Ironman 70.3 New Orleans : Official Thread (Page 12)

Then I think its more of a courtesy of the person in front of you to let you go by,, on the other hand, if you intend to pass and the pesron continues to accel, you better intend to put the hammer down and have every intention of overtaking and passing. 

Can make for a fast bike split with this kind of cat and mouse dicing going on...

The rule says that once your front wheel passes theirs they are required to drop back 4 bike lengths. If they don't do this it's considerd a blocking violation. Ultimately, though it will be up to the interpretation of the official.  I've had multiple people accelerate to get in front of me and then let off the gas. My goal for the race, and every race is to have a consistent power output, which I think sets me up for the best possible run. When the back and forth starts happening this becomes difficult. I think there are two courses of action. 1.) Stay behind the person. If someone passes me and my power is close to what I want for raceday, I figure they are giving me free speed as I hang out in the legal draft. I use a power meter, but I think this can be done with heart rate or perceived exertion. 2.) Drop the hammer a bit and drop the offender. I have pre-determined power zone I want to hit for race day. For this race I want to maintain between 250-270 watts, so I will spend 5-10 minutes at the high end of my zone. I also do this sometimes if I'm trying to stay with someone that is going really fast.

I think the most important thing is to be controlled and not let anyone else distract you from your goals. Race legally and turn every situation into an opportunity.

This game happens all the time.  If I come up on somebody, I stay right behind them until the last minute.  If you swing out too early, you give them a chance to see you and accel.  If they do, and you are in the draft zone, you do everything you can to overtake their front wheel.  Once you over take them, remind them to drop back if you have to.

Suitjuice. Anyone tried it? I just picked up a bottle at the scuba shop an hour from home, but since there isn't a store in MS that carries Tri Slide, this was my only option at this point other than overnight shipping and that didn't leave me time to test it. Will check it out at swim in the morning.

In other news... mowed the lawn Mon night and I now have poison ivy appearing above my ankle. Fantastic. I see a steroid shot in my immediate future.

SuitJuice is awesomesauce. I had that thing on and zipped in under 5 min and without breaking a sweat. I no longer fear the wetsuit.

Got the shot and glad I decided to not "wait and see" like I usually do. I have more blisters popping up, but none itch so hopefully the reaction will be kept at bay and I won't flare up. I'm a little concerned about the side effects though. Elevated blood pressure, water retention and decreased potassium levels. I haven't previously had the shot before a race so I've never worried about that. My wetsuit swim in the pool today had an elevated HR by 15 bmp. A little concerned, but it could have been due to overheating. The pool is very warm due to the old ladies in water aerobics that constantly complain about the temp. I took the wetsuit off after 1500 and the remaining 500 was a HR close to normal. Anyone have any experience with steroid shots before a race?

Can't help ya :/ sorry. Hope it clears up by Sunday!!

And good luck to everyone out there. I think I'm finally squared away as far as a race plan, bike setup and equipment all packed and ready to go.

Driving down from Chapin,SC this morning..10 hours/40 minutes.  Hope all have a safe trip... I promised I wouldn't say anything about the weather........My last workout was Wednesday.  Looking forward to some on Saturday morning, before checking the bike in and some swimming to stay loose before Sunday morning......

I'm outta here......

Canal temp is 73.8 right now and dropping...wetsuit cutoff is 78...there is NO chance the water rises 4 degrees in the next two days with a high temp that is LESS than the wetsuit cutoff.  Suit Up!

Arrived 5:30pm Friday.  Glad to here everyone is pumped up and the "weather" will be perfect.

Getting around today Saturday, registering, etc.  I will be looking for some familiar faces.

Flew in last night. HOLY COW it's freezing here. I am worried that I am going to be super chilly on the bike.....

Also just noticed some revisions to the run course. Looks like we'll take Leon C. Simon then turn up Franklin to catch Lakeshore Drive. And then they're pulling us off Esplanade for a little while. Boo! Hiss!

http://ironmanneworleans.com/2013/04/run-course-revisions-419/

I had a great time. The race was really spread out due to the time trial start, but being a poor swimmer, I loved the start. I did IM Louisville last year, so I knew what to expect. I liked it, though I know a lot of people didn't.

The wind was rough on the outbound leg of the bike but it was AWESOME on the way back. I loved the bike course. Pretty good condition with a few small exceptions. One of the best 70.3 I've been on.

Run course was great as well. Not a lot of fan support, but it's not a real fan-friendly course with how spread out it is. The finish was great. I love the park and the support was great there.

Very well run event. Amazing amount of police controlling the roads. Simply awesome.

I finished in 5:19 which was a lot better than I thought I could do and beat my previous best of 5:43 by a fair amount.

11 hour drive for me but I'd like to do it again.

Several good race reports out there now. I encourage everyone to read them.

since I did not train a lick for this one....I just wanted a finish without incident. I achieved that with a good amount to spare. My run fell apart right at the bridge at the 2nd mile mark...I laughed it off the rest of the way.

The only complaint I have was the bridge before the bike turn around.....going and coming....I lost 2 bottles (one was in my hand O_o) on the way out and then 'sploded my rear on the way back.....I only had 1 CO2! had to wait for someone to give me one (about 5 mins) (found it in my hotel room later).

Im doing this again next year along with 1 other 70.3 before Lville.......this time I will train.

duh

I had fun.  probably the best race weekend ever.  We had a great group of people and just had a blast.  It was a fun weekend with a race thrown in

A week before I wasn't even going.  Had medical issues in the immediate family so two weeks before I canceled my reservations and wasn't going.  Things turned around so I could drive up.  Because of all this I just wasn't into it mentally.  I have Florida 70.3 in a few weeks so I wasn't disappointed.

I hated the swim start.  We didn't go off until after 9 am and there were waves behind us.  That is unacceptable.  Next year they ought to have an in the water wave start just like the pros. 

Boy, as soon as I jumped in I lost my goggles and my breath.  It was cold.  It took me about 30 seconds to catch my breath enough to even get my goggles on.  After then all was well.  I did wonder a bit between the first and second turn.  Wasn't easy spotting.

In T1 I waited for a  friend of mine.  Told him I'd wait to ride with him.  Kind of weired hanging out in T1.  Got dressed, went to the bathroom, etc.  Anyway we had a nice but slow ride. 

Started the run and he got cramps.  At about that time another of our teammates came by so I went with her and he waited for another teammate to come up with him.  Had a nice run as I paced her to her best run by over 20 minutes.  We took it easy but I also pushed her a bit.

So overall I had a good time.  Not a "race" but a good training day.  I helped some teammates and the appreciated it.  

I was a little disappointed in the race.  I've raced many WTC races and this was probably the worse.  What was with the EXPO, pretty sad.  And the bag we got, what happened to the nice WTC bags?  I'll tell you, they were selling them for $12.95.  Same bag we got 2 years ago.

I never received anything cold on the bike.  Everything was air temp.  Very little food if anything at all.  An aid station around mile 26 - 30 would have been nice.  Plenty of aid stations on the run, no issue there. 

This was a very boring run for the first 6 miles.  So glad it wasn't hot as we would have died due to lack of any shade at all.  And no spectators at all until you got close to town.  Thank goodness I was running with someone.

The finish was fine although all the pizza was gone and we didn't get a hat.  What's with that?  The first time I didn't get a hat at a WTC race. 

I don't think I'll go back as I've done is twice now.  Off to Florida 70.3........

Thanks,
Duane