IMChoo: Let's go biking!

T1

My main goals for T1 were to remember to put on face sunscreen before chamois cream and to eat my first Gu of the day. I did that successfully, changed into my other tritop that is more comfortable to wear for the rest of the day and headed out!

Without running, I got through transition in 7 minutes, when I had allocated 10, so that was perfect.

Bike 

I had some power numbers from a free trial of Best Bike Split that I was hoping to use as guidance, but also wanted to make sure my heart rate didn't get too high and that I stayed on top of my nutrition.

The course was a lollipop with 11 miles to ease into the idea of biking. This included some railroad crossings, which given my recent bike-fall-down, I was super cautious around. I even went so far as to unclip one foot to be ready to catch myself if my wheel slipped. I called out my intentions loudly to all the people whizzing past me, so hopefully didn't disrupt anyone's day.

From the 70.3, I had observed "Get bottles that fit well in cages. Noteworthy bumps in first few miles left nutrition on the side of the road." Apparently a lot of racers didn't read my note because there were bottles all over the place, which made the crossings even more treacherous. I didn't lose anything myself, so still had 3 Gu's, two bars, and two bottles of Skratch keeping me company as we headed out of town and into Georgia.

For the next few hours, I biked and ate, and biked and drank. Everything was marvelously uneventful and I kept my focus small. Like the swim, I stayed "in the box", which I implemented by pretending it was a training ride, and using my fake cue sheet to look for the next road, and not thinking about how many more miles there were in the day.

Heading out, I read down the left side of the road names, and on the return half of the loop, I read up the right side. I needed a compact view to be able to fit this all onto my handlebars. Some year, when I get a tri bike, I expect to plaster the front handlebars with information, since there is so much more real-estate to work with, but until then, I have to keep it compact.

The best part of the loop was on the way back after passing Halls Mill, I could start looking forward to seeing family and friends at the cheer station at Pigeon Mountain Grill.

Soon after that was bike special needs, where I took my ziploc of tube + CO2 and put it in my back pocket, reloaded my bento box with Gus and bars, and took 2 more bottles of Skratch. Then I headed off down the road, and used the next few miles of mostly uphill riding as a chance to eat Cheetos, holding the open bag with my left hand, since I wasn't shifting into the big ring any time soon, and wiping cheese dust on my right thigh. That was pretty delicious and thankfully sat well in my stomach.

Loop two was lonelier, and I no longer had people passing me decisively, so I had to work a little harder to avoid drafting, but I kept my power up, and my heart rate only drifted up a little. The perfect weather continued, so I wasn't overheating at all, and after making the turn to come back on the loop, I was able to start making up time towards meeting my biking goal -- while also reminding myself that this is not a bike race and to be smart about this.

One of my goals for the day was to "Experience the day," which sounds a little cheesy now outside of context, but I wanted to stay aware of what was going on around me. On the first loop, I saw some goats and sheep, and signs for bulls, pigs and chickens for sale. It was great countryside and I enjoyed seeing it. The next loop, the animals had moved on to other pastures, but the bulls, pigs and chickens remained for sale.

I looked just as happy passing the cheer station a second time, and am pleased to see from the photo that I hadn't developed any weird posture quirks

"Only" a marathon's worth of biking to go and still on pace and smiling!

My bike held up really well to all the shifting, even with getting rained on the night before. For the half, I had noticed a lot of people dropping chains on the hills, so I worked on being aware of upcoming conditions, so I wouldn't get surprised and need an unexpected front-ring shift. I hope to spend more time in the big ring next season as I continue to get stronger on the bike.

Thankfully, I did not consciously think of the distance I had left to bike, or left to go in the day, and just kept on pedaling, eating, and drinking.

For the return stick, I changed my bike computer's display to show me cadence. I wanted to avoid the tendency to coast that had been happening at the end of my long rides, and I wanted to finish appropriately strong. With cadence, power and HR showing, I tried to keep my effort at an appropriate level and succeeded quite well.

I was super pleased that I had eaten all of my food by that point, and kept sipping at the Gatorade bottle I'd picked up to try to catch up on hydration. My plan had been to get through about a bottle per hour, with 3 calorie bottles per loop and the rest of the drinking as water, but I didn't manage to finish that up. Thankfully it didn't come back to haunt me later, but I should either accept it takes 5 drinks to finish a bottle and plan calories appropriately, or work on taking larger drinks so it only takes 4.

With 3 miles or so left, I increased my cadence which was nice for my running legs, but bad for my speed and power, so I might have to add some high-cadence drills to my biking next year to get a better handle on how to do that without compromise.

I finished the bike in 7:15, which was perfect.

T2

This was also uneventful. I remembered to take my Garmin off my bike, changed socks and shoes, ate a Gu, used the restroom and left to go running.

Somehow this took 5 minutes, but that was what I'd budgeted, so again, perfect!