Ironman Lake Tahoe : Official Thread

I'll be there in support mode with a 4-month-old this year.  Hubby and a large group of friends will be racing.  Tahoe is a second home for my family, and I love that we now have a race in this beautiful location.  I almost did it last year, but had already committed to Full Vineman with a friend.

Zanne, we were there volunteering on the run and cheering you into the finish this last year!  Given the conditions and how many people were dropping out without injury, your finish was all the more amazing!  Lots of lessons learned by our group simply by spectating.  Train hard, and be prepared for anything weather-wise!

I am on the fence with this. I have some logistics with a bike to figure out.

I will be using a coach. So its what ever plan they have for me.

I did it last year and I can't recommend a plan but I will say: bike more often, and bike more hills.  This race has 8000 feet of climbing.  I'm a decent cyclist and my Tahoe time was nearly an hour off my other IM bike times.  And even the pros in Tahoe were biking 30-40 minutes higher than normal.

Whatever plan you go with, make sure it is bike focused.  The run training isn't very important if your legs are cramping up during the bike, or worse yet, if you miss the bike cutoff.

Btw I am following this thread but I am not repeating the race this year.  I would love another shot at the course based on the bike profile, but the cold just took all the fun out of it for me.

I live and train in the Seattle area so I did better than many people.  The weather wasn't going to end my day but it wasn't pleasant either.

First, the T1 bags were not kept in a covered area.  There was a nasty weather front prior to the race.  Some of my stuff was caked in ice.  Make sure you double bag your gear if they do it that way again.  Also the day before, during bike check-in, bring duct tape or something to make a triangle from your saddle to the bike rack.  The wind was blowing bikes right off.

Race: swim was the best part of the day but I recommend wearing booties because the sand is really cold when you're waiting for the start of the race.

The bike was cold on the first section (~25 miles?) going past Squaw through a valley, shaded and fast on a slight downhill.  I had a long sleeved cycling jacket with a full zipper, a beanie under my helmet and hefty gloves and toe covers.  I was still shivering a lot.  Just after Truckee you get into the first set of climbs and get some sun to warm up.  It was actually getting too hot up the Brockway climb but I unzipped my jacket instead of using the clothes drop.  That was a good call because it was cold again going back down into lap 2, so I zipped back up.

Running, same deal.  Too hot in direct sun and then really cold in the shade and when the sun started going down.  I tied a long sleeve fleece around my waist and put it on halfway.  Still too cold.  I should've kept another layer in my special needs bag.

Hope that helps you guys plan a bit.  We didn't get rain but I had a different waterproof jacket I would've used in that case.

I'm not sure what I'd do differently.  Shivering sucked because my back got tight, but I think it's a balance deciding how many clothes you want in the sunny sections.

Hopefully they'll have bigger changing tents this year.  If you were in the MOP swim group, the tents were a mosh pit.  By the time I stepped inside and saw how bad it was, it was too late to turn around and go back outside.

If the weather is a little warmer, I'd suggest just keeping the tri shorts on and changing everything else outside the tents.  My T1 was like 20 minutes

Check the BT Mentor Groups, Shane (gsmacleod) is a coach and might be able to point you in the right direction even if you don't become a full time client.

My other advice: make sure you have a compact crankset for this course and probably an 11/28 cassette, minimum.  I rode it on a standard and was cursing myself.