Saturday, June 07, 2008

A day in the saddle on the IM MOO course

Well Keith and I did a bit of recon on the course today. I had the TTX all ready in it's race set up. I will be sporting the Aeolus 5.0 front and the Aeolus 6.5 Powertap in the rear. These wheels climb like a dream and they are sharp looking too. We took off from the Monona Terrace at 6am. Well Keith had a head start on me riding from his home so he was warmed up already so we took it easy for the first 10 miles into Verona to get warm. Now i understand why people hammer it all the way to Verona. It was so tempting to do the same! We held back on purpose and it paid off towards the end. the hill going into Mt. Horeb that always puts me to my knees was a breeze with the correct set up. I never went over 250 watts up it. I do not think that has ever happened before (well at least to me). Leaving Mt. Horeb on Witte road speeds hit 49mph! I definitely had more than enough speed to make it up the rollers. The first rather large hill was not that bad either. With the exception of not being able to go into my largest rear cassette cog it was great. Wattage was limited as much as possible to ensure not blowing up. Upon getting into Verona I had come up with a few things that were going to be in the special needs bag. List is as follows:

Nutter Butters!!
PB&J Uncrustables
Bodyglide
Salted Nut Roll
2 extra tubes
2 CO2's

Just a few things that I thought of on the way. I really didn't want any more gels or anything sweet. That stuff gets gross after a while. The trip going back to Verona was a bit boring. A slight uphill the entire way but manageable. This will be time to zone out and get ready for the next step. Oh yea, one more thing the Helix sucks. I was going up it myself and I was getting a bit dizzy. I can only imagine what it will be like with lots of people half out of it going up and up and up. It never seemed to stop......