Ryan Tarrant Ironman Training

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Eagleman Reflection

Instead of writing this reflection, I decided to do a video post from my drive home

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Princeton 71.8 ... I mean 70.3

Wow, what a race! My goal was to break the 5 hour mark and what a close race that was...

Official time: 5:02:49 (for 71.8 miles). The race officials said the bike course was 57.5 miles instead of the typical 56 miles. With that in mind I took it upon myself to do the math as if it were a 70.3 and low and behold 4:58:37 for the 70.3 distance... I'll take it!

Previous PR (personal record) was a 5:26:45 at Mooseman in 2012.

In the Princeton race I finished 15th of 156 in my age group (top 10% AG); 114th overall of 1943 who started the race (top 6% overall)

Much owed THANKS goes to:

Barbie Tarrant for all of her support in training, the Christmas gift (power meter), keeping me sane from training through race day, doing some training workouts with me, and putting up with my craziness. Whenever I see you on the course, I get excited and find a way to push myself a little more.
Cami Stock from Wild Blue racing who helped me with power analysis leading up to the race. (www.wildblueracing.com)
Philadelphia Bikesmith for always fixing my bike and having it ready to rock this race to my best bike split at this distance by 20+ minutes. Especially Max, Richie, and Sean who all took care of me for this race. Contrary to any potential rumors out there, no my bike did NOT explode on the course. (http://www.philadelphiabikesmith.com)
Raceday Wheels - inexpensive way to try race wheels and easy to use especially for people on 650s (http://www.racedaywheels.com/)
Martin Kreibe - For being one of the quickest wetsuit strippers... I mean peelers in the World. It was too fast it couldn't even be timed... easily less than 1/2 a second and I was into T1
T3 - everyone on the team keeps me motivated in the sport and always keeps the races fun. We had a great group to train with. There was a large amount of us at the race and we had an awesome BBQ after the race which other teams were most definitely jealous of. We just know how to have fun while reaching for our goals. (http://t3triclubphilly.com/)
Levi from Giant Bicycles for providing food for our post race BBQ
Philadelphia Fins especially Tom Uybarreta, Marty and the new coach Adam who in the last couple of months helped me find some of my old speed before the race when I was slacking on my own. (http://www.philadelphiafins.org/)
Dan Anders for taking awesome pictures as always (here's a link to his pictures if you see yourself, you can download them for free because he's just that awesome! http://dananders.smugmug.com/Sports/Ironman-Princeton-703-Septembe/ )
All supporters especially Barbie, Mom, and Dad. It is so much fun having you at the races and you guys make it out to sooo many (especially the long ones). Every time that I hear and see you, I'm able to give it a little more umph!
Volunteers - we had a number of them from our team, but in general without volunteers we wouldn't be able to do the races. Thank you for making these races possible
God - It may sound silly, but I did pray for a good clean race and for me to perform my best, and I believe I received some divine help; whether it was to relax me, or a little help, I must definitely thank God!

Alright now onto the race details...

NUTRITION

I almost nailed Nutrition perfectly for this race. I could have used some GU on the run, but other than that, I nailed it for me... changes that worked for me:

I ate a bowl of instant oatmeal 4 hours before my wave swim start - this seemed great!
I had 6 GUs (mixed with water in hammer squeeze bottle) all on the bike (I didn't have enough as I could have used one of these bottles with 2 or 3 GUs in it for the run).

The squeeze bottle was new this year with some water and this helped a LOT!

4-4.5 bottles of Ironman Perform on the bike
Carried a plastic water bottle to fill at every aid station so I could ensure I drank the water and had it between stations

this was a random thought I had while in T2 and I was thinking WWBD (what would Barbie do) - it proved to be the most effective way for me to hydrate on the run in 5 seasons of triathlon

I had salt tablets but that wasn't a change. Hammer Enduralyte pills (6 on the bike 4 on the run)
Perform/banana/orange - I had about 1 each of these on the run.

SWIM

This was uneventful for me really, which was good. I am clearly not in the swim shape that I was in 2012, but I know how to get back to that easily. If it wasn't for Philadelphia Fins I would have been a lot slower than I was. Uneventful is great though, this means there were no fights in the water. Most importantly I remembered to smile for the camera!

BIKE

Merry Christmas to me. This is where I tried to improve the most and it paid off. I was finally able to ride faster than 18MPH on a long course...

Highlights of the bike

Vector Power Meter - best Christmas present ever, this truly paid off keeping me in the right zone!
Flat course with a couple of rollers - beautiful for keeping a consistent cadence

lots of trainer rides helps in this too to keep constantly pedaling

Rode the first 5-10 miles off of feel and then used power data from that the rest of the way
Passing groups of people is difficult when you have a late wave

especially with the USAT official timing every move making me a nervous wreck

When I was flat I was able to maintain a 90 - 100RPM
Chasing my brother who also killed the bike helped push me along
I realized at mile 50 I was going to be close to breaking 5 hours
Continuous pedaling while coasting to prevent lactic acid build up

someone told me about this this year and I think it helped a lot - zero cramps until race was over

RUN

Well coming off the bike I already knew what I needed to do to break 5 hours and this was well within the realm of possibility for me.

I started with someone who needed to run 7:00 min/miles to meet their, whoops this caused me to go out to hard as I only needed 7:20/7:30 min miles.

This is typical for how I run though, by going out too hard.

I didn't have any nutrition that I needed for the run (Whoops again, I didn't plan ahead well).
Running with a water bottle and refilling it was ideal for taking in water throughout the run as I needed it

I got this idea from thinking about Barbie. I knew she would be happy.

Halfway point I saw Barbie and told her it would be close. Knowing exactly what I meant she explained to my parents, and we both became super excited for the next 6.5 miles had in store for me!
Falling apart at mile 9 / mile 10. This is where I knew I was going to miss the mark of 5 hours despite the added distance.

It took extra motivation but I was able to pick up my effort and come as close as I possibly could.

Running without the overall time displaying during the run.

I only knew my run time and my run splits. Trying to do the math and not knowing I was going to miss the mark actually helped distract me and allowed me to keep pushing.

Post Race

Still my favorite part of every race is seeing Barbie and getting a kiss at the end of the race.
Uncontrollable emotions - My face showed exhaustion and tears. After explaining to Barbie that these were tears of joy and how happy I was, she helped me get to the finish chute to watch my brother finish
Post Race BBQ - this was simply awesome, we accidentally smoked out some of the people near the finish line. Great food and tons of fun! You could tell others wanted to join in and we welcomed them!
Finish line area - I had so much fun being able to see everyone crossing the finish! High fives galore and there were some great finishes including some friendly Philadelphia racers pushing for an AG place

Garmin Race Data

Sunday, July 7, 2013

The Devil Made Me Do It (Devilman 50 Lite May 5, 2013)

Well okay maybe not the devil, maybe myself after signing up in September. Devilman was my first real race of the year (a 50 mile Half Lite in early May) and I just did not want to race. Nonetheless, I woke up early in the morning and raced with a fun group of people from Philly. The day was overcast and cold. The water wasn’t too bad somewhere in the mid 60s while the air temperature was in the mid to upper 50s.

The race started and I didn’t know what to expect. Halfway around the first loop of the swim my arms were pretty numb (silly me only brought a sleeveless wetsuit). Then out of nowhere I got breaststroke kicked square in the goggles. I jerked backwards and then immediately had someone push me down while swimming overtop of me. Both guys looked back and apologized. I guess it was nice that they made sure I didn’t drown haha. I guess this is what I get for swimming in the mix of things but now it was on like Donkey Kong.

There were a few fans that we knew from our group of friends taking photos and this helped make the race enjoyable to look out for them. But enough chit chat, I don’t want to have a shower, shave, and a poop in transition like my brothers transition was. Now it’s time to bike and I did a good job pushing my limits. I rode 40 miles averaging just over 20 MPH which was great for me especially because I slowed down to force myself to pee in the middle because I convinced myself I needed too.

Now through T2 and I’m ready to run, or so I thought. A couple of hundred feet from leaving the second transition I trip in a sandy mess over the quick lace loops in my shoes. You know how the quick laces have instructions to get the length just right and then cut the excess? Well I read that and decided I was too lazy to do that. Needless to say I was destined to trip over the loop because I run pigeon toed and broke the lace while falling flat on my face. Haha I don’t think anyone saw my fall, but if anyone did they would have had to chuckle. I quickly loop knot the lace and continue on.

The run is 8.8 miles and after mile 1 I thought I had a rock in my shoe from the fall. I stop untangle my quick knot and shake out all of the sand and rocks. Nothing substantial fell out so then I take off my sock and brush anything off my foot, again coming up empty handed. I realized that my feet were just numb in spots from the bike due to being wet and then riding in the cold temperature. I accepted the fact that I was doomed to blister and continued on.

I didn’t push my limit in this race. I felt good but I wanted to just take this as a stepping stone for the rest of the season. I was chasing people down on the run and refused to let anyone chase me down. With a mile to go and no one in visible sight to chase down anymore, I grab water and look behind me. Someone about a ¼ mile back is trying to chase me down, HA. You know I wouldn’t let that happen, and I taunted him a bit by peeking over my shoulder, like any good runner NEVER does. I’m never the gazelle. I’m usually the Lion! No worries this gazelle made to the finish unscathed and uncaught.

After the race, we all swapped stories about the race and had fun hanging out in Southern Jersey. Some fun stories would be Tristan using duct tape to patch his wetsuit, Steven feeling good on the run after spending an hour in the transition, fun new sunburns from the run course, a funny snot picture from the bike course, a couple of friends making it to the podium and getting sweet swag. All in all the day was good and the race season officially started because the Devil Made Me Do It. This is going to be a fun year.

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Have You Seen My...

... shifter! That's right, yet another mechanical issue haha can you see what's missing in this picture? It's the cap to the shifter for the front ring. Luckily I was able to stop, ride backwards and find it on the road while people behind me were charging forward. I needed it to do the shifting so I just kept the cap in my pocket and pulled it out whenever I needed it.

Despite taking about 4 out of the previous 6 weeks off from working out, the Half in Quassy came at a perfect time. The swim was flat, clean, and fun with a blinding sun glare for about a third of the swim. My swim time was almost identical to Mooseman a year ago.

The bike course was a fun rolling course with a little more climbing than rolling, but still fun descents. My goal here was to keep high RPMs on the climbs even if it was in a granny gear and slow. In the end this paid off and made me more effective for the rest of the race. Maybe if I was in better shape I would have pushed some harder gears. Oh this isn't what you wanted to know. Ok when do you think I peed on the bike? That's right, about mile 40. I only peed once on the bike so I was probably a little dehydrated but fortunate that the race was short.

The run started and ended in the same place, but it felt like the run was entirely uphill. I knew this would be a long day so I sprayed some sunblock in T2 to minimize whatever burn I would get. Finally I met up with Steven around mile 6 and try to give some pointers for the heat. He was strong and more than able. After some Gatorade salts and more hills I finally made it across the finish line with an average time, but a tremendous finish.

After being called out for pulling the high five move, I decided that my finish line photos need to be more interesting. I was pretty sure I heel clicked
across the finish line, but according to the photos, the heel click was really just a Mario Brick Breaking jump.

Overall, the day was a success. Just under 2 months from Placid, racing half the distance on a comparable course in comparable race conditions, suffered a great deal, swam well, and nailed the nutrition plan, all friends crossed the finish line and yet another successful coaching day.

Sunday, April 21, 2013

A Look Into 2013, A Very Exciting Year!

What’s happening for 2013? Let’s see… Barbie and I are getting married in November, we bought our first house this spring, I started a new job in January, we have 4 other weddings for friends, I’ll become an Uncle 2 more times this spring, I’m helping my brother prepare for his first crack at Ironman, and oh yeah I’ll probably do some races this year too!

Offseason training:

Swimming with the fins is continuously speeding me up in the water. This winter I trained at Breakaway’s RPM classes with the one, the only, the awesome, the Todd, and I can’t wait to see the results on race day. Running has taken a little bit of a deficit but that’s alright because I can ramp this up super quickly.

Preseason Events:

I went Postal swimming for the Fins in January completing 3600 yards in 1 hour. I became a Philly Phlyer in my first ever Time Trial which was in a nice little snow flurry of the cold month of March. A day after the Time Trial I raced through Wilmington at Caesar Rodney in some still frigid temperatures with a lot of leprechauns. Overall I’m happy with my preseason results, and quite frankly just pleased I could even get them in.

I’m so stoked for everything this year, most importantly Puerto Rico in November. And with all of these exciting events this year, the stress of triathlon season and the Ironman will be dramatically depreciated and I’ll be able to just race for fun instead of trying to prove something. Maybe I’ll even have better nutrition and no mechanical problems this year!

Here’s my 2013 Race Schedule:

May 5^th – NJ Devilman Half Lite (~50 miles)
May 25^th – Hammonton Tri (tentative if not travelling)
June 2^nd – RevTri Quassy 70.3 (Connecticut)
June 22^nd – Philly Sprint
June 23^rd – Philly Olympic
July 28^th – Ironman Lake Placid
August – TBD fun local races if any
September – TBD fun local races if any
October – TBD fun local races if any

Saturday, March 9, 2013

My Right, My Priviledge, My Ironman Tattoo

Why? This is the first question I get from people when they learn about my tattoo. I’m not sure if they’re asking “Why did you get a tattoo?” or “Why did you design it like you did?”

First let me answer why I got the tattoo. Part of me has always wanted to get a tattoo, but I never wanted to be tattooed with something that meant absolutely nothing to me. I discovered a lot of unique M-dot tattoos during my first triathlon in Philly, and I had to learn what these are all about. Once I learned the M-dot is the Ironman symbol I became intrigued and wanted to become a part of this race. Most of these tattoos are on people’s calves, and every time I see one, I immediately felt tons of respect for the person while I work to keep up with them. I decided early on that if I ever completed an ironman, I would get some sort of Ironman/M-dot tattoo because I just simply thought it was cool.

In 2011, I raced my first Ironman and that ended in turmoil in a crash with the guardrail near the end of the first bike loop. “You don’t need to get a tattoo now; you’ll have a nice looking scar!” Ever since that accident it was no longer a question of if or where would I get the tattoo. I would get the tattoo WHEN I finish my first Ironman and I’m having it put underneath that gnarly scar on my shoulder.

I went through a bunch of different designs trying to incorporate many different emotions and moment of significance from the race for me. The crash with the guardrail will always be with me as the scar on my left shoulder. That scar will remind me forever that I’m lucky that accident was not worse and no matter what happens I would “tri, tri, again”. With this in mind I don’t need the guardrail in my design. I saw the silhouette of NYC in someone’s tattoo and I thought this was a great idea. Such a large part of my life is Philadelphia. I was born in the suburbs, grew up a huge Philly sports fan, graduated from LaSalle University in Philadelphia, and for the most part have lived in Philly since graduating, taking everything in.

The Philly skyline still didn’t seem like enough. I needed the silhouette of Rocky with his arms raised at the top of the art museum. Why you may ask. Why Not! Rocky is an inspirational story of a small time boxer who is given a shot to rumble with the Champ for a shot at the title. Rocky trains his hardest, realizes his limits (knowing he’s not as good as Apollo, the Champ), and still pulls off the unimaginable stunt of going the distance in Rounds with Apollo, which no one has ever done before. Watching any of the Rocky training montages and listening to the music will motivate anyone to push their limits. Rocky represents Ironman’s motto that “Anything is Possible”, he represents the competitive attitude of Philadelphia sports, and he never gives up. In the latest movie Rocky says, “It ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.” The Ironman event is much about how you can handle all of the stresses that are being put on your body in one day and still find a way to keep moving forward until you get across that finish line. And most importantly Rocky holding his hands in the air reminds me a lot of the energy at the finish line. Everything you have left gets poured out emotionally and physically in those last steps with your hands in the air, fans cheering you on. No one can take that from an Ironman finisher. I’m lucky to have been able to capture all of this with my tattoo.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Ironman Revenge at Lake Placid to finish is to win

Race Day Quotes

"Ryan Tarrant, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania... Way to go Ry, you are an Ironman!" - The Voice of Ironman
"Ironman is like having kids, you spend many months preparing to put yourself through excruciating pain, and then after it's over, you forget about all the pain and do it again" - a woman I met on the second loop of the run course
"Ruuuun Faster!" - a poster on River Road and the voice of K-Fo in my head during the run
"I can't believe that all of these people are ahead of us, it's just unbelievable" - Nace when he catches me on the run
"Forget Kona! I don't know how anyone can do that in extreme heat" - Me as I crossed the finish line
"Race 4 Oreos" - One of the minions signs
"Don't worry Ryan, we saved oreos and brownies for you" - Mom and Steven halfway through the run course after I told them I couldn't hold down food for the last 13 miles.
"I think you're going to swim faster than 1:10:00" - Barbie before the race
"If you don't win, don't come back to work" - Anonymous
"Go Ryan" - Everyone in the support crew
"We thought you were in an ambulance" - concerned fan when I came around with 2 miles to go
"Holy Headwind!" - fellow competitor on the climb of loop 2 on the bike course
"Show me your abs" - sign of a teenage girl
"You smell pretty bad" - entire support crew back at the house post race

Swim Session

6:30AM the pre-race poops are out (all 4 of them!) I meet up with the support crew one last time before the race as I struggle getting my wetsuit on. Nothing but smiles because the swim is the part of the race I feel most prepared for. This is a lot different from last year when I didn't know if I'd make it out of the water.

7:00AM I line up in the water near the front close to the buoy line. 2962 fish, I mean people on their way to a single point in the water. School of humans results in: being kicked in the goggles 3 times, breast stroke kicked in the collar bone, ankle pulled on 3 times, swam on top of, and elbowed twice.

I meet the first turn buoy at 14:57, holy crap I'm flying and feeling good. I reach 1.2 miles at 32:40, faster than any 1/2 Ironman race I've been in. Barbie would be dead on. I had no problem breaking 1:10:00 in the swim. I finished in 1:09:25 (1:38/100yds) and I'm setup perfectly for the rest of the day. I have a shot at challenging people and going beyond all of my goals!

Vengeance Ride

8:09AM Head through the 1/4 mile transition all smiles after having strangers strip me! No worries they only got my wetsuit off :). For those that don't know, the changing tents are pretty adventurous, filled with pee troughs, volunteers to help get gear in and out of bags, and volunteers to glob tons of sunblock on each competitor.

8:15AM Time to mount the felt and dodge some guard rails! First few miles are fun with short rolling uphills then finally to the descent into Keene, time to let it rip! Lap 1 I hit 50.3 MPH on the descent into Keene, risky but tons of fun!

10:10AM I've been riding for almost 2 hours and I haven't peed my pants yet... CRAP! As I was keeping a strong cadence for the ride about 40 miles into the 112 mile bike, everything started catching up to me. My right leg completely locks up straight cramping in my calf, hammy and quad. What the hell? I was diligent through practice and so far in this race with eating particular foods on a given schedule. It turns out as we'll find out later. I should have adjusted my nutrition for the heat and should have been eating a lot more salt than I was. It's too late as this downward spiral of dehydrations pulls me down the drain of what we call "Ironman". I start doubling up on water & perform (essentially gatorade) at the rest of the bike aid stations and devoured approximately 7 or 8 bananas. Mentally with each banana I ate it was like magic masking the cramping in my legs.

10:50AM I finally pee myself as I passed the site of my crash in 2011.

11:13AM Loop 1 of the bike course complete! I almost cried because I knew my Minions... I mean support crew, would be thrilled to see me, especially my mom, dad, and Barbie who had to meet me at the hospital at this point last year... Huge WIN, but now to do it again while recovering from dehydration. The second lap was a lot more work mixed with spur of the moment charlie horses, head wind up climbs, and steering clear of guard rails.

2:40PM "Mission Complete" or so I thought... at least at this point I have finished the bike course free of crashes and injuries!

Broth the Ironman's Secret Sauce

3:13PM 3 miles into the run, the legs feel great, and I'm as happy as a kid in a candy store! After seeing me off, my Minions... I mean support crew, venture to the finish line to watch the speedy Andy Potts pump up the crowd to another win (8:25:07). The only problem I'm running into is my inability to eat any food or salt because of my grumbling tummy. There was a ball of liquid sloshing up and down with every step.

4:07PM I'm surprised with encouragement from a fellow Philly runner, Nace Mullen. At this point I was 8.2 miles into the run and I was walking/running. Nace moved me along forcing me to continuously run (except through aid stations) and he even slowed down to ensure I would continue running.

4:55PM 12 miles in, I see all of the minions spread along this section of the course. High fiving through pain, excitement in their voices forced me into a jog when I wanted to do nothing but walk. I still haven't eaten anything and I hear from a couple of people "We saved brownies and oreos for you" as I'm trying not to dry heave in front of Barbie. I venture off to my second loop of the course leaving my minions to take a much needed break of cards and Stewart's ice cream, they're going to need this break because it's going to be a looooooong time until I'm back around the finish line.

5:52PM I'm around mile 16 and the pain has already been setting in for the past mile or so. At this point I was forced into walking these blurry few miles. What time am I going to finish.. 9:30/10PM? Wait a minute am I going downhill or uphill and why is the road banking in both directions? Holy crap this is bad this is why you eat while doing a marathon. Okay, aid station dead ahead and at this time of day the broth is out! I stop and guzzle down 2 cups of broth and 1 cup of water, dry heave for a couple of steps then continue walking. By the time I hit the next aid station my swagger is coming back. UGH again I failed with nutrition today, I definitely needed a lot more sodium than I was actually taking in. From here on out I take 1 broth and 1 water from every aid station.

7:14PM Where's Ryan? I went from stumbling on the course to being able to run between an 8:30/mile and a 10:15/mile. It's such a turnaround physically in my body that you would think chicken broth is a banned substance from triathlons. Luckily it's just the everyday Ironman's secret sauce.

7:53PM Ryan, you're not in an ambulance, oh thank God! We were so worried we would have to get you from the hospital. These were the concerned/relieved words of my mom while she was half in tears. Mom was waiting for me at the bottom of the hill at an aid station with just over a mile left and motivated me to run, not walk up the hill one final time! Time? Wait just over a mile, about 7 or 8 minutes until 8:00PM. Ryan, you have a shot... you can break 13hrs and get in under 8:00PM. Wait that's crazy you didn't think you could get close to the finish line until 10:00PM... push it now you can do it! This was me pushing myself through to the end.

8:02PM Ryan Tarrant, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania... Way to go Ry, You Are an IRONMAN! I kicked into high gear for the last 1/2 mile high fiving and flexing my scrawny muscles with a great big yell across the finish line. This feeling was awesome so what was my immediate reaction to the race? Forget Kona! I don't know how anybody can handle doing that in the extreme heat of the lava fields. I don't know how people go fast enough to qualify for that thing. This whole idea is crazy!

Approximately 48 hours from the start of the race Yeah I want to go to Kona... let's find another Ironman to do before Lake Placid next year so I can workout some of my race day nutrition issues and excel in Lake Placid 2013! I think if my nutrition was better I could have gone anywhere from 1.5 - 2 hrs faster than I did but then there are so many other unknown variables that I would have run into. Ironman, to finish is to win especially when I crashed last year and was forced to DNF. 13:02:44 first ever Ironman time, sounds like a great time to setup for a PR next year. This season is over for me, time to relax for a couple of months and then oil up the gears of my body in October to start working for next season.