IMAZ RR #2 - The Revenge
You can review my plan here. This is the long version of how it went down.
Thursday – I did the long run per the plan and had a really good run. I even nailed the intervals at the end. I tried to go a little easier than last week’s long run because I did 2.5 hour runs two weeks in a row. I ultimately did 18.73 miles in 2:32:11 for NGP of 7:58 and IF .848. Done.
Friday – My master’s group decided to do Halloween themed relay races so I only got in 1700 yards but had fun. The rest of the day was work then travel to Phoenix. When I got here I went to the grocery store for morning food and coffee so I would be good to go early.
Saturday – Woke up at 5:00 and proceeded to toast my two “bagels”. Turns out they weren’t bagels. They were like bagel shaped toast. Totally nasty. No clue how many calories. I had my coffee but originally forgot my Infinit. I made it on the fly and started drinking it. I drank it until I left which ended up being about 15 minutes before I started. I left the house at 6:15 planning to start riding at 7:00 but it was more light out than I was expecting so I hit the road at 6:30.
I won’t do a blow-by-blow of the whole ride, but will throw in some of my experience and a few course nuggets. First of all, my stomach was too full when I started riding. I tried to take in Infinit but it wasn’t working out so well so I just had water. I had this trouble for the whole first lap, but I think I had plenty of nutrition in my system. I did have to take a couple Thermolyte caps though since I wasn’t getting Infinit. Ultimately my stomach settled down and I did fine the rest of the race, but I only took in 20 ounces of my concentrated Infinit instead of the planned 36. Total calories on bike ~ 1200 or ~ 225/hr. I was able to keep the water going and probably averaged 30-35 ounces per hour. With less Infinit I stayed on 2 Thermolyte caps per hour. I peed twice during the first 56 miles and then not again until the run.
Here’s the power data. I was doing each ½ loop as an interval to compare uphill and downhill. For some reason interval 2 and 3 were lumped together so that’s one full loop starting from the turnaround.
Power-Tap #1:
Duration: 1:00:47 (1:01:49)
Work: 615 kJ
TSS: 49.7 (intensity factor 0.706)
Norm Power: 173
VI: 1.03
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: n/a
Distance: 18.749 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 314 169 watts
Cadence: 1 136 86 rpm
Speed: 0 25.4 18.4 mph
Pace 2:22 0:00 3:16 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 457 148 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 1059 168 lb-in
Power-Tap #2:
Duration: 1:47:55 (1:50:52)
Work: 1087 kJ
TSS: 90.3 (intensity factor 0.715)
Norm Power: 175
VI: 1.04
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: n/a
Distance: 37.415 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 401 168 watts
Cadence: 1 128 81 rpm
Speed: 0 34.1 20.6 mph
Pace 1:46 0:00 2:54 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 522 156 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 1690 177 lb-in
Power-Tap #4:
Duration: 48:19 (53:03)
Work: 469 kJ
TSS: 37.8 (intensity factor 0.698)
Norm Power: 171
VI: 1.06
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: n/a
Distance: 18.533 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 599 162 watts
Cadence: 2 158 83 rpm
Speed: 0 33.3 22.8 mph
Pace 1:48 0:00 2:38 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 633 147 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 722 166 lb-in
Power-Tap #5:
Duration: 53:48 (57:34)
Work: 513 kJ
TSS: 40.6 (intensity factor 0.683)
Norm Power: 167
VI: 1.05
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: n/a
Distance: 18.799 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 417 159 watts
Cadence: 1 139 79 rpm
Speed: 0 26.3 20.8 mph
Pace 2:17 0:00 2:53 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 481 153 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 549 172 lb-in
Power-Tap #6:
Duration: 55:15 (56:47)
Work: 491 kJ
TSS: 36.6 (intensity factor 0.636)
Norm Power: 156
VI: 1.05
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: n/a
Distance: 18.788 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 376 148 watts
Cadence: 1 146 80 rpm
Speed: 0 27.2 20.2 mph
Pace 2:12 0:00 2:59 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 484 140 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 1267 159 lb-in
Entire workout (162 watts):
Duration: 5:26:07 (5:40:08)
Work: 3176 kJ
TSS: 255.8 (intensity factor 0.694)
Norm Power: 170
VI: 1.05
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: n/a
Distance: 112.294 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 599 162 watts
Cadence: 1 158 82 rpm
Speed: 0 34.1 20.5 mph
Pace 1:46 0:00 2:56 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 633 150 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 1690 170 lb-in
I was so happy to come in under 5:30:00 with such a solid and consistent NP throughout the ride. I was aero about 90% of the time and just felt aerodynamic. Matt S. was definitely right. I truly believe I got an extra 5-10 watts from positioning. BTW, no aero helmet, no Zipps. The weather was perfect with temps starting in low 60’s and climbing to about 85 by the end. I wore a long sleeved shirt for the first two laps until it was about 75 degrees and didn’t feel like I was getting hot at all. I will probably wear it again during the race. The winds were about 6mph climbing up to about 10mph by the end. Interestingly, it was mostly crosswinds but then I had a tailwind out on the last lap and headwind back. It made for a nice final climb, but no 38mph descent. For gearing I used 50/34 with 12/25. I never used the 25 but did go 23/24 on the ascent before the turnaround which is about 5 miles. I was in the big ring up front the whole time. I had been thinking hard during the ride if I was better off with an 11/23 in the back. I did go 50/12 for about 8 miles during the descent on the first two loops but only about 5 miles on the last lap. I was never in it any other time. I was near spinning out a couple of times, but I just used that time to conserve some matches. I’m thinking about maybe picking one up this week and trying it out. It’s not like I’ll never use it again. I will let the coaches decide based on analyzing my power file.
As for the course, pretty nice for the most part. There’s a few bumps and some debris but not bad. There are patches of road that aren’t very good and they sneak up on you but only really on the Beeline heading out. Do not hit the rumble strip, though. These rumble strips are the harshest I have ever seen. Each groove is super deep. I lost focus a couple of times and hit them and my Joule came shooting off. That’s never happened before, and I have hit me some bumps. I’m hoping that we won’t be riding the shoulders much during the race.
Each leg to and from the turnaround – 18.7 miles
Steepish part of hill – last ~ 5 miles before turnaround
Beeline leg - ~10.5 miles
Admin miles between transition and Beeline - ~ 8 miles
I did a quick transition and headed out on the run course. This went fine. My legs felt great considering I have never biked 112 miles before. I just could not get my paces down, though. I was shooting for 9:30 pace but I was practically shuffling and still doing 8:20’s – 9:00’s. I had one 9:15 and that included stopping to pee. My totals were 6.52 miles in 57:09 for 8:28 NGP and IF .798. For what it’s worth, I felt great. I walked every mile to take in my water and Perform and had no gut issues. I just couldn’t slow down. It didn’t make sense to me to walk longer every mile so I could have slower paces. I’ve never run a marathon before, though, so don’t know if it could come back to haunt me later.
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
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Comments
Total revenge. You nailed it!
You are going to have a great race and you are ready!!!
First off, sounds like a perfectly executed bike leg to me, including nutrition during the ride. The weather will be cooler, and the winds no worse than you describe, on race day.
Second, we ride exclusively on the inbound lanes - in other words, the traffic goes in the outbound pair of lanes, and we ride OUT AND BACK on the inbound lanes. No need to ride shoulders.
Gearing - Good idea to query the coaches. Me, I like to coast on the short "downhill", but I'm basically lazy. My advice would be to stay with your current cassette, as it is your first IM, and you want to err on the side of caution, not risk.
In the same vein, you should practice in your remaining bricks trying to go slower (say, 8:45-9:00 min miles) so you can run at that pace for the first six miles. Then, if you feel stronger, you can build to faster miles over the next 20.
What do Craig Alexander, Andy Potts, Mirinda Carfrae, Sam McGlone, and I all have in common (along with thousands of other IM finishers over the years)? We never ran a marathon (probably ran no more than 20 miles) before our first IM. The key to success you already know - go WAY slower than you feel like you should for the first hour or so, and keep up with your fluids every aid station. It's really that simple.
Except for maintaining the intensity in your workouts for the next three weeks (you need to keep stimulating those mitochondria to replicate), you're ready.
I also struggle with slowing down on the run, but I have run 3 marathons and I know how critical it is to force yourself to go slow, particularly when everyone else is going out way too hard. just know your zones, and stay there. i'd recommend running to heart rate because it will probably head up as you get off the bike and the crowds get you excited. i'm guessing if you force yourself into an easy zone 1, you'll be at your speed zone +30, and even if its faster, if you're in mid zone 1, you're going to be golden as it won't be easy to get it that low.
good luck! enjoy the taper. i know i will
Thanks again everyone.
Thanks for the info, Terry. Great job!
GH