Here are some numbers from IM Western Australia’s bike course. I rode a 4:55 on this day. Flat course, wind consistent all 3 laps but not very much of it. Mild temperature. I weighed 66kg for this race.
Data for Each Lap:
Bike Lap #–Lap time–Avg. Watts–Avg. Heart Rate
Bike Lap 1–1:35–243–147
Bike Lap 2–1:40–204–139
Bike Lap 3–1:40–198–143
(laps are approx., I did not get accurate splits).
Thought - don’t ride 83-86% of your functional threshold the first lap.
No tape for me, but you think I did by the way I rode the first lap. I am still trying to figure out what I was thinking. But, I think I just did not clue into how far off I was on my pacing (ie. I did not calculate the percentage I was over my IM pace while I was riding). I was thinking:
breathing - check
heart rate - check but at its cap for the entire ride (I did not account for my usual drift from 140 at the start to 150 at the end)
legs - check but definetly debating whether to go easier (not harder).
power - over but does not seem to be by much and everything else is ok.
Ooops. I will take a calculator next time. Seems adding the power meter through my usual guidelines off but now I am pretty confident on how to intergrate everything.
Big YES to answer your question. I was about 40min off an average run time for that day and being in good run shape I would have hoped to have gone even faster.
I would never recommend going out hard the first lap and suffering the next two. That was not my plan - just happened that way for a variety of reasons. Best to reverse that pacing strategy or keep it steady the whole way.
