On to the Ironman Japan bike recap. I think it went pretty well.
The plan and the course
Andy's power plan: 220 watts max on the hills, 160 to 180 as the general range, 140 on descents, 175 on the flats. I averaged 175 for the whole leg - pretty much bang on target. Normalized power was 186W, with an average heart rate of 149 and a max of 168. I did push harder than prescribed on the hills, but the course was mostly false flats - it looks flat, but it's actually uphill the whole time - with long descents afterward.
One really fast descent came with a long, steep climb straight after it. And the tunnels were incredible - one was two kilometres long, and I could tuck into aero and fly past people through it.
Gaining places
I came out of the swim around 150th place. By the end of the bike I was down to 58th - I could feel it happening, counting people I passed and people still ahead of me at the turnaround points.
Wind, nutrition and the final split
The only real issue was the wind picking up after about 150K. It made the last 20K, especially grinding into it up those long false flats, genuinely draining.
Nutrition was on point, though - 120 grams of carbs an hour, gels and chews, eating every 15 minutes, with caffeine roughly once an hour.
Final split: 5:22 - longer than the 4:50 to 5:00 we'd hoped for, given the course and the wind. But I'm happy with it, mostly because I actually enjoyed it - flying down those highways, overtaking, in aero for most of the ride. I didn't get much chance to look at the scenery, but what I did see was beautiful. Genuinely a course I'd recommend.
T2
Into T2 there was a gradual uphill into the transition zone. Once in, though, my red bag was right by where I needed to rack my bike, so I grabbed it, got into the change tent, and was straight back out onto the course in three and a half minutes.
I ran back down the hill, over the start mat, and began the run...
