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Monday, December 14, 2009

Taupo Half Ironman Race Report

So pre-Kona I had planned to do this race as an individual but after breaking myself it wasn't a possibility anymore so I decided to do a team since I would be down there anyway. So I roped my buddy from uni Andy into being my runner since he lives in Taupo, he was keen but only had a few weeks notice to train. He's done a few halves and a marathon before so knew what he was getting himself into so I wasn't too worried about him and didn't really care how fast we went anyway because I just wanted to do my bits. A mixed team with a girl cyclist would have to be pretty awesome to be competitive against the men cyclists.
Had a bit of a drama before even leaving Auckland on Friday - I put my wheel cover on and was to be the first time I had used it on the RooRoo. Because the chain stays on the RooRoo are curved in there was one bit on the wheel cover which stuck out a tiny bit and rubbed on the chain stay so wasn't going to work. We had to hightail it to Taupo to get to registration in time so I had to rack my bike minus the rear wheel and take the wheel cover off that night. Lucky I remembered to bring the wheel in the morning (unlike at Rotorua last year...).
Swim was ok, we started 10 minutes after the individuals and it was a pretty peaceful start ie no kicks to the head or being swum over which was nice. I tried to get on feet as much as I could, the water was nice and clear so I could see when I strayed off my chosen feet. Hit the slow individuals after about 600m and managed to dodge them without any collisions.
Came out of the water in a bit over 32mins which is pretty standard for me but I really should swim faster...
Had a good T1 even if I do say so myself, had plenty of space (no bikes on either side of me) so that was all good. Jumped on my bike and off I went.
Started the bike and realized after about 3-4mins that my power was really high, like 280-300w which is just ridiculous, at 5mins my average power was about 290w which I knew was wrong. So I tried to zero the torque but it wouldn't go to zero, the lowest it would go was 45w. So I tried a couple of more times but it still wouldn't work so in the end I gave up and just tried to ignore the crazy high wattage readings.
I had put my Em's Power Cookie-Bar in my pocket with my CO2 before the swim and had a feel around to check all was intact once I had started the ride and was confused to feel what I thought was a gel in my pocket. Turns out Cookie-Bars packets aren't waterproof and had turned to mush, mmmmmmmmmm. It was all I had to eat and didn't actually taste too bad, lucky it wasn't salt water. It was a bit messy though and I suspect it looked a bit like I had a toilet problem from where I had wiped my hand on my bum...
The ride was pretty good, had to concentrate on not slacking off since I wasn't running after. I have never passed so many people in my life, I felt like a superhero and only got passed by about 5 people so that was all g. The weather was a bit poo but not too cold which was a big concern of mine, had a few nasty sidegusts which blew me round quite a bit so maybe lucky I didn't have the disc.
Managed to get back to T2 in just under 2hrs40 with average power of 297w !! As geeky as it sounds I'm pretty disappointed TapTap failed me because I think it was a good effort for me so would have be nice to have an accurate power reading.
Running through T1 and T2 seemed OK on the leggie so I am hopeful about going for a little jog next weekend.
Andy ran about 1hr41 which wasn't bad on no training so we came 9th out of the mixed teams in 4:56:53.
Roll on Tauranga!!

2 comments:

  1. Haha non-aero was never an option, it was more go fast or death, much like what you are doing right now at Rotorua...

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