I can barely keep up with you guys! I have a feeling that this is going to be a great year for the EN team at IMLP on all fronts, first timers, veterans, etc.!
I have read each and everyone of the updates you guys have posted, everyone very driven, working hard, adapting to changing conditions and getting it done across all fronts! All I can say is..............DAMN!
I had a good week, closed the week with a successful (HOT) RR2 as well, biked 112.4 (277 TSS) and ran 7 miles. Got stung by a wasp on inner thigh at mile 40ish. One stop to refuel at mile 62 and one stop for bathroom at mile 92 (prior night's enchiladas would not stay down)
Run was at Stoopid Slow pace factoring in 90 degree heat and rolling hills.......
~1258 TSS for the week.
@William - My primary Garmin screen on the bike shows Lap NP and 3s power. It scrolls to other screens at medium pace which show
"Measure what you intend to improve. If you want to improve it, you have to measure it." Meaning, the number one metric for an IM bike is NP/IF for your current lap. I hit my lap button every 15-20 minutes, or more often depending on the terrain (so I can see what I;m doing on an uphill without confounding it by the downhill data). Any longer, and you can end up "chasing" your NP/IF, possibly working to hard while doing that. Also in this category, I have current (3s) watts and current lap time.
% grade, cadence, HR, & speed are also metrics I observe, mostly because I have 8 data fields I can see at a time.
Remember, "Pay attention to your nutrition and your pace [in this case, your power]; your time and place will take care of themselves." So overall time and distance are NOT things I like to have in my face while I'm racing.
By manually hitting lap instead of auto-lapping, I find I pay better attention to the terrain I'm on (which helps me control my effort levels both up and down) and stay on top of nutrition. Looking at current lap time frequently forces me to think about my nutrition. Depending on the weather, I usually plan on drinking somewhere between every 10 and 20 minutes. That number will also vary (usually shorten) during the course of the ride as the temperature rises and/or I need more fluids.
I try to keep my garmin 500 screen simple and very readable with only 3 fields. 3 second power .... for what I am doing right now lap NP..... to monitor my target watts.... autolap 5 miles , manually resetting at top / bottom of major hills/terrain like Al suggests time elapsed.... alert set for every 15min to drink , and eat every other one.... time is so that I can correlate the eating (I tend to forget late in the bike did I eat last alert or not)
It's great reading all these awesome RR #2 reports. My RR#2 went well hitting my target NP/IF and close enough to my run pace. Did my swim Friday night, basically at the same pace as my last two 2.4 miles pool swims. I've done all these swim with my Roka Sim Short to mimic a wetsuit swim. This Friday I'm going to try and find a 50 meter pool for my 2.4 mi to compare times to a 25 yd pool.
Saturday's ride (102 miles/6:06, 5,148 Ft) went well. The one thing I screwed up was my pre-ride breakfast. I didn't eat 3 hrs before my ride. I ended up getting in about 360 cals 1.5 hrs before riding. But it didn't seem to affect my day. For the first time I experience mild lower left side back pain, which rarely happens on my Tri bike. I had to manage this uncomfortable feeling by coming out of aero much sooner than usual on hills. Fortunately, I had a chiro appt. today and of course my hip was out of alignment. I hope this adjustment is good for 2 weeks. Stats: NP - 167; IF -.67; VI - 1.04 My run was very hot, thought I didn't get to Z1+30", I got close on a couple of miles (Z1+15") and settled on a "run all day" pace. I'm figuring during the race, walking the aid stations will get me to Z1+30". I did realized the importance/need to manager HR in those early miles, especially in hot temps. My legs were good and tired that night but by Sunday evening I was feeling good and did an easy 4.5 mile jog to get the blood circulating. I'm very excited about IMLP...can't wait! Looking forward to these next two weeks, though. Everyone be safe out there.
x2 on what AL & Tim said on timing.. autolap or manual lap, up to you, but you need to be focused on what you are doing right now... not 30 minutes ago and not 10 minutes from now.
Al's comment about not chasing IF/NP is very important. I am usually pretty good about "turning on" race mode(riding target watt#s) and not just trying to ride hard. I did find that on my RR at times it was super easy to generate my goal wattage and at other times it was falling short. if in the 2nd half of a 15 minute "lap," I'd err on the side of watching 3sec power and trying to hit that # as opposed to trying to lift NP/IF to the desired range... doing THAT is a quick way to burn matches and cook yourself.
LP is one of the best race courses to race the "EN way" on and watch everyone else fight too hard with the hills. Don't wrestle the hill, it has been and will be there much longer than you ever will be. Just learn to tame it... look for people with distinctive kit, hair, etc... you WILL see them again on the run, the out & back nature of the run course is great for this, you WILL see people that passed you on the bike, crushing hills, you will likely see them heading OUT while you are already BACK, this means they are at least 6 miles behind you, at a slower pace than you, just have fun with the math...
I was writing my race plan and had a couple quick questions for the IM veterans. This is my second IM and have no idea how to come up with an estimated/goal bike split...any suggestions? I know my IF/NP range but don't know how that converts to total time or does it even matter as long as I'm hitting my target watts? Also, what exactly is JRA? I know what it stands for but are there any power targets with it or do I ignore power and treat it like a 60' warm up? Thanks!
As for estimating finish time, that is always a dangerous thing unless you have experience on the course itself. One thing that may get you a close approximation is BestBikeSplit. Many have stated it was very close to their actual times although Tim Cronk feels it is too optimistic on hilly courses compared to his times. I found it optimistic for most all of my rides.
What I ended up doing was to calibrate it using a recent long ride where I put in my numbers and parameters then adjusted the CdA, Crr, etc to force the model to slow down and match my actual time. Then I verified that configuration against several other long rides resulting in a better match between the model and my times. From there I could run different power scenarios on the LP course and see the resulting split times. They are in line with the 4 times I've ridden the course.
@Steve, Thanks! Yes, I downloaded and listened to the webinar...I was kinda lost at that point in the power discussion, but now it's making sense. I won't estimate a bike split but focus on process goals. Thanks for the information.
Comments
Week 18 seems to be a HUGE week for all!!
I can barely keep up with you guys! I have a feeling that this is going to be a great year for the EN team at IMLP on all fronts, first timers, veterans, etc.!
I have read each and everyone of the updates you guys have posted, everyone very driven, working hard, adapting to changing conditions and getting it done across all fronts! All I can say is..............DAMN!
I had a good week, closed the week with a successful (HOT) RR2 as well, biked 112.4 (277 TSS) and ran 7 miles. Got stung by a wasp on inner thigh at mile 40ish. One stop to refuel at mile 62 and one stop for bathroom at mile 92 (prior night's enchiladas would not stay down
)
Run was at Stoopid Slow pace factoring in 90 degree heat and rolling hills.......
~1258 TSS for the week.
@William - My primary Garmin screen on the bike shows Lap NP and 3s power. It scrolls to other screens at medium pace which show
Screen 2 - Total Time, Total Distance
Screen 3 - Cumulative TSS, HR, avg speed......
Time to stick to the plan and begin that taper!!
SS
"Measure what you intend to improve. If you want to improve it, you have to measure it." Meaning, the number one metric for an IM bike is NP/IF for your current lap. I hit my lap button every 15-20 minutes, or more often depending on the terrain (so I can see what I;m doing on an uphill without confounding it by the downhill data). Any longer, and you can end up "chasing" your NP/IF, possibly working to hard while doing that. Also in this category, I have current (3s) watts and current lap time.
% grade, cadence, HR, & speed are also metrics I observe, mostly because I have 8 data fields I can see at a time.
Remember, "Pay attention to your nutrition and your pace [in this case, your power]; your time and place will take care of themselves." So overall time and distance are NOT things I like to have in my face while I'm racing.
By manually hitting lap instead of auto-lapping, I find I pay better attention to the terrain I'm on (which helps me control my effort levels both up and down) and stay on top of nutrition. Looking at current lap time frequently forces me to think about my nutrition. Depending on the weather, I usually plan on drinking somewhere between every 10 and 20 minutes. That number will also vary (usually shorten) during the course of the ride as the temperature rises and/or I need more fluids.
3 second power .... for what I am doing right now
lap NP..... to monitor my target watts.... autolap 5 miles , manually resetting at top / bottom of major hills/terrain like Al suggests
time elapsed.... alert set for every 15min to drink , and eat every other one.... time is so that I can correlate the eating (I tend to forget late in the bike did I eat last alert or not)
Saturday's ride (102 miles/6:06, 5,148 Ft) went well. The one thing I screwed up was my pre-ride breakfast. I didn't eat 3 hrs before my ride. I ended up getting in about 360 cals 1.5 hrs before riding. But it didn't seem to affect my day. For the first time I experience mild lower left side back pain, which rarely happens on my Tri bike. I had to manage this uncomfortable feeling by coming out of aero much sooner than usual on hills. Fortunately, I had a chiro appt. today and of course my hip was out of alignment. I hope this adjustment is good for 2 weeks. Stats: NP - 167; IF -.67; VI - 1.04
My run was very hot, thought I didn't get to Z1+30", I got close on a couple of miles (Z1+15") and settled on a "run all day" pace. I'm figuring during the race, walking the aid stations will get me to Z1+30". I did realized the importance/need to manager HR in those early miles, especially in hot temps.
My legs were good and tired that night but by Sunday evening I was feeling good and did an easy 4.5 mile jog to get the blood circulating.
I'm very excited about IMLP...can't wait! Looking forward to these next two weeks, though. Everyone be safe out there.
Al's comment about not chasing IF/NP is very important. I am usually pretty good about "turning on" race mode(riding target watt#s) and not just trying to ride hard. I did find that on my RR at times it was super easy to generate my goal wattage and at other times it was falling short. if in the 2nd half of a 15 minute "lap," I'd err on the side of watching 3sec power and trying to hit that # as opposed to trying to lift NP/IF to the desired range... doing THAT is a quick way to burn matches and cook yourself.
LP is one of the best race courses to race the "EN way" on and watch everyone else fight too hard with the hills. Don't wrestle the hill, it has been and will be there much longer than you ever will be. Just learn to tame it... look for people with distinctive kit, hair, etc... you WILL see them again on the run, the out & back nature of the run course is great for this, you WILL see people that passed you on the bike, crushing hills, you will likely see them heading OUT while you are already BACK, this means they are at least 6 miles behind you, at a slower pace than you, just have fun with the math...
Anybody have the link to the super check-list that Coach P posted after IMLP Camp? I can't seem to track it down. Thanks.
Don to the rescue! Thanks!
As for estimating finish time, that is always a dangerous thing unless you have experience on the course itself. One thing that may get you a close approximation is BestBikeSplit. Many have stated it was very close to their actual times although Tim Cronk feels it is too optimistic on hilly courses compared to his times. I found it optimistic for most all of my rides.
What I ended up doing was to calibrate it using a recent long ride where I put in my numbers and parameters then adjusted the CdA, Crr, etc to force the model to slow down and match my actual time. Then I verified that configuration against several other long rides resulting in a better match between the model and my times. From there I could run different power scenarios on the LP course and see the resulting split times. They are in line with the 4 times I've ridden the course.