NOTE: A member of the forum doing IMMoo requested that I PM him a report of the bike course. It was long and with my growing familiarity with the course I am curious to hear what other have to say if they have ridden it this year or any other time.
alright…here’s the latest.
I did 2 loops today (I cut out the trip from Verona to Madison. I was having some MEAN MEAN hot foot that I gotta find the cause/solution to). Got rolling around 7:30 with some soggy bike shorts (put them in the woolite last night and they weren’t dry by the time I got up there.) Whatevs…i manned up and figured they would dry soon enough. I took off with 2 bottles of gatorade (1 on frame, 1 in jersey) and an aero bottle of water. I got moving down the road and kind of started to sort out my goals for the day. I told myself I’d try and force myself not to look at the speedo too much. Just ride “conservatively” and go by feel.
I heard there was some gravel on the course but that info was about a week old so I was prepared for anything. About 2 miles into the loop some gravel! crap! there was about 1/3 of a mile of it right after the downhill on sugar valley road. Took it about 16 mph through this section and then kept cookin’. Was feeling AWESOME! Got on highway S and was booking at about 25mph with very little effort. Left onto Witte and up comes a FAST downhill that you should get in the 11/12 for and pedal like a madman (or woman). This will carry you up MOST of the huge upcoming hill. This was the only place on the course that I was really able to use Strauss’ (I think this is who I heard promote this) technique to it’s fullest. The rest of my attempts were feeble and I only got about 1/2 way up before I had to spin. Anyway, I get to the BIG downhill on Garfoot ready to gobble up at least 0.2 more avg speed. SHIT! more gravel! This one was bad! about 1+ miles of it on the WHOLE downhill section. First lap I clipped one foot out just in case I lost balance. took it about 13-16 down here.
Once down the hill I opened her up again and kept on trucking to Old Sauk Pass. contrary to popular belief Old Sauk Pass is NOT the hardest part of the course. Get into a rhythm and you’ll be up it in no time. It’s the 3 hills afterwards that get you. It’s tough, don’t get me wrong, it’s just NOT the “highest DEGREE of difficulty.” So then it’s down the back section of the course. The next hill kinda sneaks up on you (on timber lane) but it’s a blast during the race because people are lining it like in the TdF and they part to let you through. AWESOME! but alas, my cheering section had the day off. Then it’s relatively flattish for a bit until you get to the next BEYOTCH of a hill on timber lane. This one isn’t so bad because after it you know there is a MASSIVE downhill (45+ mph easy!). But not TOO fast! You need to make a 90 degree left at the bottom and I have overshot it once and have had some near misses on the turn.
You can take this next section pretty fast but save those legs. Not only do you have another lap to go, you also have the worst freakin hill of the whole race coming up. I don’t know if it’s particularly steep or long, I’ve kinda of blocked out the moments when I’ve gone up it in the past, I just know I go anaerobic on it EVERYTIME in my granniest gear! I attribute a lot of its toughness to it’s placement on the course. Last major hill and it starts JUST after you make a left turn so you’re going slow to begin with. It’s my Ventoux…screws me every time. After that, it’s pretty much “down hill” back to Verona.
So I went back to the car, filled up the bottles, reapplied the sunscreen and got back on the road. Short stop…only ~3-4 minutes.
Now, during the last 5 miles (after the last hill) of the first lap I noticed the wind picking up. By the time I got onto Valley Road I could feel it taking it’s toll on me already. (I just looked at weatherundeground.com and it said it was 5-10…sure felt like more than that!) It was a SW wind so I knew this was going to be a tough second lap. And boy was it! First lap I could have had a cup of tea, recited some Shakespeare, and baked a ham all while keeping ~21-22mph without batting an eye. Now I had to hold myself back from going too hard at a whopping 18.7 mph. Sonofabitch! I could feel the total mental breakdown coming on. There goes my awesome course rehearsal. Whatever…I kept on keeping on. The wind was in my face EVERYWHERE. I actually got off the bike and slowly turned 360 degrees and it was in my face at all times. Ok, that was a lie, but it felt like I was fighting a headwind the WHOLE time. I think the wind gets channeled by the little valleys you go through if it’s anything above 10mph. First lap I zoomed through Mount Horeb, this time it was more of a hobble. Once on highway S again I got a second wind (and a nice tailwind) and felt a bit better. The rest was a lot of the same, except the hills were considerably harder. Which I attribute mostly to having to push hard in the headwind (along with the increasing temperature), more than the toll from the previous lap. All in all my second lap was only 5 minutes longer than my first and I lost about .5 mph avg speed.
This got me thinking about avg speed and diminishing returns. There’s a BIG difference going 20.5 versus 21 when it comes to how you feel on that second lap and in setting up for the run. I will keep this in mind in future rides and on race day. Make a Kenyan ride 112 and then see how fast the bastard runs. (My weak allusion to the notion that an IM is strongly dependant upon the strength of your bike, not your run…imho…though you can’t walk the marathon).
Anyway, I got some REALLY bad hotfoot at the end of my second lap so I decided to call it a day, happy with my effort and the pace I was able to put out.
I found that three bottles was perfect for me for each lap of the bike. I hope that there are that many aid stations on it.
My plan to ride conservatively and not look at the speedo worked well until the wind hit. As it turned out, it also worked in the wind but I kept finding myself constantly looking at it and this was bad for my mental game. I ought to just rip the damn thing off.
Oh, pass go and collect 0.2 mph avg speed. If figure that’s what one would get if one could take the garfoot road hill/turns at full speed.
This ride got me REAL excited about this race. I want to maintain/slightly build my bike and focus on run from here on out. The swim…whatever happens happens.