Muncie Endurathon

This was my first year back after several years of staying away from Muncie’s heat and humidity. It turned out to be quite a change. Cool, rainy and windy. Very rainy and very windy!  I had never done just a swim/bike event in the past 10 years.  Since I had a few athletes racing, I figured this would be a good chance to try something new.   (Change is good)   They sold out at 1200 athletes.  I guess this was the first time ever for this 30 year old event.

Pre-Race, Pre Rain

Start/Swim: Arrived on site about 1:30 before the wave start. It was calm before the storm. But, the wind started picking up prior to the swim and created about 12-24″ chop on the water. The first leg of the swim was into the wind and was creating quite a hassle for many in the waves prior to my start. Starting in the 10th group gives you a lot of people to swim through. They were kind enough to have tall mast boats in the water to aid in the swimming. I did get a little worried about one of my athletes(Chris) with this being his first HIM swim. I did have an “altercation” with another in my wave when he pulled me under by my ankle. I had to “gently” remind him with a little “face wash”. The remainder of the swim wasn’t too bad as we had a tailwind after the turn and I started catching people from 2-3 waves ahead. They must have had some LONG swims. The water temp was 77 degrees, but felt good. It’s a good thing they allowed wetsuits, or the lifeguards would have been in for a long day.
T1: It’s a gentle long, uphill run from the beach to the transition. Passed 10 people with an easy run. It’s nice to see a lot of bikes still on the racks at this point. (I remember the days when I was the last bike in the area!)
Bike: Since I was only doing the Swim/Bike race, I got into a groove pretty early. Again starting last wave, you have a lot of traffic, but it’s fun passing all the younger “kids.” Under normal circumstances, this course FLYS. Perfect for an aero front wheel, rear disc and aero helmet. Although today there was alot of cross wind, making the handling tough. Muncie is an out and back, so you think when you have a headwind you’ll get some reprieve with a tailwind on the return. Mother nature was not having an easy day for us. The rain started about the halfway mark and it became like riding on ice. The thunder and lightening didn’t help ease any fears. I actually told myself that if it came once more, I was pulling out. Fortunately it didn’t. The rain and wind then increased even more, making visibility tough. And at this point, the competitors slowed down. I only had 3 guys pass me on the bike, which was a good day. Since I knew I didn’t have to run, my power was running slightly higher than Eagleman, as planned. This is an ideal course for use of a powermeter, especially with the wind. It really drives home the need for power over trying to ride for speed. It totally takes into account the head/tail winds and forcing you to ride consistantly on your output.

Power Profile

What’s the take away from this profile?

1.  You’ll see as speed drops, power increases.   This is where the athlete rides into a headwind.   By using power, you can regulate the amount of effort, to not go too hard.    As speed increases, power drops, so you can put more effort into going faster.   This is where gearing comes into play for the course.  At Muncie, you want to have an 11 tooth cog on your rear cassette.   You will use everything you’ve got.

2.  By knowing your power ranges, you can set your “cruise control” at those numbers and ride without having to worry about having enough in the tank to run.   I did this with one of my athletes at this race and she set a PR and won her age group (by half an hour).  If you try to use speed, you would blow up on the first leg of the bike riding into a pretty stiff head wind.

3.  Post race you can analyze your files to review your heart rate and cadence.  For this race, most of my time was in the 80-90 rpm range.  I was spinning a little less to generate more power, knowing I didn’t have to run.   My heart rate was pretty steady, as noted in the curve.   You can also get a calculation as to the amount of work(kilojoules) you put out, which helps in determining your caloric needs on the bike.  For this event, I used just over 1700 kj/calories.   So, if you are running after, you better make darn sure you take in your nourishment on the bike.

4.  Power numbers are individual to each athlete.   I compare a Powermeter to a tachometer in Nascar.   No drivers have speedometers.   They don’t care.   What they want to know is how hard is the engine working.   Same goes for us.   I don’t care about the speed, just the effort.   Everyone’s speed will be relative depending on the conditions.    But you have to have some gas in the tank at the end in order to run (in a normal triathlon.)

Overall, it resulted in an age group(40-49) win.  I was 6th overall.   Not a bad day considering the weather.   We also had a first time Half Ironman finisher and an Age Group winner (F50-54).   The coach had a good drive home!