Ironman North American Championship Mont-Tremblant : Official Thread (Page 12)

Fred congrats on great race in tough conditions and on winning your AG. I would say your execution was fantastic as evidenced by the great run you had even after a very tough swim. You did a great job pacing yourself on the bike and setting yourself up for a great run. It sounds like you're set to have a great race at IMMT.

This user's post has been ignored.

29 days to go folks!!!

It's crunch time...hope everybody's training is going well.

This is my biggest week coming up. Got a 125 mi ride planned with approx. 7500 ft elevation gain. Other than that, its not much different from this past week. Though I only got 9k swimming in this week, had a power outage at the gym where my pool is, so I missed a session.

Had a good swim workout though (for me) this Friday. Was averaging 1:37/100 yd on 1:45 for my 100 yd repeats. I was having issues on my Thursday swim for the last two weeks (probably carry over fatigue from my long Wednesday rides), my calves were cramping HARD towards the end, so I threw in some pull sets to keep the session going. I generally had avoided using a pull buoy because I didn't want to be one of "those triathletes," that rely on it as a crutch. But after using it, I realized that my hips must be low because I was flying in the low 1:20s/100 (again for me).

Also after all the "kick talk," and being not much of a kicker, I realized that I need to focus more on my kick and keeping my hips higher. I also stumbled across an article about "pushing" your hips down as your hands come up to your hips, and really focused on pushing the water back at all times, and not up (thus pushing my hips down).

Hopefully this is a breakthrough, and not just a good day. Or also, not just my fitness really coming together after all the tough weeks of training (though I wont complain about that!)

Good week last week though. 50.3 mi running, 222.22 (yes 5 2s!) mi bike, 9k yd swim. Hope everyone is healthy enough and mentally ready for the last push. Have a good week of training!

I raced on July 12; so this past week has been a recovery week - which I needed; even doing easy workouts has left me feeling sore and tired. The week coming up is my highest volume week to date; capped with a 100+ mile hilly ride at IM race pace. One more heavy week after that, and I'm so ready for taper!

I have a 100 miler on sunday with close to 5,000ft of elevation and I am going to do a 20min brick run after. That should be my last 100 miler before race day. Getting excited, getting nervous!

25 days to go! I've had a solid two weeks with 17 and then 18 hours of training last week so I think I've bounced back after 3 weeks of 11-12 hour training weeks and two weeks of being sick. I'm going to make the most of this week and next week because my last big workout will be on 8/3 and then I'll roll into a two week taper. Hope everyone's training is going well. Stay committed we are almost there.

How many miles is everyone planning on for their long ride 2 weeks out? Just curious. I have 70ish on my plan.

Had a great 100 mi/2 mi brick on Sat, a 4 mile run/2.4mi swim on Sunday, and 14 miles yesterday morning for my long run. I seem to be bouncing back some - my legs aren't quite as fatigued, or they're just performing better. It was also a much flatter route than usual. Who knows, but I'll take it.

I've been doing my long rides on Wednesdays, so I will be doing 100 mi 2.5 weeks out, I have 125 mi planned for tomorrow. I'll be doing my l last 18-20 mile run this weekend, then 15-16 mi the weekend after, then my real taper begins.

I'll be doing a 3 week run taper. I'm going to drop my run volume about 20% next week. I'll be doing roughly a 2 week bike taper, though next week my volume will be down about 10% from this week. I'll be swimming hard up until the last week. I'll try to keep the intensity up in all disciplines up to the last week, then besides a few threshold miles thrown into my runs, some strides, and maybe a few quick/hard intervals on the bike, I'll be taking it pretty easy that last week.

Glad you've bounced back, just have to keep that bounce going a few more days.

This user's post has been ignored.

This user's post has been ignored.

Update: I'm going to be out of town and trying to fit in my long ride proved problematic, so I'm going to take next Thursday off and do another 100. This will be a good confidence booster, plus I think it's far enough out (by moving it back 2 days) that I should taper fine off it.

Does that sound reasonable? Sounds like most of you are doing 100ish at 2 weeks out.

I'm definitely going to do 100+ mile ride that last weekend two weeks out from race day. My training partners and I have discussed this and we are actually looking to do something epic to finish out our training. I suspect it will be something different and a very long ride.

This user's post has been ignored.

Thanks Tony and Fred for sharing your plans - sounds like 100 for me will work. In the past, I've done 3 week tapers, and I definitely think I lost some of the edge on race day, plus I'm lacking some fitness at this point and don't want to show up with even less.


Is anyone interested in a practice swim on Fri AM/Sat AM? I haven't done a lot of OWS this year (and it's certainly not been in a full wetsuit) so I'm going to get in the water both mornings just for a little bit.

Edited by thedallasceliac 2014-07-24 8:20 AM

This user's post has been ignored.

Agree with Fred. Let's meet in the village and walk over on Friday morning. As for Saturday, I'm laying low too - staying off my feet as much as possible. I'm planning to swim on Thursday morning as well if you want company.

I'd definitely be interested in swimming on Friday morning as discussed. I also plan on not doing much of anything on Saturday that will be the calm before the storm on Sunday. I think I'll be laying low and taking it easy as well.

I'll be swimming Thursday for sure, and possibly Friday as well - would love to meet you all.

Hey everybody,

Keep me in the loop about swimming Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I'll most likely be joining as well.

Bob

This user's post has been ignored.

Friday swim sounds good. I know I am laying low on Saturday but I will be filled with nerves and excitement I might just go crazy.

How does everyone sleep the night before? Any words of wisdom to get in a full nights sleep?

Fred - see you there.

Matt - a full night's sleep the night before an IM...are you kidding? I'm sure some folks can sleep the night before a race, but I'm up all the time. I generally dream that I didn't hear my alarm clock and miss the start of the race. and as a result, I generally set 2 or 3 alarms these days! I wish I could sleep well the night before a race, but I can't. Hopefully I'll do better this year. the key for me is the nights 2 and 3 days before a race - I can generally sleep well those nights, so I really focus my sleep karma there and assume the night before is a semi-lost cause.

That said, hopefully someone has some words of wisdom that can help all of us.

This user's post has been ignored.

Yep, this is what I do. I generally sleep "ok" the night before the race, but I really focus on getting lots of sleep in the days leading up to the race in case I don't. It alleviates a lot of the "OMG I have to be up in 5 hours and I'm still awake" nerves that are a downward spiral into bad sleep.