Ironman Mt Tremblant - Post-race Navel-Gazing

Warning: this post is entirely self-absorbed and really for my own reference... feel free to read it (it's out in public after all!) but my apologies in advance if you get nothing out of it!

First off, my Stravas: the bike and the run.

Swim

2009:  1:32:12 (2314/2595)
2014:  1:53:04 (2166/2289) (bottom 6%...)

Wow, over 20 minutes slower.  I didn't focus on the swim, but my pool swims were just as fast as they had been back in 2009.

The water was definitely choppier in Mt. Tremblant vs Penticton (where I did by 2009 Ironman) but I didn't feel that bad.  But results don't lie - that was a really, really bad swim... only 123 people did worse!

There was a bit of a current and I did struggle to stay along the buoys, so it could be part of the reason.  I know other people who were disappointed with their swims (but they were only ~10 mins off their target times) so could be a combination of lack of preparation and the conditions.

Bike

2009:  6:50:34 (1937/2595) - 26.3km/h
2014:  6:16:44 (998/2289) - 28.4km/h (top 44%!)

Overall placing after the bike: 1426/2289

Almost 35 minutes faster, on what I thought was a tougher bike course.  I'm in much better bike shape overall, I really focused on it but just in general over the years I've seen a lot of improvement.  Nice to be faster than most of the people out there on the bike!

Loop one average was 28.9km/h, loop two was 28.0km/h, so some fading, but never stopped passing people (and rarely got passed myself).  I felt the worst around 150-160km, on the road back into town.  It's where I felt some pretty serious fatigue setting in, before that I had been pushing pretty well.  The final climbs on the out-and-back were leg burners, but since I was passing people it felt OK.  Maybe that was a bit deceiving.

Run

2009:  5:20:24 (1459/2595) 
2014:  4:30:30 (921/2289) (top 40%!)

Dropped almost an hour and moved way up the charts!  Again I have to credit bike fitness - I didn't focus much at all on my running, a couple runs a week, didn't do a whole lot of long runs... but when you start fresh it changes everything.  It's not a real run anyway, more of a shuffle and dodge!

Loop 1: 2:08:27 (6:08/km)
Loop 2: 2:21:44 (6:43/km)

I felt really good coming off the bike, but despite trying to hold back I eventually hit that point where it was really tough.  On the first lap I didn't walk much, other than the odd steep hill (especially on the way back).  On the second lap I walked all the uphills and short walks through aid stations.  For the most part I never hit that wall where your legs just stop running on you for no reason, I managed to keep even a slow run going outside of the ups and aid stations.

Overall

2009:  13:57:55 (1689/2595)
2014:  12:54:58 (1159/2289) (top 50% more or less)

Between when I came out of the swim and the finish I passed over 1000 people.  Psychologically that helped me a lot in the race, always moving forward with people in front to chase.  Ultimately I had the endurance and just got better as the day went on as others faded - that feels wonderful.