Big Day
How did everyone's Big Day go?
Beautiful day in SW Ohio. Temp at bike start of 61 with low humidity - end at 74 -- little wind -- awesome! Executed the swim (2800 yds.) at the local YMCA; quick drive back home and then on the bike. Did the bike in IF of .705 and the run in IFof .707. I was on a very hilly bike course so a VI of 1.06 -- that needs to come down, though. My watts were all over the place the last 40 minutes as I tried to hang on! My run IF reflects my approach -- run a mile loop from my house and towel off and drink at the end of each mile so it includes a walk through the water stations sim. So what I do is reflective of actual IM performance. That said, I want to work these runs off the bike up toward .75. We'll see.
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Big day went well, after the swim.... Survived the hour, but only 2000 yds...(I have higher expectations than that for myself.)
Turned the bike segment into "a trip back home", heading on a new course to the area in which I grew up west of Dayton, OH, for some rolling hills & rough roads to simulate IMKY course as close as I could. Temp ran 77 to 82F, with headwind for many segments. Goal watts 158. Results were: NP=155, IF=.69, VI=1.08, TSS=183. Found I spike the watts too often at re-starts from stop signs, cross roads, etc., contributing to the VI. Was more aware of just laying back on hills, watching watts, and cranking back thru the gears. Flat tire at about 30 miles into the ride from an nasty bridge entrance (NOTE: there's a similar bad bridge/bottle launcher on the IMKY course!) Good practice...better now than on 8/28!
Run: First 20 minutes too fast! Got within 15 sec/mi of goal on way back. I need a Garmin or similar device for accurate, real-time pace feedback (suggestions?). Used Nike+plus, but won't on race day.
Nutrition/hydration: banana & 1 gel (50/50 w/water) plus water on the way to the "Y". Finished water bottle + 2nd gel back home to "transition". Bike: a 3 hr concentrate Infinite bottle, then mixed 4th hour enroute. 7 bottles fluid over the 4 hrs. Felt good. Run: 4x8oz water from fuel belt, plus 1 gel at about 15 minute in. Overall: satisfyingly tired, lotsa sweat, no cramping or pains (yeah!).
Great work everybody. I cannot stress to you all enough the importance of really dialing in your hydration/nutrition in preparation for Louisville. Assume that it will be 95 and humid, figure out what you need to do to survive in those conditions, and you will be good to go. I did not do this last year, and I suffered badly on the run from mile 6 to the end.
I had a great 3000 swim in 45:00. On the bike, I lost the ability to shift into my big chainring at mile 8, but decided to continue on. There was also torrential rain and a tornado warning but I still got 72 miles with 3700 feet of climbing in 3:45 with an average wattage of 235 which is right where I want to be. I also tested using a concentrated bottle on my down tube with water only in my other three bottles and it worked well. I drank a total of 12 lbs of liquid and still lost 2 pounds!
For the run I did 8.2 miles in an hour flat and felt great the whole time. I took in one gel and no water.
After feeling like crap the first 3 weeks I am finally starting to feel strong. I even did a new PR during my 5K test yesterday. I will testing on the bike Wednesday, probably on my road bike unless my new front derailleur for the TT bike arrives today.
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robably on my road bike unless my new front derailleur arrives today for the TT bike.
I had to swap out week 6 for week 5 so I could get in my big weekend (week 6) and do IM RI 70.3 this weekend....got in 105miles in 6 hours HR Zones1&2 + 4 miles in 30:00, 2.5mi swim in 1:35 (done as 8x500m with 30 sec. so I could keep count), and 15 mile run in 2:00...Thurs/Fri/Sat last weekend...very pleased.
Last fall someone did some pretty thorough analysis of 2010's IMLOU finishing times and concluded that the average finishing time was 45 minutes slower than 2009, pretty across the board (all AG's). I think it was someone on Slowtwitch. If you weren't there, it was about 94 degrees with a heat index bumping up against 100. Street surface temperature in LaGrange was measured at 122 by the RD.
So yeah, if it's a "typical" weather day, we'll all need to dial back our expected finishing time.