Wow!! You read things into my post I never imagined someone would walk away with... I'm not telling people they should now listen the numbers. Could you please point out where I said that? If any of you are successful training and racing completely "by feel" then I strongly suggest you continue to do so and, I promise, I hope you continue with incredible success. Better yet, I hope you go through the effort of sharing your success with others.
Hopefully this helps explain it a bit better but I feel like I'm probably just repeating myself...
First, if you're not interested in the numbers then why bother reading the thread? The thread is a NUMBERS analysis focused SOLELY on power on the IM bike at IMC. However, it is very reflective of many other solid IM bike performances I have seen or analyzed. As I already stated, it does not cover an analysis of RPE, HR, nutrition, hydration, etc. It covers power. If you're not interested in power numbers then why would you want to comment and say this is a waste of time?? What am I missing? I don't know... I would never go over to a thread in which I have no interest or possibly no understanding and say, "What you guys are doing is a waste of time." Sorry but that just seems like a complete lack of class to me. Maybe I'm weird but I honestly thought it was common sense.
So, I assumed this would just go without saying but if you're interested in seeing some common characteristics specific to how one would/could/should apply power during the IM bike then I hope you truly find this analysis helpful. Honestly, I've probably looked at more power files than about 99% of the people in the industry because I've shown a keen interest in doing so. I'm just trying to share what I think I've learned from the experience. Why would anyone in the world want to criticize someone so unconstructively for just trying to help others? Obviously I'm still baffled...
My run:
3:33:21 which was a PR. Quite remarkable that I PRed considering I suffered from severe stomach gas/cramping the first 14miles and I've been dealing with a dysfunctional SI joint since May. Btw, my stomach cramping/gas is related to a form of diverticulitis and a "twisty" colon or so I'm told. This is something I experience in every IM but this IM was most painful for me (up until mile 14). I've written a very detailed RR but given how well this thread has gone I've chosen not to share it on ST.
My run splits:
1st run segment: 1:46:18
2nd run segment: 1:47:03
I took at least a minute at the mile14 aid station because of an "issue." I estimate my FT pace at 6:15 - 6:20 (probably much closer to the latter given my run fitness this summer) so I ran around ~77% of FT pace. According to my data, I did my fastest running after mile 16.
Again, I hope this helps clarify my goal and my perspective.
Btw, the reason why I'm going through the effort of explaining why I'm doing this is because I assumed people understood that this was a limited analysis. I didn't cover RPE, HR, nutrition, etc because I would have to write a book in order to do so. I hope people understand that someone who finishes top 5 Pro or top 5 in a highly competitive AG understands the importance of racing by RPE, nutrition/hydration intake and possibly HR too because it's really really hard to finish at that level and screw something else up. Just because I didn't address those other components in my original post doesn't mean I don't think they're important to consider when racing.
Thanks, Chris