Austin RR1: Welcome to Phoenix...
...the land of uphill + strong headwind + hot rides amongst "I don't need no helmet" motorcyclists (and one such TT cyclist!). And hotel air conditioning that is better than sex.
Goal: Ride 2:45 @ ~.82/.83 (NP ~238-243), run 40 minutes @ z2+30" (8:15). Admittedly, the 2:45 finish time is a hope goal for my race. I finished in 2:57 in 2014 at the same venue, and weighted 15lbs more with a FTP 15 points less than now. No swim bc of 'the challenge'.
'The challenge': 3 day work week from hell (collective 8 hours of sleep M-W), followed by back-to-back 4:30 flights to Hotlanta (from Seattle), too much beer, not enough sleep, ending up in a sweet hotel in Scottsdale.
Current Data: 180lbs, 291 FTP (3.5 W/kg), VDOT 46, CTL 84, AT: 118, TSB -14. I did full interval bike/swim Monday, long run (15mi) Tuesday, nothing Wednesday, 30' run thursday, 1 hour run/bike brick + strength/core friday on hotel gym equipment.
Results: Ride: 2:45 @ NP 220, IF .76, VI 1.05, 43.3 miles, 1600 elevation gain, ave HR 154, TSS 157.5, temperature was 95 for the ride. Run: 4 miles in 36 (9;00 pace), stopped when I ran out of GE. Temp 97 for the run.
Thoughts: The first 1 hour NP was around 243 (0.83). z3 for me currently is 238-248, so I felt that was fine particularly since the first hour was a net 1000ft gain (though my HR was 160-162 for much of it, that worried me, but it was also hot outside). But it became clear my legs could not sustain that after another 30 minutes, and my output dropped slowly the rest of the ride, thus my disappointingly low IF. I also noticed my HR is acutely sensitive to aero - HR drops a good 4-5 beats by sitting upright. The ride became pretty uncomfortable that last 30 minutes, I think bc legs were just toasted. I took in nearly 4 liters of fluid (3 GE, 1 water) and had ~250 cal/hour, so I don't think nutrition was an issue. The run was fine, just hot, which is why it was purposely slower (the IMCDA lesson). I was able to match my ride HR nearly perfectly (154 on the ride, 152 on the run).
I am going for another long ride tomorrow since I can, but plan to regulate the elevation gain better (Austin has a 1500 elevation gain, I did 1600 in 43 miles). I also plan to keep that NP lower from the get go, more like 230, and try for a negative split.