8 November 2009
Silverman Ironman Bike
Posted by Brad Hefta-Gaub under: Cycle; Ironman; race reports.
Full race report coming, here are the headlines…
I felt great at the start of the bike. I was passing people with ease. Finished the first 20 miles at a mellow pace of 17.5 mph. Then the course get’s a lot harder… and my average slowed to more like 16 mph.
I saw Rich fly by on the out and back about 10 miles ahead of me, and I could see he was having a great race. He ended up taking 3.5 hours off of his time from last year, and won second in his age group and 10th place overall! Congrats Rich!
I didn’t have any digestive issues, although I did take some tums along the way to keep my stomach in check. I mostly ate the Perpetuem, and drank my first couple bottles of Vitamin Water and then Gatorade from the aid stations.
I didn’t put my foot down once till I got to the special needs on the bike course, where I only stopped for 5 seconds to switch out my empty bottles for some fresh Perpertuem and Vitamin Water.
Then at mile 68 or so I got a flat tire. That’s when the "wheels came off" of my bike split. I tried to use the "Pit Stop" fix-a-flat stuff, but I couldn’t get it to work with the disc wheel. So then I just tried to fill it some more with air, and it looks like it was holding it, so I took off again. But as I flew down another steep hill, it went flat again. One more try… fill, ride, flat. Crap — I was going to have to replace it. That was a complete disaster. I don’t know for sure how long it took, but I know I wasted at least 20 minutes trying to get the new tubular on… but it may have been as much as 50 minutes… either way, I lost a bunch of time, and was all tweaked out after that. Fortunately, I race official came by and saw that I was in trouble and he was able to get the tire on in 10 seconds… he was a savior, but I’ll admit I was a little embarrassed and mad at myself that I wasted so much time and he did it in seconds.
When I started riding again, my "average pace" was down to 14.5mph. Now I was behind last years time! The rest of the ride, I went as hard as I could to catch up to at least 15mph. I ended up finishing the bike in 3 minutes 30 seconds less than last year. Not at all what I was hoping for.
Workout:
- Type: Cycle
- Date: 11/08/2009
- Time: 08:28:28
- Total Time: 7:22:26.00
- Average Heart rate: 132
- Max Heart rate: 157
- Calories: 4683
- Distance: 112 miles
- Average Speed: 15.19 mph
- Max Speed: 40 mph
- Ascent: 1,.2E.+6 ft
2 Comments so far...
shebaduhkitty Says:
I am amazed that even with the various difficulties in each event you still beat last year’s time. you must be doing something right!
Brad Hefta-Gaub Says:
Thanks… I admit I have mixed emotions about it…
Positives include:
1) I improved my time from last year.
2) I overcame adversity and reach two of my goals. (Finish, and Improve)
3) I had a great time, met some cool people, enjoyed my swim/ride/ and run.
4) Had fun taking pictures and video (which I’ll mix down to a video soon.)
5) Pretty much just went out and did it… I mean, sure, I exercise alot, but I didn’t really “train” for this event. But I still did good.
On the downside:
1) I got a flat and didn’t handle that situation well.
2) I didn’t go as fast on the bike or run as I think I ought to be able to… if I trained properly.
3) In looking at the data, it appears as if I still have a problem with my fueling strategy. I think I need some help on that.
