Boulder 70.3 - 0 For 6, but great bike split.
For the sixth (out of six) time, I didn't finish theis race. I am snake bit with this race, having planned to DNF once (before IM Wisconsin) and dropping out due to injury on 5 separate occasions. Last year was the achilles tendon I had been having problems with all year, and this year was a quadriceps pull on the monday before the race.
I had my usual "meh" swim (34:57) before embarking on the bike. Last year was a breakthrough bike for me going 2:20:50. I pushed it a little on that one because I knew going in that I wasn't going to run because of the achilles tendon. My NP for that was 264 at an IF=0.85.
This year, I figured I didn't want to go too much harder intensity-wise, as I was plannign to try to run, and I didn't want to blow up at mile 6. After getting out of the water, my T1 time was a dismal 2:44, as I forgot to grab my nutrition and had to go back. I had hoped to pick up some Transition time this time by putting shoes on the bike and minimizing what I had to do in T1... That stupid error negated all that other preparation.
Once on the bike, I also had trouble getting my feet into my shoes. I had practiced numerous times with no problems, but for some reason, I could not get my feet in. It took me at least a half mile to get that done. Once I was in, I was good. I had my Garmin set to auto lap every 14 miles, so that I could assess my performance in each quarter of the bike.
I took the first half of the bike pretty hard. I pretty much cruised the swim, so I was not too tired from that. I was at 266 NP (IF=0.82) for the first loop. Most of the first 11 miles of the loop are uphill, altbeit only slightly. The remainder of the loop is flat to downhill. I averaged just under 24 mph the first 14 miels, and then really picked it up on the downhill section to average nearly 25 mph.
I managed to carry my speed from the 2nd quarter of the bike through the 3rd quarter and didn't slow down much, even though my NP for that section was 10 watts lower. In the last 14 miles of the bike, I didnt't stay aero much at all. my neck was stiff, and my back was a little sore. I think all the bike racing I did kept me from riding my tri-bike as much, so I wasn't able to hold the aero position for the entire bike. I kept my NP at 255 for that last section, but my speed droped to an average of 22.8 mph
I did finish the bike in about 2:20 again this year. Garmin said 2:19:51, but official results said 2:20:01.
Heading out on the run, I knew almost immediately that the thigh muscle wouldn't hold up. I felt the familiar tightness growing in it, and I knew if I did keep going, I was likely to pull up lame at mile 2 or 3 (on the farthest side of the 2 loop run course). So, rather than chance it, I called it a day. I decided it was more important to stay healthy and finish out the bike racing season than to sideline myself with a stupid injury trying to finish my white whale race.
I anticipate that healthy, I would have run around 1:45 (maybe better). Would have finished around 4:45, which was my goal. One of these days I will finish this race.
Interesting comparison of bike splits from 2011 and 2012. Very similar rides. 2011 was a higher IF because my FTP was 315 last year, and 325 this year. Here are links to the TP files. 2011 was a Joule, and apparently, I'd forgotten my HR monitor. 2012 was a Garmin.
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