The watch is in a bag with Tri Bike Transport, so I can't post the file. Avg watts were 211, for a 5:19 split. PR for IM distance but I overcooked the bike and suffered to a 3:58 run. 10 watts or so less and the run might have been a lot better. Hindsight is lways 20/20 right? Overall 10:34, which I'll take for my first Kona. Weight was 161, height 5'8". I gained a few during taper.

Another data point. I was 4:55 with 199w avg, 213 NP. I weighed 163lbs raceday. I'm fairly certain this was due to the good conditions. I have files from two training rides in Phoenix where I achieved similar speed for the wattages. That is why I targeted riding around 200-215 watts for the majority of the ride, lifting to around 230-270 for Hawi and the shorter climbs. I'd also have to contribute some of my efficiency to a visit to the Faster windtunnel in Scottsdale. They dialed in my fit and gave me more speed for my watts, no doubt. When we were hitting the headwinds and I was in my optimized aero position I was flying by others from miles 80-100.

Unfortunately most did not post their weight. About half the sample, which is already light. Not sure it's instructive unless we get more points to plot, but my sense is that the w/kg array would not be a better determinant of time than watts. For instance, it's all over the place

-Josh Beck pushed more watts per kg than any pro, and probably more watts than anyone with Starky possible exception
-Sami Inkinen put out significantly fewer watts and much lower w/kg than Josh for a similar split
-Both were TT'ing solo

-Five plots from my head are Brad W., me, Joel Maley, Curbeau from QT2, darkhorse splitting like 4:41, 4:50, 4:50, 4:53, 4:52 on watts around 230, 230, 205, 230, 230 with weight of 175?, 145, 145, 145, 165?. In other words, the bigger guys rode faster or the same on the same power as a couple much smaller guys who I guess are about as aero as a barn door. Brad typically needs a lot more power but did not at Kona and Joel hardly needs to pedal to go 24+...somebody call the wambulance, I guess. Next race, maybe a w/kg course since I am an aero-as-a-barndoor diminuitive type

Thanks for sharing, and you outbiked Potts by like 7 minutes at Placid? Keep up those 5 hour Friday rides at 300+ watts, sir you are one powerhouse of a cyclist

I was 180, 4:54, 211AP, 229 NP.

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

don't forget that riding an all black bike is worth 5 watts. If you had peeled off your wheel decals it would have been worth another 5 watts ;)

edit: I miss my P4

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

First off, no fair cloaking yourself in a PI Octane so the "Army" target couldn't be spotted.
Second, turning your P5 back to a P4 with the water bottle should invalidate your warranty.
Third, IMAZ doesn't stand a chance with your fitness. A good day could yield a sub 9 hr race for you. Serious.

also, why didn't you buy my Ventus bars from me?

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

Ha! I didn't buy your Ventus because my current Ventus bars would be pissed.

What a thread...starts with a request for data and then degrades into accusations of those same providers of data. Another perfect example of both the great and terrible of ST!

As previously indicated, I rode 4:52 on ~192/205W AP/NP after a 1:14 swim this year. Passed about 800 people on the bike and saw quite a bit of drafting but more in the people who appeared to be riding ~5:15+ pace. Only guy I noticed go by me and stay away was Josh Beck. Also rode 5:04 last year on ~195/200W after a 1:16 swim. Probably a bit more aero this year, but the conditions this year were FAST! I think the analysis needs some more work. Or I drafted the whole way...both years...

Stay aero my friends...

Having not sorted through the pages....

This thread is missing swim times.

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Brandon Marsh - Website | @BrandonMarshTX | RokaSports | 1stEndurance | ATC Bikeshop |

You misheard. The total impact of the variables influencing the relationship between watts and time--those variables, to name a few, are weight, position, equipment, measurement method (at crank vs. at hub), power meter error, positioning vis a vis other riders and skill of (perhaps quite legal) positioning/passing, swim time, AND yes, illegal drafting--is HUGE, and means 80-90 watts for the same speed on a watts course. Don't jump to the defensive because you are at the low end of that range. Some guys are simply better at translating input to output than others, and some are surely are cheating to do it. I can tell you there is a lot of both at Vegas and Kona. And the most egregious offenders rarely post data to indict themselves. So stay aero, stay honest, and if you don't trust the data, trust God I guess, at least until we get statistically significant sample

No doubt a very fast year on the bike.

5:10 at 185NP, 155lbs

I'll edit mine.

I swam 58:50 and had the usual people passing me in the first 10 miles, but then the drafting continued all the way to Hawi and THEN the draft PACKS started on the way down. I was bummed. If I could have gone with the early guys I'd have avoided that BS. I'm not a powerful guy but I'm pretty aero so can put time into individuals in a line but not into a draft pack.

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

Yeah, Kiley it was a little less power than I expected to put out. But you witnessed the same thing I did, the packs ate us up. We both played the game well. Sitting 7 meters off the back of 20 guys still gets you a really good "draft". It is legal, you just have to be smart about it and not get caught up in all of the others blatantly cheating. Same thing happened coming back down Hawi, this time I was on the front pushing 260 and got ate up by a group of 30, went straight to the back and sat there for 15 miles until the refs showed up and gave 10 guys penalties. At mile 10 of those 15, Ken Glah got spit out the back of the group and we sat back there and complained to ourselves about how horrible it was. It is something that is out of our control, you can't get worked up about it while on the bike, that is what creates people to do stupid things bike way to hard and then blow up on the run. At the penalty tent after those guys that got penalties, the group of 30 got blown up due to the head wind and then I rode back through a good majority of that group and watched then one by one fall of the back.

Interested to see that W/kg plot. Put me in at 3.25 for AP and 3.4 for NP.

And for Brandon, I swam 1:01, so in the first 40 miles had a lot of people to slingshot "draft" off of.

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-Brad Williams
Website | Twitter: @BW_Tri |Instagram: @BW_Tri | Strava | Co-Founder & Coach at: KIS Coaching
Partnered with: Zoot Sports | Precision Fuel &Hydration | ISM

Impressive as always Mr. Burke. Nice job!

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Dale Stephanos (Formerly PappaD)

Totally agree...best you can do is keep your nose clean when there's blow in the room and wait for the cops to show up. And I personally witnessed much less shameless wheel sucking in Kona than in Vegas. Kona was more of a 5 meter, key bump in the bathroom kind of thing, while Vegas was kilos on the living room table.

Regarding your ride, think you worked it pretty well, and think your racing instinct is much better than mine and your ability to work within the law to maximize your watts and your speed shows. And, you seem to thrive more on a watts course,, which makes a ton of sense. All good things. Glad to hear about the mass drug bust. I was kicking myself for not following the whole team up Hawi, but I was over on watts and dropped...I can tell you it wasn't any fun taking the lion's share of the wind for the next string of guys back to Kawaihae, then fighting solo for much of the trip back to town. In any case, good fun and good racing. This championship thing is a totally different ballgame. So is this Ironman thing.

Why'd I skip?

I've got a 3 year old and this year was WAY easier than last year.

my 3yo and 8mo made me a more efficient trainer. Got more out of less very early in the morning.

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

Forwarding this to my wife... ;)

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-Of course it's 'effing hard, it's IRONMAN!
Team ZOOT
ZOOT, QR, Garmin, HED Wheels, Zealios, FormSwim, Precision Hydration, Rudy Project

Thanks muchly. Just trying to do my part for the old(er) doodes.

It doesn't really matter to me what the numbers are. I know mine, and they are higher than most of the people who are posting, and I didn't go 'that' much faster. I had the 'benefit' of riding in a 12 meter spaced pack for 40ish miles. So, my early ride was pretty high and I paid the piper on the way back.

I'm just pointing out that simply posting time and average power and maybe a picture really only tells a small part of the story.

I also got an email asking about my numbers because someone saw some 'age group numbers' that were crazy low for the splits posted given rider weights and equipment, etc. So, the swim time for you guys matters. Someone is going to look at some of these posted numbers and think...I can ride 4:50 on 200 watts which may or may not be true. Heck I know a pro who rode low 4:20s or so at a race on under 200 watts with a relatively bad position and probably not the fastest wheels or tires. That's called drafting.

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Brandon Marsh - Website | @BrandonMarshTX | RokaSports | 1stEndurance | ATC Bikeshop |

As hypothesized, there is a stronger correlation between time and watts than between time and watts relative to mass (w/kg), though not significantly stronger. Sample about 20 polluted by bias of self selection, so this probably means less than nothing.

Of course isolating two variables when many others are of influence only tells part of the story. What is your specific point regarding the swim? The slingshot method is surely a way to buy speed on a watts discount. So are the flavors of legal positioning, and of course blatant wheel sucking is a godsend too. We can wax on about which of these is the biggest reason why power is a surprisingly poor indicator for time, but if you rode Vegas and you rode Kona as an age grouper, presuming you have a power meter and a brain, you probably don't need all the arrays of these "other" variables to form an opinion on the matter.