Ironman Arizona : Official Thread (Page 14)

the "hill" is curry road loop. It really isnt anything to be worried about not that far.. not that steep. it is like .65 miles goes from 1180 to like 1300.

I can't really speak for the weather since I've only done it last year. I can tell you though that even though the wind was low, maybe 10 mph it did change direction. It started in your face as a SW wind, then I think changed sometime on my way back to town to being almost nothing.

Looking at the stats of a slow guy you can see my first 2 out bound leg splits added up to 1:25:40 then the next two laps my outbound legs were 1:10:43 and 1:04:08.

The first two outbound legs were within a heart beat of each other, and the last lap I let myself ride 3-4 beats higher than the other two laps and go a bit faster.

Return slipts were 54:43, 58:13 (special needs stop maybe a minute or so), and 56:52.

It was pretty brutal seeing my average pace for the first 18 miles being 13.29mph, but I stuck to my hr plan and ended up at about 17.2mph for the whole ride.

There are two things I hate in this world, wind and hills. Not that IMAZ is really a hill. IT's actually nice being kinda a long constant rise vs up and down, but then again rolling hills seem to lose less speed.

They haven't officially announced it yet because they just received the road permits for the new course. Someone on the IMAZ group Facebook page said IM would make the announcement this week.

The hill is called Curry Hill and is located on Curry Rd (north of TTL between Mill Ave & College Ave). Don't know the grade but it's a fairly difficult hill. Not terribly long and won't break you, but you'll have to approach it the right way.

I'm in the suck it up and finish strong camp. Had to give myself the "IM Talk". It goes like this..."IM does not give a SH*T if you get in your workouts..IM is 140.6 on 11/17/13. GET.IN.THE. POOL!"

I hear you - did not want to swim last night at all - but said the same thing last night and swam 4K as planned. Also kept telling myself - come on wussy, this is so much easier than a 2hr run or 4-6hr bike...
Let's all finish September Strong, crush October and get ready for a sweet Nov taper!!


Edited by jls42 2013-09-19 10:06 AM

Nov cant get here fast enough! I'm trying to remind myself that I'm not the only one struggling and to just knockout the workouts.

Doing an OWS race in Tempe Town Lake tonight. I heard the water has been warm (80-84 degrees throughout the day) so we'll see how it goes. Crazy to think the water will drop 20+ degrees in under 2 months.

It sucks for me because my allergies kicked in and I have a minor cold. I haven't worked out for four days. I'm itching to get back in.

Did a local race last night at Tempe Town Lake. It's called Splash & Dash and was a 1,500M swim in TTL followed by a 5K run (also a 750M option). The water was very warm (85 degrees) and murky but that's to be expected. You just can't let yourself think about the water quality when you're in there. The one positive aspect of TTL is it's protected so there aren't any swells or chop unless the weather gets out of hand.

It was a two loop course and we headed straight into the sunset when swimming west. Made sighting very difficult but we'll have the same issues at IMAZ (head into the sunrise when swimming east). There's not much you can do when looking straight into the sun so I'm probably going to sight off the buoys and/or wall on race day when swimming east.

Am I reading the bike route correctly, that each lap is about 35 miles?

Looks like it. 32-35 miles

Tapper:

How long do you allow yourself to tapper?

I typically would do a three week tapper for a full IM or Marathon, but I ended up getting sick this week. I was thinking of tappering for two weeks. Do any of you tapper for two weeks?

If so, did you feel less rested? Did you feel more in the game with a two week tapper?

37 miles and some change.

If injury free, anything more than a 2 week taper is too much. Purely my opinion

If all goes as planned I think Ill go with two weeks this time. Last time I felt lethargic and too anxious.

The sun on race morning is not really that bad. However, as sighting the buoys can always be a bit challenging, there are other objects to sight from in TTL. Going east there is a tower that points you directly through the bend in the lake and keeps you on course. As you get closer to the Scottsdale Rd bridge, you can sight off the arches to stay straight. Coming back (west) Mill Ave bridge has objects resembling concrete pillars up on the bridge itself - they seem to work well in sighting.

My recommendation to all is to make sure you attend the practice swim on Sat before the race. Even if you do not swim for distance, get in the water and swim a bit, then find your sight lines for race morning. West will be a bit more challenging as you will not be on the north side of the lake, but it can still be managed.

I'm a 46 y/o M, MOP, but I'm relatively good at the swim.
In my only HIM, I had a time of 34:10, which was in the top 15-20% of my age group.
I actually caught up to and passed some swimmers in the two groups in front of me.
In a recent sprint, I started too far back in the pack (I had wiped out on my bike a few days before, so I thought I'd be slow & sore), and had a lot of difficulty getting around slower swimmers. Igot kicked in the face & had my goggles dislodged. That swim was tiring.
I regularly do OWS's of 1.5-2.4 MI at a pace of ~1:30-1:35/100 yd.
My 2.4 MI OWS time is typically 1:05 or so.

I'm hoping to do the IMAZ swim in under 1:15, but I want to avoid the mayhem as much as possible.
I'm willing to sacrifice a little time to avoid heavy traffic.
Where would be a good place for me to start the swim?
How do I avoid the major mess?

Thanks,

Peter

Anyone else do the Lifetime Tempe Tri today? I thought it was a great race and well organized.

If your typical 2.4 MI OWS is 1:05 please ensure you are in front of me! If that is your pace you will want to position yourself in the front as much as possible - otherwise us average joe's will make your day start out fairly rough.

Seriously! Humblebrag much?

TYR makes a specific goggle defog spray that you can try. I always use sea drops which you can find at your local scuba shop. Put a drop in each lens, rub it around and a quick rinse.

Keba

or a couple drop of baby shampoo rubbed on both sides of the lenses

Two bikes were stolen out of transition area at the Lifetime Tempe Tri yesterday during the race. Unreal

Wow! That is unreal, unfortunately this is not the first story I heard this year of a bike being stolen in the transition area.

LAME!!!! The last thing anyone should have to worry about during a race is the safety of their bike in transition.