph 19.1 mph 19.9 mph 20.1 mph 18.1 mph 19.1 mph 19.4 mph
I would have to disagree on the smooth road comment at times. There were a couple of sections that were really chewed up and I’m sure I saw a couple of dozen flats or more over the day. Luckily, not on my bike!
Someone showed this picture and I agree that it really sums up the day. Rain, rain, and more rain.
http://cu.adirondackdailyenterprise.com/pages/big_photo.php?mm=1551979&gallery=297110
I liked the bike course. The first loop I was definitely more aggressive. I rode the long downhill section quite fast and felt very comfortable passing people on the down hills. On the climbs, I held my watts in check and let everyone pass me on the way up. I never had more than one minute over FT for the day. The second loop was slower for a couple of reasons. On the downhill section the rain was heavier and I rode cautiously a lot of the way down. By the last quarter I was watching my average watts starting to drop and trying to figure out what to do. I could have picked up the effort, but was afraid of the possible negative effects on the run, so I held back. With an IF of 0.678, mathematically I could have gone a little harder. More race rehearsals would have added to my confidence levels or at least given me better decision skills, trying to figure out whether to push harder or hold back. I was in the areo position almost the whole way, getting up only to drink and stretch the back out. All in all, thrilled with the overall time and I felt great at T2.
Run Course - 26.2 Miles (2 loops) (Last Year IMAZ 4:13:55) (Best Case 3:40:00) (Actual 4:02:00)
From the website: This spectator friendly two loop course passes by the downtown area four times! This incredible route features some spectacular tree-lined river scenery, coupled with lake side running. There are a few rolling hills, but overall athletes will find this a fast, fair run course.
Run Details First Qtr Second Qtr First Half Third Qtr Fourth Qtr Second Half Total
Duration 56:36 59:36 1:50:55 1:02:06 1:03:59 2:06:03 3:57:00
rTSS 67.6 68.2 134 63.3 65.8 129.7 267.1
IF 0.805 0.788 0.803 0.743 0.746 0.74 0.768
NGP 8:42 8:53 8:43 9:25 9:23 9:28 9:07
Distance 6.488 mi 6.559 mi 12.476 mi 6.552 mi 6.539 mi 13.098 mi 25.588 mi
Elev. Gain 388 ft 512 ft 862 ft 424 ft 556 ft 970 ft 1843 ft
Pace 8:42 9:07 8:52 9:28 9:45 9:39 9:17
Vdot of approximately 51 giving a best possible race day of about 3:40.
Note: Does not add to 26.2 miles or 4:02:00 hours as it took some time to get Garmin to locate satellites.
Still raining. I thought there were two rather daunting hills and a lot of people walked one or both of them on each of the loops. It was hard to get a good reading on my pace with the rolling hills. I was committed to running the whole course and held to that. By the second loop I was definitely slowing down. At mile 18 I knew I couldn’t get any faster and turned my attention to passing people. I was on the second loop and so was passing both first and second lappers. In the end I passed a net of about 125 people over the last 8 miles, which was very motivating. It certainly kept me from staring at the Garmin and stressing as the pace dropped.
I didn’t have a very precise idea of my overall time, but knew I was well ahead of my previous best of 11:55:00 overall from last year’s IM Arizona. The last mile was downhill and I clipped out an 8:00 minute mile. I was thrilled at my 11:13, a 42 minute improvement over last year.
A couple of notes on nutrition:
3:30 am wakeup for a bowl of oatmeal and a Gatorade. Another bottle of Gatorade between 5 and the race start. Just before the race, 2 GU gels. The plan was to have only course materials, Gatorade and gels. One bottle every hour and two gels for the bike, carrying only one bottle and two gels on the bike. For the run, I carried a bottle filled with Gatorade with me and planned to take gels as I felt necessary. With all the rain, I didn’t need all the fluids. I drank four bottles of Gatorade on the bike and gave up. My bladder functioned well all day. In all, I consumed 8 gels on the bike. On the run, I drank about two bottles of Gatorade, a couple cups of water and 2 gels. I had no nutrition issues during the day.
Overall comments and thoughts for the next IM:
Overall I averaged around 10-12 hours per week from January through July. Next year I plan to up the hours a bit with more 4 hour rides and longer runs.
For the swim, no changes planned for next year. Keep up open water swimming, drop the pool. No plans to swim a lot.
For the bike, I believe I need more 4 hour rides, which I skimped on. I also need a couple more race rehearsals to practice riding at 0.70 – 0.72 IF. I also want to move my FT from 279 to over 300 with the offseason plan. I plan to find some roadies to ride with to help push the pace. I also need to work on pacing, keeping 1st and 2nd laps consistent in time and effort.
For the run, I need more and longer runs and faster tempo runs. I ran one 20 miler, one 15 miler, and a bunch of runs between 10 and 13 miles this year. Many of my tempo runs were at the 8:30 or so pace, and I believe I should be picking up the pace a little more. I performed below the theoretical best, but couldn’t push much harder.
Last year, my 11:13 time would have got me to Hawaii. This year I needed a 10:40. Lots more work to do in the next year!
Tom
FINAL BIKE SEGMENT 56 mi. (2:57:11) 18.96 mph
TOTAL BIKE 112 mi. (5:45:21) 19.46 mph 445 36
FIRST RUN SEGMENT 13.1 mi. (1:54:25) 8:44/mile
FINAL RUN SEGMENT 13.1 mi. (2:07:35) 9:44/mile
TOTAL RUN 26.2 mi. (4:02:00) 9:14/mile 347 24
TRANSITION TIME
T1: SWIM-TO-BIKE 6:39
T2: BIKE-TO-RUN 3:39
Details:
Race week was very low key. Monday was a 2.5 hour bike ride, Tuesday, open water swim, Wednesday, travel day, Thursday, one loop of the swim course, Friday, 35 minute run, Saturday, 25 minute bike ride. Sunday was race day.
SWIM COURSE - 2.4 Miles (2 loops) (Last Year IMAZ 1:21:33) (Best Case 1:15:00) (Actual 1:15:00)
From the website: The two loop swim takes place in Mirror Lake, a calm, pristine lake right in the heart of Lake Placid. It is an excellent spectator course. The water temperature is typically in the high 60s to low 70s. Wetsuits will be allowed. The swim is a mass start keeping all swim bouys to your left. Each athlete will exit the water and run on the beach before entering swim entrance for second lap. After the second lap, exit the water and run down Lake Placid Club Dr., downhill totransition zone. There will be carpet on the road. The swim course will close at 9:20 am. (2hrs 20 minute time limit)The mass start was a little deceptive. The start was a couple hundred feet from shore and a lot of people were out of the water at the start so I decided to line up about the center of the line and about 10 feet back. There was plenty of room around me when the gun off but quickly it got very crowded and there was a lot of bumping until almost the first turn. After that it opened up a little more and I just put in the time. The swim was effortless and I felt great at the end. The 1:15 time was 5 minutes better than my previous three IMs with 1:20 swim times. I was especially pleased with the ROI over the past season. I took the coaches advice a little too literally, swimming a total of 21 times since September. I mostly gave up pool swimming and worked on my open water skills and using my wetsuit.
Time for the bike!
BIKE COURSE - 112 Miles (2 loops) (Last Year IMAZ 6:07:38) (Best Case 5:35:00) (Actual 5:45:21)
From the website: The two loop bike course takes place on impeccably smooth roads. There is a major 9km downhill (good for the average speed). The rest of the bike is a mix of some rolling hills and some "small chain-ring climbs. Overall, you can move on this course!
Bike Details First Qtr Second Qtr First Half Third Qtr Fourth Qtr Second Half Total
Duration 1:21:30 1:28:01 2:48:57 1:23:41 1:32:23 2:55:13 5:47:17
Work 850 kJ 965 kJ 1814 kJ 827 kJ 959 kJ 1774 kJ 3597 kJ
TSS 68.1 71.6 139.4 60.2 64.6 124.1 265.5
IF 0.709 0.699 0.704 0.657 0.648 0.652 0.678
Norm Power 198 195 196 183 181 182 189
VI 1.14 1.07 1.1 1.11 1.04 1.08 1.09
Avg Power 174 watts 183 watts 179 watts 165 watts 173 watts 169 watts 173 watts
Distance 28.041 mi 28.06 mi 55.931 mi 27.988 mi 27.975 mi 55.757 mi 112.171 mi
Avg Cadence 80 rpm 80 rpm 80 rpm 79 rpm 79 rpm 79 rpm 80 rpm
Avg Speed 20.7 mph 19.1 mph 19.9 mph 20.1 mph 18.1 mph 19.1 mph 19.4 mph
I would have to disagree on the smooth road comment at times. There were a couple of sections that were really chewed up and I’m sure I saw a couple of dozen flats or more over the day. Luckily, not on my bike!
Someone showed this picture and I agree that it really sums up the day. Rain, rain, and more rain.
http://cu.adirondackdailyenterprise.com/pages/big_photo.php?mm=1551979&gallery=297110
I liked the bike course. The first loop I was definitely more aggressive. I rode the long downhill section quite fast and felt very comfortable passing people on the down hills. On the climbs, I held my watts in check and let everyone pass me on the way up. I never had more than one minute over FT for the day. The second loop was slower for a couple of reasons. On the downhill section the rain was heavier and I rode cautiously a lot of the way down. By the last quarter I was watching my average watts starting to drop and trying to figure out what to do. I could have picked up the effort, but was afraid of the possible negative effects on the run, so I held back. With an IF of 0.678, mathematically I could have gone a little harder. More race rehearsals would have added to my confidence levels or at least given me better decision skills, trying to figure out whether to push harder or hold back. I was in the areo position almost the whole way, getting up only to drink and stretch the back out. All in all, thrilled with the overall time and I felt great at T2.
Run Course - 26.2 Miles (2 loops) (Last Year IMAZ 4:13:55) (Best Case 3:40:00) (Actual 4:02:00)
From the website: This spectator friendly two loop course passes by the downtown area four times! This incredible route features some spectacular tree-lined river scenery, coupled with lake side running. There are a few rolling hills, but overall athletes will find this a fast, fair run course.
Run Details First Qtr Second Qtr First Half Third Qtr Fourth Qtr Second Half Total
Duration 56:36 59:36 1:50:55 1:02:06 1:03:59 2:06:03 3:57:00
rTSS 67.6 68.2 134 63.3 65.8 129.7 267.1
IF 0.805 0.788 0.803 0.743 0.746 0.74 0.768
NGP 8:42 8:53 8:43 9:25 9:23 9:28 9:07
Distance 6.488 mi 6.559 mi 12.476 mi 6.552 mi 6.539 mi 13.098 mi 25.588 mi
Elev. Gain 388 ft 512 ft 862 ft 424 ft 556 ft 970 ft 1843 ft
Pace 8:42 9:07 8:52 9:28 9:45 9:39 9:17
Vdot of approximately 51 giving a best possible race day of about 3:40.
Note: Does not add to 26.2 miles or 4:02:00 hours as it took some time to get Garmin to locate satellites.
Still raining. I thought there were two rather daunting hills and a lot of people walked one or both of them on each of the loops. It was hard to get a good reading on my pace with the rolling hills. I was committed to running the whole course and held to that. By the second loop I was definitely slowing down. At mile 18 I knew I couldn’t get any faster and turned my attention to passing people. I was on the second loop and so was passing both first and second lappers. In the end I passed a net of about 125 people over the last 8 miles, which was very motivating. It certainly kept me from staring at the Garmin and stressing as the pace dropped.
I didn’t have a very precise idea of my overall time, but knew I was well ahead of my previous best of 11:55:00 overall from last year’s IM Arizona. The last mile was downhill and I clipped out an 8:00 minute mile. I was thrilled at my 11:13, a 42 minute improvement over last year.
A couple of notes on nutrition:
3:30 am wakeup for a bowl of oatmeal and a Gatorade. Another bottle of Gatorade between 5 and the race start. Just before the race, 2 GU gels. The plan was to have only course materials, Gatorade and gels. One bottle every hour and two gels for the bike, carrying only one bottle and two gels on the bike. For the run, I carried a bottle filled with Gatorade with me and planned to take gels as I felt necessary. With all the rain, I didn’t need all the fluids. I drank four bottles of Gatorade on the bike and gave up. My bladder functioned well all day. In all, I consumed 8 gels on the bike. On the run, I drank about two bottles of Gatorade, a couple cups of water and 2 gels. I had no nutrition issues during the day.
Overall comments and thoughts for the next IM:
Overall I averaged around 10-12 hours per week from January through July. Next year I plan to up the hours a bit with more 4 hour rides and longer runs.
For the swim, no changes planned for next year. Keep up open water swimming, drop the pool. No plans to swim a lot.
For the bike, I believe I need more 4 hour rides, which I skimped on. I also need a couple more race rehearsals to practice riding at 0.70 – 0.72 IF. I also want to move my FT from 279 to over 300 with the offseason plan. I plan to find some roadies to ride with to help push the pace. I also need to work on pacing, keeping 1st and 2nd laps consistent in time and effort.
For the run, I need more and longer runs and faster tempo runs. I ran one 20 miler, one 15 miler, and a bunch of runs between 10 and 13 miles this year. Many of my tempo runs were at the 8:30 or so pace, and I believe I should be picking up the pace a little more. I performed below the theoretical best, but couldn’t push much harder.
Last year, my 11:13 time would have got me to Hawaii. This year I needed a 10:40. Lots more work to do in the next year!
Tom
