Photo: Jay Baker
If I had one complaint about this course, it's the first few miles on the bike path. Even though the course was altered a bit due to recent flooding, it's still a technical way to start the bike in a race. Thankfully, it's not more than a few miles of navigating cracks, turns and bumps and a railroad track before you are on an open road and heading out to the country.
With the temp around 50 degrees, I was happy I had my arm coolers on as they were keeping me warm. I felt very comfortable (body temp) when I started the bike but I still gave myself a few miles to wake-up my legs and to settle into a nice rhythm. I always start the bike with my helmet shield up so it doesn't fog and then after a few minutes I snap it in place as my "sunglasses" for the rest of the ride. It's also a lot easier to get on this way.
After losing both my rear bottles at Ironman Chattanooga last year in the first few miles of the bike, I was extra paranoid at IMWI with every bump on the road. I kept tapping down my rear bottles before and after every noticeable bump for the first few miles as I didn't want to make the same mistake twice (and this is even with very secure gorilla bottle cages). But just to be safe and not sorry, I filled my hydration flask with 2 bottles worth of INFINIT powder just in case I were to lose two bottles. I chose not to use my hydration system for this race because I am very comfortable grabbing my bottles and it's easy for me to see how much I am drinking and to get in full gulps. But since it is more aero with the hydration system, I keep it on my bike. I've only had my new Ventum to ride for just a few weeks but I have tested out the straw and plan to use it for extreme conditions (ex. rain and wind).
It wasn't too long into the bike when I heard my name and it was my athlete Ericka who was racing in the professional women's field. She is a super strong biker and she loves to ride her bike. It was great to see her ride away from me and I was so pumped for her to experience her first Ironman - and to share the day with her.
The Ironman Wisconsin course is tough. There's little time to settle into a rhythm with over 91-turns per loop (over 200 turns over 112 miles). While the course has 5600 feet of elevation gain, you are either going up or down and rarely do you get a lot of momentum to get yourself from one downhill to the next uphill. There are a few technical sections with tight turns that can be executed safely but you have to be on alert, especially when other athletes are around. And when there is a flat-ish segment, you usually get wind. On our race day, the wind was angry. And lastly, the road conditions are rough. While several segments have been paved over the years, it's not a "fast" course. However, having said all that, the scenery is beautiful (think farms - lots and lots of farms and fields), there are designated spectator-heavy spots that you can get a ton of energy from the crowds, the course is very-well marked, the course is safe (even though it's not closed to traffic, there are police and volunteers everywhere) and it's a fun course!
NUTRITION
I keep my nutrition super simple during an Ironman so that I can focus on my execution but also ensure that I can optimize digestion and absorption of all calories consumed. For my nutrition in an Ironman, I use 1 26-ounce bottle of INFINIT per hour (I use my own custom version of my endurance base formula, discount Trimarnicoach if you'd like to try it) with around 500mg sodium, 250 calories, 62g carbs and 15g of sugar. One of my 6 bottles (3 for the first loop and then 3 in special needs - already filled with water and powder) contains caffeine and aminos (mixed in my custom formula) - 50mg caffeine and 1g aminos. I use this bottle as my third bottle on the bike (so around 2 hours of riding). This is the same strategy I use for every long ride. To help with taste bud fatigue, I bring along 4 different flavors (watermelon, pink lemonade, fruit punch and grape) so that each hour is a different flavor. My front bottle cage holds my primary bottle and when I am finished with it, I either toss it at an aid station (I use an old bottle that I am happy to get rid of) or move it to my rear cage and replace with my rear bottle. I keep rotating bottles so I can always grab my front bottle. For this race, I didn't grab water in the first loop but grabbed water at each aid station on the second loop to use for sipping and cooling. While I like to have a plan for an Ironman, I am also always listening to my body. I always bring "extra" fuel with me for those just-in-case situations and in this Ironman, I brought along a Clif PB and pretzel MOJO bar as it's something I have practiced with in training and have had good runs off the bike when I nibble on the bar throughout my ride. So I broke up the bar in advance, put it into a baggy and stuck into my bento box for easy nibbling throughout the ride. I mostly went through the entire bar throughout hour 2-5 of the bike. I also had a small flask filled with 1 Enervite cheerpack (caffeine) that I took a swig from anytime I needed a little burst of energy. Again, I practiced with this in training. So aside from drinking my INFINIT bottle every hour, 4-5 chugs every 10-12 minutes (give or take depending on the terrain and how I was feeling), the extra nutrition was based on how I felt.
With the temp around 50 degrees, I was happy I had my arm coolers on as they were keeping me warm. I felt very comfortable (body temp) when I started the bike but I still gave myself a few miles to wake-up my legs and to settle into a nice rhythm. I always start the bike with my helmet shield up so it doesn't fog and then after a few minutes I snap it in place as my "sunglasses" for the rest of the ride. It's also a lot easier to get on this way.
After losing both my rear bottles at Ironman Chattanooga last year in the first few miles of the bike, I was extra paranoid at IMWI with every bump on the road. I kept tapping down my rear bottles before and after every noticeable bump for the first few miles as I didn't want to make the same mistake twice (and this is even with very secure gorilla bottle cages). But just to be safe and not sorry, I filled my hydration flask with 2 bottles worth of INFINIT powder just in case I were to lose two bottles. I chose not to use my hydration system for this race because I am very comfortable grabbing my bottles and it's easy for me to see how much I am drinking and to get in full gulps. But since it is more aero with the hydration system, I keep it on my bike. I've only had my new Ventum to ride for just a few weeks but I have tested out the straw and plan to use it for extreme conditions (ex. rain and wind).
It wasn't too long into the bike when I heard my name and it was my athlete Ericka who was racing in the professional women's field. She is a super strong biker and she loves to ride her bike. It was great to see her ride away from me and I was so pumped for her to experience her first Ironman - and to share the day with her.
The Ironman Wisconsin course is tough. There's little time to settle into a rhythm with over 91-turns per loop (over 200 turns over 112 miles). While the course has 5600 feet of elevation gain, you are either going up or down and rarely do you get a lot of momentum to get yourself from one downhill to the next uphill. There are a few technical sections with tight turns that can be executed safely but you have to be on alert, especially when other athletes are around. And when there is a flat-ish segment, you usually get wind. On our race day, the wind was angry. And lastly, the road conditions are rough. While several segments have been paved over the years, it's not a "fast" course. However, having said all that, the scenery is beautiful (think farms - lots and lots of farms and fields), there are designated spectator-heavy spots that you can get a ton of energy from the crowds, the course is very-well marked, the course is safe (even though it's not closed to traffic, there are police and volunteers everywhere) and it's a fun course!
NUTRITION
I keep my nutrition super simple during an Ironman so that I can focus on my execution but also ensure that I can optimize digestion and absorption of all calories consumed. For my nutrition in an Ironman, I use 1 26-ounce bottle of INFINIT per hour (I use my own custom version of my endurance base formula, discount Trimarnicoach if you'd like to try it) with around 500mg sodium, 250 calories, 62g carbs and 15g of sugar. One of my 6 bottles (3 for the first loop and then 3 in special needs - already filled with water and powder) contains caffeine and aminos (mixed in my custom formula) - 50mg caffeine and 1g aminos. I use this bottle as my third bottle on the bike (so around 2 hours of riding). This is the same strategy I use for every long ride. To help with taste bud fatigue, I bring along 4 different flavors (watermelon, pink lemonade, fruit punch and grape) so that each hour is a different flavor. My front bottle cage holds my primary bottle and when I am finished with it, I either toss it at an aid station (I use an old bottle that I am happy to get rid of) or move it to my rear cage and replace with my rear bottle. I keep rotating bottles so I can always grab my front bottle. For this race, I didn't grab water in the first loop but grabbed water at each aid station on the second loop to use for sipping and cooling. While I like to have a plan for an Ironman, I am also always listening to my body. I always bring "extra" fuel with me for those just-in-case situations and in this Ironman, I brought along a Clif PB and pretzel MOJO bar as it's something I have practiced with in training and have had good runs off the bike when I nibble on the bar throughout my ride. So I broke up the bar in advance, put it into a baggy and stuck into my bento box for easy nibbling throughout the ride. I mostly went through the entire bar throughout hour 2-5 of the bike. I also had a small flask filled with 1 Enervite cheerpack (caffeine) that I took a swig from anytime I needed a little burst of energy. Again, I practiced with this in training. So aside from drinking my INFINIT bottle every hour, 4-5 chugs every 10-12 minutes (give or take depending on the terrain and how I was feeling), the extra nutrition was based on how I felt.
Picture: Brian Comiskey
TRAINING PREP
The IMWI bike course is very similar to what we train on in Greenville so I think that helped me a lot with my execution and knowing how to ride my bike on the course. While we have a lot to climb where we live (and bumpy roads), this helped my bike handling skills, terrain management and strength on two wheels but it leaves very little opportunity for steady state riding. So my long rides are always outside and my more specific rides are typically on the trainer. I usually ride my road bike once a week for an easy spin and I have found that I need to incorporate variable cadence work (riding at a very low or very high cadence) during my workouts to keep the fibers firing, versus just focusing on steady state efforts. I haven't done a power test in over a year so all my rides are by feel as I know what each effort should feel like and I adjust based on how I feel for the day. My bike fit is all dialed in thanks to Karel as it wasn't a difficult fit as my new Ventum fits me so well. Whereas my Trek Speed Concept was a size small (700 wheels), it was a bit too big for me. This new bike is just perfect and with my 155mm cranks and Dash saddle plus the shape of my aerobars (Ventum product), the bike feels extremely comfortable and rides so well. And with the wind, I felt like I was just slicing through it! This never happens to me as with my old bike, I felt like I was always getting pushed around. With no downtube on my Ventum, there is less for the wind to hit. Also the chain stay is shorter than on most bikes which brings my weight more towards the center or the back of the bike while still maintaining an aero position. This makes the bike feel more like a road bike compared to a heavy tri bike. The bike road so well and I was so happy with my choice to ride my new Ventum at IMWI (even though I had only completed 2 long rides on it prior!).
As for my training going into this race, my longest ride was 5.5 hours and that was with our campers in August. Other than that, the majority of my rides were around 4-4.5 hours. While I don't do many "long" rides, my workouts are very specific and intense. Either the terrain brings up the inside or the workout itself. Plus, our miles go by very slow where we live so it's not uncommon for us to average 16-17mph for a long ride. Thus, completing a 100+ mile ride would be a long day in the mountains and we feel there are other beneficial ways to gain fitness versus spending so much time in the saddle. While I love to ride my bike and train, I'm always looking for the most efficient way to gain fitness in the least amount of time possible.
RACE STRATEGY
As for the race, I hit lap every 30-35 minutes once I got on the loop (~40 miles per loop). I used the stick part of the course to build into my effort and I made sure to keep the first loop very sustainable. I felt strong but tried to hold myself back. There was a lot of sitting up in the saddle or standing on the climbs which I liked as I am much more comfortable changing my position than being stuck in aero for miles at a time. The crowds were incredible on the two longer climbs on the course, in addition to the 3 sisters (or b!tche$ - however you choose to call them). I saw a lot of familiar faces on the course which was awesome - thank you Ed, Diane, Cory, Michela, Tim and all other friends/family for being out there! I was getting updates on my position that I was leading the female amateur race and first in my age group. While this news was motivating, I didn't let it change my game plan of riding my bike well. After a stop at special needs to get three fresh bottles (for those who thinks special needs is a waste of time, my stop was only 12 seconds according to my data), I was looking forward to the second loop. Knowing that fatigue was building, my goal was just to ride the same effort as before but to save a little for the stretch going home as I knew it would be windy and in my face. I was starting to warm-up and while I probably could have kept on my arm coolers, I decided to remove them around mile 60 just to feel something different. I tucked the arm coolers into my jersey pockets. Not too long later, it hit me. A low. After 14 Ironmans, I know these lows come but it's always a guessing game as to how long. While the miles were going by very quickly, my low stayed with me for some time. Maybe it was the wind, the part of the course where I was riding (I was alone for a very long time) or being passed by two very strong girls but the low stayed with me for more than I would have liked. It's hard to describe this feeling but it's easy to get negative and to start having doubts. I took in some calories, did a few check-in's with my body and all was still feeling ok so I just rode it out (literally) and was able to bounce back from it.
Karel was spectating around the 3 sisters and I was super excited to see him. I gave him a big smile but also told him "I'm feeling tired." He yelled back "you should be, you are doing an Ironman." Sometimes it helps to say what I am feeling as it's kinda like a little self-talk for myself to get out of my funk. It helped and I felt stronger soon after I saw Karel. I was prepared for the final section of the bike (the last 14 miles) to be very tough and it was. It was slow but I just focused on smooth pedaling, staying relaxed and doing my best to deliver myself to the run as fresh as possible after riding a super windy and tough 112 miles. While I was passed by two girls, I was still first in my age group so that gave me a lot of motivation to keep taking good care of myself and giving my best on this day. While sometimes our thoughts tell us negative things, thoughts aren't always actions. I had nothing to convince me that I was having a bad race so even with a low on the bike, I still told myself that I could have a great race. I reminded myself of all my hard training sessions and no matter how I feel on the bike, I can still put together a solid run. To be honest, I had my normal thoughts of quitting and questioning why I do this crazy sport but something deep inside myself loves to prove myself wrong.
As for my training going into this race, my longest ride was 5.5 hours and that was with our campers in August. Other than that, the majority of my rides were around 4-4.5 hours. While I don't do many "long" rides, my workouts are very specific and intense. Either the terrain brings up the inside or the workout itself. Plus, our miles go by very slow where we live so it's not uncommon for us to average 16-17mph for a long ride. Thus, completing a 100+ mile ride would be a long day in the mountains and we feel there are other beneficial ways to gain fitness versus spending so much time in the saddle. While I love to ride my bike and train, I'm always looking for the most efficient way to gain fitness in the least amount of time possible.
Photo: Jay Baker
As for the race, I hit lap every 30-35 minutes once I got on the loop (~40 miles per loop). I used the stick part of the course to build into my effort and I made sure to keep the first loop very sustainable. I felt strong but tried to hold myself back. There was a lot of sitting up in the saddle or standing on the climbs which I liked as I am much more comfortable changing my position than being stuck in aero for miles at a time. The crowds were incredible on the two longer climbs on the course, in addition to the 3 sisters (or b!tche$ - however you choose to call them). I saw a lot of familiar faces on the course which was awesome - thank you Ed, Diane, Cory, Michela, Tim and all other friends/family for being out there! I was getting updates on my position that I was leading the female amateur race and first in my age group. While this news was motivating, I didn't let it change my game plan of riding my bike well. After a stop at special needs to get three fresh bottles (for those who thinks special needs is a waste of time, my stop was only 12 seconds according to my data), I was looking forward to the second loop. Knowing that fatigue was building, my goal was just to ride the same effort as before but to save a little for the stretch going home as I knew it would be windy and in my face. I was starting to warm-up and while I probably could have kept on my arm coolers, I decided to remove them around mile 60 just to feel something different. I tucked the arm coolers into my jersey pockets. Not too long later, it hit me. A low. After 14 Ironmans, I know these lows come but it's always a guessing game as to how long. While the miles were going by very quickly, my low stayed with me for some time. Maybe it was the wind, the part of the course where I was riding (I was alone for a very long time) or being passed by two very strong girls but the low stayed with me for more than I would have liked. It's hard to describe this feeling but it's easy to get negative and to start having doubts. I took in some calories, did a few check-in's with my body and all was still feeling ok so I just rode it out (literally) and was able to bounce back from it.
Karel was spectating around the 3 sisters and I was super excited to see him. I gave him a big smile but also told him "I'm feeling tired." He yelled back "you should be, you are doing an Ironman." Sometimes it helps to say what I am feeling as it's kinda like a little self-talk for myself to get out of my funk. It helped and I felt stronger soon after I saw Karel. I was prepared for the final section of the bike (the last 14 miles) to be very tough and it was. It was slow but I just focused on smooth pedaling, staying relaxed and doing my best to deliver myself to the run as fresh as possible after riding a super windy and tough 112 miles. While I was passed by two girls, I was still first in my age group so that gave me a lot of motivation to keep taking good care of myself and giving my best on this day. While sometimes our thoughts tell us negative things, thoughts aren't always actions. I had nothing to convince me that I was having a bad race so even with a low on the bike, I still told myself that I could have a great race. I reminded myself of all my hard training sessions and no matter how I feel on the bike, I can still put together a solid run. To be honest, I had my normal thoughts of quitting and questioning why I do this crazy sport but something deep inside myself loves to prove myself wrong.
As I neared the helix, I couldn't believe how fast the day was going and that I was about to start the marathon. Only 26.2 miles until the finish of my 14th Ironman! With the lead in my age group and 3rd female amateur overall, I questioned if history would repeat itself and with only 2 and 3 minutes between me and 2nd and 3rd place in my age group, I was in need of the run of my life to take the age group win.
112 mile BIKE RESULT (per Ironman tracker)
5:37.55 (19.86 mph)
2nd fastest AG (35-39)
14th female
141th overall
Bike specifics:
Any questions about these components, email me and I'll send your question along to Karel. I don't do bikes - I just ride them :)
Any questions about these components, email me and I'll send your question along to Karel. I don't do bikes - I just ride them :)
- Ventum One Frame size 46 (custom paint)
- Ventum handlebar set up with TriRig ultra light elbow cups with CeeGees pads
- Wheels: Alto CC 86 rear and Alto CC 56 front wheel with Specialized S-works 24mm tubeless tires and Ultegra 11-28 cassette.
- Crank: Rotor 3D24 crank arms 155mm with Rotor Qarbon 53 aero big chainring and 39 small chainring with Power2Max pwoermeter.
- BB: CeramicSpeed bottom bracket (red)
- Saddle: Dash Stage Custom saddle
- Other components: Shimano Dura-Ace 9100 and Utegra 8000 Di2 group set with CeramicSpeed oversized pulley system (red)
-14 miles (39 minutes/21.7 mph), 169w NP, 87 RPM
-11 miles (30 minutes/21.3 mph), 168w NP, 85 RPM
-10 miles (31 minutes/19.3 mph), 180w NP, 84 RPM
-10 miles (32 minutes/18.9 mph), 170w NP, 83 RPM
-13 miles (37 minutes/20.9 mph), 164w NP, 83 RPM
-12.4 miles (37 minutes/20 mph), 169w NP, 82 RPM
-9.66 miles (30 minutes/19 mph), 159w NP, 81 RPM
-10 miles (34 minutes/17.6 mph), 161w NP, 80 RPM
-6.6 miles (19 minutes/20.9 mph),135w NP, 80 RPM
-14 miles (45 minutes/18.5 mph), 140w NP, 78 RPM
Data recorded 111 miles in 5:35.59 (19.8 mph)