Bloody amazing @Chriswim, your swim was so strong. Get 15 mins off that run and you would make a half decent pro
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Awesome performance congrats, insane time.
Have enjoyed reading your journey to sub 9, very impressive.
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Crazy time. Seriously impressive. Chapeau
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Boom, cracking result
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RACE DAY
Healthy nerves, and set off 4th row back in the swim rolling start = 16th, and 20s behind. Takes some judgement to not over-swim Vs catch leaders and working enough to get through some chop in the first section. Can see one person is way off in front of everyone else. Doesnāt take much to get into 2nd place, but around 700m to get onto the feet of leader. Catch and ease right down for the next 800m on his feet, but when we turn direction to go with the current itās time for me to come to his side and glide past.
Easy Australian exit, stay calm, jog through, gap looks around 20s, and stay strong in second lap. Felt well in control, could have definitely swam ~90-120s quicker as a focused hard effort.
Time 49:50. A little disappointed, thought I was on for 47-48 from training. But the fact I was 2 minutes clear of the next fastest age grouper, and only 6 pros went 48 and the rest at 52+ confirms what it looked like as a little bit of a slow day with some waves.
Bike
Set off around 260-270W at natural effort, but was trying to ride to numbers and reduce. HRM didnāt survive flight for some reason, but took HR manually and happy only 140, so only ~5bbm higher than planned bike HR despite being post swim-transition. Never checked again but trust itāll likely have come down.
Very quicky settled into excellent physical and mental zone. Felt āflowā, calm, and just letting it happen. Even remembered Everest Day as the last time I truly felt that confident on the bike, with the prospect of a very long day but confidence I would hold.
Hamstrings starting to tighten at half way, so took every U-turn to stretch on the way in, and time the gap back to pursuers behind = really confidence boosting to see I was mostly holding a 3-5 minute lead over the initial chase packs, until the second half when some bikers started coming through and closing down to about 1 minute by the end. Iāve never got to T2 better than ~6th before in a big race, and closed the time gap to the fastest bikers a lot.
Small deliberate ease-off by ~5W in the 3rd quarter as small bit of fatigue came to make sure I was saving power for head wind sections of the 4th quarter. Which worked = First IM I wasnāt just hanging on in the last quarter but still felt strong and capable of increasing effort if Iād wanted to.
Bike fuelling:
Intake every 10 minutes with no issues.
Deliberate plan to front load some carbohydrates whilst it was cooler (140g first hour), then gradually settle to 90-100g carb per hour, with increasing fluid intake as it got hotter. Deliberate small drop in CHO towards the end to ensure stomach could process water and introduction of caffeine before the run. This was really welcome to have a final bottle with a completely different taste profile.
Slightly cautious with CHO intake as was taking highest rate of fluid I ever have in race setting compared to having toilets stops etc.
Best Iāve ever felt for hydration status coming off long Australian bike.
Total
Carbohydrate 450g
Water: ~5.5L in 4hr 20minute.
Caffeine 80mg in last 40 minutes
Sodium 3-4g IIRC
Run
Settle into my own rhythm on RPE, and ignore a pro male overtaking me like Iām dust. Wait 5 minutes to look at watch, and happy to see have set off at 4:22 first km.
Start walking aid stations and pace settles 4:30-4:35 for first 20km, but been overtaken 3 times putting me 4th. Canāt stay with them, but happy Iām running well so focus on my instrinsic goals, and keep an open mind regarding the race that in ironman thereās always the chance some people will fade worse and the race might come back to me. I focus on what can I do now to reduce the last half fade and claw them back.
Heat, hydration and fuel management from the start: ice ice baby.
Ankle tendinopathy light aching within 2-3km, and light pain by 5-8km with a couple of give way moments during the race, but isnāt getting worse and Iām managing to mostly block it out.
Energy and hydration feels good, and get to halfway in 1:35. Even foolish enough to actually begin to believe might even-split for first time ever. But calves had been talking to me from ~15-18km and their complaints just got louder. Managed to increase effort to keep the 3rd 10km at 4:40/km staying with Steve McKenna when he lapped me, and happy and still focusing internally. Good self talk = I can pull out a good run, and can even still PB.
Starting to fade even worse at 30km, with total average pace at 4:37/km. Willing self to try keep the average at or under 4:40 but kept fading back towards 5 minute Kms, using everyone who overtook me to stay with for as long as I could. Knew I had the central energy/hydration/heat control/heart rate to go faster if I could lift legs, but calves and quads werenāt willing to maintain the longer strides for longer than a few minutes and I was truly in the ironman shuffle zone.
Mrs canāt believe how sat down and non-bouncy I looked, even from the very start in her eyes. But, Iām running. Iām not walking or stationary. And I can keep running. And so 9km becomes 8 which becomes 7, and I just need to get there. It dawnās on me that even with more fade Iām going to finish with something Iād have been overjoyed with beforehand considering injury.
Met an AGr at 3km to go whoād previously overtaken me, which was a big lift. Settle on his feet and gradually feels easier. That extra energy Iād kept trying to access was surfacing. He stops at final aid station and I overtake and suddenly find my stride. Very quicky see another age grouper whoād overtaken me on first lap. Feel Iām really running now, watch says back to 4:40 splits but feeling like theyāre 3:40s and legs feel like they can keep going. Realise that I might need a gap if I set off ahead of them both, and I try and storm to the finish. Built 30-60s gap but it wasnāt enough - finished 3rd on course but 5th for time due to rolling starts, only 30s behind 3rd place.
Wondering what could have beenā¦ I didnāt have a single split all day. Could I have accessed that final energy earlier if Iād known? Probablyā¦maybeā¦ But legs gave way post-finish and wouldnāt even keep me standing, so maybe not! Either way Iām not disappointed, and proud of what I did. I was down after NZ that I was becoming a quitter (subsequently attributed that to probably being ~10L fluid deficient) but not questioning my mental toughness this week. More inspired that I can race at this level.
AG Winner ran 2:52. I donāt think Iāll ever have that, but I still think I have a 3:05 marathon in me, but Iāve said that for 2-3 years now, so need to get healthy and put my money where my mouth is. But more importantly Iām still happy. Much happier to come 5th here and love all the training and feel intrinsically I raced well and beaten by better people, then 2nd at NZ and get main podium awards. But 2nd 30-34, 5th AG, and 17th overall is not a bad day at the office.
Speaking of which, Iām at the end of a 13 hour shift where Iām still using crutches, and lots of teasing about whoās the patient. But it was worth it. I hope. Otherwise Iāll be looking back in 9 months still failing rehab saying obviously I should never have raced 
And an even longer training summary to come 
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Top work @Chriswim
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Iām afraid @fruit_thief The summary is boring - a lot of aerobic volume, plus a very small amount of work above LT2, with typical sessions youād expect. You could scroll up to post #1060 for my training prep summary before NZ, and I did 95% the same this time with just a few tweaks. 3 IM in 18 month with a full block each is a great demonstration for consistency and just built on the fitness from the training blocks before.
Any questions might be more interesting, but Iāll try geek out some numbers, but itās more my mind dump to guide next year
The big summary difference this time is I did LESS work, with much more emphasis on recovery.
Overall Hours:
Final 18 weeks (not including race week)
Busso: 273hr = Average 15 hrs as 3:42/8:18/2:55
NZ: 291hr = Average 16:06 as 4/10/2
Main 8 weeks (ending 2 weeks to go)
Busso: 138hr = Average 17:15 as 4:08/9:50/3:16
NZ: 154hr = Average 19:18 as 4:10/11:30/3:40
SWIM
Essentially the same amount of training, 66 Vs 68 hours in the 18 weeks until race week (total session time) but with more intensity, and done in 57 rather than 64 sessions, so longer key sessions.
1x per week going over 6k, which would usually include intensity, plus other sessions with long intervals at IM + 70.3 efforts or continuous OWS.
I felt this really worked for me, but was a decision made mid-season once I was confident I was going really well and needed more from each session to create a stimulus for adaptation. Less sessions meant less time going to pool and getting changed = more free time and recovery.
Whilst I usually recommend for more sessions per week, I think this worked for me in my situation this year.
BIKE
8:18 hours per week for 18 weeks, compared to 9:50 before Busso.
Main difference was cutting out lower-yield sessions, eg no commuting. Slight increase in intensity as actually did some VO2 and FTP work, although still not much. In future Iād do more, and make other riding easier if needed.
Key session in the last 8 weeks was the long ride, usually 5-6 hours with long intervals at 70.3 and IM pace, dialling in position and 250-260W power.
10W more power than previous, but more focus on being more aero, maintaining the position to the end comfortably.
Really struggled with power on the TT bike at first but got there in the end. Massive gains into bike equipment but I sill feel behind - I rode in a normal road helmet, without calf sleeves, custom extensions etc.
RUN
Avg 2:55 per week for 18 weeks, compared to 3:16 before NZ
But this doesnāt tell the tale that Iāve managed good run consistency all year this year, running 1715km compared to a previous best of 1400km in calendar year. Kept it all easy running April to August (~5:00/km), then began to introduce tempo and threshold intensity (eg 4x10 around 3:55 with short recovery). End of October was feeling best Iāve ever felt, and felt on for 4:20km ironman pace, overdid it and got injured. Didnāt run properly all of November just some very slow walk-jog, and tried to get it through the race. Felt I really missed this least 5 weeks physically and mentally without most the specific long runs, and no simulation brick.
I responded really well to the tempo work, but I get injured so easily on running I need to be more careful.
Plus NZ build had one hpw gym, whereas none this time. Big mistake. Whilst Iāve felt gym brought too much fatigue in past, Iād like to try do heavy work early season and maintain light work in future/better movement patterns/injury prevention.
I did about 90 min per week active mobility.
Relatively this felt a lot easier training.
IMNZ in March my life on the outside of tri started spiralling a bit in Jan+Feb, with difficulties with visa and fear weād be kicked out of Aus, MSc deadlines, family visiting, and an eviction all at the same time as peak training in the summer heat.
Although I was hitting each key session, reassuring me at the time, in hindsight I was never adapting enough to make much progress in the final 8 weeks, and then got ill in race week.
So the focus was much more on recovery this time. āUndertrainedā but happy and healthy, rather than fit and f**ked. I even still enjoyed my job to the end, which is usually the big sign of fatigue.
Biggest factor to enable this has to be available time:
I donāt have children
I work rotas, whereas my fiancƩ typically works M-F
I now live 5-10 minute walk from work, saving huge amounts of time
I work 10 hour shifts, all either 12-10 PM or 1430-0030. This is a blessing and curse - gives me days off mid-week to do long stuff without compromising Mrs. Or even my midweek work days I can get decent training in before work, IF I can finish on time and sleep well enough to maintain quality.
I do have option for flexible working, but this time Iāve continued working close to full-time (about 35-40 hours per week for Sept to Nov) rather than taking time off in November to smash the hours. And put that extra money into the bike instead.
Some will talk of sacrifice, but it didnāt really feel like any. Squeezing in 10hours swim-run training over a 9 day holiday 9 weeks out was probably the only time I had to make an effort to start a session, which was then amazing in Fiji
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And if you can follow it, 3 IM build overlay
Cairns June 2022 in orange
NZ March 2023 in green
Busso December 2023 in yellow.
NZ and Busso graphs start still in the recovery phase from the race before before rebuilding.
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Loving that you are at the end of a 13 hour shift writing about your 8 hour ironman.
Iām at the end of an 8 hour shift and would be delighted with a 13 hour ironmanā¦
looking forward to digesting your posts properly at home in an hour or twoš
edit: Ok, read em & thanks for sharing. A little bit in awe, but will think of some Qās.
One thing - you say did a lot of aerobic volume - no doubt - but there also looks to be plenty of hard stuff on that screenshot too? What about swimming - wonder what % of that would you consider Z1/Z2? Just wondering if you uber-swimmers get VO2max adaptations mainly by lots of swimming hard in the pool? Or is there an equivalent type of session to the 90min easy run or the 4h Z1-2 bike?
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I know youāre a big city fancy Dr and Iāve never even played one on tv but HTF do you do that on the bike?
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Great write-ups and the training report. Run sounded like tough work but if you get the injury sorted Iād expect you could push on and find 10 minutes? Possibly a few minutes on the bike as well with a couple of kit tweaks by the sound of it.
The long bike rides with IM/70.3 sections sound like the key, well over race time with quite a bit at race pace, and more importantly on the race bike. Leaving you feeling good at the end of a 4:22 bike!
Overall podium is definitely there, would be interesting to see if\what a coach would change about your training or do you have one?
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On the aero bars two fingers in the neck isnāt so hard. Itās the counting I canāt do.
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I canāt imagine being able to pick up the pulses on the move.
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Suppose it depends on what weāre calling hard stuff/intensity.
In those last 8 weeks thereās 5 squad swims with some hard efforts, and one bike VO2 session, and then towards taper 2x bike sessions at FTP that are quite short intervals and a fairly āeasy-moderateā session overall, more just touching on the intensity to remind the body.
So ~7x sessions at/above LT2 in 8 weeks.
Thereās a lot of hard tempo work, what people might call Z3/grey zone definitely, and very non-polarised. But if I want to race all day at 250W, I believed in doing lots of work at 250-300W 
if I had more time to train then yes some of those 1-2hr bike z3 sessions would be more like 4 hours all well below LT1 and just enjoying the scenery.
As for swimming, I think thatās even harder again to make sure weāre all talking about the same thing. Lactate would be interesting to know if we all over-swim and do our easy intervals at z3-4.
But majority of those long sessions, eg the 6.2km OWS I was doing near weekly, or the 1km IMRP efforts had my HR ~130-140 (max is 180) and finishing the 6km feeling same as the start except for heavier arms.
So again Iād say itās pretty much only the 5x squad sessions that really had intensity in them.
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Assuming your Z3 is similar to mine Iād call that a competitive IM training zone TBH, itās where I did a lot of my training when I did the odd decent IM. Appreciate the coaches on here might disagree, but it worked for you here.
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I had the chance to do discounted lactate testing a few months ago but ultimately didnāt go ahead with it. Would have liked it for curiosity but still not convinced it would change what I do. Eg if LT1 was 240W or 260W, it wouldnāt change my perception of race power on RPE/training rides.
250W (race power) ~ 77% FTP, so probably calling Z3 everything up from there. Most the tempo training I was doing was closer to ~280-300W, more like a 70.3/olympic effort
Thatās why Iām soliciting advice from any stranger on the internet instead 
No I do work with a local coach from my club. Mostly consulting but Iāve worked with him for all 3x IM builds. Generally let him take the reins more for the last 2-3 months so I donāt have to think about setting sessions as I prefer being coached, but think that accountability/enjoyment/oversight is the main thing I get out of it currently rather than truly new ideas or cutting edge judgement.
Hence I messaged you a while back about Teesside based coaches to think about working with them for Busso to start a relationship for the future, but wasnāt to be.
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I am going for a final sub 9 push at Roth 2024, Barcelona or IM Italy would be faster, but if I get a place on TCR I will be too tired. Itās going to require a mega bike performance, I donāt think that I can hit the power numbers @Chriswim achieved, however 245w should be a realistic target, however, I need to work on aero position to ride around 4h30m
Training will involve a weekly zwift ride 2h30m+ at 270W+, during 2020/21 I was doing a lot more of these type of Zwift rides, and they translated into performance on the road, in 2022/23 I did hardly any, with more focus on longer distance, but much lower intensity
First big test will be Zurich Marathon - If I can go sub 2h55m at the end of April, I will be on track. A realistic IM pace for me is 20mins slower than stand alone marathon pace
I am not setting any massive swim goals, sub 1h10m is the target. I am booked into a long weekend spring swim camp and I need to work to strengthen my shoulder
Timing of Roth is good for TCR - hopefully I will be at peak fitness for both races
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Time to start trying to get some of this down in words before I forget it all.
Many of you will know that this was my second time in Copenhagen having raced there last year narrowly missing sub nine by 88 seconds. I had a really good day that day and sub 9 seemed on the cards right up until the last loop of the run. Iād had a bit of a calf issue going into the race and it pinged again right around the time I started the fourth lap. About a half mile later I saw my wife who yelled something about how I was right on target but I already knew at that point that it was over. No way was I going to be able to hold onto the required pace with such significant pain. I pushed it as hard as I was able to and crossed the line in 9.01:28. My wife told me that she was concerned that Iād be depressed having missed it by such a small margin but that wasnāt the case at all. It was still a four minute PB and I knew right away that on another day sub 9 was possible. Even before weād made it back to the UK I had already floated the idea of a return trip to Copenhagen and given that my wife would quite happily live there it was a relatively easy conversation. I had entered the 2024 race and we started planning a similar three week holiday there before weād even made it back to the ferry. I remember saying something at the time about how I knew it was possible and that it was just frustrating that Iād have to wait a further 12 months to do it.
12 months later we were back at North Shields getting the ferry to Amsterdam. The race was part of a three week road trip that saw us staying five nights in Germany, five nights at a summer house in Mon (rural) Denmark, five nights in Copenhagen and then weaving our way back via a similar route.
The training this year has gone pretty well. I kicked off the year with a sub 2.45 attempt at the Seville Marathon. Iād torn something in my hip in the weeks leading into the race which set me back a little. In the end, I went 2.49 after the hip issue flared up at mile 16 and I exploded spectacularly at mile 20. Still, it was a PB at age 47 and although I had to take a few weeks off running after this I felt that things were in a good place running wise and I managed to stay injury free February through to August.
Iāve ploughed a lot of time and effort into my swimming this year even getting some coaching and starting to swim with a group of triathletes on a weekly basis. Despite the effort there hasnāt been anything in the way of improvement in my pool times and going into the race it was the swim that I was most concerned about. Sub 9.required me to find an extra 88 seconds from somewhere so I was working off extremely tight margins. I knew that if I came out of the swim and my watch showed 1.05 or worse than it probably wasnāt going to happen.
I continue to tick off the final few taper sessions as the holiday vibes kicked in and having the family around really helped to distract me from the task ahead (in a helpful way). Copenhagen is a fantastic place for the race and I encourage anyone whoās thinking about it to get entered. Itās logistically extremely simple - even though it has a split transition ā and getting around the city or to the swim start either by the Metro or (as @chickenboy pointed out to me) by the electric bikes that you can hire on every street corner is easy. Might be worth keeping in mind that it has a 15hr 45min cut off which I think is the lowest Iāve ever come across.
My wife had entered the 418:4 triathlon they put on Friday evening and that was great to go and watch. You have people on 10K tri bikes competing against alongside people in shorts, T shirts and flip flops on their commuter bikes with baskets on the front (seriously). It left my kids massively inspired and saying they wanted to join triathlon clubs which is more than theyāve ever said after a day watching Ironman!
Race morning I felt calm and ready to go. In the past, with important races, I went into them with a ājust get the job doneā mindset and that was the case with this race. I arrived at the swim start in plenty of time, sorted the bike out and caught up briefly with Dave before I realised that Iād forgotten my timing chip. Cue 15 minutes of panicking trying to locate a replacement which meant that I didnāt get to make my final toilet stop of the morning and as I stood on the line I wondered whether that would come back to bite me later in the run.
They seem to play thunderstruck at all the races these days and as that familiar anthem rang out I was thinking about the seemingly endless weeks of consistent training that Iāve done. Thereās been nothing spectacular this year just week after week of roughly 14 hours (11 in the recovery weeks and 16 in some of the bigger weeks). Itās become increasingly clear to me over the last few years that the less I do the faster I seem to get. When I was younger and capable of recovering quicker I used to think that day after day of hard sessions would be the thing that got me fit. I used to go into Ironman races with a CTL high of around 135. Iām no longer physically capable of backing up those hard sessions like I used to, but the aging process has revealed an uncomfortable truth which is that I could well have been a lot better in the past had I done a lot less. These days my CTL tops out at about 120.
I put myself fairly near the front and was in the water about a minute also after the rolling start began. Right away I felt pretty decent and spent the whole swim managing to stay on the feet of decent swimmers. Itās the perfect swim for me, itās in the sea and itās likely to always be a wetsuit legal swim but because itās in a natural lagoon there are no currents or waves to deal with. The swim takes you under two bridges on the way out and you pass the same two bridges on the way back. It was going under these bridges that I could see how quickly I was moving and although I didnāt look at my watch I felt reasonably confident that things were going well.
As I hit the exit I looked down on my watch and was elated to see 1.01. I didnāt clock the 57 seconds that came after that. Even so, a sub 1.02 swim is the fastest I have ever gone, the best I could have hoped for and I knew at this point it was game on.
My bike was racked about 20 meters from the mount line and so my plan had been to run with my shoes from the swim exit and put them on at the bike rather than trying to do the flying leap, which never seems to save me very much time. I hadnāt realised that you werenāt allowed to do this and one of the officials called me back as I was running (shoes in hand) towards my bike. He told me that I wasnāt allowed to do this and had to put my shoes on at the changing area. I had to run back 25m or so, put the shoes on and then run back towards the bike, hobbling on my cleats. This meant my T1 time was 3.34 (32 seconds slower than last year as a result of the issue with the shoes which had wiped most of the gains Iād made in the swim). Still, I was leaving T1 20 seconds sooner than I had in 2023.
The previous year the weather had been misty and overcast for the first few hours of the bike. The first 20km or so take you up north up through Copenhagen. There are a lot of twists and turns in this section including some extremely narrow passages take you onto cycle paths. The previous year I had taken this extremely cautiously because of the weather but this year I pushed it considerably harder.
Right from the beginning, I was incredibly isolated on the bike, so much so that there were several times when I thought that Iād gone the wrong way. The marshals didnāt really seem prepared at this point and on at least two occasions I was directed onto the wrong side of the road. An official on a motorbike had to come up behind me and point out that I was on the wrong side of the tape. They must have realised that the Marshalls werenāt doing their job otherwise that couldāve easily been a DQ.
Once youāre through Copenhagen you get onto the coast road and here the road surface becomes as much better and you really start picking up speed. Still, I was extremely isolated most of the time and it felt more like Bolton than a āfastā European Ironman. Occasionally I would pass other riders and although there were a few groups, for the most part people seemed to be at least trying to maintain a legal distance.
My power at this point was exactly where I wanted it to be which was at a similar level to last year, but I noticed that the speed was slightly higher, perhaps result of the better weather. My legs werenāt feeling great, but I was able to maintain the power without too much discomfort and it wasnāt like I had anything to lose so I wasnāt about to play it safe at this point.
The bike course is kind of like a lopsided lollipop and after going up the coast you turn in land before heading further north and then back out to the coast again. The first part of the lollipop involves some hills and some rapid descents where the 54 tooth chainring really came into its own. The top of the lollipop takes you back towards the coast and along some, country lanes which are much more reminiscent of UK roads and I did find myself wondering how this course manages to produce such fast times. This part of the course seemed much longer this year than it had last year (it was actually the same) and I found myself feeling desperate to get back to the less technical coastal road.
As soon as I got back to the start of the loop for the second time I started passing slower riders who were still on their first loop. I wasnāt struggling but the power wasnāt coming easy and having the motivation of chasing and catching these slower riders really helped. I kept forcing nutrition in without too much of a problem so I felt confident I wasnāt going to blow up.
it was at the top of the lollipop on the second loop where an absolutely massive pack came past me. This lot were definitely not riding illegal distance and it seem to be a very organised group. They came past me like I was standing still.
Iāll let them go and didnāt think too much about it. On the first loop I lost a bit of speed on the coast road when we hit a bit of a headwind. On the second loop, I noticed that the speed didnāt drop off so quickly and I suspect that passing the constant stream of slower riders on their first lap provided some significant protection from the wind.
As I passed the turn off for the looped section and started heading back to Copenhagen the average speed was still 24.2 miles per hour, even though the power had dropped a bit further than I wouldāve liked it to. Here it was head down arse up and just trying to get back to T2 as quickly as possible. You lose a bit of speed as you come back into the city as there are some of the difficult twists and turns to negotiate again but I saw 4.36 on the Garmin as I came off the bike (this was two minutes 48 quicker than last year) and I knew that provided I could run the marathon in a similar time to last year then sub 9 was still on.
T2 was pretty nifty and I was out in 2:07 (18 seconds quicker than last year). They have bike catchers taking the bikes off you as you arrive so this definitely makes for a quick transition.
in 2023 I had flown through the first two laps and felt almost in a kind of flow state. That was definitely not the case this year and whilst I was still running quickly it didnāt feel easy or comfortable at all. Theyād changed the run route slightly this year, which meant that there were even more cobbled sections which felt tough even early on.
Right away I started trying to ensure the nutrition kept going in although at the back of my mind I was remembering the missed toilet stop earlier in the morning and wondered when that would come back to bite. I let myself run at whatever pace feels comfortable for the first 2 miles and then try to settle into something more realistic after that. Both my first miles were under seven minutes and straight away I knew I had to slow things down. This was helped by a few little hills towards the far end of the course. I had hated these hills last year and made a plan with myself straightaway that I would go extremely slowly up these inclines (and cobbled sections) almost turning them into a treat ā a moment where I could get some rest rather than having to put out huge effort. This worked really well and whilst other runners around me would gain time on the hills, I was soon catching them on the other side.
The weather was perfect in that I didnāt really notice it at all. Last year the rain and mist of the morning gave way to blue skies and 22 degrees for the run. This year the blue skies of the morning transformed into to an overcast afternoon. Iād guess the temperatures probably didnāt go above 20.
It was on the second lap where my guts started objecting to the situation and at the far end of the lap I made the call to dash into one of the porta loos. Frustratingly, having pulled the suit down the need to go simply vanished. I yanked the suit back up and over my shoulders and headed back out having lost about 90 seconds. Even so, the guts behaveed themselves for the rest of the race so perhaps it wasnāt wasted time after all.
In 2023 the flow state quickly vanished on the third lap and I knew this year that the third lap would be the make or break point and to my delight, this actually felt like the easiest of all the laps. I was riding the ups and downs of my energy system pushing the pace when I felt good (normally a few minutes after a swig of Coke) and giving myself time when things did not feel so good. Iād seen my wife a few times by this point and I seemed to be yo-yoing between fourth and fifth position. That being said, I wasnāt really interested in my position in the field at all. I wasnāt racing this race I was pacing it.
I hadnāt looked at the overall time at all on my watch yet and had been going by the rudimentary maths that Iād been doing in my head and looking at the clock in the square by the finish (that you pass on each lap) I was pretty confident that provided I could hold my pace that sub 9 was definitely on.
Onto the fourth lap and I kept everything as it was including slowing down on the cobbled and elevated sections and grabbing what I needed at almost every aid station.
As I hit mile 24 there was a slight downhill and I decided to use this opportunity to try and put in a relatively fast mile so that I could enjoy the final one and take it all in. I hit 7.10 for that mile so didnāt feel too bad about easing off the pace for the final one - I even stopped to grab a handful of Maurten to shove in my pockets (had to make sure Iād got my moneyās worth) before the finish.
There was a guy who seemed determined to pass me around this section and I guessed that he was in my age group. I had little interest in racing at this point knowing that the job was almost done. I let him go.
As I hit the carpet, I could see my name come up and 8.57 was the time. The family were there and I made sure to stop to give them a hug before heading to the finish line elated to walk under that arch seeing that time next to my name.
Turns out that guy had been in my age group and he took the fourth spot, nine seconds ahead of me. Both he and I however were both about 10 minutes off the podium. It was an insanely competitive field this year. As I mentioned in the post after the race, last year my 9.01 was good enough for fourth in my age group and 39th overall. This year my 8.57 got me fifth and the age group and 75th overall. in total, 85 guys went under nine hours this year.
As I was waiting for a massage I was talking to a guy who had done this as his first Ironman and he too had gone under nine hours. Another guy I know on Strava had won the 18 to 24 age group going 8.14 in the processā mental stuff. Iām perhaps the opposite of the guy Iād been talking to in the massage queue. This was my 17th Ironman finish ā Iāve trained for 19 having DNFād at Triathlon X in 2016 (injury prevented me from starting the run) and at Ironman Wales in 2017 after crashing badly on the bike in the appalling weather .
Itās now four days since the race and I donāt think itās really sunk in yet.
The first time I heard about triathlon was in 2007. I been training to do my first marathon in Berlin but got the first of many stress fractures as I was doing the training. In the months that followed my brother-in-law gave me a triathlon magazine and suggested that I do that instead of marathons as a way of minimising the running. I remember looking through that magazine with my shin in an ice pack and reading something about a race in Hawaii. I showed that article to my wife and even though I was saying something about how crazy it was, there was something in the back of my mind that told me that I might want to do that one day. I ended up buying my first road bike the following year and did my first marathon (Berlin) in 2009 staggering over the line with yet another stress fracture in a time of 3.42. I did my first triathlon in 2009 and then my first Ironman in 2012. Very quickly, Kona became my primary motivation and I was fortunate enough to qualify in my fourth Ironman in Bolton 2015. Racing in Hawaii that October was one of the defining moments of my life and to this day I still think about that experience on an almost a daily basis. In the months after returning from Hawaii I felt deflated ā even depressed. Having achieved what felt like such a momentous goal I wasnāt sure what would come next.
There then followed several years of lackluster Ironman performances ā my heart wasnāt really in it. What I really wanted to do was to go back to Hawaii. I qualified again at Bolton in 2019 but even though I went to the awards ceremony intending to take the slot I decided against it at the last moment recognising that my wife was right in her assertion that a second visit would never match up to the first. Later that year I went to Barcelona and surprised myself by going 9.05. Iād never consider the possibility of sub 9 up until that point.
Covid then intervened and after more lackluster performances at Portugal and St George, I then managed to win my age group twice in a row at Wales 2022 and then Bolton 2023 which really got the fire going again.
Sub 9 seemed like the last logical goal and having achieved it Iām not sure what the future holds in the long term. In the short term, my plan is to race Barcelona again this year (I had entered to give me a second bite at the sub 9 cherry had Copenhagen not come off) with a view to qualifying for Nice 2025. Nice would be a new experience and considerably cheaper than going all the way back to Hawaii. Itāll also be 10 years since I qualified for and raised Kona and this feels like a good way of bringing down the curtain on my Ironman career. Provided I can finish both races (and qualify) that will be a 13 year Ironman career and a total of 19 completed races ā I think thatās probably enough.
Exercise, training and the lifestyle that goes around all of that is such an ingrained part of my life now that I anticipate that Iāll hold onto most of that even if Iām not training for Ironman. I canāt see myself giving up triathlon entirely. I think the half distance and maybe the new T100 series will allow me to keep my hand in the game without having to commit to the long rides that are the cornerstone (and logistically most difficult) of Ironman training.
I learned long ago that for me at least, the pleasure of the planning, preparation and training far outweighs the satisfaction of completing the goal and I know that this is what Iāll miss most if I do decide to call it a day after Nice. Youāll have noticed from my first marathon time in Berlin that Iām not a naturally āgiftedā athlete. What I love about Ironman in particular is that it rewards the time investment. I love that I have continued to develop and get faster despite getting older.
This forum (and particularly TT 1) have been such an important part of my development. I remember reading the sub 3 marathon thread and the āaward winningā sub 10 thread beginning to end (they were both about 300 pages long) when I first tried to go sub 3 and sub 10. So for you stat geeks - here are the bits of data from my race that might be of interest.
Bike FTP is currently 333W. That being said I use a left side Stages power meter which flatters my numbers a bit. Iād guess that this would be around 315-320W on a more accurate meter.
On the sub 9 day I had a NP of 232W and AP of 224W. Last year my biking was at a similar level but Iād managed 245 NP for the race. Although my numbers were down my hr was at the top of the ceiling Iād allowed for. Last year Iād averaged 127bpm for the ride and this year it went to 128bpm.
I ride a (these days) pretty modest 2018 Cevelo P3. I couldnāt believe how many 10k superbikes there were on Sunday.
Breakfast was porridge and honey about 2 hours before go time.
I had a PH gel (30g) 20 mins before the start
I consumed huge amounts of calories and carbs on the bike. 16 scoops of Tailwind (yes the rumours are true) and x3 PH Caffeine Gels. I also had x2 1500 PH tablets in the Tailwind mix I had with me (I sweat a lot). This equates to about 106grams of carbs per hour. I have tried this in training but have always struggled to hold down as much as that so it was a bit of a gamble.
I also had two bottles of water from the aid stations so probably about 3.5 litres of liquid in total on the bike. I had x2 wees on the bike and one on the run so probably got the hydration about right.
On the run I was trying to get down 2 Maurtens per lap but my guess is that it was more like 1.5 per lap. On top of that I was hitting the coke at approximately every other aid station. I kept this up for the duration.
If you got this far thanks for reading
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Tailwind 
. Awesome job fella, race & report 
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