Ironman Lake Placid : Official Thread (Page 110)

Im not sure how restless leg syndrome feels like but they just feel like theres a lot of lactic acid in them (if you dont know what I mean, try swimming in a very fast stroke rate on your first day after years of not swimming).  I wish I knew about this massage sooner, but I dont think getting one before the race will be helpful to me much now.  Thanks seadocha!

hey Boo,

No i am not doing syracuse.  I know somebody from my club tho.

it doesnt feel like an injury at all.  It feels like I have a hole in my leg and my energy drains out that way...

omg youd be done a 3 miles swim and I still would be at 2 miles!

The HIM im doing tomorow has a mass start of 400 people and Im gonna seed myself at the very front to get run over and exp a little bit of lake placid.  The OWS race I did I seeded myself at the very front and everybody went around me!  They were so nice!  I was telling myself "run over me!"

haha! Yesterday I was in the pool and some guy hit me and scratched me. Is it sick that I wanted him to keep doing that to me for practice? LOL

Ok, so I have had some bad luck on the bike the past couple days.

Thursday I flatted (rear tire, of course) with about 6 miles to go in my ride.  No problem, I can change a flat.  BUT, I had a lot of trouble with this one for some reason.  I was on my road bike (have not changed many on this bike) and really struggled to get the tire off AND back on.  Took me nearly 40 minutes to get rolling again.  What a pain.......better now than race day though!

THEN, I switched my long ride to Friday this week (to ride with a friend) and ended up going down, HARD, with about 2 hours left to ride.  I'm not exactly sure what happened.  I was in aero and must have been adjusting my position a bit, hit something (a rock, bad patch in the road, not really sure) and next thing I know I was hitting the pavement.....OUCH.

I'm ok, but banged up pretty good.  I landed on my left side; shoulder, elbow and left hip took the most damage, but my right shin must have hit my bike frame and actually caused the most pain (at the time).  The hardest part was that I could not put my left arm back in my aero cup and ended up finishing the ride sitting up on my bike.

My whole body hurts today.  I guess you just don't realize how hard you hit (and tense up) when you go down like that.  We were probably riding 16-17 MPH when I fell.  My neck and arms hurt the most.  I ran this am and it was more difficult than I expected.  Cancelled my swim and have been taking advil and napping a bit today.

I can NOT imagine how it must feel to go down at 20-30+ MPH.....omg.

Hopefully, I will get his stuff out of the way before race day!

I hope you all have a good (& safe!) training weekend

Oh wow! Hope you feel better! Ouch... Doesn't sound like anything is broken which is good! Get well soon

By the way, the tires I have on my bike take me about the same time to change. They have kevlar beads and are a pain in the arse.The last time I changed one it cut my hand because it was so hard to get off (ughhh). I will have different tires and wheels on race day

Take it from me crashing at 30 MPH STINKS!!!

It took me 10 days to get back to normal follow Dream Chasers advice to me. REST the next two days will be tough and you will get more sore. ICE EVERYTHING watch your hip carefully as I did not know anything was wrong with mine till the next day and I still have a golf ball size hematoma on my hip 2 weeks after my crash. 

Rely on the training you have already put in and don't get too worried about what you will miss. You have plenty of fitness. Remember getting to the start line healthy is the KEY!!

MAy God heal your wounds and make you complete!!

Work took me to Salt Lake City, I was able to rent a bike and head into the hills. Met up with another biker and we rode up into the Wasatch Mtns, what a great ride, 4000' climb up, turn around and let it rip back into town. Of course the roads were in great shape which made it nice going downhill. I took video on my iphone going downhill, and although going downhill one handed while videoing was not smart, it was cool watching it later. Hope everyone's training goes well and stay safe!

TankBoy that is some kinda rig you got going there, if you got to travel thats the way to go for sure

I have one last day of training camp in LP, which will be a swim and then a run; here are some random thoughts from having now seen LP.

There are two bike stores in town.  I went to one, about three blocks from Mirror Lake and was happy with it.  I am comfortable knowing where at least one LBS is now.

I have been on the bike course for three loops.  IMHO the roads are pretty good, certainly some areas you want to avoid but I don't recall any large gaps that would take you down.  I would say I have worse roads in my state.

On the bike, the Keene descent is something that will take me time to get used to.  This is a big downhill early in the loop (mile 10-11) that I clocked 37 mph and I was feathering my brakes.  I was more comfortable on the third than the first loop but I have long way to go before I don't think about.  I know I was passed by rockets in aero position (yes passed and I was doing 37 mph).  I have a l o n g way to go.  The good news is, my understanding, is the road is closed (one way) so you don't have the worry of cars trying to pass you while this is going on, that will go a long way to help as well.

The temperature of the Lake varies a LOT.  I think because this is more of a large pond, some what of an exaggeration, but on the swim in many places you are seeing the floor of the Lake.  So when I arrived the weather here was and had been warm if not hot.  The lake temp was well into the 70's.  That next night it was cooler and the morning swim had the temp already dropping.  I expect to use my wetsuit for the first time this a.m. since it has been cool if not cold the last 36 hours.

The weather varies and the weatherman lies.  Yesterday was supposed to be nice (70 and low humidty, 30% chance of rain).  First loop on the bike was fine, the second loop had freezing rain, cold temps and some folks in my group had hail.  Lovely.

I can say Mama, Baby and Papa Bear are nothing.  If you have done Rev3 Quassy - these hills are nothing in comparison.  There are some climbs but nothing to be afraid of .... of course though it is two loops.

Happy Training...

Hey guys,

Thanks for the kind words & inspires.  I spent the rest of the day yesterday taking advil and laying around.....I can NOT believe how much that took out of me, wow!  I feel better today, still fairly sore, but better.  I did manage my long run this morning but do not plan to do the bike.  Tomorrow is my rest day anyway and I will be taking my bike to the shop for inspection; the bar tape got torn off and scratched up the bars underneath, but, as far as I can tell that is all the damage it took (I will check my helmet, too!).

Thanks again and OMG, can you believe it ~ only 4 more weeks......WOO-HOO!!

Thanks for the report!!  Good info

Just got back from a good training weekend in Lake Placid. Hard some rough weather for a good chunk of my 2 loop bike ride on Saturday, I somehow avoided the hail but man were those some intense rides down to Keane! Overall I felt good with a negative split for the bike. The hills never get steep like the climbs I'm used to in the Catskills, so I think with proper pacing everyone should be able to do well out there.

The beach is quite small, I can't imagine 2000+ athletes cramming into the water out there. Should be interesting trying to find some space, especially since I'm looking at a very middle of the pack time of ~1:10:00.

Just 4 weeks to go, unreal!

The descent is not THAT bad. Obviously if you are not used to high speeds that may take you out of your comfort zone. The only reason it was intense for me was because the road was totally soaked both times I went down. It does get fast at times, but its fairly straight with only a few bends. The lowest caution sign for cars I saw was 35mph so its not like hairpin turns.

Don't be intimidated by it...if that happens you'll scare yourself into a problem that you wouldn't have had otherwise.

I would HIGHLY recommend going down it before the race though just to get a feel for the corners.  My first time it was a little nerve wracking but the second time down I was good.  If you're bringing someone with you, have them meet you at the bottom of the hill to bring you back.  You don't want to do any climbing like that a couple days before the race.

Also, stay to the right for us speedy people so we have room to go around without having to worry about you darting out.

Question for those doing the Fink plan: This past weekend I ended up doing a 112 bike on Saturday, and about 17 miles today. 4 weeks to go, and this next week is still pretty tough with a 5:15 bike on Saturday and 3 hr run next Sunday (the longest run in the plan). Since I have not done a full IM before, I am not used to the taper. For me, the taper seems a little late/not enough?? However, not sure because this is a taper for an IRONMAN. Should I trust the plan? Are other people tapering more/earlier?

Also, I feel like cutting out the Z4 efforts for the run almost completely. I have a few aches and pains that are potential lurking injuries, and I feel the Z4 run efforts stress my body and joints too much at this point.

Also, have been watching the finish line at Ironman Coeur d'Alene and I'm getting pumped! Just want to get to the start injury free!

Yes, ride the hill if that is the only thing you will have time for; I rode the course three times and each time it was better on my nerves.  I won't be in aero but knowing what to expect on each of the downhills certainly helps.  I certainly was not trying to freak people out, but was sharing my experience - I am decent cyclist but certain things are outside my current experience.

And yes also to picking a line and staying with it.  Darting around on these decents will be trouble for all of us.  Also remember during the race we won't have to worry about cars/trucks/semis/horsetrailers coming from behind on the descents.

We are headed to a special place - it's quite beautiful up there.  The mountains, Lake, countryside and a surprise on the run yesterday is you will get a good glimpse of something related to the Olympics while out on the run.   Here is a pic from Friday morning - we were first onto the water!

I think the Z4 efforts made me more prone to injury. Trust your gut and slow down. We are too close. You probably won't gain that much speed from here on out.

Just curious, how long of a taper is the Fink plan? When does he have you start cutting back and by what percentage?

One more big week for the Fink plan then taper.  This is a 20 hour week and then it drops to 14.5  hours, then to 11 hours, and then race week is just shy of 6 hours plus the race.

More experienced may think otherwise but, when doing Louisville, I found 3 weeks to be the perfect length taper.  By the time I was at the start line I was itching to go-go-go!  I felt stronger than I ever thought I would.

Regarding taper...prior to Louisville, I went to a training forum regarding taper that was presented by a very respected and successful local tri coach.  He continued to drive home the point that, in the final 3 weeks, there is nothing that can be done to improve your IM race but lots can be done to hurt the race.  He went into the physiology of fitness and explained that it takes the body 3 weeks to fully incorporate the fitness gains af a training session.  So, anything we try to do to improve fitness during taper won't be realized until after the race anyway.  Instead, our job is to recover, allow the body to fully integrate the fitness and strength from the last couple weeks of peak training, all while continuing to train so that we don't lose any fitness gains.  So, with that, he cautioned everyone to just follow their plan and not to try to squeeze in extra training.  He also said that if you are tired it is ok to take off an extra day here and there but to avoid (as much as possible) taking two consecutive days off and to never take 3 consecutive days off as this is when the body begins the process to lose fitness. 

I followed all of this advice heading into Louisville and I'll follow it again for Lake Placid.