CycleOps Power News, Athletes, and Training

Monday, November 06, 2006

It [Kona Ironman World Championship 2006] was the hardest day of physical exertion I have ever had. The 2.4-mile swim was fine; tons of people swimming over and around you, but when you get out you realize your day is just beginning, and you just had a good hour-plus time to warm up.

Now the fun part, the bike ride. 112 miles of beautiful lava fields and varying weather. No matter how hard you are pushing, it is still a great time. You see the heat coming off the road, and other cyclists look like figments of your imagination as they appear out of this hazy field.

From the start the 2.4 PowerTap seemed to be great. My bike was so much cleaner without all those wires. I had never ridden true race wheels either. The Zipp 404 and 808 were so smooth, it almost felt like I was floating over the road. Without my 4 minutes penalty I would have had the 4th fastest overall women’s bike split, faster than Michellie Jones and Kate Major. I attribute my increase in speed to a full year of training with power and having the best race setup on race day. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

Off the bike, and you are into the hottest part of the day, 97 degrees at times with 100% humidity. Off for the marathon...

I was great at first, running seven-minute miles off the bike for the first 10 miles. Then I started to cramp a little bit, so I took a salt tab, but my pace slowed to 7:40 minute miles. By mile 20 I was seeing double and could not run straight up. I had never even walked an aid station before, and I was about to walk 5 miles of the marathon. Trying to jog at times but with no hope of my body coming back to me. My coach was at mile 25 and convinced me to run the last 1.2 miles.

Losing control of my entire body and running at practically a 90-degree angle, I crossed the finish line and went straight to the medical tent.

I've never asked myself so many times why I put my body through this suffering. Why do I have to be an Ironman? Now I know… because I can, and a lot of other people would only dream of being able to accomplish what I am so fortunate to be able to do. It makes you feel alive; you feel every part of your body, parts you did not even know you had… because you have used every bit of yourself. I do Ironmen because I love it, and it keeps me healthy.

The end result was that I was suffering from hyponatremia and had depleted the sodium content in my body to an extent that my body was going into shock. But I finished and still finished as the fastest amateur woman and winner of my age group, breaking my own course record from last year.

It was a test of strength mentally and physically. I am glad it is over for now!

Now off to off-season which includes a lot of telemarking, skate skiing and snowball fights.

Tyler

Tyler Stewart

posted on 11/6/2006 2:39:33 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)

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