Michi Weiss Powers to 3rd Fastest Bike Split on the Big Island When SRM sponsored pro triathlete Michi Weiss’ alarm went off at 3am on 8th October 2016 signaling the countdown to the 0625 pro start of the Ironman World Championship, he was not expecting the day to unfold in quite the way it did! At least the Kona weather was predictable, if not the racing. The infamous heat and crosswinds were ever present, even if the day’s peak temperature was around 3C lower than in 2015 - when north of 34C with 80% humidity, lets not split hairs, it’ s still hot!
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Michi Weiss Cruises to Victory at Ironman 70.3 Santa Cruz 2016 Garth Fox, Sports Scientist & High Performance Coaching SRM sponsored professional triathlete, Michael Weiss, is powering through 2016! On Sunday the 11th September he dominated a stacked field to win his first Ironman 70.3 event in Santa Cruz, California and in doing so racked up his third consecutive fastest race bike split since mid June with IM 70.3 Boulder, IM 70.3 Timberman and now IM 70.3 Santa Cruz. Clearly his training has been going very well this year, his equipment is dialed and this year’s ‘Road to Kona’ is very much on track. In this article I want to unpack Michi’s SRM race file and also now that we are at long last seeing more of the sports’ top athletes opening up their training and racing power files for us via the likes of Strava, I want to use some of those to make some interesting observations on race strategy. There should also be plenty here for age group athletes to take away and incorporate into their own triathlon preparation – understanding and using power to improve performance really should be as simple and straightforward as can be.
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SRM sponsored triathlete, Michael Weiss, raced Ironman 70.3 Timberman as a key training stimulus for October's Ironman Kona. A solid swim performance, the day’s fastest bike split with a new course record and a controlled half marathon ensured a stellar 2nd place overall with a finishing time of 03:49:22, only beaten by former 2x short distance Olympian Tyler Butterfield. Race day temperatures were ideal and directors ruled a non-wetsuit swim for pros. In the swim Michael immediately found a rhythm exiting the water after 26:20 in 11th position only 2’20” behind the top group. Once on the bike course, he immediately moved up through the field, eventually taking the lead with a course record bike split of 2:01:44. The Austrian pro arrived to T2 in first position going into the half marathon and was eventually only caught by race winner, Butterfield. Weiss finished second, saying “this was probably my best IM 70.3 performance to date!” Now let's take a closer look at the SRM data.
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June 11, 2016: Weiss posts fastest bike split and bike course record After a disastrous triple puncture day just three weeks previously at Ironman Texas, it was great to see SRM sponsored pro triathlete Michi Weiss getting back to business and doing what he does best – riding hard and fast. So on a warm and sunny Saturday in Boulder, Colorado and after a decent but uneventful 1.9km swim which saw Michi exit T1 four minutes down on the leaders, it was time to put his new aero optimized DiamondBack Serios through its paces over the technical bike course. In so doing, he not only set the fastest bike split of the day but also recorded the fastest ever bike split in Ironman 70.3 Boulder history. A decent day back in the office, especially as he also ran well off the bike posting a 1h18m half marathon and came home in 6th place overall. Lets take a closer look at Michi’s SRM power file.
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The first race of any season is always a nervous one for athlete and coach alike. Irrespective of how well you might think that winter training has gone, you never really know until race day. Ordinarily, Michi is able to get into early season race shape really quickly. After a 2-week holiday break where he completely downs tools it usually takes him just 12 weeks or so before he is chomping at the bit and feeling ready to race. This ability certainly has something do with some form of ‘muscle memory’ where year after year the body gets used to getting back into shape for each new season’s campaign. Once the consistent training begins all the good stuff – body fat reduction, increased lean body mass, lower heart rates for given training intensities, increased ability to sustain target race pace/power, improved aerobic capacity and so on – happens within weeks. However, this year was very different!
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