3 hour ride on the trainer, finishing with a 164 watt average. One of the things keeping me entertained were the past Ironman races that were being shown on Universal Sports. All day Friday they showed the 2001 through 2009 Kona Ironman World Championships.
My brother Larry that's also doing the St George Ironman went down and rode one loop of the course for his ride. On the two steepest hills he had to go down to his smallest 30 tooth ring on the front (he has three rings on the crank) and largest 27 tooth ring on the back. On the third toughest hill (the Veyo hill in the St George marathon) he was on the front 30 ring and back 24 tooth ring. This tells me I'm going to need to change the gearing on my bike. Currently my smallest front ring is a 39 and largest casette ring is a 25.
The three toughest hills on the course are: a short 300 - 400 foot long hill at 18 - 20% grade, a .8 mile long hill with 8 - 13% mixed grades, and a .5 mile long hill with 7 - 9.5% grades.
I got on some blogs of people doing the St George Ironman and some of them are leaving their gearing the same, some are changing the rear casette to a 12-28 or 12-27, and some are changing to a compact crank as well as changing the rear casette. I'm thinking of changing the casette and riding the course to see how it feels. |