2012 Ironman Wisconsin race report (a year late..)

My summer uniform, sunglass tan and all.  

This was my third Ironman, and also my best. I followed my race plan outlined by my coach, Chris Bagg (www.chrisbagg.com) and stuck to it as best I could. What made the difference in this race was I ate a lot more then I have in the past and I trained my heart out as well. I'll take you through the race and add my commentary as I wish, since this is my blog..

Swim.

An example of how many spectators were at the race.  Such great support! 

The swim was a deep water start which was great because it spread the field out. I seeded myself towards the front of the line. Ok, let's be honest, I seeded myself at the front of the line towards the outside of it. It was the perfect place to line up! The swim went well, not too much trashing around until the back side of the loop. It was a one loop swim course, I'm not sure why it started getting aggressive halfway through the swim. So weird. I came out of the water happy it was over and ready to bike.

T1.
The transitions are all indoors at a convention center in Madison, we had to run up the helix (circle ramp in a parking garage) for two floors. I was almost dizzy by the time I got to my bike. The spectators were awesome and totally lined the outside of the ramp cheering the athletes on!

Leaving the transition getting ready to ride 112 miles.  

Bike.
I made a rookie mistake on my bike. The night before the race, I put my sports powder in the bottom of the container I keep between my aero bars and drink out of with a straw. The problem? Well, when I put water in the container it didn't mix the powder up so it left me with crunchy/ clumpy sports drink! It even got stuck in my straw! It was really gross. Besides that, there were no malfunctions as far as nutrition was concerned the rest of the race. The bike was two loops of very bumpy Midwest roads. I'm really serious on this. My pelvis was numb by mile 30 because of the rough roads! It was a hilly course, but I stuck pretty close to my race plan and was able to flatten out the ride. My bike split was slower then I've had at previous Ironmans to hopefully allow me to have a better run. Again, the spectators were awesome at this race and cheered us athletes on throughout most of the ride! I even saw my family out in the middle of some town cheering me on! Such a spirit lift!! At the end of the bike we had to go up the helix before going to the transition and was totally dizzy when I reached the top. Thankfully one of the many awesome volunteers took my bike for me at the top and I only had to make my way indoors to where my running shoes were waiting for me.

T2.
Again, the transition was indoors. I felt like I was running through a maze! The volunteers were great and saw me through to the light where I had to run.

Run.
The run is where the race is won. Or lost. My plan was to keeping putting one foot in front of the other at an increased pace and eat enough calories to sustain my pace. I feel as though I was successful in this. The bike was a bit faster then it should have been, so my legs were not as fresh as I would have liked, but it's an Ironman.. No one has fresh lefts after swimming 2.4 and biking 112. Marathons are such a mental game, so I decided to play it. I had a smile on my face the entire run! Seriously! 10% of the run I was smiling! It was so much fun! I ran the first look of the marathon and felt strong, the second loop is where it became more challenging. Having ran over 15 marathons through, I knew that the pain is only temporary and continued to run finishing with a huge smile on my face with lots of tears in my eyes.

The finish line!  

My dad holding me up at the finish.  

Trying to laugh at the end of the race.  It hurt really bad.  

Troika 70.3 race report

Two Sunday's ago, August 5, I did my second half ironman of the year.  I like this race because it is a small local race that is well organized and always has a stellar race shirt. Actually, they give out a sweatshirt! That's the real reason I go back every year..

I'm learning to not let myself get nervous before a race and to trust my training and coach, it seemed to work out pretty good for me at this race!  Here's my report:

Swim: the swim started out with me drafting off two girls in front of me.  I was pretty proud of myself with this drafting because up until this race, I have not been able to find someone to draft off of because they were either too fast or too slow.  Sadly, this drafting only lasted about 500 meters because the women were too slow and faded.  It wasn't until the last 500 meters that I found another person to draft off of, great practice for me.  The challenge during the swim was that the sun was in my way to sight the buoys so I felt like I swam a zig-zag pattern.  I was the 5th woman out of the water, so I must have done better then I thought.
1.2 mile swim- 32:50

Bike: I tried a new thing on my bike this race.  Isn't that what races are for, to try new things?  Instead of putting my shoes on immediately after taking my wetsuit off, I left my shoes on my bike!  It worked well!  Not sure if it was any faster of a transition for me, but it was nice to let me feet dry off a bit more before putting my shoes on and not worrying about sliding when I run with the shoes on.  Anyways, the bike leg of the race went well.  The race plan was to keep my heart rate low for the first half of the ride and to steadily increase it allowing me to pass all the athletes that passed me the first half.  It worked!  I ended up passing a lot of people the last part of the bike who looked like they were struggling.  I felt great!  There were two struggles on the bike though, first I sneezed at least 20 times coming out of transition!  Not sure what was going on, it made it kind of a challenge to put my shoes on.  Second, I got stung by some insect on my forehead with only five miles left on the bike.  The insect got stuck in my helmet and must not have realized who he was dealing with so decided to sting me.  It didn't slow me down too much because I finished my ride feeling strong.
56 mile bike- 3:02:56

Run: the run is where the race begins.  Everything up until this point is a warmup.  This year Troika did not disappoint with the heat, and the temperatures were high. It was a very sunny and hot run.  I had the same race plan on the run as for the bike as far as my heart rate is concerned and it worked again.  Although the sun was hot, I kept plugging along on my run and ended up passing four athletes in the last mile!  Also in the last few miles of the run I got stung by another insect!   How does that happen twice in one race?!  I must have been running hard because I was stung on my tongue and didn't even see the bug until it was too late.  Looking back on my run, I am disappointed with myself that I did not increase my heart rate sooner and increase my pace earlier.
13.1 mile run- 1:50:10

At the finish line I learned that I was 3rd in my division and 7th overall!  Overall it was a pretty good race, I had a tough, high volume regimen the two weeks leading up to the race which may be the reason I was unable to push it sooner during the run.

I actually couldn't say it better then my coach, Chris Bagg (his website here) did in an email he sent to all of his athletes:

Congratulations to Sally Shadle, who took 7th overall and 3rd in her age group at the Troika 1/2 Iron this past weekend. It's especially awesome considering the two weeks Sally put in before this event, logging over 40 hours of training over the 14 days. Pretty stellar result on tired legs. Next up for Sally is IM Wisconsin in a month, where she'll actually get to race fresh for once!
Total race time- 5:28

My next race is ironman Wisconsin September 9.  I'm really excited about it as I will have loads of family supporting me there!  My "A" race is less then one month away!!

When is your next race?

Have you ever been stung by an insect during a race?

Are you going to be at the finish line of ironman Wisconsin to support me?

Here are my race statistics:

Race Standings

Race Place

55

Division Place

49

Gender Place

7

Age Place

3

Bib Number

137

Gender

F

Age

30

Start Time

07:05:00

Swim

00:32:50

T1

00:01:30

Bike

03:02:56

T2

00:00:34

Elapsed

05:28:00

Lap Times