My bike instructions were
1)Ride 225-235 watts for the first hour
2)Ride 235-245 watts until 1 hour left
3)Ride 225 watts until the end
4)Eat 1 salt stick table / 30 minutes
5)Drink 2 400 calories efs gels
6)Drink 2 270 calorie efs grape/cliff crisp apple + 3 salt tabs
7)Drink x 150 calorie bottles of Gatorade endurance formula
8)Stop at special needs for 5 minutes and eat 400 more calories
Equipment: Medium Trek 2007 Equinox TTX9.5, 90mm Bonty race lite Al stem, Sram s900 110bcd 172.5 Crankset 50/34, Quarq Saturn compact power meter, Sram black box bb, Shimano SPD-SL 7810 pedals, Shimano Ultegra FD/RD (with ceramic speed jockey wheels), Shimano DA Shifters, Sram red carbon brake levers, 2008 Zipp 808 front, Zipp 900 rear, sram red 11-26 rear, ceramic speed bearings, Conti GP4000s 23mm Black clinchers (with 223 miles), Michelin Aircomp latex tubes 18-20, Zipp Ti skewers, Garmin705 w/ v2.84beta, 2 saltstick stick dispensers, 3T Brezza ltd with ski bends, 2009 Giro TT helmet, Official USAT race number bracket, bontrager bag, 1 quick stick, 1 mich butyl tube, 2 co2, 1 air innovations road light pump/co2, bonty rxl carbon cage zip tied between aero bars, 1 bonty rxl cage on seat tube, desoto tri top/short, Rocket 7 triathlon shoes
I looked down after 2 minutes, clearly the taper had worked (which I was not surprised about because Jordan has me wired... but I was seriously wondering about given how I felt in the days leading up to the race) – and I was ripping along at 300 watts. WHOOOO!! slow this freight train the hell down.
After a bit I rocked on the seat to adjust things, when I did that my left leg hooked the end of the zip tie that was holding my number on the bike. Not good. Could be really not good because the zip tie was sharp [side note: it was sharp because Andy didn't install it. If he had installed it he would have melted the end of the zip tie to a nice round smooth end] . This turned out to be alright even though I hooked it with my shorts a few dozen times on the ride it didn't tear my pants or cut me.
I am profoundly sad to say that I had installed the 2.84 beta version of the software onto my Garmin 705 on Friday night before the race. When I did this I forgot to turn off “smart recording” which is supposed to make the data file smaller... but actually just screws up the recording of the power data. So I am not able to give NP/VI for the segments (but I rode very evenly and believe that it would be around 1.03/1.04)
With in a few miles on river road I caught up to and passed John. He yelled great swim – which meant a lot. I yelled something in return and ripped on down the road. Very quickly I got to the new part of the course which was a detour around a bridge that was under repair. The hill was pretty steep and I was passed by dozens of people hammering up the hill. I just kept saying to myself “they are totally irrelevant, race your plan” but it is still annoying to be passed. When I got to the top I quickly turned the tables on all of them as I moved rapidly down the hill on the other side.
There were boatloads of people on the course and I was tearing through the field. Obviously the strategy of waiting to be near the end had paid off because there were tons of people to pass, but they were strung out. It was fun because even at only 235 watts I was blasting by people. I worked to drive the power down to 235 and by 30 minutes into the bike I had accomplished this goal.
I reached the out and back at 1894 and was feeling great. I kept up the power and continued to move through traffic. I should have had a “on your left dukes of hazard air horn” installed on my bike. In general the even power strategy that I employ makes you go very slowly uphill and very fast downhill. Which is the opposite of what most people do. I never get over watching the people standing hammering up the hills. I had the perfect gear setup with 50/34 and 11-26. For all of you out there without a calculator 50/11 is 3.7% bigger than 53/12. I only ran out of gear on two very short stretches of downhill where I was going 44.4mph (which is probably faster than Jill or my mother would prefer)
The course was clear and I had no problem moving through traffic. In fact the only place on the whole course where there was congestion that caused me any problems where the two fast downhills on 1894.
At the end of the first hour I was EXACTLY at 235 watts. Perfect. I was ready to jump it up to 245. This time it only took me about 10 minutes to get the power back down to the limit. I was drinking well and my stomach felt good. I rolled the first aid station. At the second I ditched my first bottle and added a Gatorade endurance yellow. Over the rest of the ride I finished 2 bottles of Orange and 3 bottles of Yellow (right before I threw them out I drank them completely empty).
When I made the turn onto the “lollipop” part of the course headed to Lagrange I was feeling very solid. I passed the penalty tent (which had 1 person in it). During the whole day I saw only one case of drafting. I decided to pick up a gel at the next aid station. I put the gel into my pocket and try to decide what to do – no decision for the time being so I kept riding. I decided to roll the special needs on the first pass... then headed on into Lagrange. When I got into the barrier part of the Lagrange festival I was so jacked up by the crowd that I pumped my fist which sent them into to a tizzy. That was very cool and I was moved.... right up until I hit the timing mat which almost wrecked me because I didn't have a good grip on the bike... that was close. (Suggestion 2 for the race organization – make the timing mats a little less dangerous on the bike) I moved back into the country. I am always awestruck by the beautiful the countryside in Kentucky. We are truly blessed to live in such a wonderful place.
As I passed people by the boatload I continued to notice all of the different sizes/shapes of Ironmen/women.... but I guess that I shouldn't judge because at 187 I am most certainly one of the larger ones.
I was concerned that I had left the efs gel in my transition bag... so after a while I decided that I had better go ahead and risk eating a powergel (which turned out to be raspberry crème). It went down well and I was relieved. The only bummer (on the whole bike leg) was that I stupidly dropped my chain right after I ate it. That required that I stop and get the chain back on and get going again on a steep hill (where I stood for the only time of the day and hit 608 watts).
I continue to roll and was keeping the watts right on 245. I do not display speed on my computer. This gave me the mental challenge of calculating the average from the total elapsed time and distance. I knew that things were going pretty well as I felt great (no stomach issues), the power was perfect, and I was blasting through traffic.
Just before I made the turn back onto the 2nd loop of the lollipop, Max Longaree (the previous years winner) passed me (the ONLY person who passed me who I didn't pass back (that I can remember)) I yelled “Go Max. Rip it up” and he smiled and waved.
I hit the second loop of the course feeling very good. Now I was faced with another decision. To stop or not stop at special needs. In my special needs bag I had a Oatmeal marshmallow cookie 420 calories, a brown sugar pop tart 420 calories , and a snickers bars 271 calories. Lots of choices. I had discussed the possibility with Jordan of stopping for 5 minutes, eating and letting my stomach settle. He might dispute the word discussed (in fact he might say agreed). I was calculating my total calories and I was right on track to hit the 1800 target. My legs felt great. I really really needed to pee. I had tried to stand up a little bit and let it go but it was no dice. So I was seriously considering stopping. But I was really rolling, but I agreed to stop, but .,.. I got to the people and yelled out my number. Then put my head down an ripped right by special needs. Praying that it didnt come back to haunt me later on in the day.
Once again I went through Lagrange. The crowd was absolutely fantastic and it got me really jazzed up. As I got onto the Ballard School road I caught up with Nikki Ditsch a super nice person. She was looking great on the bike. I yelled some encouragement to her and continued on down the road. At some point in the next miles I went ahead and consumed another powergel.
Since I had agreed to back it down to 225 with 1 hour left I decided to wait until 4:30 into the race. Based on my calculations I was thinking that I would be a little bit faster than 5:30 but it was hard to convince myself to slow down. I rationalized that my plan was to go 5:30 so maybe Jordan didnt really mean 1 hour left but that he really meant 4:30. (being an engineer he is very precise – so this theory was basically bogus). So at 4:30 I turned off the gas and drifted down to 226. I really had a hard time keeping it that low (and in fact didn't get to 225). In the final run into the end I ate the last powergel
Final stats on the bike – 5:17:36, 21.3 MPH, 1570 calories, 7070 mg sodium
5 bottles gatorade endurance = 750 calories + 3000mg sodium
2 bottles of EFS/Cliff apple = 490 calories + 1320 sodium
3 raspberry crème powergel = 330 calories + 600mg sodium
10 saltstick tables = 2150 mg sodium
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