Ironman Coeur d'Alene : Official Thread (Page 15)

Edited by soretaint 2014-02-19 9:34 AM

MRI went fine, just have to wait until late next week to get in for results..... grrrr

Sorry to hear you're dealing with the tendonitis... I'd like to go back to my 20's & 30's where injuries weren't even on my radar! Collectively, we all need to get healthy!

Welcome to IMCDA
Texas and Idaho will be two VERY different races... I'm sure you will enjoy the differences and have a great time at both events.

It looks like you just started swimming and riding early last year? You don't waste any time stepping up to a new challenge, eh? hehe Good luck with all the training and racing!

Brad - that's awesome that you're doing Boston this year. What race did you qualify at for it? Decent chance I'll be out there cheering on a buddy this year.

Fortunately my kick sucks so when I get a calf cramp I just kind of let the leg dangle and swim through it. I do tend to get them when the water is below 60F. IM LT was just brutal, those bike hills with the really cold temps was just not happy at all. It was very disheartening to see frost on the bike seats before entering the water with fresh snow not that far up the mountain from the night before. Hopefully I can be more prepared for those hills this year... and I will be bringing more warm clothing for the bike.

Welcome! Why the transfer out of LT? Is it the normal cold/hills? I bet you're not the only one making that transfer this year. Hopefully, you'll enjoy both TX and CdA.

Ugh, why does it always take so long to get those results? That drives me batty. Let's hope for results sooner.

I hear you on the age and injuries thing. I went for short run on the treadmill yesterday and so far the achilles feels good. However, I tweaked my back while in the gym so I'm hobbling around anyway!

Thanks. It was at the Eugene marathon last spring. All-time PR at age 46 so I was quite happy. If you have a chance to get there to cheer your buddy, you should. It's always a great spectator event, but their year should be epic.

Good News....last weeks warmer weather caused local Coeur d Alene lakes to lose most of their Ice.
Bad News....3 more inches of fresh snow....yuk.
USGS Spokane River NR Coeur D Alene Lake Outlet: has a good website for current water temp close to IM start. Nice 35.5 degrees today.

Caught a little break and they called me in yesterday for the MRI results due to someone else cancelling their appt...... Results showed a "cartilage separation" in the ankle joint... Basically a wear & tear/arthritic issue.
They gave me a cortisone shot and I've had immediate relief with that and they will combine it with PT starting next week. Hopefully this gets me through training and IMCDA. Time will tell, however, eventually it is going to require a "scope" surgery by an orthopedic doc. I just hope it's after June! Fingers crossed that this works for now..

Btw, I think we fell off the same turnip truck somewhere....... I have chronic back issues (bulging disc, etc) that just love to flair up at the most annoying times possible as well. Glad your Achilles is showing improvement!

I am thinking this will be my first ironman in 2015 and really enjoyed reading this thread. I wanted somewhere I could drive too as I am from Saint George and that left me Boulder, Tahoe, CDA, and Arizona. I had thought about Boulder but that sold out so quick and CDA still isn't sold out, same goes for Tahoe and I think Arizona is lottery only (but if you signed up for Boise last year during STG 70.3 expo they gave you a slot for Arizona or something like can't remember but they were trying to get the numbers up for Boise). Its a bit of a drive like 10-11 hours but not bad can be done in one day I think Boulder was 8.

I keep hearing hills in this topic, whats the elevation gain for the bike and how does it compare to say Saint George full or half (sadly I never got to do the full but did the half last year and have ridden most of the full course many times).

Go back several pages and I posted the elevations gains. There are hills, they shortest one is about .5 miles with a 6% grade and the longest one is closer to 2 miles with a 5% ish grade. If you ride any hills, it's not as bad as Tahoe... I've never ridden Tahoe but I heard that was incredibly difficult.

What goes up must come down and screaming down the Mica Grade at 50+ MPH is worth the climb twice at 10 MPH.

There are 3 hills I would be concerned with. On your first loop, the hill going up Cougar Gulch is 1.1 miles long, elevation gain 550ft with a grade of 2%-9%. The second hill is the Mica Grade which is a 3.5 mile total climb. It's only a 350ft climb with grades from 2%-5%. The major climb the going back up the Mica Grade and that is a .5 mile climb. It's a total 300ft climb with a grade of 8%-9%. It's a. Two loop course so you have to do it twice which we all know.

I hope this all helps. I got my information from www.mapmyride.com.

I'll do it for you





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Oh cool that's not bad at all, I just hear hills and you guys scare me but those aren't even as bad as the ones on the old ironman course for STG and we have some pretty good climbs for 70.3. Guess I need to train old STG course.

This was the full course


And this is 70.3


Totally manageable plus I have an advantage I can easily train on hills every day if want, what's the run course look like any major hills on that those beat me to death at 70.3 despite training on them.


Edited by sirdizzy 2014-02-20 5:05 PM

The run course goes out the first small loop of the bike course. There are only 2 significant hills on each loop. Look at the hill at mile 5-6 and 9-10 of the bike course and that's what I'm talking about.

Sweet not bad that looks like an easy run course then, I guess there is one advantage to living somewhere hilly your not as scared of hills anymore.

It's good to know what you're dealing with. I didn't know people get those kinds of cartilage issues in ankles, but I suppose the makes sense since it happens to knees. I hope the shot gets you through CdA and you don't wind up needing anything too bad for surgery later on. Good luck!

For comparison purposes, I did the old CdA course in 2011 and St. George in 2012. I haven't ridden the new CdA course. However, having done the St. George course, I'm completely confident in saying that if you train on the hills around St. George, you won't encounter anything in CdA you can't handle. That goes for both the bike and run courses. The run course does have the one hill you go up and over twice (total of four climbs), but it's much more gentle than the beastly hills around St. George. You might want to re-evaluate your driving time estimate though. I bet it's closer to 15 hours. Depending which route you take though, it can be pretty darn scenic at times. Good luck!

Fortunately I am training in the mountains of Louisiana with massive 100 ft climbs.

the run course is not as easy as you think it is. Fairly flat i would say but and a big BUT. The trail is sloped to the right side towards the water which as most people know isn't great for the knees or IT band. I started locking up on my second loop in 2013. the first loop I thought to myself don't run on the little gravel trail to the right while going out as you might trip and injure yourself. The second loop for the run I was thinking to myself that if I didn't attempt to run on as flat of ground as possible I would have troubles finishing due to IT band issues.

The hills towards miles 6-8 and whatever on the second loop are tough especially when head out. It is steep and slopes pretty good.

I'm not participating this year in the race however I did do it in 2013 so this might be of help to some.

I followed a 36 week training program based upon this and I followed it pretty closely. I don't know if you can look at my workouts or not but you can go back and see what I did on here. http://www.trifuel.com/triathlon/ironman-workouts/

Read my race report as well to show you where my HR was if it does show you. I think average was 146 for the entire race. Now when I got on the bike I was about 170. When I started running it spiked up to about 155 going up the first hill, and then it settle down. I really never let it get above 165 for the whole bike/run section. On the swim I have no clue as I swam at what I felt was a comfortable pace. I trained for actually what I thought would be slower pace based upon my pool times yet the suit and drafting does help which I did attempt to do as long as the person in front of me wasn't going slower than what was comfortable for me.

I bought my tri bike in summer of 2012 and when I bought it, I attempted to adjust everything as best as I could until I could afford to get fitted. I also started with a 175mm crank standard 53/39 with stock 12-25 cassette (i'm 5'4" so way too big IMO) and then switched to a 165mm crank compact 50/34 and went to a 11-28. The 34-28 I used on the steep hills.

So for people that are wondering how their training is going and how they are doing take a look at what I did if that will help you out in any way. Granted I was fortunate to live in Spokane and be able to ride the course fully 2 times along with run and swim the course which does help.

I wish each and everyone of you the best of luck in the race.

Told my wife about my plans for it and I think if I drove it I will likely be by myself she really doesn't want to take the kids on that long of a drive (youngest will be like a year and half at that time) or I might see if the triclub has any car pools going up and just go up with the tri club.

LOL!
You'll have to find some heavy headwinds and push a tall gear for training...along with the 100' hill repeats..