HIM race rehersal #2 -- Matt Aaronson

MattAaronson

Things have been hectic so only now am I able to write this one up. Overall it was a tough workout but a good one. Again there were valuable lessons to be learned. First the summary statistics:

Bike – http://connect.garmin.com/activity/96476197.  Watts target was ~205-207, z3 for me is 198-211. I did have several 1:00 "easy spin" rest intervals not listed. I did them to wait when a buddy of mine was catching up to me so they were somewhat erratic…one after every 2-3 of the main splits.

Lap	Miles	Time	Speed mph		Avg power	Norm power	VI	IF		Avg cadence	Avg HR	Max HR
Warmup	3.54	15:00	14.1		106	113	1.07	0.456		70	96	107
1	5	15:02	19.9		203	205	1.01	0.827		82	129	137
2	5	15:19	19.6		205	208	1.02	0.838		83	131	136
3	5	13:39	22.0		198	202	1.02	0.813		83	129	144
4	5	14:45	20.3		208	207	1	0.836		86	133	139
5	5	13:58	21.5		206	208	1.01	0.84		86	132	139
6	5	13:35	22.1		204	207	1.02	0.835		83	132	139
7	5	14:16	21.0		210	211	1	0.852		85	136	141
8	5	14:59	20.0		209	209	1	0.841		87	137	143
9	5	13:50	21.7		208	209	1	0.841		85	138	144
10	5	14:25	20.8		201	202	1.01	0.816		84	136	147
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Coach Patrick

Matt, you look pretty good from a prep standpoint. I'd be sure to check on that knee stuff....might be a simple tweak on your fit or simply better focus on keeping your cadence up as you ride hard. Good luck!

MattAaronson

@ Coach P -- totally agree. Last time it was a fit issue but I'm not changing anything fit-wise with a week to go. I did 2 rides this week and they went ok, so if the longer Saturday ride starts to be problematic I'll pull the plug early for sure.

Michael Byerts

Playing it a little conservative in your first Half-Iron race is a smart call, especially in the heat, but I would lay favorable odds on your breaking 5:00. I came within a couple minutes of doing it in my first HIM, and you are in better shape than I was last year (and probably this year too).

MattAaronson

Thanks for the vote of confidence Michael (although you have no idea how badly I swim!!).

I'm interested to see how it pans out. My strategy will be to do EN-style execution on the bike and not even look at my elapsed time until the clock on the way out of T2. After doing themental math on my run target, I'll may call an audible on the run strategy depending on how I feel and what is possible. That said, one of the key race rehersal lessons on both of my RRs has been the importance of holding back at the beginning of the run.

In any case I'm totally psyched for this race!

Michael Byerts

Told ya! Excellent debut race!

MattAaronson

Indeed, Couldn't have gone better! Full report to follow when I have time to put it together. When I saw the clock on the way out of T2 and realized I only needed to run 1:50 to get sub-5 I played the run VERY conservatively and actually ended up with a pretty decent negative split. Cheers, Matt.