Ironman Copenhagen 2023 Race Recap

Summary

I had very high expectations for Ironman Copenhagen (IM-COP) -- to go under 9-hours, but fell short.   Travel this summer and being at altitude made training & tapering difficult.  The IM-COP bike course does not suit my skills.  I did achieved a few important goals, including a marathon PR, but know I can do more.  Another important take-away is that I believe the new pacing plan works well.  Lastly, I got a coveted – and scarce -- slot to the Ironman World Championships in Kona.

Background

Better Late Than Never: One does typically write a race recap nearly 6-weeks post-race.  However, it took a long time to recover from the race, unpack from a nearly 5-week trip, and then I got right back into training.  However, I am writing it now because it will help me plan for the next one, which is in 18-hours from now!

I have a single goal for this season: to break 9-hours in an Ironman.  I have been after this goal since getting close (9:11) in 2016 at IM-Boulder.  Of course, 7-years have passed since that performance.  To say much has occurred during that period is a gross under-statement.  However, I was at a lifetime peak fitness in 2021.  While I am surely no longer a spring chicken, I believe I still have the potential of faster Ironman racing.

I approached  IM-COP as a train-through race, which meant a short taper and then back into training as fast as the body would allow to then race again six weeks later at Ironman Barcelona (IM-BARC).  I also tested a new bike+run pacing strategy (for me) that would theoretically minimize the total race time.

Life

It’s impossible to separate training from the rest of life, which has changed a great deal in the last year.  In fact, 54 weeks prior to IM-COP we had moved to Portugal with our two young kids and restarted nearly every aspect of our lives.  I was able to start running pretty quickly after moving, but biking & swimming took a bit more time to get back into a routine.  During the first few months in Portugal, our family got ill several times; I think Christine was ill more time than healthy.  The bugs got me too a few times.   So, it was not until December that I was able to start building fitness again.  Of course, my new friend Nuno Neves (https://www.instagram.com/n24coaching/) was instrumental in helping me get started by connecting me to his great network and showing me different bike & run routes.

Diet & Nutrition

Since arriving in Portugal, my diet has been and remains sub-standard.  I am drinking too much alcohol and consuming too many carbs.   As for during-activity nutrition, I have been using mostly the products from 226ers, as I no longer have access to First Endurance products in Portugal.  For the longer rides, I have been fueling normally and enjoying the pastries & coke; I have not been doing any low-carb restriction rides.  However, many of the indoor sessions have been in the morning and, as a result, have been fasted.  My long runs have typically been started fasted, but then taking in ~200kCal during the last 8km.
Season Planning & Racing

I believe that half-iron-distance (HIM) racing is significantly helpful in the preparation for Ironman racing.  I had some reasonable success early in the year in the M55-59 AG finishing 1st in one and 3rd in two HIM races.  What was surprising to me was that I set a new swim PR, with really minimal swimming (3x per week @ steady 2000m).  My biking was far below my historical performance, but improved through the early season.  My running performance was fair, but not representative of my training.

I then targeted two late-season races that offered theoretically to opportunity to go under 9-hours: IM-COP (August 20th) & IM-BARC (October 1st).  I chose those races, in particular based on the number of people going under 9-hours for each and their relative proximity to my home-base.  I also chose them because they were close enough apart that I could carry IM-COP endurance into and actually sharpen for a few weeks for IM-BARC.

IM-Specific Training

After getting through the early-season races in May, I shifted my focus to building endurance on the bike and maintaining my long run consistency.  Historically, most of my IM-specific bike rides were limited to – at most – 2x 5-hour IM-effort rides per week.  I decided it was time to get some real bike fitness by increasing the ride duration.  I extended my long rides from 4-hours, to 5, 6, 7, then peaked at a monster ride of 8+ hours, with a huge amount of climbing, and finishing in 40*C heat!  It should be noted that while I was attempting to train more specifically for IM racing, given the roads and terrain in the Algarve, riding my race (TT) bike was not an option.  As a result, I trained on the rode-bike, usually in hilly terrain.  I did maintain a number of indoor sessions as well, which is where most of my intensity was performed.

Summer US visit

We had planned a trip to visit family and friends in the US for several weeks, from early-July through late August.  Our itinerary had us in LA for 4-days, then Colorado for almost 4-weeks, the back to Europe through LA.  I was looking forward to that time to be able to focus on training in a familiar location, especially the long-steady bike rides on the gently rolling terrain Colorado has to offer.  I was also excited to be able to get some altitude training (~1650m), which would be a nice boost when racing in Copenhagen.

Because of the travel, I was off the bike and out of the pool for 8-days and which meant I had to focus all my training on running during that period.  While that is not bad, it’s not ideal either.  My overall training load dropped, but my fatigue was pretty high.

It wasn’t until we got to Colorado in mid-July that I was able to get back on a TT bike – a new bike at that.  However, in the first week, I was able to  get 10-hours of aero-position riding on two back-to-back days.  I was surprised at how the body handled that dramatic change.  The only issue was a very stiff neck that seemed to resolve after about 3-weeks of consistent riding in the aero-position.  I was also pleased with the amount of power I was able to produce in that position at altitude – at least during the first few days.

The first several days after arriving in Colorado, my run pace and bike power seemed unaffected.  It felt harder, but I was still able to work.  The second week got much harder and I had to back off my expectations and focus on the time and the perceived effort.  Even into the third week, my run pace and power were still below what I had expected.  As a result, I could not get much intensity work done.  My Garmin watch reported dropping VO2max for both bike and run the entire time I was in the US.

For the most part, I was able to get the volume of training in that I had planned.  In fact, I was recording likely the highest Chronic Training Load (Training Peaks; CTL; total, including swim) I have in my history.  I say, “likely” because the week away from the bike dropped the CTL pretty significantly (from 81 to 68), which is really stupid.  Including running, my CTL went from 173 to 159; and I was quite fatigued from running!  One does not lose fitness that fast.  However, after getting back on the bike, I was able to ramp to a CTL of 183 in ~20-days, which was my peak 9-days before IM-COP.

In addition to the altitude and training stress, there was also a bit of family drama, which necessitated a move to new lodging 5-days before leaving Colorado.  Having to re-pack, find a rental car, and new housing was not what I needed during the peak-week of my training.

Training Specifics

It should be noted that this entire season, I have not written a training plan.  People who know me, understand that I love to plan and then execute against that plan.  This year, I went more off how my body was feeling and knowing what it needed.  Of course, I did use TrainingPeaks to figure out overall load and the balance between the disciplines. 
The peak CTL of 183 shown above was comprised of:
    • Swim: 32 (17%)
    • Bike: 80 (44%)
    • Run: 71 (39%)

Biking load was steady from early July as can be seen below.  What is remarkable is there were at least 10-rides with higher Training Stress Scores (TSS) as compared to the the IM-COP bike, which was the plan.  Throughout the year (except in the final 5-weeks when away from home), I had some key indoor sessions, including:
    • Torque Intervals (~1:40): 4x 20-min @ 60RPM & ~92% of FTP
    • VO2max intervals (~1:15): 30x 1-min @ 108% FTP
    • Lactate Flushing (~1:30): 6x (1-min @ VO2max, 2-min @FTP, 4-min Tempo, 3-min recovery)
    • Recovery Rides (-2 hours): cap HR @ 120BPM

Because biking I the Algarve is more about time or climbing, I measure it volume in hours per week, was pretty consistent at 8:49 from mid-May to mid-August.

While in Colorado, I was able to do some structured aerodynamic testing to ensure the position I had for the new bike was optimal for IM-COP.  If there is interest (send me a note), I will document my finings more thoroughly.  Essentially, I did two out & back sections on three different days; each with either the aero extensions slammed (low) or up all the way (6cm higher).  Two of the three runs showed the upper position was actually faster and a lower CdA.  But the one I trusted – with an aero helmet – showed the opposite.  So, I went with the slammed configuration fo IM-COP.

Running is where I have maintained the greatest amount of consistency over the last year, in terms of number of runs per week, which was typically 4x.  I was also pretty consistent in doing one long run per week, and was already running 32k/20-miles in January.  In fact, I did 19x 20-mile runs before IM-COP!  That is a new record!  In addition to the consistent long runs, I was doing a speed session every week, 2-days after the long run.  That session was essentially 6x (500m @ VO2max, 2km @ Threshold, 500m recovery).  I average about 72km of running per week in the several weeks before IM-COP.

Oh yeah...I almost forgot to discuss swimming :)  Swimming took a back-seat during most of this year, but it does not seemed to have resulted in poor race performance.  To the contrary, I swam 29-minutes (a PR) for a HIM-distance race in April.  As mentioned, most of my swims were short-course 25m – just swimming steady 2x 1000m a few times per week.  Including the early-season races and better access, I have had many more open-water swims than prior years.

Peak, Travel, and Taper

As previously mentioned, IM-COP was intended to be a train-through race, which means a short taper.  The short taper allows for a faster time to return to training at a high load.  Not only was it short, I also tried a gentler version of the Norwegian taper.  If you’re not familiar, check-out Gustav Iden & Kristian Blummenfelt’s peak for Kona-22: https://triathlonmagazine.ca/personalities/world-champs-taper-gustav-iden-and-kristian-blummenfelt-complete-40-km-race-tempo-run-6-days-before-kona/

Basically, they did the full-distance swim & bike 7-days out, then a 70k bike + full tempo marathon the next day – 6-days out!  My peak was a bit gentler: 10-days out I swam nearly full distance, biked 164km; the next day, I rode 70km and ran 25km at tempo effort.  I timed this peak to correspond with my travel the next day to LA, and then the day after to Europe.

Of course, nothing ever goes to plan!  The flight to Europe was delayed three times (costing is $2000 out of pocket – thanks Norse Atlantic Airlines; you suck!).  So, we arrived a day later than planned.  During the 4-days of travel & delays, I was only able to get a single 10k run.  Then, once in Copenhagen, I was intimidated by being in the city center with regard to riding.  During the last 9-days of the taper, I got 2 rides in one being only 30-minutes.  I was able to get a total of 3 runs during that period and a single open-water swim at the venue.  Essentially, what was intended to be a short, gentle taper became much more truncated than I had wanted.  As may be seen in the Performance Management Chart above, my Training Stress Balance (TSB) was a +93 race morning.

Pacing Plan

One of the strategic things I wanted to test in IM-COP was a new pacing plan.  Being tired of running short of my capabilities and considering the criticism of over-biking, I wanted optimize the total energy allocated between the bike & run.  Alan Couzens’ has a great article (https://alancouzens.com/blog/run_power_pacing.html), which I used to help create my pacing plan.  Using BestBikeSplit and my historical IM performances, I was able to create the following pacing scenarios.

I was planning on a 1:05 swim and 6-minutes for T1+T2, which is the 1:11 at the start of each row.  Then, using BBS I estimated the split associated with 210 – 226 Watts.  I started at 210W because that is what I trained at at altitude.  Then, I used my best run performance historically (IM-Boulder 2016), where I ran at an Intensity Factor (% of threshold, IF) of 95.6% for 20-miles.  (Yes, I know it seems ridiculously high, but my lactate run pace was measured in the lab in 2016 at 7:10 min/mile.)  Of course, I am assuming I can run the remaining 6.2-miles at the same pace, but if properly motivated, it may be possible.  Right?  Future plans will use the actual full marathon split of 7:40/mile, which is an IF of 0.935.  That IF results in a run power, which is weighted-averaged with the bike power to give an overall power, which needs to be at or below my historical ~230Watts.

While the optimum pacing strategy comes from a power of 222Watts, I wanted to ride with the lowest power possible that allowed me to go under 9-hours; thereby allowing more confidence I could run to my potential.  Thus, I selected the following pacing plan:
    • Bike: 212Watts (average)
    • Run: 4:36/k pace

It should be noted that I changed the plan several times in the few days leading to the race, mostly because I could not imaging running that fast.

Race Report

In the few days prior to the race, I tried to reduce fiber in hopes of minimizing the need to use the porta-potty during the race.  Other than that, the diet was typical for me.  Because the transitions were in two locations, we had to drop our run bags the day before the race; and we would not have access race morning.  Well, I forgot to add my nutrition to the run bag.  (I cannot tolerate the fructose in Gatorade; so I rely on my own nutrition.)

Race morning, I woke at ~4am so that I could finish my breakfast (banana + 2x PB&J sandwiches on white hamburger buns + coffee) 2-hours before race start.  I was planning to ride the metro to the closest station to the swim start, which I had done two days prior.  I gave myself perhaps 15-minutes of extra time, allowing me to get to transition 1-hour ahead of the race start.  However, as the Metro arrived it was clear there was a problem – it was PACKED so full of people, the doors would not close. 

After three attempts at the doors closing, the automatic system halted and required technicians to come reset it.  I was fortunately standing near a guy who spoke Danish and was translating for folks around.  He seemed to know what was happening.  Then, after the announcement of the tech service, he got off the Metro; I followed.  He was with his girlfriend, who was helping carry things and navigate.  The plan was to catch a bus and then walk the rest.  We had a nice chat while walking; I learned he was a local and this was his first Ironman.  He suggested that I could put my run nutrition in Special Needs and access it early-on, as that station was supposed to be at km-1.  Smart dude!

We arrived 45-minutes later than planned, which meant I had 30-minutes to get through final prep, including the porta-potty.  While it was a but rushed, I was able to get to the swim queue in a reasonable amount of time.

Swim

Plan: 1:05  /// Actual: 1:05
I seeded in the 1:05-1:10 group, knowing I would overtake many of those folks, who typically over-estimate their swim split.  The rolling start was calm and I made it to the first buoy without any contact whatsoever.  On the way out, I was able to find some feet and draft for ~15-min.  However, I lost contact near the turn-around.  This was the only point in the swim where it was a bit congested.  Then, the water got so shallow (1.5-meters) that the bottom sediment was stirred-up and made visibility difficult.  I kept the pressure on, steady to the end in open water.  As I exited the water and looked at the time, I was amazed – right on schedule!

Bike

Plan: 212Watts / 4:35 /// Actual: 202AVG, 210NP, 4:51
In T1, I shoved one of my nutrition bottles down front of the tri-suit but maybe not enough, leaving a small gap at the collar.  The, at the mount line I dropped the bike likely because the front end was heavier than I am used to, with the hydration and nutrition bottle.  

Getting through town was slow and circuitous. There were many potholes, sharp turns, wet roads due to the overnight rain, and low-light.  At some point, I had to hop a curb because I did not take a corner tight enough.  There was also a z-turn from one bike path to another about 2-meters apart.  Frankly, this part of the course was quite frustrating.  On the positive side, I got to see Christine sometime during this part of the course; she was out for a run, getting lost and found herself watching part of the race!  As I reached the north end of town, I looked at my watch and my power was way down near 187Watts; I could just not ride to plan.

Once out of town, I was hoping to be able to race to plan and make up some ground.  So, I focused on increasing the power, but keeping it steady.  However, because of the low power in the beginning of the ride I already had a larger than desired gap between average and normalized power (NP).  Because of the gap, I decided to ensure my NP (not AVG) was my target: 212Watts.

Somewhere near 30km, I removed visor to improve visibility – the sky was overcast and light still dim.  I ended up leaving it off for remaining part of ride.  I checked split time at 60k & found I was 20-min slower than plan. Checked again at 90k with the same finding. I figured everyone was slow, but I would keep to the pacing plan.

On the northwest part of the course, I counted at least 30 people on the side of the road repairing flats.  I’ve never seen anything like this.  I also saw one crash, one ambulance, and an uncountable number of “CAUTION – SLOW” signs.  Are you freaking kidding me?  The road was wet, narrow, and had many, many turns.  I was not happy.
Riders thinned-out significantly after the turn for the loop (about 150k). It would be many minutes before seeing another rider. I passed about 2-4 riders along the return 

Nutrition:
    • First 90k: EFS Drink with 6-scoops (600kCal)
    • Last 90k: EFS Pro with 14 scoops (~600kCal) + 1x scoop Pre-race
    • Overall: 250kCal/hr

Assessment:
    • I rode the course to the best of my ability; riding safely, but as quickly as I could.  I maintained aero-position whenever not climbing
    • I adapted to the technical nature of the course by pacing off NP and did not over-ride
    • I think the course was likely 10-minutes slower because of the winds through town and all the slowing in the northwest side
    • It was likely another 10-minutes slow because my average power was 10Watts lower than plan

Run

I started the run feeling pretty good.  I was trying to relax, but my pace was much higher than I had expected; it was quite comfortable running at 4:30/km.  I was trying to keep the pace closer to 4:40, but really just going off feel.  

Because I started the run without my nutrition, I started taking “Coke” from the first aid station, while looking for Special Needs to grab my nutrition.  I Call it “Coke” because someone had decided – at the race-director level, likely – to dilute the soda with water 50% (let’s call it “doke”).  So, while I was taking two cups at each aid station, it was just not enough.  So, I continued with this “doke”, while looking for Special Needs.  Loop-1 done...where is Special Needs?

Even though Special Needs was no where to be found, I kept running well, controlled, and comfortable.   Pacing became a bit easier on the 2nd loop; I supposed because I was slowing a bit.  I think it was in the third loop that I finally found Special Needs and got my nutrition.  I ditched one of my flasks, but kept the one with Pre-Race.

Loop-3 still felt reasonably comfortable.  At this point, my average pace was 4:41/km, which was definitely a PR.  It started to get harder in the 4th loop and I knew I was on track for a run PR; so, I did not push it.  I did not want to blow-up and focused on maintaining the effort.

Overall, the run pacing was like:
    • Loop-1: relaxed, trying to control pace
    • Loop-2: relaxed, able to control pace
    • Loop-3: relaxed, able to keep pace
    • Loop-4: harder, focused on same effort

Nutrition:
    • First 23km: “doke” (diluted coke)
    • Last 19k: Flask with 10x scoops EFS Pro (400kCal) + 1x scoop Pre-Race + doke
    • Overall: ~275kCal/hr

Assessment:
    • My pacing was OK, but could be better
    • My nutrition strategy was sub-par and likely caused a fair amount of the fade in pace
    • Overall, I ended up running at an intensity factor of 0.88, which is high, but not what I had planned

Overall

I finished in 9:23, well shy of my goal of 9-hours.  I placed first in the AG M55-59, some 20-minutes ahead of #2.  Surprisingly, it was the run that gave me that gap.

Of course, winning the AG means one has the opportunity to race in the World Championships, returning next year to Kona, Hawaii.  It will be 6-years since I was last there.  Getting a slot these days (for 2024) is very difficult, with only 20 total for all age groups given at IM-COP.  One needs to win the AG to get a slot now.

After finishing the race, sleeping on it, and discussing with my family I had decided NOT to take the slot to Kona.  There were a few reasons for that decision: my family was not interested in going – it’s a huge trip from Europe, during the school term; I have been 5-times before and when I go again, I want it to be for the AG win – and I did not believe my performance was at that level.  However, on my walk to the awards ceremony, I changed my mind; and at this moment, as I write this, I am glad I did.  I understand my family’s perspective and they support me making the trip (alone).  But, I have my own goals that I must follow.

Now, I have a year to maintain my bike fitness and become a better swimmer and runner.