Ironman Mont Tremblant

Courage, Form, Rhythm, Peace and Joy..... these 5 words over and over again kept me going for 140.6 miles.

So how do I sit down and write about the day I had been training for over a year for... I've managed to avoid it for a whole week now so figure I should get it done. Excuse all the pictures... 

I went to bed the night before feeling pretty relaxed and well rested. Woke up at 4am, had a bagel and crawled back into bed for another hours "sleep" which was mostly me staring at the ceiling for an hour. Alarm went off at 5 and we were up and ready for action. 

Clauds came down to the transition / start areas with me which was great. The morning air was fresh and cold with a mist rising over the lake, just over 40 degrees as we made our way down.

I mixed 1 x 4 hour bottle of Perpetuem in the morning and put it on the bike at T1. The 2nd bottle was waiting unmixed in my special needs bag. Transition was pretty neatly laid out with a few thousand expectant bags, ready for chaos to descend.

From T1 we walked to the start line, took quite a while as the walk was close to a mile long.

On the way Clauds recommended I put my wetsuit on next to the road so I avoided the sand at the beach, smart thinking.

By the time we got to the beach at least 2/3rds of the athletes were there and standing in line for the porta potties... Anyway, I had to go, so jumped in the line and wound down the time to the start. Managed to finish up and get to the start line with 5 minutes to go, sucked down a gel, did a quick 2 minute warm up swim to get the blood flowing and then found my group.

Mike Reilly had the crowd buzzing and got us ready for action, 1 minute before the pro start 2 Canadian Air Force F18's buzzed the beach, circled and buzzed a second time as the start cannon fired. Really awesome way to send us off. By now smoke was in the air and 2 helicopters were hovering above us.

We started in waves, I was in wave 5 so about 15 minutes after the pros started. Our wave, males 40 - 44 was the largest with over 500 participants. Considering the number of people it was a pretty orderly start. 

I followed my plan and stuck to the front of the group for as long as possible. I had a pretty good 1st 400m and was finding some good space, however after that I started to get really boxed in and struggled to hold a line and a pace. Got passed over and under by quite a few people and then saw my pace start to bleed off. So I slowed my pace and concentrated on form. Advice I got before the swim was to count strokes as a way of holding form and rhythm. This worked for about 35 / 45 minutes until I noticed my pace start to fade again.

Got to the 1.2 mile mark at 40 mins and was happy with that but now I was tiring and could not hold onto the 1:40 / 1:50 goal I had set. I also found myself going out wide now to avoid getting run over by wave swimmers coming in behind. 

Last 20 minutes were just a grind to swim finish. The field had thinned out and no more getting swum over. Exited the water at 1:28, so i had lost 8 minutes in pace in the second 1.2 miles - something to work on for next time....

By now it was great to be out of the water. I heard Mike Reilly call my name as I ran under the arch. Stopped at the strippers and got my wetsuit off in 2 seconds! 

As I came out of the strippers I saw Clauds and the kids next to the fence and gave them early morning hugs. Off now on the long run to T1 (about a quarter mile!).

T1 was chaos!! I had got there at rush hour. Grabbed my bag and entered the changing tent to get ready. Had to hunt for a chair, found one, I hadnt put much thought into packing my bag - but note for next time - pack it in the order I want to take it out. At one stage I had too much stuff around me and struggled to get order. I had put my helmet on early on in the changing, unfortunately someone ran past me and clipped the helmet, breaking off one of the magnets that held my visor in place. I realized this as I was running out of T1 and flipped my visor up, only to see the right corner sag down. Disaster I thought, cant get the ride done with contact lenses and no visor or glasses! I tried to go back into the change tent to try and find the magnet, big mistake as it was like a salmon swimming up stream with tons of guys bleeding out hunting now for their bikes. 

Made the decision to head back to the bike and take my chances with a dangling visor - I figuered that it may hold with 2 clips out of 3 in place. Long transition now, 13 minutes!! 

Sucked down a gel and found my bike on the rack and headed out for the road. The morning had warmed up but was still cool, great bike riding weather!! on the bike and headed out of town, nice low heart rate and I was moving through the gears well as we handled Montee Ryan. As I approached Route 117 mini disaster struck as my visor suddenly dangled in front of my face again. I pulled over and found one of the magnets had flipped over, so did a quick repair and headed on. 

I had scouted out Montee Ryan so was familiar with its elevation but I hadnt been out on 117 prior to the race. Found it to be great road surface and rolling hills taking us north. Lots of aid stations on the way made the going easy, the riding packs had thinned out so it was pretty easy to pass and there were some packs to find where we could move along together. I was able to grab water bottles without stopping and learnt to pee on the bike (2x). Nutrition plan was Perpetuem every 15 minutes, gel every 15 miles (50 minutes) and water / endurolytes as needed. This worked great while the weather stayed nice and cool all the way to the turnaround on 117. I was able to keep close to 17 mph on this leg. Off 117 we entered St Jovite, the whole town was out to party and it was great riding past all the spectators yelling "Allez Allez Allez". Felt like we were in the Tour de France for a few minutes! By now I was hitting the 50 mile mark and feeling the wall - seems to always arrive around this point. I started taking double gel shots now and lots of water / endurlytes.

After St Jovite we headed back to Mont Tremblant and then out the other side up Chemin DuPlessis where the big hills waited for us. I had driven this segment by car in the days leading to the race but hadnt ridden it. The hills were very similar to the north shore of Long Island so I didnt feel intimidated of fearful of them. Wound down to a low gear and ground our way up. I was able to stay in the shade on the right hand side of the road which helped keep my heart rate down. Up until this stage I had not popped the 145 bpm threshold but did pop it twice (briefly) on this loop up Chemin DuPlessis. 


Heading back to town was a net downhill at high speed, I hit 41 mph here (my fastest time ever!...). The descending was good with wide roads and no technical turns, allowed us to keep our speed up. I did not stay aero though on the descent on this loop as I wasn't familiar yet with the turns.

Heading into town now for the start of the second loop, I saw the family and our friends the Barrs who had come to support.. I was eating a Cliff Bar as I saw them so not looking like an aero pro rider at the time!! 

A little bit about Team IronGav - my wonderful family and friends who spent the day out in the sun, rushing to viewing spots all the time, trying to anticipate where I may be all the time, and then giving huge cheers, hugs and support each time I whizzed by.  

By now the heat had risen and was in the 70's as I made my way back out Montee Ryan.  I could see my heart rate was tracking much higher and my pace on the hills on the way out was noticeably slower now. On 117 we were now faced with a cross wind - which I thought was a head wind until we turned around and the "headwind" stayed with us! At about 80 miles my Perpetuem started to taste bad and I was tired of the gels. I think the heat was turning everything inside out. For the first time ever I also started to get stomach cramps. Not a great sign but a couple of burps seemed to keep it under control.

2nd loop through St Jovite was just as fun as the first although I noticed slightly fewer people out now. By the time we hit Chemin Du Plessis it was past lunch time, it was hot and legs were tired. I noticed I was popping 145 all the time and was struggling to get it back down especially when grinding up the hills. The only way up the last 2 big hills was to travel at 5mph, let my heart rate run to 150 / 155 and stand up with a slow cadence, find shade and grind it out. I'm pretty sure these heart rate spikes hurt me later on the run but there really was no other way up!

It was awesome to hit the turn around on this leg and start the rapid descent back to town. The riding was pretty much done and I stayed aero for most of the descent, feeling more comfortable with the turns now after having been through them on the 1st loop. 

Off the bike in 6hrs 28 mins. I was hoping for 6:30 and would have been happy with under 7:00, so very happy with my bike times. 

When I hit T2 I was the only rider around and had a blast being cheered by the crowds down the red carpet into the tent. Transition now was a lot quieter than swim to bike and it was easy to find a chair, change shoes and head out the door. This time I got it done in 4 mins. 

On my way out I saw Team IronGav waiting at the tent exit and gave everyone hugs and smiles, awesome to see them at the start of the run!!

Now all I had to do was run a marathon! I felt the heat right out the start here. You are faced with a steep climb in the first half a mile and my heart rate shot up right away. I made the decision now to walk all the hills and run down the other side. No point popping thresholds for no gain, I figuered that I had done enough damage on the bike to my heart rate.

First 3 miles were on tar, hilly and hot. Pace was just over 10mpm and I felt ok, except for the heat. At mile 3 we hit trail and  a long out and back loop in a forest. While shady and less impact on the legs from the trail, I found it harder to keep a faster pace here so settled into just over 11 mpm now. Nutrition plan was gels every 30 minutes and water / perform every 2nd aid station. The gels were getting really hot and were not that easy to get down, but I decided to rather risk throwing up than bonking, so kept taking them every 30 mins. Also had a banana at mile 4 and some pretzels (took a minute to chew  1pretzel...).

I started to play a game and guess whether the athletes running past the other way were on their 1st or 2nd loop. By looking at their faces / posture I thought I would be able to guess. Of course there was no way to know if I was right, but on my second loop I saw a lot of faces who I thought were on their 1st loop earlier on. I passed the Iron Frior from mass the day before around mile 9. He was looking strong running the other way.

Although I did see Team IronGav at this point and felt very emotional as all the kids ran out into the road and gave me huge hugs. After I passed them it was a tough grind now to keep the miles clicking over. 

At the special needs zone I just replaced my gel flask and was grateful to have another taste now to wash things down with.

I had read before the race that you need a purpose to keep going when you hit the wall, a reason to be out there slogging it out. On my forearm and also on my bike water bottles I had written out key phrases that were important to me and important to the race: Courage, Rhythm, Form, Peace. I started repeating these words over and over again and found they acted like a metronome and helped my legs just keep ticking over at a slow cadence. Miles 15 to 21 were very hard. I found myself walking for at least 1 minute on each mile. Repeating the mantra helped me move back to running after a brief walk. The stomach cramps I had on the bike had been with me for a lot of the run, but I felt them the most again from 15 to 21. At some point here a guy ran past me and on the back of his shirt it read "be joyful" - so cool - so I added joy to my 4 word mantra and kept ticking over.

I also discovered that mixing Ironman perform (Powerade) and ice was an awesome cocktail and started drinking this at every aid station after mile 15!!

Once I got to mile 22 I felt a large weight lifted and I could hold a steady pace for longer, not needing to walk as frequently. Now only 2 hills remained between me and the finish line and I felt really positive. 

By mile 25 of the run I was back on tar, heading into town and glanced over my left shoulder out over the lake. The sun was setting over the mountain on the west side of the lake. This was the same place we had stared in the morning and had watched the sun rise coming over the mountains to the east. Amazing to think I had been out there all day, and now i was finishing as  the sun was setting.


The last 500m of the run are through the ski village, hundreds of people are shouting encouragement, the noise of the finish line gets louder and louder. You are running downhill now so you dont have to work as hard and I felt myself flying! Both arms out high fiving everyone as I ran past. I ran past Team IronGav so fast that I didnt have time to stop, the finish line was 100m away and I was being pulled there by a magnet.

The last 50m I felt a rush of joy. Not emotion (which I was expecting) but pure joy, to be finished, feel strong and have a decent time was amazing. I tried to pace myself so I wasnt finishing in a bunch and I could have 1 second of fame.



 Mike Reilly called my name, I hit the finish mat and that was it, I am an Ironman!!!!

This is how my marathon looked:

After recovering in the eating zone (chocolate milk, beer, poutine, fruit, cookies, water - in that order) I found Claud's and Luke at the exit and started to pull myself towards myself slowly. 

Made it back to the hotel, had a swim in the hot tub, took a shower and then headed back down to the finish line with Danny and Luke to watch the end of the race through to midnight. It was awesome to be there, we had a spot on the course about 20 meters from the finish line and could see everyone come past us. Managed to chat to Mike Reilly a bit as well. 

The last runner out on the course was brought home by 5 angels, dressed in white, bringing her home to the line, she made it by 2 minutes! 


Amazingly all the runners out on the course who had made the cut off and not retired made it to the finish line by midnight, apparently first time ever. 

Ready, Steady.....

Spent the morning today getting everything ready and set up for transition tomorrow. I am impressed by the planning and production that goes into all of this. Compared to other triathlons where you set up 1 hour before the race in the dark using a headlamp, here we have 5 different bags to use, a massive change tent, volunteers who help us rack bikes, very cool indeed. 

How much gear does one triathlete need?:

I used the ironman checklist and added in a bunch of other things like contact lenses for after the swim in case I lose them in the water, extra tube and cartridges for the bike, etc....

The transition area was buzzing this morning as everyone checked in from 10am to 4pm. My shoulder has been acting up after holding Charlotte on my shoulders for the fireworks last night, so I got an ART massage as well as a more general quad and calf massage, feeling loosey goosey now as I have my feet up in the room. 

The Pros transition line up, they get a red carpet...

This is the red carpet we will run down to the transition area:

Some photos of my bike all racked and stacked, ready for action (hope to see her again around 8:10am):

In the early evening a Mass was held for the athletes, outside the chapel at a picnic table and lead by the IronFriar, a well known Franciscan Monk who also competes in Ironman races. He gave a simple but very personal message which brought a great sense of peace and calm to all of us.  

I am feeling amazingly calm as I write this. Thinking that all of the training and focus of the last year will be put to use tomorrow. My goal is to finish with dignity, in good enough shape that I will want to do another one some time in the future. Weather is shaping up to be very hot with high humidity, pretty unexpected as I thought this would be a cool race. Taking lots of endurolytes and gels!!

See you all in 140.6 miles!

Settling in in Mont Tremblant

Greetings from Mont Tremblant. 

We got here on Wednesday afternoon, easy drive up with good weather and clear roads. 

This is an amazingly beautiful part of the world, forests,hills, lakes, friendly people. The whole community has embraced the Ironman race and everywhere we turn there is something happening related to the race. 

Weather so far has been on / off with sunshine and rain. Forecast for tomorrow and Sunday is sunny, humid and warm - not sure I believe it yet. Will have to see...

Our hotel is great, right in the heart of town, we can walk everywhere and relax. For race day is an ash walk to the start line and transition area. 

Woke up this morning and headed down to the lake for a morning swim, mist was rising from the lake and coming down from the mountains making for a spectacular walk down the road to the beach:

Training wise I am finished now. Did a swim / bike / run on Thursday and Friday. Thursday was a bit of a struggle as I was still aclimatizing to the altitude. Didn't feel great getting off the bike and was a bit nervous for the rest of the day. This mornings training was much better and felt stronger and more in control of my heart rate. A good way to wrap up training :) now it's 2 days of rest getting ready for Sunday morning. 

A quick word about the lake. After spending the last few months crawling through the Long Island Sound, sucking in mouthfuls of salty and dirty water (as well as a few jelly fish), Lac Tremblant is like swimming through velvet. Clear clean water, no current make for a great swim. There is even a coffee serving pontoon boat moored a quarter mile off shore serving coffee to us as we swim by. 

The boys and Claud's took part in the Ironkids races today. Kyle did 500m, Luke did 1k and Claud's the 5k. Really proud of all of them and the best part was Mike "Voice of Ironman" calling everyone over the finish line. The end for all the races was the actual finish line for the main ironman race which is pretty cool. 

Mike Reilly doing his thing:

We've done a lot so far, including heading up the mountain to take in the views. I think we'll be back for ski season at some point. 

The town has really embraced the event and transformed itself into the center of the triathlon world for the week. All the stores have ironman banners up and everyone is so welcoming of the participants. This morning I dragged a dripping wetsuit through the lobby, followed by rolling my bike through while wearing cleats, only to be great by smiles and well wishes for a good ride. 

Even the ice cream stores wish us good luck:

Tonight was the athletes banquet, I actually found it a little underwhelming. Fr some reason I was expecting something more inspirational but it felt a bit flat. Did meet a ton of great people though, including a 40+ team from Puerto Rico. Best thing about dinner was the ironman brownies!!

The evening ended off with a great fireworks show. We watched it from the bottom of the village and then rode the gondola to the top of the village as the show was ending and caught amazing views. 

Thats it for tonight. More tomorrow on how nervous I am feeling!! 36 hours to go (probably less if I really do the math). 

Swimming in the Big Easy

Down in New Orleans for the weekend and had to find a pool to do some laps in. I found the New Orleans Athletic Club, just outside the French Quarter. The most amazing old style indoor pool, complete with skylights, fountain, mezzanine wrap around balcony (with boxers punching their bags on the balcony). Just very cool. 

The end of the Volume, bring on the Taper!!

Sitting down tonight writing this while watching the Ironman Lake Placid finishers stream across the line. A weird feeling, the next full Ironman race is Mont Tremblant, feeling a little bit nervous now, but also inspired by all the awesome triathletes crossing the line in Lake Placid tonight!

My heavy volume training is over now, the lighter volume with more focus on speed starts tomorrow morning. Basically fine tuning the huge volume base that has been laid down over the past several months.

Looking back on my training now, I have been doing at least 140 miles per week for the past 7 weeks. Thats an ironman a week. At first I found that volume tough and very tiring but now as I end the volume period I find I am able to handle it without the feelings of muscle ache and physical exhaustion that I felt at the start, all a good sign I think!

July looked like this, with the last week of July being my biggest of all (in terms of time and distance):

2 great training events this past weekend. Yesterday I did the NYC Marathon Long Training Run in Central Park and this morning did my longest swim - 2.3m miles off West Neck Beach.

The NYC run was great, 2 loops of Central Park, nice and hilly, held a great steady pace and even heart rate throughout and very happy to finish 13.3 miles in 2 hours even.

The swim off West Neck beach this morning was great, started off with the pod, all the fast swimmers in the water today so I trailed for the first loop. strong outgoing tide this morning so heading south was a tough haul through but then nice and speedy heading north. After 1.2 miles and 1 loop the pod went back in to the beach but I stayed out and headed for a 2nd loop solo. Happy to see my pace held for the loop and I got the 2.3 miles done in the goal time I was looking for.

Ironman Training Goals:

So how am I doing on my goals for Ironman training? I set these when I entered the race one year ago, scary....

Cycling goal is ok, I am happy that I have been able to stay strong on the bike in the last 2 months, really catching up significantly in volume.

Running goal is great, blown away my target of doing 1,000 miles in preparation.

Swimming goal, well I think I was obviously way too optimistic about the volume that could be put in. That said the swim is definitely the area I can do better in, so for the future I will see about trying to get to 100 miles in 12 months....

So now its time to start getting all the gear ready for action! started today with retiring my current running shoes, 550 miles done this year and a nice ripped open hole on the left shoe, time for the new A5's to take over. Laces transferred and they are ready to be broken in starting Tuesday.

June wrap up, just on one month to go.....

The irony of writing about June training at the end of July is not lost on me.... i think it reflects how busy life has become in the last few weeks with the heavy training schedule and a busy summer with family and work.

Over the last few weeks my weekly mileage has really picked up and been averaging around 140 miles a week, so an ironman a week.

Been through peaks and lows, times where my body was utterly exhausted and times where i felt super strong. The hardest days have been during the regular week where early morning 3 to 4 hour sessions are followed by a full day at work. With the right nutrition, early bed times and recovery drinks I feel like I have been doing well. The end of this coming week will see the end of my volume training and the taper / speed sessions will start. 

Here is a snap shot of my June training:

What is the optimal # of bikes? Apparently one more that you currently have... so the Cervelo was recently joined by a Trek Madone road bike. I found the Cervelo, while fast, was difficult to navigate through busy town roads and on group rides. The Trek is amazing and I am really enjoying riding, esp on the climbs where there is a big difference to the Cervelo. That said, nothing beats the Cervelo on the flats and downhill.

I've become an early morning person now, waking up at 5am without an alarm clock. Nothing better than watching the sun rise while getting ready for a bike ride and swim. The photo below is of the group I have joined swimming off West Neck Beach. Great bunch of people who are very welcoming and allow hacks like me to drag along after them on their long swims. I've done about 10 open water swims now and am feeling a lot more confident on the long hauls.

Compression leggings are a complete lifesaver, I have been living in these guys, they work wonders for recovery!

Did the Gold Coast Century ride 2 weeks ago, started with a bunch of friends from work. We have the beginnings of a bike club forming there, lots of people interested and hopefully will keep the momentum going.

Corny but catchy, I saw it recently while surfing FB and it struck home. Just have to keep on going....

Ironman Run Course rule #1....

Run Course Rules & Instructions
1. No form of locomotion other than running, walking or crawling is allowed.