Ironman World Championship 70.3 : Official Thread

I've been training my off for it.  It's hard to go into a race not being able to look at past experiences of the course.  I've read what I can about Silverman and the Lake Las Vegas Tri. 

I live in California, about 7 hours from Vegas, and hope to get out there for a weekend to preview the bike and run. 

Hey guys (and gals)

I'm in. Qualified at Orlando.

I rode half the Silverman course on the computrainer. Lots of ups and downs.Not very fast on a given set of watts. About 6km/h slower than Orlando

That's probably true.  MMR and others give different elevation numbers.  I put the same route into Gmap-Pedometer and it comes out to 4820ft of total elevation gain. 

MMR seems to be about 2000ft under garmin, which matches up to what I did last weekend.  I rode this route and garmin told me 6863ft of ascent while MMR has it as 4961ft.

I will hopefully make a trip out to Vegas on July 23/24 and can post what my garmin says and maybe bring back a video preview. 

On a different note...  I just got a De Soto Liftfoil that I plan to wear for the duration of the race.  I did a test ride and run in it, but will put it through a better test at a sprint tri this weekend. 

I qualified last month at Kansas.  I qualified based on the roll down.  I broke 5 hours for the first time and was 14th in my age group (40-44) and got one of the 6 spots.  I'm certainly not World Championships material, but someone has to round out the bell curve.  I'm even giving up IM Wisconsin to go to Vegas.  This might be my one chance to ever go (unless I'm doing this in my 70's).

Do you all know if there is a mass swim start or whether it will be broken down into waves?  I haven't done a mass swim start yet, so I'm hoping not to start in Vegas.  My only IM was in Louisville which has a different swim start because it is in a river.

Bike course looks brutal.  Hard to find 5,000 elevation changes in Kansas...

Looks like the bike course changed too.  Check the website for description. 

I'm headed out to Vegas tonight.  I wont get to my hotel until around 3am so I'll try to get as much sleep as I can without having to do my run in the heat of the day.  On Sunday I'll wake up early and hit the bike course. 

Looks like a great list of pro triathletes for Vegas:

http://triathlon.competitor.com/2011/07/features/which-pros-will-race-vegas-70-3-worlds_34440

I survived, but this course is going to be rough.  The bike course has heat, hills, false flats, and wind.  I only got out of saddle for two short climbs (around mile 26 and 36), but was on my basebar a lot.  I accidentally turned around a mile too soon, but it's more of the same in the desert.  Wind wasn't much of an issue in the desert section.  There were a few times when I was being pushed a bit from the side, but nothing that was life threatening.  The tunnel we're supposed to go under was there, but didn't put me back onto the road, instead I had to get off and carry the bike over some rocks.  That area is under some construction though, so something will change there. Getting out of the desert is a tease, because you think you'd be through with the hard part and get to take it easy for the 14 remaining miles to T2, but these streets have some false flats and I got hit will a long section of headwind riding up Gibson that hopefully isn't there on raceday.  Warm Springs was the only fast street street on the course.  The last 5 miles were rough on me.  It was hot and I was under fueled.  Riding an good incline so close to being done is cruel.  Having the crowd support there should help mask it some though. 

The run course is going to be great.  Just make sure you control yourself on the first mile.  After the the first turn around there is a 800m climb that I found to be harder than the longer incline on the other side.  There are no flat sections here, either headed up or down.  Spectators will love the short out and back segments.  It will be easy to get crowd support and the last mile is all downhill. 

Garmin data for the bike

Garmin data for the run

I'm more relaxed about the swim now.  After seeing the course, this race will not be won by a swimmer.  It's going to take a Triathlete to have a good day. 

The roads on the bike course are in good condition except for the area between the lake and the recreation area, where they are doing some road work.  I hope it will be smoothed out before raceday because I hit one of those bumps and ejected a bottle before entering the desert.  None of the descents are technical and you should be able to stay aero for all of them as long as you are used to riding at speed.  The shoulder of the road in the recreational area had those groves cut into it to warn cars that they are going off the road; not a major issue but they were exactly where I wanted to be riding and I had to keep crossing over them. 

I suggest riding long steady hills that will have you working in a low gear but keeping an in-saddle effort. 

For the run you should build up some leg strength for a long shallow incline and teach yourself to relax and recover without losing speed on the way back down.