Memorial Hermann Ironman Texas : Official Thread (Page 14)

. Not mandatory at all. They're fun, sometimes, long winded others. Too many people and I like to eat my food leading up to the race. However, it's a great place to meet up with BT'ers.

Its not mandatory, but not a bad idea to stay and listen in. If there are any last minute course changes or anything like that, it will be discussed. Also, the head referee will talk to a few key points like swim start/regulations (wetsuit/non-wetsuit), bike drafting rules, etc ...

Last year was my first ironman and I enjoyed the banquet. I figured why not get your monies worth. I didnt think the food was bad at all (and all you can eat), and to see all the people participating was nice. Some dressed nicely and others looked like they had just come in from training. It was a little long winded in some areas but I say go unless you absolutely cant. Definitely leave a little early because the crowd leaving out of there was nasty.

I have never been to a mandatory meeting in the 10 WTC events I have done.

Read the athlete guide, which from my understanding covers 99% of what they talk about in the athlete meeting.  The other 1% you can read about on ST or BT or hear about from other people.

What nights do you have it? I would love to grab it from you if possible. My name is Josh Sternberg. Let me know what details you need

Ok, folks... For those of us NOT doing IM Galveston this weekend (I will pretend to not be envious), what does the weekend look like for you?

I've got what should be my first century ride this weekend (technically, it's supposed to be 97.7 according to my training plan, but there's no way I'm stopping that close even with two more century+ rides coming in the next three weeks).  Winds are promising to be a little bit gusty in North Texas this weekend, so it will probably be some good practice for race day.  Following this with 5 mile run.

I hope everyone has a great weekend and good luck to the Galveston racers!

I set a PR yesterday during a lunch-time bike ride from the office (I work about 10-miles east of The Woodlands). Over the course of a 25-mile ride, I was chased by dogs at 7 different locations. The first was a chihuahua that I kind of slowed down to taunt. I think the rest were some sort of canine pay-backs for hurting the chihuahua's feelings (I'm an excellent taunter!). The other six dogs were big, with a few being ferocious. The fastest was a border collie. I could see it inside a big fenced yard, but I didn't know there was a hole in the fence at the end of the yard that he slipped right through. He was doing about 25-mph, easy, and was right at my heels before I knew it. Luckily, he was more interested in chasing than catching. The other dogs I all saw coming and had no problems with.  The wacky part is I ride all of these roads pretty regularly, and the chihuahua is usually the only dog that's "out".  

Luckily, dogs are usually a non-issue on the IM-TX course!

The dog free thing is part of the reason I love the course.  So many routes back in Magnolia, Whitehall, etc that have TONS of dogs.

This week has been a recovery week for me so I'm enjoying a little less training.  However, I've got 90 miles on Saturday for my "long" recovery ride.  My long recovery run was 11 miles yesterday, which was a big difference compared to last week which was a 17 mile run.  I did a 108 mile ride last Saturday and a 104 mile ride the Saturday before that.  After this week I'll be starting my final push training before we taper. 

swim today, then a 2:15 run tomorrow (easy pace), probably will be around 15 miles.

5.5 hour ride on Sunday which will end up somewhere between 90-100 miles depending on the course I ride..

Thanks - looking at the training CRUNCH TIME - 180 - 200 miles bike / 18 to 20 miles run / 9000 yds swim - this week / next week / next week / next week and so on / and so on !!!!

Take this with a grain of salt being from someone whose longest distance so far is a 70.3, but all I can remember from the 70.3 experience last year was just how much the taper meant to my performance on race-day.  It was like I was a new man after those few weeks of reduced training.  Don't underestimate the cumulative stress you've been placing on your body.

Also, some days/weeks are just going to be bad.  If you haven't experienced this before, you're lucky .  I had a recovery week a couple weeks ago that my long ride (supposed to be 50 miles, I think) felt terrible...I don't think I even did the full mileage...avged 1-2mph less than normal and felt so bad I skipped the run that was to follow.  Just did the prescribed time on the bike and called it a day.  All my workouts that week felt that way.  Fortunately, things turned around the next week.

Hopefully this helps.  Hang in there!

This past weekend at Galveston I heard from various people who seemed to be in the loop about bike and run course changes from last year. I will assume the run changes will be minor but what about the bike? That is what I am mostly interested in seeing. Anyone heard anything?

You will go through the town of Richards which is located on 149 and 1486.  There are a couple small local convenient stores for bathroom/ food.  Between 105 and Richards there is nothing, except a Shell station just north of the LoneStar parkway.

It's going to be a goat rope on the course Saturday.  My plan is to get out there early.