IronMan World Championships race report 2011

Swim: I was disappointed in my swim I thought I should have been at least 2-3 minutes faster. I felt fast in the water so I was surprised to see the time 1:12 when I got out.

Bike: I felt great on the bike. My hip did not hurt at all. My heart rate was in the right range. I pushed hard for the first 4 hours and then took it down a notch for the last bit to get ready for the marathon. I biked a 4:44:14. This was the highlight of the day for me as things turned south on the run. I am happy that my bike is continuing to improve. I was glad to have a comparable bike split to some of the pros that I have looked up to.

Run: I felt really good running. My plan was to ease into the run and see how my hip handled it. It was working great and I was feeling like I could start to really get going down to a pace of around 7:00-7:15. But then I got to the hill on Palani. Running up hill must have really engaged the damaged tissue because it absolutely zapped my hip. My hip was painful, but the worst part of it was my glute. Where my glute connects to my hip was giving out. So after 12 miles I quit.

This is my 5th Ironman and the only one that I have not finished. It was tough not finishing. I thought about trying to walk the last 14 miles just to finish, but walking hurt my hip as well and I thought it would be better to not aggravate whatever I have hurt in my hip. I came into the race in the best run shape I have ever been in, but then last week I fell off my bike and banged up my hip. It is very disappointing to have my race end this way but luckily I let things go pretty easily. When I played football I played to win like the world would end if we lost, but when we did lose it never really destroyed me. I remember losing a game and our star player was crying on the bus and I didn’t understand. To me it’s like we lost it stinks but it’s over it’s done let’s learn from it and move on. That’s how I feel about this. I am not devastated. In the grand scheme of things it means nothing at all. Megan and I are excited to get home, be with our kids and attend to the more important things of life.

IronMan World Championships Race Plan

I like words. I have special words that I repeat over and over to myself. They all mean basically the same thing. My words that I use change over time and they vary quite a bit. “Fight” is a word I have used a lot along with “die, Kill and death”. (My youngest girl gets mad at me when she catches me saying these words, she tells me “you only say that downstairs” meaning when I am downstairs training). Now fight, die, kill and death are not pleasant words but I also have nice words, I have used the words “peace” and “sometimes” quite a bit. These words all have a similar meaning to me. In different ways they all mean GO! Lately I have liked the words super massive and supersonic. My race plan for The Ironman World Championships is to go harder and faster than I have gone in the past. This poem describes how I want my race to go.

It is time to go supersonic
Time to kill like the plague bubonic
From deep inside feel the sonic boom
Bursting out with a humming zoom
Let it come, allow it to flow
Hear it whisper,” it’s time to GO!”
Clear the mind, no need to think
Finding speed beyond the brink

It’s Time to go super massive
Be insane reject the passive
Lose your mind breaking through
Destroying limits is what to do
Push the brain past what it accepts
Making smoke of its past precepts
Emerging through the ashes all brand new
The super massive breakthrough is part of you

The big question mark for me in this race is my hip. I fell off my bike a week ago and bruised my left hip. It hurts a little to run but I hope it’s the kind of thing that will go away as I run rather than the type of thing that gets worse as I run. So my expectations are very broad. I can see myself having a very fast race but I can also see myself having to drop out of the run if my hip is bad. I hope to go super massive and supersonic the whole race, hopefully it works out.

Dreams and Reality

For me I have seen the most success in my life when I can simultaneously accept the reality of a situation while still believing that I can conquer that reality and Improve. In working with others I have noticed that the Dreamers usually fail because they do not accept the reality, they just focus only on their belief. The Realists fail because they focus on the dire situation of reality and aren’t inspired by what could be. I believe that to achieve a high level of success in any endeavor you must max out both your realist side and you dreamer side. I don’t think that the word “balance” is any good in describing the relationship between these two concepts. Balance denotes giving up a little bit of one thing to “balance” the other. Just do both of these things to your best ability. Max out your belief while embracing your life’s reality. I was thinking about this concept on my flight to the Ironman World Championships. I was really bored so I wrote this poem to describe how I feel about the dynamic between Dreams and Reality

Two truths I present to you
Radically different in their view
First: Our universe has laws by which its run
Nothing goes faster than the light of the sun
I can’t flap my arms and fly
Never, no matter how hard I try
Second: Dreams inspire and lift us higher
They make impossible an ugly liar
Using broken laws to fuel dreams fire
Overcoming the Universe by Pure Desire
But what happens when Dreams and Reality collide
When Laws face off against our believing side
Just embrace and accept the laws present state
Still believing in your dreams triumphal fate
Because reality is law but can be bent a bit
We can twist and mold it to make dreams fit
But where’s the line tween laws failure and dreams glory?
............. You decide, ......... this is your lifes story

Kona's Call

Kona's calling us to its fight
Whispering its song day and night
Listen to its pide piper tune
Leading us back it's coming soon
Hopes and dreams will either rise or fall
As we march to the beat of Konas call

I leave tomorrow for the Ironman world championships in Kona Hawaii. I hope my "hopes and dreams" will rise not fall.