Ironman Arizona Bike Watts Power Data, Nutrition Report, and Mile Splits

Earlier I wrote a race report on my experiences at 2011 edition of Ironman Arizona. Today I wanted to dive a little further into the numbers.  First things first -- my nutrition plan. 

Race Morning Nutrition: ~1510 calories

I had a lot of trouble sleeping and actually could not go back to bed after I got up at 1:30 in the morning.  At 2:30 I pretty much conceded that I would NOT be doing any more sleeping and I had a nutrition shake.  Then I had two more nutrition shakes at 4am.  Each one is 250 calories.

- Nutrition Shake (750 calories)
Now Extinct CarboPro 1200
- 3 gel packs (300 calories)
- Gummy treats (160 calories)
- Carbo Pro 1200 (300 calories worth) (sipped on this throughout the morning)


Bike Nutrition: ~2000 calories or about 400 calories an hour

I started the bike with the following bottles:

- 1 pre-mixed bottle (2x salt stick pills, 400 calories of Carbo Pro 1200 + H20, 1 Crystal Light packet)
- 1 pre-mixed bottle (2x salt stick pills, 1600 calories of Carbo Pro 1200, 1 Crystal Light packet)

Once I finished the first 400 cal bottle I switched to sipping the concentrated bottle and washing it down with water.  I had 4 salt stick pills on the bike.

Run Nutrition: ~2000 calories or about 666 calories per hour

For some reason I was ravishingly hungry and thirsty at this race.  Coincidence that I fell apart on the marathon digesting 666 calories per hour????  I don't know but it all seemed to be going down just fine.  I'm not sure if it was the dryer climate or what but I was grabbing two Powerades and two Cokes at nearly every aid station.    I estimate that I had:

- 50x 2oz cups of Cola (1200 calories)
- 35x 2oz cups of Perform (615 calories)
- Gummy treats (80 calories)
- 1 gel pack (100 calories)
- 10x 2ox cups of Water (0 calories)

It should also be noted that I started the run pretty swollen and bloated but by the end of the run I looked like a skinny-mini.



Swim Speed:

Although there are no numbers for swim speed I will reiterate that I swam well below my ability.  I had no moments of pressure requiring surges.  Clearly I should have gone out harder but live and learn on that one.


Bike Watts:

The goal of the bike was to bike extremely conservatively for the first hour and then dial it up every so slightly.  That was a nice goal, but it didn't happen.  Instead, I went out hard and it went all downhill from there.  I would say that I was solo or at the front of a group for 65% of the race.  At about mile 60 I started to have significant digestion issues and decided to stop eating and drinking.  I greatly dialed it  back until the turnaround back to Tempe at mile 94.  I put in two surges in an effort to drop some riders but both attempts were unsuccessful.

5 feet 8 inches with a race day weight of 151 lbs or 68.5 kilos

1st 20 mins - 249 watts @ 149 BPM
1st Half - 245 watts @ 143 BPM
2nd Half - 213 watts @ 134 BPM
Total - 231 watts @ 139 BPM


2011 Ironman Arizona Bike Power File Graph In Watts With Heart Rate



Run Pace:

The goal of the run was to keep a comfortable relaxed pace and see where it took me.  The beginning of the run felt so easy and after reading a whole bunch of race reports and talking to a whole bunch of people it sounds like I was not alone.  However, the run course at IMAZ is actually quite challenging and has many turns, overpasses, and a few sustained climbs that all took their toll on me.  Because it is 3-laps everything you do is also done three times and it seems like the wheels fell off most wagons somewhere between the 2nd and 3rd laps - my race was no exception.

2011 Ironman Arizona Marathon Run Mile Splits




Putting It All Together:  On paper the race looks good, but it could have gone a lot better.  For starters, I should have swam harder.  Looking back on it would have allowed me to come out of the water with better bikers who were at more my level.  Instead I spent too much time leading the charge in the 2nd half of the race.  I would have been better coming out of the water two minutes ahead with the next group.  I think I would have had an easier bike with less time at the front.  You never know what would have happened but regardless I learned some things that I can put to work in my next Ironman.


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