IMTx13 RR1, it was a good day
IMTex RR1 today. Bottom line, relatively happy now that it’s over.
Bike Planning: Last FTP test was 306, indoors, on the road bike modified with clip-ons and forward seat post. I lose some watts going outdoors and climbing on the tri-bike, so I round down quite a bit for these rehearsals. Going in power targets were 1st hour at 180-ish, 2nd hour at 190-ish, and then try the rest at 200-ish. I hit the lap interval every 20 minutes and play the ‘let’s make it read XXX’ game. Passes the time and keeps me in my box. The temps were cooler so I went with one big bottle on the down-tube full of perform. Nutrition target (besides the perform) was 1 stinger waffle on the half hour and 1 power gel on the hour. Planned to stop by my car for refuel every 2 hours (with options for more because I was riding an 8 mile loop).
Run Planning: Half marathon two weeks ago gave me a planning race day VDOT of 50. Given the low temps, I decided to just roll with EP / 8:30’s and 30 step walking break per mile. Nothing fancy.
Bike Execution:
-Power: 112 Miles total, 5:44 wheels rolling time (5:50 from start to finish, 2 porta-potty-refill nutrition stops). 190 NP. ~2900 ft total gain. 91 Average cadence.
-Nutrition was good until hour 5. At that point, I got really tired/sick of the gels and had to force myself to eat them. Got it done, but I would have been struggling for calorie options if I had to actually run a full run.
-Perform was good, however, I know I’m going to need more fluids on game day in Texas due to the heat. I roll a Torhans 20 up front when I need it, so that won’t be an issue.
Random stuff: The first two hours went as planned and the 190 target just “felt” right so as hour 3 rolled around, I didn’t try to up it to 200. I think it was the right call because the bike ended feeling hard and the run felt relatively easy. My saddle, chamois, and I had some conversations because we all just do not get along; however, it is an almost 6 hour ride, so it is what it is.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/297447579
Run Execution:
-Coming off the bike, the legs were tired; however, they responded really well. 6 miles in 51:33. Ave pace: 8:35. I walked 30 steps at the end of each mile. No issues at all. On game day, I will adjust pacing goals with an eye to the heat.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/297387570
Final thoughts:
-Although the temperature was ideal for RR1, I suspect that Woodlands will not be so nice. Now that I’m done, I’ll say that I would have liked for it to be hotter (although I would not have enjoyed it while I rode/ran today). I did roll Louisville last year, so I’ve got some solid lessons learned that I’ll incorporate.
-Ride 1 with my new Lazar Tardiz was good (temps not withstanding). Yes, I did sport the aero-helmet today. Call me a geek. I’m sure the numerous roadies I saw today did.
-More sunscreen. I’m a bit red and my wife is grumpy with me.
-I’ll need to think about the gel issue. I would have had a hard time downing gels during a full run. I reached maximum gel capacity today.
-My training schedule has a misprint. There is a 90 minute ABP ride tomorrow. My body, my wife, and my kids have told me that the schedule is wrong. I’m on full time dad duty tomorrow.
Again, I'm relatively happy. We all want to be faster and I would love for my undercarriage to feel better while riding, but I felt it was a good day at the office.
Comments
Looks like a successful day. Congrats. Suggestion on your nutrition if you got sick of gels. Instead of gels on the bike use the cliff shot blocks and then save the gels for the run. I go with 1/4 pieces of cliff bars every 1/2hour for 2-3hrs ,then switch to 2 cliff shot blocks every 1/2 hr , and then use powerbar gel in a flask on the run. Favorite blocks are the margarita 3x salt and not that sweet which is nice, or the black cherry which are caffeinated. Thats an even 60 calories every 1/2 hour (you would probably need more depending on how much your drinking). My theory is to move from the harder to digest foods to the easier to digest throughout the day.
I tried liquid nutrition and just couldnt handle it, I like some food to keep me from getting hungry. I did use waffles last year with success but going back to cliff bars. The other thing I do is wrap the 1/4 cliff bar pieces and the 2 blocks in rice paper and put them in my bento box. NO WRAPPERS to deal with . Open box , grab one , throw in mouth , keep moving!
I use 1/4 of a powerbar every 30 mins, along with my Infinit.
I use 2 powerbars, so I just need gels for the last 90 mins so I am not gelled-out from the bike.
Like you, I cancelled the 90 min APB ride after RR1.
Nice job Roy.
I use clif bars on my bike as well. I have been utilizing nutrition even on the 2.5 hour rides early on in the season to dial in my nutriion this year. I can get in 2 clif bars, and 2.5 bottles (56 oz) of gatorade over that 2.45 hour ride, remember I'm 225lbs. I can even get in some clif bar and do some FTP work so I know that I have a solid stomach and it will be used to processin this stuff when I'm doing the .70 IM rides.
It might be a little late in the game to be swithching to solid food but you do have another RR so give it a try. If you are worried about salt in the heat remember that powerbars are the core diet choice food. I am using up my remaining clif bars and I believe they have somewhere in the 150mg sodium but powerbars are in the 220mg (from memory). The idea of clif blocks might be better if you can get similar calories from them.
I was having some chaffing issues last year and use butt butter for the 1st time ever. Part of this was the shorts I was using I have found a minimalist pad works for me while a thicker one causes issues especially over 1.5-2 hours. It could also be a case of needing some adjustments with the saddle as well.
In any event once you have some issuse I find that we are riding too often and then I need some form of lube. I even started using it on the 60 minute rides and everything cleared up. One word of caution I almost shot off the front of my seat last year in Lake Placid as I mounted very quickly. I had put on an excessive amount so I did not have to stop. I'd also recommend putting some in bike special needs in case isseus arise.
Gordon