by Heather Wurtele

Going into Ironman Lake Placid I knew that if I could just go out there and focus fully on doing my job, everything else would take care of itself. I have heard great tales of how when you are totally engaged in the process of doing, you become what you are doing, and in those moments nothing else in the word exists for you. It was pretty cool to have that happen. It was definitely the most "in the zone" I have ever been.

Being in the zone also included being on top of my power zones throughout the ride. I have just started racing with power this year, and I felt like I finally used my power meter properly for this race. I didn’t obsess, but I used it to keep myself under control and solidify what my legs were telling me - that I was racing well and in control. I simply held to an average of about 220 watts, watched my time over 250, and just rode.

On the ~6 mile out and back section near Jay (where we first had a chance to see the rest of the field) I noted where here the other girls were, but so unemotionally that I surprised myself. I looked at my watts, I raced my own race. When Tine went past me on the climb into town on the first loop it was the same. I stayed with her, not because it was like "oh my goodness I can't let her open up a gap" but because it was within my plan (i.e. I just kept holding steady). Ditto when I passed her through town. Onto the second loop I still felt strong and was happy to be out front and see that the gap was growing. You can see some power spikes, when I stood up to change position, and on the last steep little bit into town ~km 90, but otherwise it was pretty steady between laps 1 & 2.

I made some adjustments to my position with the guys from Blue Competition Cycles in the A2 wind tunnel after St. George and I was super comfortable all day and more aerodynamic - bonus!! Zero watts drag from my new TorHans aero bottle out front too.

Here is a power file from one of my long training rides before the race. I think that people expect to all of a sudden ride way higher watts on race day than they ever have before, and it my experience it just doesn’t work that way. Aid stations are handy, as are patrolled intersections, but I find that my normalized power on a solid training ride is very similar to that on race day.

I think that training and racing with power is one of the best tools out there to really help maximize your performance. Thanks so much CycleOps!