Rr#2 in the books

Race rehearsals are a chance to see what is working and what is not within the context of a workout that won't take too long to recover from.
For a 70.3, the race rehearsals are a race intensity ride followed by a 6mi run at the intensity of the first 6 mi of the run.
Saturday I had rr2 the last dress rehearsal before Austin.
I had roger it done early because Ellie needed to be at gymnastics by 10. So I aimed for a 4am wake up a d 5am start. By 9am it should be all over.
I set up transition in the garage. On the bike I had 3x24oz perform and 4 gels. In transition I had a gel and a pickle juice. In the run I had another 24oz perform and another gel.
Since I was supposed to have 3.5 bottles on the bike I downed one with a gel right before I headed out.
My goal was avg power of about 175w with as little variation as possible.
At 5am in October in boerne texas, it is dark. Really dark. I had never been out in this kind of dark. Then it started raining. I guess that helped explain the dark.
For the first 90min on the bike, I had to take it easy. I had to coast down hills because I couldn't really see very far in front of me. As the ride went on a d the visibility improved, I was able to pick it up a bit. As a result, the ride was a little underpowered and the last hour was a little overpowered.
I was a couple of minutes slower than I wanted to be and the power levels were to variable but in the circumstances I think I did the best I could.
I peed twice. Once about 30min in and once at about 90 min.
Back at the house I changed, peed again, drank a pickle juice, ate a gel, grabbed my run bottle and got back out. T took about 3min.
In the run, I felt good from the start. Like the ride didn't really take anything out of me. I dropped my bottle on a corned and did out and back 1mile loops around it. I stopped for a drink each time I went by and ate a gel at 30min. For pacing on the run, I wanted to target a heart rate of 150, allowing it to drift up to 155 going up hills but slowing down if it got that high.
I was able to put down 6mi at a little under 9min per mi. With no real problems at all.
When it was all over, I really felt fine. Not at all like I did in the past. I know I am more trained but my guess in that the increased calories and fluid are the main reason.
Over the 4hrs and 62mi, I consumed 4.5 24oz bottles of perform and 8 caffeinated power gels. My weight prior was 165 and after was 161.
Today is a rest day. I slept in till 7:45, then went to church with the kids and took them to breakfast with my dad.
Even though I didn't execute on the bike like I would have wanted, I felt great on the run.
I really like the new bike position. And running is going well.
Now I just need to put a decent swim together and I should be in position to pr in 2 weeks.