Scott Gibson's Ironman Journey

Without a doubt, I definitely enjoyed my downtime after IMFL.

Over the past two months, I really didn’t work out with any sort of frequency and there was no shortage of great food on my plate. I do want to say that I would definitely not attribute my behavior as a lack of will power, I made a conscious decision to enjoy the holidays to the fullest, knowing that January 3rd would be the day to flip the training switch. Today is that day.

The signs of my departure from training are clear…I gained 10 lbs and my resting heart rate is now in the low 60′s, up from the high 40′s just prior to IMFL. Again, not worried or stressed out about getting back into shape for my 70.3 in a few months, I have proven to myself that I can be disciplined and get myself where I need to be.

Really looking forward to an awesome start to 2012 with a couple of great events right here in Texas!

I am really happy to be able to post that the IMFL went really well. In short, the conditions were probably as good as I could have hoped and I achieved all of my goals for the race. Here is a quick rundown on the day’s events.

Normally I wake up extremely early and I am typically one of the first athletes in transition. However, this time I felt very well prepared and decided not to show up about 30 minutes later. After grabbing a peanut butter sandwich and a banana, I started the 10 minute walk to transition from the condo we rented. It was a bit chilly but not too terribly cold. After getting my body markings, I went inside transition to check my bike and mount up my aero bottle.

One big change I made this year was to put my iPhone into my gear bag on the bike. The Find My Friends app was hugely successful in letting friends and family know EXACTLY where I was on the course all day long without having to touch my phone at all. More on that later.

After using the facilities a couple of times, I jumped into my wetsuit and headed down to the beach hoping that I would not be spending the first part of my day in angry seas. Much to my surprise, as I crested over the small hill leading to the water I saw that the ocean was almost perfectly flat! This was a huge change from 2009 where I had to swim in pretty rough waters.

My mood was very different this time around. Mostly, I felt excitement and confidence, which is far better than the fear and nervousness I experienced in 2009. Following the national anthem and a huge cannon boom, thousands of swimmers leaped into the Gulf to start a great day of racing. As always, I stayed back and let the vast majority of the athletes go first in order to get comfortable and establish a good pace.

Overall, the swim went very well. Previous experience, training and calm seas allowed me to shave almost 15 minutes from my 2009 time. It was a great way to start the day for sure.

My relaxed mood probably was slightly detrimental in that I probably spent way too much time in transition after the swim, but it was nice to collect myself for the long bike ride ahead of me. After a little nutrition and covering myself in sunscreen I headed out to start the bike phase.

A volunteer rolled my bike over to me as I walked up to the rack and then I made my way over to the exit. It was only a few hundred yards until I saw Dawn, Hannah, Emma, Marcus & Paula cheering me on. I gave them a little ‘gansta’ look and I was off for what I hoped would be a pleasant 112 mile ride. I couldn’t help but think about the 2009 bike phase where I hit some pretty monster headwinds once I turned inland at the beginning of the ride.

It was yet another very nice surprise when I made the turn inland and I was able to keep a pretty decent 19-20 mph pace. There was a strong breeze present but it was not directly in my face. Score! Unfortunately, I did eventually experience headwinds on other areas of the course, but I am glad it wasn’t right out of the gate. The bike ride was pretty good overall and I ended up improving on my 2009 time by 9 minutes. Not much when you’re out there for about 7 hours, but at least it was faster. The highlight of the ride was seeing friends and family out in the middle of the course! They used the Find my Friends app to track me and strategically position themselves so the could cheer me on. It was an unexpected and nice surprise.

Back in transition, I did things a little quicker this time. Honestly, it’s a lot easier to go from bike to run than swim to bike. Getting that wetsuit off and trying to change into dry clothes when you’re soaked is definitely challenging. A little more nutrition and I was off to finish out the day with a 26.2 mile stroll.

The short story about the run is that I made up a ton of time compared to 2009. During the first event, I probably walked over half of the time, whereas this go around, I ran over 75-80% of the time and with a pretty good pace. My knee started hurting pretty badly over the last 6 miles, but once I realized how much better my finish time could be, I pushed through the pain. The finish line was a welcome sight and it came about an hour and ten minutes faster than 2009. It was a really good race. While I was certainly tired and sore, I was no where near as destroyed and exhausted as I was in 2009. Even though I probably trained less in duration for this event, I feel I trained smarter. Additionally, course experience, a better race nutrition plan and overall strategy were key factors to having such a good day.

As always, I am grateful for the support of friends and family that receive during these events. Thank you to Dawn, Hannah, Emma, Marc & Paula!

This will be my last IMFL event, however, it’s on to Ironman Texas next year where I get to test myself at the Ironman distance on a whole new course. Should be fun!

Early start today. My flight rescheduling has me leaving San Antonio at 6:15am today, so it was a 4am wake up for me.

As with my two 70.3 events in the past couple months, feeling pretty calm so far. I am sure the anxiety levels will increase as I get closer, but I expect they will be much lower that the first time around.

Yesterday, I received the athlete guide for Ironman Florida via email. Typically, I really don’t pay much attention when they send out the athlete guide before an event since it rarely tells me anything I don’t already know. For some odd reason, I read through the email a little more closely that I normally do and thank goodness I did.

For whatever reason, athletes are required to check in TWO DAYS prior to the event. I have never seen this before. My original plans had me arriving Thursday evening with the expectation that I would check in on the Friday before the event. Athlete check-in ends at 4pm on Thursday, so clearly that wasn’t going to work.

I quickly scrambled to get my flight, car and lodging shifted around to support arriving a day earlier. Luckily, that ended up not being too expensive or difficult, but I would have been devastated to have not caught the change and if I had not been able to do the event. Phew!

Wanted to give a quick run down on the Ironman 70.3 Austin event that I did yesterday. In short, I really enjoyed the COURSE, however the CONDITIONS made the event pretty brutal. 90 degree weather and wind made for a really tough day.

The swim went really well and I felt very strong coming out of the water. It was a fairly straightforward lake swim with no surprises.

The bike phase started off fine enough with rolling hills through Texas farmland that resulted in an enjoyable first 30 miles. However, miles 30-50 were incredibly tough due to a strong headwind. I felt like I was back in Florida again!

Once I finally made it back to transition, the devil on my shoulder was making all kinds of excuses for me to quit. “Hey, you got nothing to prove. Plus, Ironman Florida is in two weeks…save yourself for that event.” I wanted to stop pretty badly, but I let myself remember my other DNF and I also had Dawn and the girls to cheer me on. With that, I pushed through and kept going.

I used to think that I preferred flats vs. hills for the run section (I have only ever done flat run courses), but this course changed my mind. Inevitably, I always walk for some portion of the run and the hills were a great way to break things up. It worked out nicely that I could walk up the hills (pace is about the same walking on flats) and then run the flats and the downhills. Had it not been for the brutal heat with no shade, I think I might have had a PR for the run.

There was no question that I was not the only person affected by the course conditions. Apparently there were quite a few DNF’s for the race, well over 100. In the end, glad I pushed through and I am now really excited about Florida in a couple of weeks. Should be a great event and hoping for a decent improvement over my 2009 time.

Training has been going really well. Some days I am even able to get in two workouts now that I have joined a local fitness club. It’s really exciting that I have crossed over the stage where I really had to push myself to do workouts to actually being eager to make them happen. Many times after completing a great workout, I almost immediately begin thinking about when I get to do my next one.

I am very excited that I have signed up for a couple of events in 2012 that are only a few hours away. The first event is Ironman Texas 70.3 that happens in April, then it’s off to another full Ironman distance event, Ironman Texas in May. The 70.3 looks to have some gently rolling hills, but Ironman Texas is 100% flat and takes place near the Gulf of Mexico. Should be very similar to Ironman Florida…right up my alley!

It is definitely exciting to be back in the swing of things and getting to enjoy the sport of triathlon all over again.

I can’t begin to express how much I really love the Augusta 70.3 course. The swim is a piece of cake, the bike ride is generally flat with nice rolling hills, and the run is 100% flat.

The really neat thing is that this event is now the world’s largest Ironman event with over 2,800 participants this go around! Even with that many people, the event was executed really well. Great job to WTC and all of the volunteers.

Since I already had experience with this course, I was incredibly relaxed right up until the swim start. Knowing what your about to get yourself into really helps with the nerves. Now, to say that I didn’t have the old adrenaline flowing would be a lie, but I certainly didn’t have the “holy crap, what did I get myself into” emotions.

Here is just the quick overview:

1. The swim went great. Going downriver makes it a fast segment for everyone. My time was a little bit slower than 2009, but since I really didn’t do ANY swim training, I am just fine with that. The trip down the river was pretty uneventful and I emerged from the water feeling really good.

2. After making my way through transition, I hit the bike course for a fun 56 mile ride. Again, pretty uneventful, but I did hit a little bit of a wall between miles 35-45. Honestly, I wasn’t keeping on top of my nutrition and hit some valleys because of it. Once I recognized that fact, I made sure I was consuming gel packs with more frequency and that helped for the final stretch of the ride. Very excited that I actually beat my time from 2009!

3. The run, as always, was the worst part. It was unseasonably hot and the sun really did a number on me. The course is basically two laps through downtown. On lap #2, I started feeling a little dizzy and getting chills, even in the 90+ degree weather. I immediately knew that meant the heat was getting to me and that I was about to get to a point where I might get some attention from the medical team. There was no way I was going to take a DNF, so I decided to sacrifice the time and stop at an aid station to hydrate and cool down. After about 10 minutes of drinking water and pouring ice on my head, I moved on to the next aid station about a mile down. At that point, I still wasn’t quite feeling normal, so I spent another 7 or 8 minutes repeating the process. After that, I felt awesome. Taking the time to get my body right allowed me to finish the race in a confident manner. Eventual cloud cover and rain was icing on the cake for the last few miles of the race. My run time was pretty bad, but I am glad I had the smarts to not push myself and set myself up for a DNF.

My overall time compared to the first event was only a little slower (5 minutes) and I had such a great time participating. Bummed that Augusta is so far from Texas because I would love to do this course every year!

Finally made it here to Augusta after driving about 15 hours from Texas. It was actually a pretty easy drive.

Looking forward to the event Sunday. It’s really nice to know exactly what to expect and I feel very relaxed as a result. Very confident I can finish, just not sure how fast!

I am also excited that I can enjoy the pre and post race festivities. Last time I didn’t get to hang out very much.

Next post will be Sunday evening when I share my race results. Goal is to beat my time from 2009.

Great 90 minute brick today. It was indoors using the Tour De France bike and the treadmill, but still a great workout.

Going to do a review of the Tour bike trainer soon when I can find some free time.

Only two more weeks until Augusta…can’t wait!

I find it really interesting that I am not reliant on my blog for motivation this time around. During my first Ironman attempt, my daily blog was one of the key factors that kept me focused on my goal each and every day.

Blogging now is more of an afterthought…which clearly explains the infrequency of my posts. However, I am working out pretty much as much as I did the first time around. I think this time it’s more personal and less of a situation where I don’t want to be a failure in the minds of my friends, family & supporters.

Really looking forward to Augusta 70.3 here in a month. Should be a great event.