Vineman 70.3 (Page 2)

Don't stress about a wetsuit, the water is usually pretty warm.  I did this race last year as well as 4 swims in the river during the weeks leading up to the race day.  When I had a sleeveless on, I was overheating!  Some people that had full wetsuits on during the practice swims and removed them.  There have been some years where wetsuits were not legal, just something to keep in mind.  Happy training.

By what I have been reading so far, sounds like people are doing fine.  I was sweatin out water temp/wetsuit legal situation last year, cause I knew I needed my suit cause my center of balance in the water SUCKS!  I did a 1000-yard set a few days ago in 23:11 and that is fine for me..  Followed it up with a 500 yard set after a 90-second rest and did that in 10:23..  I am excited, as I am waaaaaaaay ahead of my swimming fitness level over this time last year.. This time last year, I was still working on getting 200 yards of continuous swimming done..  I was terrible and just kept at it..

Zeke,

The hills aren't that bad..  I am NOT a hill person at all and on the old school roadie I was on, I had to walk up like 3-4 hills..  One is the nasty, Chalk Hill at about mile 44-45...  The smaller ones I walked up were because one, my legs don't like anything hilly and the gearing in that old school would have meant I needed "Lance" legs to do it..  I didn't want to risk blowing a quad so I just clipped out and walked..  I have a nice new roadie this year and figure Chalk might be the only one I have to walk up..  I should () be able to make it up the small ones...  Pull up the elevation map for the bike course and you'll see what I mean.. If you do any kind of rolling hill training now, yer good..  If I can locate the bike specific email that was given to me last year, I'll post it..  It was like a blow-by-blow overview of the ride by one of the guys in my tri club..  I used it as a guide and it worked out well..  Uh, if you have been training with socks, stay with them...  Just my 2 cents worth..

Lori...   "What we have here, is failure to communicate"...  Strother Martin, "Cool Hand Luke"

Zeke,

The run is a simple out and back and you will hit up the same aide stations..  They mostly have cups but I do remember a couple having small bottles of water, which I took and carried..  Since I don't like running with something in my hand, I will carry hydration with me this year and use the aide stations to top off ..  I stopped at every one and kept dumping water on me cause it was so warm.. I may pull a "Macca", a la Chris McCormack at IM Kona 2007, and have a few wet sponges inside my cycling jersey to help keep my body cool..  Just depends on how hot it is this year..  From a few people I talked to, they said in years past the temps stayed in the mid 80's... I think 93 last year was a freak day??  (I hope!)

I will work on that old email after this weekend.. I have a race on Sunday down in Temecula then I'm off to Tempe, AZ to sign up for IM AZ 11/09.... WOO HOO!

Lori

I have used Cytomax powder for several years now..  I like Peachy Keen and Go Grape the best..  I can mix to whatever strength I need..  There are several different kinds of powders and some places have the packets of Cytomax you can buy to try out before getting the big containers..  Whatever you decide on, do so soon so you can train with it..  It's getting close to the point where you need to find something and stick with it so you know if it works or not..

Remember, never try anything new on race day..

Last year was the standard gatorade bottles, and standard water bottles - about 24 ounces, fit in standard bottle cages.  Keep in mind you HAVE to wear your number during the bike ride as well as the run, so I wore my fuel belt (with my number on it) on the bike portion.  That way I carried a bottle in the belt, a bottle in my cage (I only have room for one) and my profile design aero unit.

I would really recommend the aero unit if it fits on you bike - it makes drinking effortless (the straw is only about 2 inches away from you mouth).  I froze mine before we left on Saturday, then kept it frozen with dry ice...  It was perfect, started thawing out about 9:00, just as I needed it. 

I filled it once, just grabbed a bottle as I was still moving, and squirted it into the spongy thing on top, never slowing down below about 10 mph.

You do not want to be short of water, if it is as warm as it was last year.  I drank probably the equivalent of 4 full bottles on the bike, and still found the heat really made it hard to  keep hydrated on the run (I carried a bottle there too, which again was priceless).  Having Ice water (again, dry ice in a small ice chest with your bottle left overnight at T2) was really, really helpful as your core temperature starts to rise.

Keep on training,

Dennis

I like cytomax too and citrus is my flavor of choice.

My wife, my buddy (poweredbyfear) and I are going to ride the Vineman course loop today for fun (since we're bored of all of our local routes) and then go pick up my wine orders over at Pride Mountain Vineyard.  Gonna be hot today, but not as hot as race day.  I'll try to take some pictures and post here.

Don't know if this has already been posted - but here is the route I mapped out last year.

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/training/map.asp?routeid=2888

Dennis