IMSG and racing in tough conditions Q and

Great idea Bry.  Curious as to your thoughts on the windy bike.  What exactly were the conditions and how did you cope mentally and strategically effort-wise.  We got hit by horrendous storms at a HIM in Iowa once and I've never experienced worse conditions than that race....30-45 mph winds and heavy, pelting rain that stung your arms.   I just stayed calm and conditions improved on the run.

Congrats on a great race and another KQ

Bryan,

I live in a very windy part of the country and deal with winds all the time.  BUt I still struggle as far as pacing goes.  Can you talk a little more on strategy?  I know you said you went by HR.  Did you allow yourself to go to a higher HR in the headwind and recover in the tail wind, stay steady HR the entire time? Or something different.  What was the strategy you talked about on recovery?

OH....and what wheelset did you ride?

Hi Bryan, knowing the conditions were going to be so rough/windy on the bike, did you still rock the Storm Trooper Disc (or did the conditions just spring up, I did not read about the race reports about the weather forecasts)?   Also, how do you prepare for strong side gusts while trying to stay down on the bars as much as possible or does that just come with practice/experience.  And looking back, is there anything you would change in any part of the race, s/b/or r?

Congrats on a great race and meeting your personal goals!  And as always for the strong advice you offer up!

Glad to see you are doing this Bryan, this is another example of your selfless attitude and caring for the triathlon community. I have a bunch of Q's but I will hold back mostly until after the RR is up as I think some of them will be answered then.

How was your training this time around for IM different then others, I know you had a running injury, how did that play into the role of training?

Mentally what was the single hardest part of the day, and what did you do to overcome?

Great race Bryan!  Congrats on a superb performance.

I quoted this part for truth, and I'd say that it applies not just to tough swim conditions, but to ANY tough conditions.  

Acceptance = Relaxation = Speed.

bryancd - 2012-05-07 9:33 AM

Meulen - 2012-05-07 8:09 AM

Bryan,

 

I live in a very windy part of the country and deal with winds all the time.  BUt I still struggle as far as pacing goes.  Can you talk a little more on strategy?  I know you said you went by HR.  Did you allow yourself to go to a higher HR in the headwind and recover in the tail wind, stay steady HR the entire time? Or something different.  What was the strategy you talked about on recovery?

 

OH....and what wheelset did you ride?

Hey man. My planned HR for the bike was to hold a range of 135-145bpms. That's what I train long rides and it's like second nature. On the first loop while down on the bars and trying to hide from the wind and spin, I was holding in the 138-142 range pretty comfortably. On the climbs, I stayed seated as much as I could and did not violate the 145 no matter how slow I was climbing into the wind.Once i reached the 12+ miles of downhill/tailwind, I let my HR drop to mid 130's. That was the recovery. On the second loop, the fatigue started to set in as I knew it would and now 135-138 was getting hard to sit on, but I was ok with that and made it a game to keep as close around 135 as I could. Once the final climb was over at mile 90, I knew I would have 22 miles of mostly downhill and tailwing again and let my HR fall back into the low 130's. Once I hit the big descent, I spun up my 11 cassette and then free wheeled! I coasted, all my body weight leaning forward, off the saddlle an over the tobe tube, slammed down on the aero bars. I was flying and loving and and gave my legs at least 10min of hardly any work. One last point, I had to adjust my effort not just for the winds and climbs, I had to make allowances for the fact that I was going to be out on the bike for almost 25min longer then I planned. That effected my nutrtion startegy as well as pacing. I neede to play a long game that I had never had to consider in the past and that made the recovery even more critical.

thanks Bryan! that helps alot!  I usually use power, but I also pay attention to HR and how it relates in different situations.  It's probably a better game plan to ditch power and speed data when faced with conditions like this.  Like you said, there's a certain amount of acceptance involved and then adjustments to the overall plan. 

thanks man!

and Congrats!

Bryan,

First off, congratulations!  

Now, I know that the bike is an important part and that IMSG is a very challenging course, but all IM wins eventually come down to foot races. Could you talk about the run portion some? Specifically, how are you pacing your run? Do you start off at say 140bpm, but by the end you're running at 160bpm b/c of cardiac drift (those are just random numbers)? What was your nutrition strategy? Finally, on ST you mentioned that you were "running scared" from one of your fast approaching teammates. What was that last 4 miles like and how hard (pacewise) were you going at the end?

Thanks!
Dan 

Ditto. Wind. Both on the bike and running. We're gusting to 30 today, and I don't even want to try the bike. I did run, and it was miserable running into the wind. At least I don't have climbs also to contend with -- I assume IMSG does.

Congrats on the AG win and thanks for taking the time to do this thread. I really enjoy Jordan Rapp's "Ask Me Anything" threads, glad to see you doing this in BT.

You've already touched on it in a couple of posts, but I was very interested to know how you were keeping track of your AG position. I know you mentioned your coach knew you were catching the guy ahead of you, but also mentioned that a couple of AG'ers were closer than you knew.

Also, I know you've KQ'd before, but is this your first win?

Bryan, Congrats on incredible race in unreal conditions. Me and a couple buddies went down to train and watch the race. I am amazed(and grateful) that everyone came out of that water ok. We saw people who came back to the start of the swim thinking that was the exit. They were confused because of the markers bouys had been blown all over.

At the post race interview, Ben Hoffman said that was the hardest race that he has ever done......the hardest thing he has ever done.  Mike reilly said it's the first time that he has brought the overall winner in at over 9 hours.

This is an absoloutely epic win for you on an epic day. We saw you come through the finishing shoot and you looked like a champion.

Now for the question...you mentioned using HR for the run and bike. How did you choose your zones? Percent of ATHR? Percent of max? RPE? I am signed up for my first IM and can't decide what HR range to use.