Ironman Louisville Race Report - Part 2, The Bike

112 miles. That's roughly the distance from my home in Chattanooga to East Point (Atlanta) Georgia. And I used to think that was a long way to drive, my how things have changed. Prior to the race, I was most excited about experiencing the bike course in Louisville. I'd heard that the course was mostly rolling hills with one longish climb and nice scenic views of Kentucky's horse country. This description was also fitting for northern Baltimore county where I've done most of my training, so I felt ready to tackle the course and hopefully finish the 112 mi in around 6.5 hours.

One of the major challenges of long distance triathlon is determining how much fuel (food) you need to sustain yourself for the duration of the race. Through training, I found that I preferred to use Accelerade for hydration since it contains protein and delivers about 240 calories in a 24 oz bottle. Without going into too much detail, my goal was to consume 400-500 calories per hour via sports drinks, gels, and Clif Bars.

The first half of the bike course really felt great. I kept a really easy effort (Zone 2) and just focused on eating and/or drinking something every 12 minutes when my watch beeped. The weather felt great for the first 3 hours and I'm sure that had I selected a more temperate race, the bike would have ended much better than it did. I had a couple extra bottles of Accelerade and a bottle of 5hr energy stashed in my special needs bag near mile 60, but in retrospect, neither was necessary. It turns out that after sitting in the sun for 5 hrs, the bottle were literally hot, so I decided to switch to Powerade for the remainder of ride. I also found that solid foods like Clif Bars were not appetizing in the least bit after spending that much time in the heat.

Around mile 80, I was really starting the feel the heat and my speed was on the decline. By this point, my right foot was hurting for some unknown reason, my back was tired from sitting in the aerobars, and I was starting to feel every seam in the road through my frame. I think that I made the ride a lot rougher than it should have been by inflating my tires at a higher pressure than I normally ride thinking that they would roll faster. I guess I'll just have to count that as another lesson learned.

After almost 7 hours of riding, I finally reached the end of the bike course and as I neared the final few miles, I had a chat with a guy from Colorado who chose to do Louisville as his first tri. One of the best things about long distance racing is that everyone becomes friends when they're exhausted and it's almost an unwritten rule that you support and encourage those who are suffering beside you. Though I didn't go as fast as I'd hoped, I was thankful that I was not laying under a tree from exhaustion, in an ambulance, or otherwise incapacitated like others I had seen on the way. I did my best to conserve energy on the bike (as evidenced by my final time of almost 7hrs), so after I handed my bike to the volunteers and put on my running shoes, it was time for the most important part of the day, the run.