Lake Placid Ironman Race Report

Sorry for the late report - I'm still on vacation and I've been without internet access for some time. First of all I would like to thank my family, team-mates, friends, training partners, the support crew and all! No one ever said this sport was easy and I just received another reminder of that reality!

Anyway here are the splits:

Overall time: 10:23:58
Swim: 1:07:40
Bike: 5:33:32
Run: 3:35:23

Report:

Swim did not go well. I found it difficult to find any open water. I got kicked in the side and popped a couple of times, once in the face, but luckily my goggles stayed on. My swimming has come a long way (see the other race reports), but it didn't show in this race. Too many people trying to go to the same spot:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTmT2gkWUgk

I still beat my time of last year though.

The bike: What happened my second loop split? It felt like I was going just as fast, but my split was slow. There was a head wind going through the gap headed towards Keene. Anyway, still faster than last year, but a lot slower than my competitors.

The run: Warm and sunny. Another fight against dehydration. I took in an incredible amount of fluids to fight it off. Keeping cool anyway possible was key in this one. I was running while most were walking in the second half. I thought I had a pretty decent marathon given the conditions were a lot more difficult than last year and I still ran faster. The nagging left hip flexor thing again in the last three miles, but at that point, it's just another thing that hurts.

Anyway, some tough international competition with former pros and non-pro elites all competing in my age group. The long and the short - I missed Kona again by one slot! ughh! 10:40 would have got me there at the last non-male pro race two years ago. It shows I have got a long way to go - this being my second Ironman. I need to compete with those guys on the bike. As Chris McCormack has said in interviews - if he had just come to Kona and won on his first attempt, he wouldn't be the athlete he is today. I feel the same way about myself - take it to the next level and come back and nail it next year!

I'll post again when I'm back on 8/6, until then, happy recovery!

Rock On!

-Kyle

Race Week - Ironman Lake Placid 2007

Well, this will be my last post until the race. Everything has gone pretty smooth. I have trained harder, longer and more focused then I have ever trained for an event ever. My 41 year old body has held up and I have certainly never been as fit as I am now. I have made some huge strides, including my swimming, which has come out of nowhere. I am going to swim faster with much less effort, which is going to help me a lot this year in the later stages of the race. My bike miles have doubled from last year's training. I had a number of weeks at 300 miles with one around 350. I have forced myself to stop training, because I know that it will only have a negative impact on the race. This is definitely going to be an anxious few days. I can't wait to get up there and I think I will start to relax once I get up into the race environment. This should be a big day for me and I hope it will be a turning point for me as an athlete. I will use knowledge from last year's race to put in a solid and optimized performance. This picture is the run course out-and-back with the Olympic ski jumps in the background.
I hope everyone has had a good training period and is ready to race. I will post a race report when I can. I wish all the racers good luck - it should be a blast!

-Kyle