Congratulations to all our friends that were racing this weekend…some excellent results out there!
Iron Anne Boone was once again first and only in her Try Charleston Half Ironman 65-69 Age category, racing faster than her time goal, and almost 15 minutes faster than last year!
…and Iron Janet Carter in a smoking 05:24:49
…and Iron James Vavra in a 04:12:09…dang James…a 1:19:20 (6:03/mile) for the half marathon to finish…are you kidding me!
…and Iron Daughter Lisa showed excellent early season running form in her Vancouver Half Marathon (13.1 miles / 21.1 km), within 5 minutes of her time goal, and her highest, running, age group ranking (percentile) finish ever…still a few girls in front of her, but 200 behind her on the day 🙂  Â
…great trends, as everybody is getting faster…good job!
I also had excellent results in my Big Training Day …most notably the bike where in the two Half Ironman race effort sections (1 hour race pace, 10 minutes easy then another :45 race pace) on the hilly Shearer route for a total of 1:45:00…goal of 210-220 Watts…I averaged 217 and 221 Watts with a right-where-it-should-be 136 and 134 Heart Rate average for 19.6 and 19.7 MPH.
…that’s dangerously close to my 200-210 Watt and 20 MPH target for Ironman which on the flatter Ironman course, is probably there with that power range
…although I still need to get my FTP (Functional Threshold Power) higher to be able to hold that level for 112 miles…but looking good for the Half Ironman 10 weeks out…that level (210 Watts)Â is now 80% of my current 263 Watt FTP …which is perfect for the 56 mile Half Iron distance
…but the 112 mile Ironman needs to be run at less intensity, generally…in my speed range…at 70% of FTP, so 200 Watts racing would mean an FTP of 286 Watts…so I’m going to need to get to at least that level to hope to get be able to ride Ironman at 200Watts+…300 Watts FTP to run at (70%) 210 Watts+…286W feels like a stretch…300W inconceivable…but I’m happy with where I am now 6 months out
…push that percentage much higher than 70% in Ironman racing starts to really risk a negative impact on the run…like 26.2 miles of it after the warm-up bike ride…geez
…my fastest bike split was 3 years ago in the 2008 Ironman at 18.94 MPH, 5:54:53, so anything faster than that is the first target…second would be 19.5 MPH, or a 5:45:00 bike split…unbelieveable would be 20 MPH, or a 5:35:00 bike split
…well, at least that’s me dreaming 6 months out 🙂