IMFL RR#2
"the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray"
This was the operative quote for my weekend. I knew I was moving my RR to Sunday since I had a bunch of family stuff on Saturday, no big deal. Well the Saturday stuff went later then expected and into the first part of Sunday as well. So my organized plan for an early start was shelved as I didn't get to start until past noon. With travel time to where I do my loops this would put me on the bike in the dark, not super safe around here so once again it was off to the trainer for the bike portion. Not optimal but it's what I had so here goes.
Nutrition: I used my core race plan which is working well for me. I did fade a little toward the end of the bike but I did not use any caffeinated gels since it was so late in the day and I would never sleep with all the caffeine.
Clothing: I got the Desoto Forza Tri Bib Shorts. Loved them. The minimalist padding is awesome and doesn't get in the way like a larger pad in the TT position. It was great on the run too and I really like the compression. I own a bunch of Desoto stuff and this piece once again did not dissapoint.
Stats: Ride was based off of new FTP of 231 as a test to see how the run would be affected. Run vDot I'm using is 39.
Bike: The first 30 minutes I did JRA pace and then pushed it up to goal pace off of new FTP for the duration of the ride. TR doesn't have a six hour free ride so I broke the ride into two 180 minutes rides. I used the 3 hour mark as BSN if you will. I re-applied some chamois cream which is definetely going in my BSN! The only time I stopped was for a couple of nature breaks and the BSN. I had all of my nutrition and hydration setup next to bike so no breaks were needed to stop to reload. Toward the end the very top of my quads right above the knees on both legs were really starting to bother me. I was pretty happy to get off the bike.
Here is the first 3 hour block:
http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/88305
The second 3 hour block is here:
http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/88352
Run: I was a little worried about the run as my legs were really feeling fatigued toward the end of the bike. It ended up a pleasant surprise. The run felt great and it was great to get outside. Once again I went too fast. Race day I will just walk to slow myself down to keep to pacing guidelines for first 6 miles if I need to. I ran 5.84 miles in 58:29.
Comments
Are you going with the 231 FTP for race day then?
I look at RR#2 as the tweak. I think RR#1 is a confidence builder and #2 is tough because we just did this a couple of weeks ago. Especially if there isn't a lot to adjust or change.
Way to go.
@Sarah. I'm going to do the pacing on the 231 FTP. There isn't that much difference in the numbers and to be honest I ended up riding only about 1 watt higher. I'm hoping my outside watts are higher than inside so the ride at the .69-.70 will actually feel easier. We shall see soon.
Anybody tough enough to do a 6 hr RR on a trainer is tough enough to finish a 5.5 hr IM bike without stopping at BSN for chamois creme , and that my friend is you! Just saying, keep moving and you'll be off the bike a lot sooner than you think!
I wonder if the slight discomfort you felt towards the end of ride was due to the steadiness of the computrainer power and cadence. IOW no variation for 6hrs? Is that where your cadence normally is high 70's to low 80's?
@Tim. Thx very much.
Yeah I almost didn't write the chamois cream thing but I wanted to be honest. My you know what was all kinds of not right. To be fair it was a new pair of shorts with much less padding and my TT position just hits those spots after a while especially on the trainer. I agree I just have to HTFU come race day. My planned BSN was just emergency stuff anyway. I have a sample size of some creme I'll probably just throw in jersey pocket just in case.
I think you nailed the slow pain. No movement, no variance and no coasting. I think this is the Chinese water torture CoachP mentiones in the IMFL 4 keys caused by the flat terrain, but it's obviously much greater on the trainer. My cadence is higher outdoors usually but the trainer just promotes slower grinding for me anyway, especially longer rides.