With just about two months until THE BIG ONE!!! I'm starting to put together realistic race expectations/goals. For me, it all comes down to my achilles heel: the bike. In the past year I've made great gains on the bike but I'm still left wondering, how is everyone so fast on the bike?
I have watched the 2010 Ironman World Championships about a hundred times. Thank you DVR! Although I CAN'T STAND Chris McCormack, he says one thing (and only one thing) that I agreed with during that telecast regarding the so-called cyclists during the race..."I have immense respect for the Stadlers and the Lietos who race this event that way (hammering the bike). It's a lonely, tough way to race this race. Especially in the sense that all you get all day once you get off the bike is lost time." So that has me wondering, are people really that great of bikers or do they know that's where they can make the most amount of time gains and don't necessarily care about the rest of the race?
When I look at the best triathletes in the world, Chris McCormack, Craig Alexander, Chrissie Wellington, Mirinda Carfrae, Andreas Raelert, not only are they really good all-around athletes, I would say that running is their strength. And really, it all comes down to the run in the end. Craig Alexander said it best during that same telecast, "If you spend too much energy somewhere, you're going to pay for it somewhere else. So, when you see guys really fade badly in the run, usually it's because they've gone too hard, spent too many pennies on the bike."
For me, I want to put together a good race from start to finish. I want to look back and think there was nothing I could have done better. I want to follow my plan to a "T." And if that means I have to let everyone in the whole damn race pass me on the bike, so be it. I'll see them again on the run.
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I've also heard there is no such thing as a great bike and a bad run in Ironman. If your run falls apart it means you over did the bike or were having too much fun you forgot about your nutrition and it catches up with you later! The results of a huge bike split and walking a marathon are not good.
Let people pass you all day on the bike is the perfect strategy....90%of the time you will see them again on the run. If not - they really are faster than you. Either way trying to hang with people you don't think should pass you will spell disaster for your race! I can't tell you how many passed me and I'd take a look at them and think I'll see you on the run and most of the time I was right. Ironman is so much about managing the day.
Or as my coach put it to me before IMCDA - it's a competition of who slows down the least throughout the day! I like that!
Starting training and racing with power and you'll know exactly how to perform on the bike and exactly how you will feel on the run. It makes life so much easier (-:
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