Today, I went to the pool for the first time in a while, and the receptionist girl suddenly greeted me with applause, smiling. She said she had seen me while I was out cheering. Yesterday, while I was running, someone suddenly stopped me and congratulated me, too. That’s one of the great things about doing Ironman locally—people really notice and support you. π
Now, about the bike leg. Feeling good about my first-lap time, which was better than expected, I entered the second lap. At that point, I didn’t feel particularly tired, but while climbing the first hill again, I realized I had dropped one gear lower than usual. I remember thinking, “Hmm, am I a little tired?”
Around the top of that hill, I noticed the wind starting to pick up. The forecast had predicted a decent easterly wind around noon, which would mean a headwind on the way to Reporoa. I thought, “I hope it doesn’t affect me too much,” while steadily passing other riders. π
On this course, if you just go out and back, the distance comes up slightly short, so there’s one section where you can take a detour to make up the distance. Around here, the headwind started to get stronger, and I felt my speed was dropping. I wasn’t tired yet, so it wasn’t a problem, but the speed difference with other riders was starting to shrink. I began focusing on race management—making sure I fueled properly and avoiding pushing too hard to overtake.
Gradually catching a few riders ahead, I approached the final turnaround. I had been trying to maintain an aero position the whole way against the headwind, but keeping this position was slowly getting uncomfortable, and I started to feel annoyed. π
Yesterday, I looked at race photos and saw my current position on the Plasma bike objectively for the first time. My first impression was, “Wow, I’m really pushing it!” π I knew that switching from the road bike to the TT bike lowered my front end, but since I had to make the switch just three weeks before the race, I hadn’t had time to fine-tune my position. π
With such a low position, I had to constantly lift my head to see ahead. By the second half, this became very tough, and thinking back, it seems I spent the final stretch looking down while pedaling. For Ironman, being a long race, it might be more practical to raise the front a bit and prioritize comfort in the aero position.
Once I hit the turnaround, it was a tailwind all the way back to Taupo, so I eased up slightly to catch my breath and prepare for the second half. A group of three riders, probably having kept pace behind me, caught up. Until then, very few bikes had caught up since the initial overtakes, so I decided to use them as pacemakers, keeping them in my sight as I rode to the turnaround.
One of them was a young rider on a road bike. Honestly, I felt a bit nostalgic thinking, “Oh, you’re really pushing on a road bike,” remembering myself last year. π We traded places for a while, but near the turnaround, he accelerated and passed me, and I reached the turnaround right after him.
At the final turnaround, I received the armband for the last lap, gave a fist pump, and thanked the volunteers, who got really excited. π Now it was time to fly with the tailwind. I opened the throttle fully and quickly overtook the young rider I had just been behind. π΅
When I passed him, he probably realized he couldn’t keep up and said, “Way to go!” Honestly, I wanted to tell him, “Hey, it’s not that you lost—it’s just the difference in bikes,” but I had already opened up a big gap, so I didn’t get the chance. π
After a while, I caught up to the other two riders ahead of me, so it seemed they had been pushing hard against the headwind to maintain pace. Later, people talked about the wind starting around noon. Probably, since the first lap had near-calm conditions, many didn’t realize how strong the headwind was on the second lap and overexerted themselves.
R, for example, unusually struggled on the run and walked a lot. Another local strong rider who’s done Kona several times also struggled on the run, taking about 4 hours 40 minutes. Even experienced athletes can falter if they don’t pay attention to subtle changes like this. It really shows how challenging Ironman is.
The return leg felt amazing. π My pace started matching the riders around me, giving me time to pedal calmly. Near the end, I finally regained the pedaling style I had been honing over the past year. π΅
What I had been working on for a year was pedaling using only body weight and skeletal mechanics, purely “other-power,” without using my own muscle strength. It’s still a rough version, but the advantage is that it uses far less muscle than before. When I pedal this way correctly, even pushing hard keeps my heart rate in the aerobic zone, which allows me to speed up freely even in the final bike leg of an Ironman.
On the flat sections of the return leg, slightly aided by tailwind, I was able to overtake many riders comfortably while keeping my heart rate stable in the aerobic zone. π As far as I remember, I stayed in top gear, even on minor climbs, so I probably didn’t drop from top gear once on the flat section. (Though it’s the final leg of a 180 km Ironman bike, so memory may be unreliable. π) I feel this last return leg was my best ride of the race.
After finishing the flat section pleasantly, I approached the last 10 km of climbing starting around the 20 km-to-go mark, known as “Heart Break Hill.” Naturally, I started thinking about the upcoming run. I remembered I had been running above my target heart rate in the early part, so I decided to be cautious. I kept a slightly higher cadence without overexerting myself and made it back to Taupo safely.
Entering Taupo city, volunteers and spectators greeted us with tremendous enthusiasm. ❤️ I took this as a chance to shine, went full speed, and rode briskly to the transition. π
Looking back at the bike leg results: the outbound average was 27.66 km/h—heavily affected by the headwind. The return leg averaged 30.95 km/h. Glancing at my bike computer, it seemed I actually rode slightly faster on the flat sections of the return than on the first lap. The climb sections on this course, if done carefully, impact the average speed significantly, which was a useful lesson. π
I also checked other riders’ results. For example, M, a strong local who has done Kona multiple times, dropped 6 km/h on the outbound of the second lap and about 3 km/h on the return. My pattern was similar. Weather changes plus the fact that a full marathon follows the bike leg make this kind of speed management inevitable. M is top of his age group, so he actually handled the situation quite well. π
M is in the 55–59 age group and completed the bike leg in 5:14! π² He averaged 37 km/h on the first lap, which requires maintaining high speeds on flats without tailwind. Top riders keep 40+ km/h on flats in the second half, showing their remarkable consistency. I’ve seen him running before, so next time I’ll try to watch his bike ride up close. ❤️
My results: bike leg 5:44, average 31.34 km/h, placing 442nd. π I was 939th after the swim, so I passed nearly 500 people on the bike! ❤️ (No wonder there was hardly a break to breathe π I really need to work on swimming. π ) Comparing to last year: swim 915th, bike 619th. Clearly, the new Plasma bike is helping me steadily improve. π
At the bike dismount, I didn’t feel as tired as last year. I hadn’t checked my watch yet, but I felt I had ridden well and expected a decent time. I just needed to deliver on the run and erase my poor swim performance.
I knew I had spent quite a long time in a higher heart-rate zone than planned at the start of the bike leg. How this would affect the run was the next challenge. Next up: the fateful run leg!
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