SBR Utopia Season II - OPEN (Page 77)

Hey, I didn't know you had signed up for Miami!

Underpowered and bonked on the run, switching to survival mode. Now where have I read that before?

I'd also like to point out that Marc spent time he should have been resting analyzing my power files, thanks so much for doing that.

looks like we will be having the 2013 mentor thread mini gathering in Florida!

So, just to blow the candle out on the IM analysis, below are the long rides heading into Canada since June.  Seems the Ave HR for the race was a tad higher than what I had been doing as race pace rides.   But as you can see VI has been an issue all along, got a little better as I got closer to the race.  The last few rides I dialed it back and the IF dropped consistently

All below had auto pause turned on

6/1 – 4:48, 89 miles, 5200 feet elevation, AP 193, NP 219, IF .79, TSS 309, VI 1.13, Ave HR 139

6/22 – 4:32, 79 miles, 4900 feet, AP 189, NP 229, IF .82, TSS 309, VI 1.2, Ave HR 137

6/29 – 5:55, 100 miles, 6000 feet, AP 178, NP 205, IF .73, TSS 322, VI 1.15, Ave HR 134

7/6 – 4:30, 76 miles, 4000 feet, AP 177, NP 222, IF .8, TSS 287, VI 1.25, Ave HR 127

7/13  - 6:14, 104 miles, 6900 feet, AP 174, NP 198, IF .67, TSS 281, VI  1.13, Ave HR 130

7/27 – 6:24, 100 miles, 7100 feet, AP 173, NP 199, IF .65, TSS 276, VI  1.15, Ave HR 126

8/3 – 5:15, 90 miles, 4200 feet, AP 180, NP 200, IF .66, TSS227, VI  1.11,  Ave HR 126

8/10 – 3:54, 66 miles, 3400 feet, AP 178, NP 198, IF .65, TSS 166, VI 1.11, Ave HR 125

Auto pause turned off - Race

8/25 – 6:04, 110 miles, 6230 feet, AP 166, NP 188, IF .62, TSS 233, VI 1.13 , Ave HR 138

Must have missed you!  Watched most of the run, but the cameras were mostly on Kienle.

Three of us as far as I know, along with 2000 of our closest friends.

First and foremost, excellent job today!  That looks like a tough course.

After reading your analysis of Chris's race, I would love to read your analysis of your own race--will you share?

Ahh.  Thanks :)

Originally posted by switch

Originally posted by Fred D

Originally posted by switch

Originally posted by Fred D

Originally posted by switch

Are any of you following IMOO today?

Can anyone give me a little perspective on the bike splits? Pros coming in ~5:30.  Is that just the course, the wind (E12mph), combo?  Low 70s today.

. Pros hit 4:30-4:40 on the bike. I have one friend racing but he will be a later this evening finisher which I suspect I won't make it up for.

Oh, sorry, I should have said the female prosI was just a little surprised by their bike splits and I was thinking one of you may be intimately familiar with the course.

. Oops. It's a tough course. I did it two years ago. Lots of turns, rough road surfaces and lots of steep shorter climbs. I think a lot of top pros were at Vegas today....

Ahh.  Thanks

I was riding a couple miles west of the course today. Wind may have slowed them some depending on how things played out with the trees and hills blocking or allowing it. Temps were great. Times for this course are never really that fast for reasons Fred listed. Hills aren't really *that* big, but they just kill speed and don't give it back too often on the descents. Road surface tends to be slow as well. I *think* they've been good about potholes and defective hazards like that, but the type of pavement used just isn't very smooth. It always has at least the slightest rumble to it. And all due respect to the pros there, but the timing of it and points for it don't really draw the greatest field. 5 MDot races this weekend, one the 70.3 champs, and Kona not too far off.

Hey Chris I've followed some of the discussion, just haven't had time to gather my thoughts yet.

I've had races where I flamed out pretty bad -- Western Australia really comes to mind.  I just felt flat on the bike around the 3 hour point and couldn't hold wattage in my normal zone.  And that translated into a poor run (plus it was effin hot).  I blame some of that on lack of long bike rides and "big days".  FTP is *not* a useful number until you've been doing a lot of the big rides.

This year I've been working with a coach and he actually had me lined up to do 6 "big days", one per week from 8 weeks out to race day.  Starting about 45min swim / 50 mi bike / 6 mi run, ramping to a max of about 1hr/80/10 or 100/6.  I think I hit 4 of them... it's hard to lose all those weekends with that thing we call real life.  The other side effect is that he bumped my long run to a weekday, so I had to squeeze time for those.

I think this has helped fine tune my feel for the bike.  On the first one I experienced the same fatigue around the 3 hour point but I've steadily stretched that out.  And then I experimented to see what would happen if I averaged, say, 10 more watts on a particular ride.  When you get out on the run for those days, you can tell by how you feel and by your HR if you overextended the bike.

So anyhow, yeah I like the concept, but I think doing several is more beneficial if you can find the time for them.

No idea how I'll do in Tahoe but I don't have a fair comparison since I was pretty sick when I did Canada last year.

Edit: also for me, it helps to doing my S/B/R at similar times to race day.  In other words, I swim in the mornings, I do my long bike rides starting around 8-9am, and I do most of my running later in the day when it's warmer.  Well, helpful if you don't live in Arizona I guess

Marc - was wondering what your comments were going to be.  After seeing your splits, I figured something was not right given how you raced Muskoka last year.  Seems that weather threw everyone for a loop, and given the bike splits, it looks like the bike is a really tough course.  I had a couple of other friends doing it, and their bike times were similar to Muskoka, even though that course is 4km longer.

Race Report

Sunday's Ride Hope that will do for hilly terrain prep, and if Arend can do it two days in a row. Just a note on this one, if there is excessive whining about the difficulty of the IMWI course, point them to this area. Some spots might make them cry. I knocked off the Eastern parts because it literally shares with the race and didn't want to interfere on their day. A couple spots are less than a mile off the course and do have people walking up them during the event this route is based off of. Short, but very steep. Gotta love grinding the bottom gear only to turn the corner and it turns up even more.

Lot of fast guys showed up to race Muskoka this year - as I expected since WC is in Tremblant next year.  Andreas Raelert was obviously the favorite, but got beat by this guy, with a ridiculous run.

Pretty great story IMO.  Took the link from an ST post.

http://www.drug-detox-center.com/news/?p=545

Finished the GranFondo yesterday. Long day but went as expected. I took it pretty easy and am happy with how I rode. My garmin registered about 1000 ft less climbing than they advertised but it still felt bloody hilly. Especially at the end, which wasn't. I would say that I really enjoyed 80 miles and made it through the final 27. 

Ride report done.

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=500367&posts=1&page=1#M4850750

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/372985305

That gave me goosebumps.  He race a HIM 2 years ago here locally in MI.  His swim was really slow and then he just torched everybody on the bike and run.  It sounds like he got that swim turned around as well.

Chris, I may be unfair in singling out these 4 training rides, but they are the only ones over 5 hours, when your expected bike time was to be close to 6 hours.  How did you feel after these training rides?  Were they at IM effort and did you feel like you could run well afterwards...even after a 2.4 mile swim? 

If you didn't tell me anything else about your race besides just these 5 rides, I'm not sure I would have suspected anything was really wrong.  I think I would have assumed your race day power was 5% lower because you had to swim 2.4 first and were saving yourself for the marathon.  Your race day TSS does stick out as being really low though.  My raced day HR on the bike is always higher during racing, so that didn't stick out to me.

That said, this has really has opened up my eyes as I look at my own training though.  So again, thanks for sharing.

I read that his twitter feed says something like "A duathlete taking swim lessons".

I don't have any ideas except just buying new insoles--can you take your bike shoe insoles in and out?

Add on question--anyone ever drilled holes in the bottom of their road shoes (bike shoes) for drainage?