Matt Lorenz
I love to ride my bicycle. That includes racing, commuting, going to the grocery, hanging out with friends, and towing camping gear on long rides throughout the world. If I am on my bike, I am happy! If I am not on my bike, I am either working my real job, sleeping, or doing something else outside until I ride next time. I have been racing bikes since the BMX days when I was 8, then to bike-a-thons, to mtb's in high school and college, to the Armed Forces Elite Cycling Team and Ironmans. Fun!
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Ironman Louisville... saved by Powercranking
Another Ironman has past and I am on the way to another. Ironman Louisville was a mostly well organized and a fun event. The modified swim course turned out to be nice. It was not my first choice as far as an easy course to pace on, but I cannot pace my swim anyhow. I have one speed. Or two, if I count my speed during the second half where I had to stop every 10 stokes to clear my mask of water. That made my enjoyable swim a little less enjoyable. The bike course was scenic as I saw on my preview ride/drive on Friday. On race day, I didn’t look around too much. The nice combination of hills and wind kept me fairly focused at first, and then riding with everyone that enjoyed their saddle time longer than me, I concentrated on avoiding bad situations. I witnessed two 5-10 rider pile-ups for simple reasons such as failing to pedal going up a hill. (Obviously not PCers!) I felt good for the first 3 hours, then realized that I pushed too hard, and had to notch back a bit. I suffered the last 10 miles with saddle issues and fatigue – and that should have been the easy part as the course was down or flat. Adding to my misery, I was run off the road at about mile 105 by some old geezer that should not even have been driving. I kept it upright, but went between a few trees and through a ditch, then back on the road. I think I saw my highest HR of the day right then. T2 and on to the run. Once again PCs pulled through. After a short pit stop to relieve myself, I found my one-speed running rhythm. I told myself that I have to train my running a more, and then thought I couldn’t do anything about that now, so all my PCing time had to reveal itself. It did. I’ll chalk another marathon finish [at my standard, albeit slow, pace] up to PCing, because I certainly did not run very much leading up to this race.
#1199 finish 9:42; 20th overall; 3d 35-39
(swim 59min – bike 4:55 – run 3:38)
Lesson learned – if you don’t run enough to race a proper marathon during Ironman, make sure you ride enough on your PCs! I can’t explain how I can finish the marathon any other way.
Keep on Powercranking!
Matt
