Thank you Jeremy for the wonderful race recap and helpful insights. This is what I was looking for as this can be a huge help for others as they head into their race day (soon enough)!
The swim at IMLP is just fantastic and it sounds like you were able to enjoy the cable and lessen the amount you needed to sight. Great work! And now you know that you can self seed yourself a little faster next time. That said, in this situation it might have been better to be more conservative than aggressive. So no harm done. Just a good lesson learned.
As for the bike, yes, cycling is all saddle time. There is really no way to escape this. Since IMLP offers one of the most challenging bike courses out there, you will know whether you put in the amount of training needed or not and if you rode enough hills. However another good lesson learned here and an important one for those still preparing for IMMT. We knew you had a heavy travel schedule for your work. So it sounds like you really managed this as best as you could. It’s called life so it’s all about balance!
The volunteers and spectators really do make this a great course and they do help move you along for the run. Walking the hills is usually the best strategy anyways because it’s all about not spiking your HR and keeping your HR as low as possible. If you spike it on the hills, you must get it back down asap. However most athletes do not. This is when it remains high and HR drift takes over. At this point, you have no choice but to slow down. This is why the run/walk strategy always tends to be the faster IM marathon strategy…and fast walking the hills is the key to it! So awesome work here too!
It sounds like you have an excellent plan for 2018 and 2019! And if you can do it all with your wife, this makes the experience just that much more rewarding. Awesome work Jeremy! Keep up the great work and life balance! 🙂
