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IRONMAN Shift Data Analysis

Shifts on Map

After waiting most of the summer to update my Di2 system’s firmware, I finally stopped by Endure It to have Erik update my system. With this update and the D-Fly module I am now able to record shift data within my Garmin fit files. There are many training benefits from having this information alongside my heart rate, power, cadence, and speed data. Unfortunately, Garmin has not decided how they want to deal with this data, so you’re stuck figuring out to do with it on your own. Enter Di2Stats.com Thankfully a professor at Samford University has built a website (Di2Stats.com) that helps us visualize Di2 shift data in several helpful ways. Without Brian’s help, I don’t think there’s a consumer facing way to do anything with this valuable data. While this site is still in “project” mode, according to Brian, it is complete enough to help me see several errors I made during my first IRONMAN. What follows…

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2015 IRONMAN Wisconsin Run & Finish

This is the third part in my IRONMAN series, read about the swim here and the bike here. At this point I’m almost seven and a half hours into the race. This number, while large (it was the longest I’d ever raced up to that point), only represented just over half my total race time that day. With that in mind, I knew my running pace would be slow. However, the excitement of seeing my family again and hitting the crowds on foot gave me a short burst of energy, netting me an 8:30ish pace for the first (mostly downhill) mile. At this point I started pacing a Illinois grad decked out in Illini gear. We stated with each other for the first few miles, chatting about anything and everything to keep our minds off our whining legs and draining energy. Eventually he would pull ahead, only to show up…

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2015 IRONMAN Wisconsin Bike & T2

This is a continuation of my 2015 IRONMAN Wisconsin race report. Part one, Pre-Race, Swim & T1 can be found here. Transition is held on top of Monona Terrace, a convention center designed by one of the best architects ever, Frank Lloyd Wright. The back half of the terrace is a parking ramp, which is accessed via a corkscrew ramp. We ran up the ramp from the swim into T1 and now it was time to ride down the corkscrew and out of T1. This was a bit worry some for me, as I chose to leave my shoes clipped into the bike and put them on during the ride. Experience has shown me that running in hard, plastic-bottomed bike shoes is just awkward, if not dangerous. It’s just easier to run barefoot to the mount line and get your shoes on during the first hundred yards of the ride. Usually…

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2015 IRONMAN Wisconsin Pre-Race & Swim

Ready it or not, the day finally came. I officially became an IRONMAN this past weekend when I completed IRONMAN Wisconsin. Not surprisingly, I was quite anxious in the weeks leading up to the race. It didn’t help that it was in the 90s with high humidity a week out and it was forecast to rain on race day. Thankfully, mother nature gave us all a break and gave us 70° waters, and highs in the 70s. No rain was in sight and the wind was in the single digits. It could not have been a more perfect day for a race. I took my time on race morning, arriving about 15 minutes before transition opened. This is exactly how I like to operate, with plenty of time to take care of problems and no reason to stress out mentally before I stress out physically. The water was opened at 6:30…

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IRONMAN Weekend

There’s a lot of hype surrounding an IRONMAN race. It’s a lot to live up to. And I think they did a pretty good job. IRONMANs are a little different than most triathlons in that you are forced to make a weekend out of the event, rather than just grabbing a packet one day (or on race morning) and then showing up a few hours early to setup transition on race day. Packet Pickup I was a little surprised by the amount of waiting required for packet pickup on Friday. It seems like all of the 2600 or so participants decided to show up at the same time to pick up their race packets. In them you get a bag for everything. Morning clothes. Bike gear. Run Gear. Bike special needs. Run special needs. And of course the “free” IRONMAN backpack to hold it all. It’s definitely an interesting way to run a race.…

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