Anyway, onto the bike into the crisp, sunny morning air:-
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| Grovelling up Taupo-Napier highway, swim course in background he he |
IM Bike by the numbers:-
Bike - 181km ( on the Garmin), 6h 22. NP 135 W avg power 126. ( Goal watts was to sit ~130W)
total ascent- 951 m ( think this is inaccurate)
avg HR 146
av speed 28.4 kph
Food/drink intake :-
2 small Ems power cookies
banana
2 bags Gu chomps ( minus one chomp I dropped)
1 Gu roctane
1 bottle hi 5 zero
1 bottle horleys replace
2 bottles water + 2 salt tabs
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| Non-aero banana |
Mantra for the day was :-
"No emotion about anything; it is about getting the job done and putting one foot in front of the other!!. Emotion= need to eat something".
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| Hoping to avoid these today.... |
This came to me after a casual chat with Coach John and Philinator in the carbo dinner queue whereby Phil remarked he found all my random emotions while riding amusing. The lightbulb went on ( cue **PING!!!!*****) and I said "But there shouldn't be any emotion involved during an ironman at all - if there is, it's a sign that I probably need to eat or drink".
I received an email from John the night before the race saying I had hit the nail on the head with that remark and to execute as I had done in previous races.
It was pretty fresh when we started the bike and I could feel the chilly air on my arms , legs and feet. Nonetheless,the sun was out and the sky was clear so the promise of a great day was in store!
I tried to take it steady up the Taupo-Napier hill out of town and try let the heart rate come down. Of course, I was passed by what felt like billions of people standing up, hammering the pedals.....
Once onto Broadlands road, it was a little congested and I spotted a few packs of riders and ended up in several situations of being stuck behind a line of slower riders but then I'd have to possibly burn a match to pass them all. I played it cautiously at that stage knowing that in the last 10km of the run, I wouldn't be regretting holding back in the first half of the bike ride.
I was unsure if it felt easy since I was probably more rested than i had been in several months or more likely that we had a nice wee tailwind. The low point of the bike course was the giant marbles that the council had used to seal the road in a section approx 15 km from Reporoa. These put our earthquake affected, potholed roads in Christchurch to shame!
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| It smiles! |
After the turnaround it was confirmed that there had , indeed, been a tailwind. Unfortunately the return leg from Reporoa is also a false flat with a net uphill; the worst climb meanders gently for ~ 10 km before you hit the turn to descend down Centennial road back to Taupo. Combined with a headwind it felt like hard work and a slow average speed.
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| ....Still not feeling my feet....... |
I came though town in 3.06 and was feeling quite pleased with my efforts and thoughts of surpassing my expected 6.30 floating through my mind..... Yeah, right. The second lap follows the same route as the first as you head out of town, up Taupo-Napier, through the industrial area, down under the new bypass and up on to Broadlands road... then you descend Centennial Rd again and instead of heading left to go back to town, you take a right on to a private logging road, Rakanui road which is steady climb back up to Broadlands.
Once back on Broadlands road the wind had picked up slightly so had a superb tailwind ( remember this is a net descent to Reporoa as well!) to the turnaround. I hammered this; passing a LOT of people here. The main benefit of riding with power ( for me) has been the NOT slacking off on the bike as I can see where I am riding too easy. This was a prime example- I was in a big gear, pedalling the small descents and making the most of the tailwind and I was still only at ~115W!!
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| Spot the difference.... |
However, I knew as soon as I hit the turn that the journey back to town was going to be just a wee bit tougher than it was on lap 1....Yep!
I amused myself for ~ 20km with some mathematics :- "Hmmm, the Ironman run is less than a quarter the distance of the Ironman bike leg yet it takes around two thirds of the time ". This was interspersed with thoughts of "Oh God, I am really not looking forward to this marathon now. This has felt like quite a hard ride and I think I may have blown my legs".
I began to feel a little nauseous in the last 30 km , not sure why. I sipped water but didn't eat much for the last hour as wanted to get rid of nausea.It wasn't severe by any means but thought it would be prudent to let everything settle before I started the run. I can't remember much else about the ride other than letting rip on the final descent of Centennial and pedalling hard to get back to town. I was glad to get off the bike although was feeling crappy when I entered T2, but I guess you never feel that good in an Ironman when you get to T2.
Random thoughts on IMNZ bike course:-
-Jeez, this is a harder bike course than you'd think.
-A lot of triathletes can't descend for toffee!
-A lot of people can't descend gentle grades on their aerobars!
-This road is f****** bumpy. Oh, there's a tubular/spare/rear bottle cage/bottle on the roadside.
-Draft zone is 10 m, people!! Not 10 cm!!
-Ha ha- those people are going to have a red stripe of sunburn on their lower back where their tri top doesn't meet their shorts ( **blissfully unaware i was cultivating similar red stripe on my own back**)
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| This guy's going to have really bad sunburn.... |
Looking back at this, I wonder if I hadn't consumed enough calories. I have a tendency to be good and focussed with my nutrition for around 3-4 hours then it seems to drop off.
***Note to self = losing concentration is a likely sign I need some calories***
My avg HR was a few beats higher than normal for the ride for some reason but I was certainly not dehydrated.
Adding up the grams of CHO certainly seems a bit on the low side, probably explains my mid run bonk. Hindsight is wonderful - part of the reason I write this blog and document all this ( boring) stuff is for a reference point for future races.
Run coming up in Part 3, coming to a screen near you SOON.
Hey, its my blog I can drag this out for as long as I like :)
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| So not how my saddle felt after 180km. |
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