IMAZ RR#2 and a few questions
IMAZ RR#2 was yesterday. Plan was identical to RR#1 except for a change in my aerobar height to address my shoulder pain around mile 85 and an increase in my caffiene toward the end of the race (via Hammer Gel).
I left the house around 10AM and temperature was around 40 degrees.
Had 4 bottles on the bike...1 with concentrated Perpetuem (1080 calories) one with Heed (200 calories) both behing the seat. One with endurolytes between the aerobars and another with endurolytes at the bottom of the downtube. Plan was 250 cal/hr mostly via perpetuem with some gels at 80 calories and Heed supplying the rest.
Planned for .7 IF, or pNorm of 180. Since no pNorm on my Garmin 500 shot for avg watts of 175 implying VI of 1.035. Planned to keep watts around 165 for first 45 minutes then go from there. First 75 minutes went fine...was pretty cold out so i was bundled up. Like RR#1 I had to pee after 22 miles or so despite little ffuid intake. I quick pee in the woods and I was back off. Around mile 28 I had my first wrench thrown in...fellt a little bouncy and realized the rear tire was flat. Had to hike a bit as the area on the road i was at was not safe to change the tire...took about 15 minutes to change as I had to take off a few layers to get to my tools, etc. After getting on the bike I soon realized my rear derailleur was messed up during the change and wouldn't shift well. Another 10 minutes and we were back up and running. After a 20-30 minute delay I knew I'd be curring it close on the hard stop after 7 hours due to family commitments so I decided to push a bit harder. Balance of ride as fine...didn't feel much different than my first RR.Took a swig of perpeteum every 30 minutes and substituded a gel and Heed for a few as well. Got back to the house after 6:15, of which 5:48 was riding time...about 18 minutes slower than my first RR despite higher watts
Quick change in the garage to remove layers (it was now in the mid 50s), a hammer gel, and a few swigs of Heed and I was on my way. Run plan was for 3 miles at Z1+30 sec, or 8:30. Despite my best intentions I ran 8:00 and then would walk for 20-30 sec for each of the first three miles. I had to cut off a mile to be home in time so did 2 more miles targeting to be right at 8min/mile which I was able to do. No running out of steam after 3-4 miles like RR#1.
Time Avg Watts pNorm TSS IF VI Avg Speed
Bike RR#1 5:30:59 166 172 243.4 .67 1.04 20.2
Bike RR#2 5:48:39 175 181 301.8 .714 1.06 19.3
My questions after RR#2:
1 - After 5:45 on the bike I didn't even go through 3 bottles...maybe 85-90 oz. Seems really low but i never felt thirsty and i still had to pee 3 times on the bike. SHould I be worried about this since it will be much drier in Tempe?
2- My harder intensity on RR#2 was interesting for acouple reasons. First, despite 10 additional watts it was 18 mins slower...exact course, same setup, etc. There were a few more poorly timed stoplights so that may have impacted a bit. Also, with a much higher TSS I was still able to run well off the bike and felt better than my earlier ride. Should I target a slightly higher IF on the ride based on this?
Any other thoughts on my RRs or execution are appreciated
All in all I'm feeling pretty good. IMAZ will be my first 140.6 and am getting very anxious for the big day.
Thanks!
Comments
Interesting. Sounds like you had a lot of crap thrown at you but held it together pretty well, that is a wonderful thing. Plenty of reasons you could have been a little slower on a few more watts, most likely wind.
I would not target any higher than .71 for your first IM. That seems like a bad idea to me. Really, really, really MAKE yourself run slow out of T2. No excuses or nonsense about that. It actually is easier to run slower than run faster. Make sure that you do. Do not cheat. I am not wrong about this. I promise that you will not end up running the last 10k faster than the forst 10k or feel that you should have run faster at the start.
Good luck and have fun!
Far be it from me to ignore a WSM's advice. Will dial in .71 max for the race. Will test out my slower running off the bike with a short brick after next weekends ride...I felt like I was slowing down nicely but only got to 8 from 7:30.