Ironman 70.3 Florida : Official Thread (Page 13)

excellent! i was in africa in jan that would've been on my plate last night for dinner...lol

Ohhh, exciting! I didn't know the wave start times were up.  My hubby gets to go off right after me... this way I can watch him zoom past me on the bike!  LOL!

I can't believe it's only 5 weeks away now.  I'm thankful that Florida has really started to heat up.  It's time to break out the salt capsules from last summer again and re-dial all of that stuff in.

I just started a recovery week today and then it's 2 weeks of race prep followed by 2 weeks of taper for me.

I am really looking forward to this race (despite what I know is going to be a slooow swim and a very hot, tedious run).  I'm not expecting anything other than to hopefully finish more comfortably than I did at Augusta (comfortable doesn't = PR, however) and take whatever I learn from this event with me to Beach 2 Battleship in November.

Looking forward to reading some more updates!

OK, us Illinoisians do not want anything to do with gators on the course!!  Although, truth be told I am glad you saw it on the run and not the swim

Edited by dewcubs 2010-04-12 10:58 AM

dew u make a good point!!!

They are there all right...  and my wife hates it when I remind her!  

I did 60 miles here in Michigan on Friday in what I'm sure were hurricane strength winds, at least the sun was shining.  It became more of a mental work out than a physical one.  I just kept telling myself that if I could finish my 60 miles there was NO WAY Florida could be as hard, unless there was REALLY a hurricane!

(Ok, so I might be being a little dramatic.)

Gators on the bike...great.  
 

So tell me you Floridians, how is the wind down there?  Being from the midwest it is always a blowin pretty good here.  I was just curious if I cuold expect the same thing there that we get here, you know...22 MPH with the wind at your back and 14-15 coming back lol.....wears you out I tell ya!!

I did 56 miles last Saturday and the last 13 miles was wind alley. I went from a 22mph crusing to 17mpg to 15mph.  It felt like someone was pushing against my aero helmet.  So the run at disney is what a 4.37 mile X3 loop each way around right.

I can't speak for the Orlando area as I train about 2 hours South, but it's very windy down here... Florida is notorious for wind in the winter/spring simply because we are so flat and have so much open space.

I regularly push against 15-20mph winds and sometimes gusts that are way stronger and make me want to get off the bike in fear of my safety.  Two weekends ago the wind was so strong (a front was about to come through) that I thought my bike was going to come to a dead stop and blow right over.

On the bright side, thinking about the races that I've done in Orlando, I don't feel that there is as much wind there compared to where I live.  I have very fast bike splits when I race in the Orlando area.  Orlando has a lot more old growth trees (shade trees) that block the wind, where the coastline tends to get more battered by tropical storms and the soil doesn't seem to support those same types of shade trees. We also have breezes/winds that come in off the Gulf.  Orlando doesn't.   However, venturing out into Orange county farmland may be a different story and the open space could lend itself to wind..  Personally, I'm preparing for some wind.

I think all of you Northern folk will be just fine. There could be some wind, but I suspect that it's going to be something that you've already encountered before.  Let's just hope that an early season t-storm doesn't blow it... that would be a different story entirely!

Edited by shellabree 2010-04-13 8:17 AM

It was 86 air and 100 on the blacktop yesterday during my short run.   I Love the Heat!

There are 2 types of legal drafting.  Sling shot and paceline.

Sling shot is as your passing someone, you ride right up to their back wheel before passing.  With a HRM it can be hard to quantify your energy savings.  If you use a powermeter you'll see it.   

Paceline is riding 7 meters no more no less.  You can get a small draft.  But an unexperienced marshall could nail you.

Ok can someone tell me what a Hill means in Florida on the bike course. Is it a hill hill that you change gears and dance on the bike or Hills  you just put your head down and crank it all the way tot he top.

It is a hit and a miss but more often than not not an issue.  In the winter typically blowing out of NE.  Summer changes to South west.  Lately it has not been bad at all.  On a bad day you are looking at 15-20 MPH on a good day less than 5 MPH.  This past Sunday I rode 70 miles and it was around 8 MPH out of the North and East.

the only "real" hill is at mile 33. i know this cause that's were i fell last year. everything is rolling. enough speed going down, will propel u up the next.

sweet thanks

I ran here (North Dakota... plains, yay!) on Saturday with a 19mph sustatined and 37mph gusts. Today the wind gods laughed at me: 27mph sustained with 41mph gusts. Guess who didn't ride in that?

Yeah... I'm a wimp.

it was like that here this past weekend. i'm a wimp tooo. no metal toughness day, i felt unsafe on my bike. the most i could muster was a hour ride and i felt like my bike was going to fly like in the wizard of oz. all i could think of was the old witch coming after me....

I'm traveling this week; enjoying a week on the plains in Sioux Falls, SD.  Very different from NE Florida!  I echo the winds yesterday.  I had planned on running outside after work, but couldn't stomach the thought of doing 5 miles in solid 30mph winds.  Sort of like running in a thunderstorm back home.  Blech!

Ok, so I felt bad for wimping out yesterday and I dragged hubby out to ride today... 28mph gusting to 46mph. 8.4 miles took us 40 stinking minutes and I thought I'd lose the bike!

If the wind is less than 20 in ORL I'll be a happy camper.

Ok, all this talk of wind is making me anxious!  The wind kick my a#@ at IMFL last year so let's just go with a prediction of "winds at 0mph out of the NW" 

You and me both!  That wind + the hills = really slow bike at IMFL.  I should have drafted more :-)

Yea, it really surprised me that I constantly felt like I was pedaling into a headwind or false flat.  My bike was a lot slower then I had trained.  I am trying to toughen up a bit on the bike this year to prepare for IMWI.  Anything has to be better then the roller coaster swim we had!  I never trained to body surf big waves but that was all I was doing on the second lap.  Every other stroke it seemed like I was being dropped off the top of a 5 foot wave.  It was a good learning experience I guess  

What age group are you in (I'm in the 30-34M)?  You and I had similar IMFL experience so maybe I will run into on the course. Good luck at IMFL 70.3

Only 4 1/2 weeks!

 

I'm in 40-44M along with 2 buddies - one guy who did IMFL 70.3 & IMKY last year and another guy who is a triathlon virgin.

Good luck to you too!