Coach P's Ironman Texas Bike and Run Crucibles
So my plan on the bike was to start easy and ride 250 NP. I averaged like 212, and my NP was maybe 221...but being aero and knowing the course totally ruled the day. You can watch the review here: http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/watch/clhrFhEKw
On the run I focused on Heart Rate based on previous performances, with my early goals being to drop my core temperature and eat. In the first 5 miles I had a banana and two caffeinated gels as well as 5 cups of Perform...that alone is more than I used to eat in the ENTIRE run. As you can see I avoided the bonk and kept things rolling to a PR run. http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/watch/clhrYHE7g
Fire away with comments and questions!!!
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Comments
I see your run cadence was 85 but you were targeting 88. from just eyeballing the graph it looks like it actually stayed steady or maybe even increased throughout the 26 miles. is that normal for you? Mine always fades the longer I'm out there. Looks like you hit your run cadence targets because if you take out the walking the aid station parts, I'm sure your actual run cadence was close to 88.
P, I may have missed this but was your FTP on road bike indoors or TT bike outdoors and aero? I saw you mentioned 17 cm drop in interview w/ R and I also had Todd fit me and I'm 6' 0.5" and ride 17.5 cm drop and am super aero and faster but noticed my watts are down 15-20 although this may be related to a different bike and different SRM, wireless vs wired. Bill WIseman curiously was fitted by Todd, has same bike as I do now and has a deep drop also and lost right about 15-20 watts but also has wireless SRM vs wired.
My Q is, was your goal of 250W was based on indoor road or outdoor TT FTP test? Curious as I really want to know if your run was due to very low TSS or just superior fitness and typical TSS since your IF was artifically low based on erroneous FTP (road vs TT). Thx
Excellent job coach P.
Was there any coke or just use the caffeine in the gels? I was just wonder if you kept the caffeine going through liquid and if there was any noticible effects (perceived) from lack of or continued use of caffeine?
My thoughts when to directly to season planning and tremblant. Are you going to do this race to solidify the nutrition plan or perhaps big training day cutting the run short. Given the timing of the race you would have to keep your fitness/race weight and focus through October and peak for three IM's a tough thing to do.
Gordon
Great questions so far...
My thougths go towards, "just because Patrick does it this way doesn't mean you should to", right? Wondering if guidance will end up being tweaked based on ability. If your day is done after 9:27 hours you need to do XXX, if your day is north of 14 hours you should consider doing YYY...This could probably fit into Nutrition maybe bike fit (can/should a 17cm drop be held for those north of 6:30 bike split and still run off the bike??) ....
Love all the discussion and how folks who have done more IMs than I can even imagine are still trying to tweak their setup, nutrition and race strategy...
@Bryan, yes we need to discuss the nutrition stuff!
@Rob, I outlined it in my race report. I drank 3 bottles perform for first 2 hours each, then 2 bottles per hour. Then I ate every 30 minutes, as 1/2 power bar, 1/2 power bar, 3 caff gels, 1/2 powerboat, 1/2 power bar, 4 caff gels. That's 480 PB, 770 Gels, 2100 calories of Perform for a total of 3,350 calories on the bike. I used to take in 250 cals per hour for 5 hours, or 1,250.
@William, yes, but it's a bigger discussion that we need to have. Let's be clear that I have been _training_ to eat that much for weeks. Even on a 30' run, I would do a gel prior, a cliff block every 10' and one scoop of Endurox after. This was according to my fueling plan from the Core Diet folks and, honestly, I have never spent so much money on nutrition than I have in the last 3 months.
@Withrow, I know what I can do from my experience riding. On a flat course I naturally gravitate to lower RPMs, always have….so no outlier for me. But I am personally an outlier, so that's the trouble with emulating my cadence. Do what works for you!!
@Jeff, good question. My FTP on my indoor bike was 362, so I took 22 watts off that and assumed my TT bike FTP. Done. I also lose watts on road bike, but am so aero it just doesn't matter. Put my head down and I fly past everyone…that's priceless.
@Gordon, all the gels were 1x caffeine. I had salt stick plus caps that have a little caffeine in them and I took 2 per hour. All gels on run had caffeine. Goal was to build caffeine over the day, no pill to spike it…so that I'd be ready to rock the run.
@Nate, totally right. This is all n=1…just sharing so others can learn!
Coach could you expand on the reason you decided to abandon the NP goals while doing the bike. Pre-race you felt 250 was doable. You said you were going fast enough with lower powers. This worked out well for you. Just wondering if I could make a sound decision like that during a race.
Here are the numbers cuz some folks asked for them....
Here are the power numbers for all the geeks out there. Please note this is off of a Functional Threshold Power of 340 watts.
Entire workout (212 watts):
Duration: 4:54:45 (4:56:26)
Work: 3748 kJ
TSS: 206.8 (intensity factor 0.649)
Norm Power: 221
VI: 1.04
Pw:HR: 1.94%
Pa:HR: n/a
Distance: 111.487 mi
Elevation Gain: 2205 ft
Elevation Loss: 2239 ft
Grade: -0.0 % (-33 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 430 212 watts
Heart Rate: 101 146 133 bpm
Cadence: 30 231 80 rpm
Hub Torque: 0 25 6 lb-in
Altitude: 89 365 203 ft
Crank Torque: 0 803 226 lb-in
Hey Coach,
Sounds good coach. Thanks