Week 18 RR - CDA or Bust
Any input would be appreciated 
Not trying to panic, overall it went well and made some mistakes. Better today than CdA. Training partner and I hit up a nearby century for the ride + run. Onward and upward!
Pre-ride meal: 4 scoops of apple sauce + one scoop of protein, banana, sports drink 3 hours before (unnnhhh So. Much. Sauce.
We had to drive 2 hours to the century ride, and I didn't eat anything else after what I wrote above. Next time I'll follow the rest of the guidelines. At the start I felt fine and ready to go, so that much worked well.
Nutrition: Two 3 hour bottles of custom blend of infinit (280 calories/hour), water. Had waffles as a backup, but didn't need them.
Ride: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/324829800 Started out easy for the first 30 minutes. I tested my FTP last week at 244 (outdoors on tri bike), and looked to ride a conservative .70 today (170NP). Hit the mark for the middle miles, but my power obviously fell off. Partly the course/other riders/dogs, the other part I'm not sure. I'm hoping it's fatigue. When I looked down and the 3 sec NP dial showed 170, it felt fine. But obviously I wasn't holding it all the way through my 5 mile laps.
Good: Held aero well, nutrition felt spot on, peed once (hot today, mid 80s + humid).
Bad: I'm not sure what to make of my power dropping. Any thoughts? Secondly we cut the ride short. The last 10 miles were down a pretty busy stretch of road, and I wasn't comfortable with that. Plus the rest stop wasn't where we thought, and we were out of water. Made a decision to cut it short by 8 miles. Not real happy about that, but trying not to be to too type A about it. I've struggled mentally on the bike lately in late miles. My first RR I lost it about mile 60. Today I checked out about 80. So advice here would be appreciated.
Run. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/324829820
Had to walk frequently to keep the pace in check. Took a gu before starting, and only water. My vdot points to an 8:00 pace for the marathon, so my goal was 8:30 for 6. When I was running, I was holding 8:00s, and would walk to bring it down to 8:30s. Form was good, felt solid, peed once. Stomach felt empty, but wasn't hungry. Stayed in my little box and the miles just clicked off.
Any input is appreciated. The low power on the bike bothers me a bit. Plus I'm not thrilled about the bike length being a bit short and I still checked out about 80. Other than that, I felt great. Is it unreasonable to expect .70 during CdA? Feels lame thinking I struggle to even hold .70, but I'm probably being hard on myself.
Comments
As you're learning, riding steady for 5-6 hours is not easy, from a concentration point of view. Physically, you can handle it - your performance in the run showed that. You're learning a key point about IM racing ... Even though your training has produced the fitness to race, you still can "check out" mentally and bugger your race.
What I've learned over the years is that, as the bike leg progresses (likewise in the run), the mental effort and focus needs to be continually increasing. E.g., the first 60-90 minutes will feel mindless. But the last 60 minutes will feel (mentally) as hard as any OS FTP workout you've done. Call on those days from the winter to remind yourself that you can stay focused. Trust your training that the fitness will be there, and push on even though it feels like you're tiring. I'm always amazed that, no matter how tired I am coming off the bike, I am still able to run. You've just spent 12 weeks (plus the OS before that) building this awesome IM fitness - make sure you give yourself a chance to use it. Or as the coaches say - make sure your race day self respects the work your training self has done.
One thing that always helps me in the last 30 miles of the bike is seeing all the other people ahead of me, sitting up out of the aerobars, "checking out", and passing by them - @ 0.70 IF, of course.
You say you only peed once on the bike and that the weather was hot and humid — for me, I need to soak my socks (really soak them) at least twice in an IM to feel I have had enough fluid. This leads me to ask how much you drank?
I note that your 1 hour NP was 159, your 2nd hour NP was 166, your 3rd hour NP was 157, your 4th hour NP was 157, and your 5th hour NP was 159 — a downward trend over the bike.
It may have been a lack of hydration but I also wonder whether you had enough fuel?
I race around 145 pounds and need 250 cals from Infinit, plus half a power bar each hour.
Another thought is to ask if you have tried caffeine? It can help you with RPE and alertness.
Your cadence was 76, which is pretty low and may have also been a factor. Most try to sit around 85 to 95, or thereabouts.
Finally, you are obviously a good runner, so it may be beneficial to you to sit on an IF of 0.65 for 90 mins, rather than 60 mins, to help you to better sit on your target.
Yes you have some fatigue.
Power file not bad at all. Little fade but you wont find many century rides that don't. A couple intervals above your target = burning little matches. Looks like you may need to adjust your FTP in garminconnect since your file showed IF .8 and TSS 342? Holding aero and good nutrition for entire ride = awesome! Nice Ride your ready!
Checking out late in the bike... Consider in the future a caffeinated gel as you approach the normal time/distance you begin to check out ... Pretty important to stay focussed on the bike from a racing perspective but also a safety perspective.... Everybody around you is also "checking out" ! I used clif bars and shot blocks with small amounts of caffeine up to around mile 80-90 then have a caffeinated gel and that seems to keep me focussed that last 1-1.5 hrs.
Cant wait to see your run at CDA!
@Mike. After sleeping on it, I think you're right. Especially about the fatigue. These last few weeks have been unlike any other plan I've followed. I'll go out a touch easier at CdA. Historically I've been pretty slow to warm up on the bike. I forget this every time though.
@Al Thanks again, good insight there. I'll remember that. I think I've been underestimating how hard the tail end of these long steady z2 rides are. Part of me gets nervous that I'm blowing it in the last hour when .70 starts to feel hard. But you're right, I need to trust my training. I like the last line "make sure your race day self respects the work your training self has done." Joined EN to fix my weak bike leg, and after these responses I feel that I'm ready to do that in two weeks.
@Peter After replaying it, you're right I didn't drink enough. In the middle miles the aid stations were further apart then advertised, so I backed off drinking. The last half hour I had barely any water. I'll brought stinger waffles, but didn't eat them. I'll be more cognizant of my power dropping. I could have used a lot more water, and maybe the occasional waffle to get my pep back up. I'd been having coffee before some of my long rides, but didn't yesterday. I'll plan on adding that back. Plus keeping my cadence up. When my power drops I start grinding.
@Tim Thanks!! I'm all adjust the Garmin numbers. GC points to an overall intensity of .622 with 215TSS. Hate to admit the couple spikes was when some roadies and I went back and forth. So no more ricky racer stuff