Jordan was kind to send me his power file from IMC. He gave me permission to share the data. I know a lot of people have a ton of respect for Jordan on this forum so I thought an analysis of his power file would be educational and interesting for everyone, including myself. It was quite evident when I received his file that he rode almost identical to how I rode the course except his pushes bigger watts, obviously. So, I looked at his file in detail and he rode the course almost identical to how I described what I felt was the best way to execute the IM bike in previous threads on ST. Here's one of the more recent threads:

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...rch_string=;#1441672

Here are some notable #s:

• Coasting time: ~14min (4.9% of the ride).
• His VI (Variability Index) was 1.04. It's very common to see >1.1s at IMC. The point being is that his variability was quite low.
• TSS of 271 and overall IF of .75.
• He rode Richter at 80 - 85% of FTP and YL at ~75% of FTP.
• He rode the rollers (uphill) and McClean Creek at 85 - 90% of FTP.
• He rode the flats between McClean and Richter at 74 - 75% of FTP and rode 76% after the rollers up to YL.
• He exceeded his FTP once for a period of >15secs.
• Close to even splitting power between 1st and 2nd half (291w/282w vs 287w/276w). Neg split power is clearly difficult and probably not ideal to do at IMC given the significant downhill back into town during the last ~12miles.

So, my take is that I think there's a good reason why Jordan was 5th overall. I believe he set himself up perfectly for the run. Note that my analysis was limited to just power on the bike. A more thorough analysis would have me looking at nutrition/hydration intake and HR data.
As a comparison, here are my numbers (40 - 44AG):

• Coasting time: ~14min which was 4.3% of my ride since I'm on the bike a bit longer.
• VI was 1.05. The difference is pretty insignificant but I would consider Jordan's ride to be a tad steadier than mine.
  
• TSS of 289 and an overall IF of .74.
• I rode Richter and YL both at 80 - 85% of FTP.
• I rode the rollers at 85 - 90% of FTP and hit McClean a bit too hard at 95% of FTP.
• I rode all of the flat sections around 72 - 73% of FTP. The reason for the difference here is because he should be targeting a higher NP/IF for the flats because he's on the bike for a shorter period of time than I am. Again, power in the flats should be targeted at your overall goal for the race.
• I exceeded my FTP once for a period of >15secs.
• Also close to even splitting power between 1st and 2nd half (202w/192w vs 197w/188w).
  

I think a lot of translation of how you should execute the IM bike gets lost on a forum when we use subjective terminology. This is why I've been trying to explain IM bike execution in terms of AP, NP, VI, IF, TSS, etc. I hope people find this analysis interesting and educational. I threw this out there because I've received at least a dozen or so e-mails recently asking specific questions about proper execution on the bike. For those doing IMW, maybe it will give you something to think about for this coming weekend. IMW will be more challenging to ride so steady so discipline and patience on the bike will be key. I don't think you have any significant climbs at IMW but just lots of rolling stuff which people have a tendency to attack a bit too hard, imho.

Let me know if you have any additional questions. I'm sure Jordan will answer questions too.

Thanks, Chris