Think about doing an Ironman without any kind of device that measures time, distance, speed, HR, power, cadence…nothing. No watch, no heart rate monitor, no powermeter, no GPS. So there you are, the gun goes off at the swim start…between that and your time that flashes at the finish line, you cannot personally measure anything you do throughout the race, you just race. I think this requires the ultimate in self discipline and self confidence.
Any of us could choose to race this way, but would you do it, could you do it, or have you done it?
That’s how we raced. There weren’t none o’ dem toys in the '60s and 70s. I mean sure, Polar brought out the first HRM in about '77, but they didn’t work all that well (still don’t, truth be told!!) and took a while to catch on.
Done it . . sort of of. Had the wrist watch on. Bike computer malfunctioned early in the bike and never got going. IM time that day: In the low 9’s. This was before power meters and the HRM’s of the day were big and clunky and no one wore them to race with. So it’s NOT so special or unusual.
Yup - did that at IMFL. Damn Polar RS200SD flooded during the swim, so had no watch or HRM for the race. The only thing the HRM (or better yet power) does is to keep you honest on the bike (esp at an easy course like FL). My legs are the limiter for an IM marathon, not my heart/lungs.
Well, I suspect that Elwood kept looking at the sun’s position and estimating the time, so he could constantly figure his mph pace on the run and bike. =)
“You guys didn’t use anything that measured time?”
Just a wrist watch and I didn’t much like wearing it. At the bigger races, there were usually clocks along the course (not related to the event) that would give you an idea of how you were doing, but mostly you just kept going until the end and the organizers kept the time.
I did an IM without any device, not even a watch. The only places I knew my times were at the transitions and at the finish line. It didn’t matter to me when I finished my first IM. When I biked, I held a pace I was used to so if a cycling computer told me I was going “too slow” but it was my pace, I wasn’t going to change it anyway, so why bother staring at a computer all day.
On the run, I just “ran” at a pace I could handle and on the swim, I can’t see a watch anyway.
Sounds just like my first Iron distance race I did back in '89. It was the Endurance race in Sunapee, New Hampshire. I raced without any electronic gadgets except for a watch. I just went as hard as I could and when I got tired I just slowed down until I recovered. I finished in 10:55. Them were the good old days of racing.
I haven’t raced (or trained for that matter) with a computer for a few years now. It’s very freeing. If I have a computer I tend to stare at it during the whole bike leg.
Does a half IM count? HRM died right at the start of my first 1/2 so everything was by feel. Pacing worked out fine although I did not fuel correctly on the run and bonked the last 3 miles. I think if you train enough and pay attention to RPE in your zones while training then you learn a lot about pacing. Plus you better have a backup plan if the toys break.
I did Kona this year that way. I wore my watch but never looked at it once the starting canon went off. I didn’t even notice the clocks at the transitions.
