Fred D and Jason's (Tri808) Half Ironman Mentor Group CLOSED! (Page 35)

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I know next to nothing about the mechanics of a bike, though I'm very slowly learning, but my bike came stock with FSA Omega Compact crankset, 50/34, and 12-30 in the rear.  I've never really put much thought into what that means, but riding in all sorts of hilly and flat locales I've not yet encountered a situation I where I felt I needed a gear I didn't have.  But again biking is the one of the three sports I have the least knowledge and experience in, so who knows.

I really don't know what to expect my bike split to be, but I think I'll be disappointed if it's over 3.  Hoping for around 2:50 I guess.  My longest ride to date is 47 miles, I'm building that up.  And the elevation gain isn't huge but at 1300ft it's enough to where I'm not sure how much time it will add to my ride over the course of 56 miles. I do feel a lot more comfortable on the bike since my bike fit a little over a week ago.

I am a complete newb when it comes to understanding bike gearing, but I believe my P2 came with a compact crank; 50/34 on the front and 12/25 cassette. As far as what I expect or hope my bike split to be, I haven't really dialed in on that on yet, but last year at the same HIM I did just over 3 hours and that was with the effects of hurricane sandy, so I hope this year I can be just under 3 hours.

Toughest race I've ever done. I did a lot of walking betwen miles 5 and 8.5 just to make sure I would finish without needing medical attention. Time goals went out the window and it was just survival mode. I kept my spirits up though, thanked a lot of volunteers,and encouraged other atathletes...keeping in mind I do this for fun and not for a pay check. I did manage to run most of the last 5 miles.

When I found out that crowies winning time was 15 minutes slower than last years winning time and 12 minutes slower than last years second place, I felt a lot better about how I handled the day.

Wow, kudos to you for putting forth a great effort in such a tough race.  That's a crazy difference from one year to the next in the same race.  Kudos too for encouraging other racers and thanking the volunteers.  As a solid MOPer who's just looking to have fun, that's my favorite part of the race, giving and receiving the encouragement.

Edited by Fresno_Joe 2013-06-02 1:52 PM

Way to go Jason! Looking forward to your race report. 

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It sounds like it was a real sufferfest out there, congratulations on running a smart race and getting it done!

I (think) I have a 53/39 on the front & 11/25 on the back. Its whatever came on my 2011 P2 (ultegra) as standard. I did a long ride today and noticed I never take the gears off the big ring. Not some macho thing, just end up working with the back gears off the front. I need to get moving on using the small ring up front for some of the hill work I'm doing.

Congrats on adjusting strategy and keeping positive attitude and most of all for finishing!

Glad to hear you're feeling better.

I currently run a 50/39, 11/28. I struggle to keep up cadence on steeper hills, but it works well on flats and smaller hills. If I ever did a ride in the mountains, I'd definitely want some smaller gears.

My last HIM bike split was 2:45 on a hilly course. My next HIM may be a flat course, and I'd love to beat 2:35 with some additional focus on the bike.

I haven't been keeping up with my training the last month, and after a week without working out at all, I took a 40 mile ride yesterday. For the first half of the ride I was shocked that my lack of workouts and gain of 10 lbs over the past month somehow could lead to a shockingly awesome increase in power, as I was pushing watts like I've never seen before. But then I remembered that on my previous ride, the batteries in my powertap hub died and that I subsequently replaced them without calibrating the meter. Sure enough, checked the meter this morning, and it was WAY off.

Finished my first Sprint distance (the other two were super sprints). Overall the distance wasn't bad. I got some kind of lower back pain that slowed me during the run. I didn't have alot of hope for the swim (just don't drown) and despite getting water in my goggles on the worst possible side at the start I was 5 min faster than I was planning and way better than the last race (200m/7:56 vs 600/14:48; still too much breaststroke vs freestyle and it didn't that a massive cold front with wind/rain slammed down on us halfway through the swim.) It stayed pretty much the whole bike course and since I have never biked in rain and I couldn't see (glasses fogged up and rain pelting me in the eyes without) I was much slower at the start and on the turns (I was hoping for a PR but between the rain and the 20+ mph wind the whole 2nd half of the course I was about 2 mph slower than my last race.) The rain let up the last mile of the bike and at least the front made the run cool. I barely drank that much water until the run.
I learned alot and I was trying to be under 1:30 and ended up at 1:29 (more due to the bike than anything). Well, that was good enough for 3rd in my division - Athena. Hopefully this will be the last race I qualify for that division at the current weight class.
Most impressive thing I saw was a pregnant lady doing the run portion for a relay(and beating me). She had an extra strap around her stomach for support, she must have been 7-8 months pregnant.

Hope everyone else had a great weekend. I get a 6 week break from races to concentration on swimming and adding distance to my bike and running. Sprint - mid July, quarter Tri (1000m swim 25m bike and 10k run for the beginning of August, olympic distance for beginning of Sept and the HIM end of October.)

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I'm riding 50/36 & 12-25 on my tri bike for flat tris and 50/34, 12-25 or 11-27 for hilly tris. My road bike is currently 50/34 & 12-27.

In decent conditions, I would like to see a 2:55-3:00 for myself in July at Door County HIM.

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