Last year for the 2007 IM, I spent approximately 185 hours biking a total of 3,250 kms. This year my goal will be do be closer to 200 hours and 4000/4500 kms. Last year I dropped from 77th after the swim to 148 after the bike, so I lost 71 positions. My official time was 6:58:33, but according to my bike computer, my actual riding time was about 17 minutes less than that. As soon as the bike comes to a rest, the computer shuts off, so it measures only the actual time the bike is moving. So what was I doing for 17 minutes??...well I stopped and got off the bike 4 times to pee and that cost was at least 2 minutes each time and I had to fix a flat tire at the 100mi mark, that took the other 8 minutes and change.
This year I’ll be looking for a bike time much closer to 6:00/6:15. I won’t be stopping this year to pee, yes…I’ll teach myself to do it on the fly. It’s common, lots of people do it. You need to make sure to move over and get out of the way of the other riders though. I’ll practice this summer on my long rides a couple times. It sounds gross, I know, but during the race, you are constantly dousing yourself with water to keep cool and your sweating, so you’re wet pretty much the entire time and it will just get washed away.
For me to maintain my 77th place after the swim last year, I would have to complete the bike 6:13, I think that’s a possibility. A 6:15 bike split would require me to bike at 28.8 km/per hour. So based on that, I will gradually build my long rides this summer with a goal of riding at an average of 29/30 kph.
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