Is a Reeeeally Long Hill Just a Long Hill?
Aloha EN!
I have the opportunity to ride the IMWC course tomorrow and intend to do a rehearsal of Ironman bike pacing. I hope this will help be better estimate the SWAG I’m currently faced with for the oh-so-critical “time estimate” that will guide my pacing for IMC. I read the racing with power resource and plunked my numbers into the calculator. I see it has us go a bit harder for hills over three minutes.
My question is: Does this advice apply if the hill is realllllly long? Both courses have some grades that are approaching seven miles.
Not sure if any of these deets matter, but FWIW:
* My SWAG time estimate is 6:00
* FTP is 196 (this is from 02/21, hoping to crack 200 on the next test)
* Goal watts of 70% puts me at 294 TSS
I recognize that this puts me just into the yellow on the spreadsheet. I’m doing this as I’m very optimistic my FTP will be high enough by race day that this will bring me back down into the green zone. My objective of this ride is to hone in on that bike split estimate… if my logic is flawed feel free to call me out!
Any advice you can offer is much appreciated.
Thanks…. errr Mahalo!
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Comments
Jen,
Jenn - No matter how hot it is there, be thankful. Yesterday, we had on and off snow/hail/thunder/rain in the convergance zones. and this AM this temp is 34, maxing out still below 50. No real end in sight to the daily bouts of rain.
That hill from Kawaihae to Hawi is never steep, but is very windy and bakes in the sun most of the day. Hunker down and hold it steady on the way up, and be VERY careful on the way down. While it's not as long as RIchter or Twin Lakes at IMC, the steep ness in the last 4 miles is about the same.
Of course, it's still early to be trying to correlate your fitness and power to how you'll be able to race at the end of August. Come July, there are many rides up and into the Cascades which can help you mimic the feel of riding the IMC course, it that's what you're looking for.
@ Rich: Perfect, that answers my exact question. Sorry I didn’t see the webinar earlier, I’m going to try to get though it tonight.
As coach Rich point out those hill will kill you at 10% over your goal watts. I was well over that for my 20' and 40' power and believe my 1 hour average power came in at .8 something. I'd have to go home and check my files.
My point is you FTP is what it is on race day an ensure you have enough gearing to keep the watts down. Right now its difficult to say where the FTP will settle out. My FTP was too low and my weight too high. At 3 w/kg right now you should be fine, push that to 3.5 even better. You just need the right gearing for Mclean Creek road and then just keep it at .7 for richter and yellow lake.
Gordon