Chesapeakeman Aqua Velo - Aquabike

Started in the back of the middle on left side as I tend to swim to the right in hopes to find someone to draft off and not be so timid at swim starts.

Quite a bit of contact for a small race to start. Tried to find someone to draft off. One guy would do rotation of sweet spot, back stroke, and then free and we were about the same pace until he'd do free. Water was similar to MA ocean where you can't really see far at all. At times I thought I could see the bottom and turns out where we swim is very shallow but I didn't know that at the time.

I was sighting well and coming close to the buoys. Made the turn and felt the current was different, made the turn for the long leg towards transition which was right into the sun. I tried to use kayaks and other swimmers to stay on course. As I got closer to end of first loop less protected, more waves and current. Buoys were not quite straight so I should have swam to the left more of them aiming for the final turn buoy but almost impossible to see. I was in good place in my head just doing my thing.

After loop one done, the Skipjack racers doing 1.2 miles/1 loop hadn't started and weren't in the water so had an idea of my time and was okay with that.

Second loop pretty much the same but I knew how the current/waves would change. Made the turn to the short end part and had something sting me on my left forehead..ouch..it was painful in a strange way and felt like something was stuck on there in trying to figure out what it was and if it was there, I got stung on end of my l ring finger. Considered going over to kayak to have them look at my forehead but kept swimming trying to figure out best course of action. It was annoying for about 20'. Good thing for IMFL is I won't worry about being stung as I have been and it was okay.

A little while later first Skipjack racer caught me which I was pleased in doing rough math where that put me time wise.

Straight away into the sun was worse second loop but more folks passing me and kayaks helped me stay on course and seemed to go on for long time. My lower back was a bit sore probably from way I was sighting. I heard music and thought I was getting close to only see another yellow buoy, then another yellow one, finally orange buoy turn to swim exit and out.




I did best I could, stayed in good place in my head, sighted well for me, and felt comfortable...all very good.

Swim fitness is improved as it doesn't take so much out of me to go 2.4 miles.

I wish information had said we could park at the swim venue as Kevin expected the buses to take him back to the HS and there were none. He had to walk through a shady part of town and another athlete's husband spotted him walking with a bike pump and gear and offered to drive him back to the HS.

Helped up the ramp, found my bag, went into changing tent. There were two girls there but they didn't help me at all, I got out of my wetsuit, emptied my bag, put things I needed for ride in pockets..right goes nutrition and nuuns, center goes other things, wiped my face to get salt water off and quickly put on lotion, put my swim stuff back in bag and handed it to one of the folks in there. Took a cup of water rinsed out my mouth and spit it out as I avoid consuming and food or liquid until I settle in on the bike to avoid stomach issues.

Found my bike said a few words to Kevin, cross mount and off I went..time to execute.



Put suntan lotion on in T1 in dabs and rub it in as I go...Kevin calls it my war paint...lol!



Best part of T1 is I had no clue what my swim time as I didn't see a race clock and it is best for me to stay neutral about my swim. I did best I could today so the time judgment thing I can do would not be helpful.

Fastest T1 in my AG

Plan was to go low zone 2 first hour which takes discipline in a race. I love racing with power as it gives me something I have control over to focus on and execute which in longer race keeps my mind engaged.

Settle in and execute plan. Felt okay not great waiting 20' to ingest water but took water in and spit it out.

Interesting first section of out and back with strong headwind out out section as I saw lots of other riders. Many were sitting up hammering into head wind. Odd things I noticed racers with aero helmets, sitting up with big floppy shirts on..hmmm. It was fun section of watching other racers with how they were riding, bikes, clothing choices and more.

Happy to start in with water and calories, get to turn around and feel the tailwind. Passing a few and some passing me. Make the turn that connects the out and back with loop into open farmland on some bumpy roads. Made one 90 degree turn and wind gust and pushed me hard and felt like tire slide a bit but handled it fine. After that knew that wheel cover and Zipp 404s would be fine for me.

Knew aid station was coming up and had finished both aerobottle and Gatorade which means I needed both and to do that with 1 or 2 folks handing out liquid I needed to stop. Now time to settle in and execute as I was just after hour and picked up watts a bit. First part of loop was into the wind. Go about 4 miles and see Kevin out taking pictures and cheering me on. He figure out there were these three roads that were on inside part of course he could drive and see me about every hour.

Started burping after about 1.25 hours right after eating a fun size twix bar which in the past has lead to me throwing up on the bike. It only has happened on HIM or IM bikes that it is 90+. Decided to ditch eating solid food and go with gels and Gatorade Endurance. In time Gatorade was not sitting well either so time to adapt nutrition plan again to just gels and nuuns. Need to do math to figure out how many calories and sodium I'm taking in and alter how often I'm taking gels. Come up with gel every 25' will work out right.

From about hour 2-4 is the time I find the hardest as it is early in the race, I'm not quite in my long bike zone, on roads I'm unfamiliar with and time passes slowly. Next time I see Kevin I stop briefly and complain to him and move on.



Just before half way point get to road that is very cracked and beat up and lasts maybe 4 miles. See a port a potty near a parking lot and decide to stop but someone else is in there but comes out quickly so I double back. Over a small bridge and road is flooded..strange. I try to pick part of road that has least amount of water. There are three or four big sections of water that are maybe 3-5 inches deep. Hit mile 56 and and now try to push up the watts a bit and ride in zone 3.

After the first 75' no one passed me and slowly I'd pick people off. Many athletes stopped at aid stations.

Skipjack race was to be 64 miles and I was with a bunch of other folks around that miles and no HS around. We were all wondering about distance. Finally see HS and quickly stop at sn and take all my gels and have one of the volunteers dump water on me.

Second loop was mentally easier as I knew the roads and how the wind would change.

At about 70 miles my right toes started to hurt. In the past hot days I ride long my metatarsals swell and feet go numb then it turns into severe pain. To address this I got cycling orthotics last August but didn't start using them until after IM Canada as they came late. Figured best thing to do was to was avoid the severe pain so I took my foot out of my shoe while riding, put it on top of my shoe with the ball of my foot over front of shoe and wiggled my toes a bunch for a few minutes. It made things better but I was unable to slip my foot into my shoe while riding so I'd stop, get my toes in and redo velcro while riding. I had to do this three times over last 40 miles but it dealt with the issue with minimal amount of stopping and lost time. In past have to stop take off my shoe and walk around to get pain to go away. Pleased I problem solved this on the go. Pedaling felt odd as leg was in a weird position but it was just a few minutes.





Power numbers which may not be correct due to power meter calibration issues
TSS 304
IF .688
VI 1.02

First 56 miles 3:19
Second 56 miles 3:09

Ride time 6:28:26

Time stopped: 3:26 includes
1 aid stop for 2 bottles
1 aid stop for gel they had to find
1 porta potty stop
1 stop few words with Kevin
3 stops to slip right foot back in bike shoe

My nutrition plan was:
Wait 20' before ingesting water
After start drinking and stomach felt settled go with plan
Lava Salt every hour on 15'
Gel on 45'
Real food on the 15'
Gatorade Endurance to drink
Water add nuuns to each bottle

After bad experience with being sick on bike at IM Canada didn't want to have repeat so wanted to be sure to get enough fluid, calories and biggie sodium

Waited 20' to drink, did take a couple of mouthfuls of nuuns and spit it out, at 20' had nuuns water and it sat well so started with my nutrition. At 22 miles in, both nuuns aerobottle and gatorade I started with were empty; stopped at aid station as it was to small to do two hand offs..got both water and Gatorade Endurance. Soon after I started burping/refluxing...which is what usually comes before times I have vomited on my bike. Those incidents only occur on hot days, it was above 90. I suspect I hadn't had any fluid or calories for swim, T1 and 20' so close to 2.5 hours that I over consumed a bit.

Ate my food at 15' and it made things worse, so decided to drop any solid food. Stomach was better, but Gatorade Endurance made my stomach feel off. I decided to go with just gels. I had to do the math to make sure I was getting enough calories and sodium....doing gel every 30' was easy but 200 calories/hour is a bit low. Decided to go every 25' but without a watch with a timer, kept being hard to remember when next 25' was.

Stomach settled down..figured sodium per hour
Lava Salt 165
2 powerbar gels 200 each-400
Nuuns per aerobottle- 360 if had whole one per hour
= 925 mg max per hour, if less nuuns minimum of 800 which is significantly more than I took at Canada and both days it was in the mid 90s

Calories when doing gel every 30' was 200 calories/hour every 25' was 240 calories per hour




It's hard to say if I executed my plan well as my power meter data is suspect. Pace did increase through ride and so did watts until last 1.5 hours. Last 12 miles I was working hard, passing many, going fastest I had all day, breathing heavy but my watts registered not even top of zone 2. I don't think that part is accurate. PM doesn't hold it's calibration so sometimes it's accurate and other times not and to find out I have to stop and calibrate it which isn't happening in a race. I don't know if I trust the numbers or not. Based on pace and RPE I did better second half of ride which was my goal but I think I could have done better.

Weather probably effected me to some degree but not as the many folks I saw on the side of the road over the last 25 miles.

Overall I felt better as ride progressed. Sadly it took me about 60 miles to settle in and then time seemed to speed up. Glad I got to that place that makes riding long not seem so long..just keep up with nutrition and I'm good to go. It's a mental thing.

I'm pleased with how I felt and execution. I do think 10 minutes negative split on IM bike is good and shows I paced pretty well.

Ended up sending my Quarq back week after the race and they replaced the spider/PM part so it was defective.

Went into a/c in gym, found they had showers so cleaned up and ate some food then packed up stuff after trying to get my results and drove to DC for a couple of days with Kevin.


For me nailing my nutrition and pacing is the way I can optimize the results for the fitness I have on any given race day. So accomplishing those two things today makes me quite satisfied.



Things you should know about this race:
There are showers in the gym which is air conditioned for after race
You or your spectators can drive to swim venue park and leave after your swim

Don't trust the volunteers they kept telling me wrong information
They didn't give back bike special needs but threw everything away which wasn't in the info prior to race
No mile markers or paint on bike course

It was a great course, good way to practice for IMFL, swag was awesome, I would do it again but not the full IM distance race as a A race as the vibe and size of field would effect me doing the full 26.2 with so few participants.