Ironman USA Lake Placid : Official Thread (Page 152)

Cuse, I'm with you on this one.  Hills are only as hard as you make them and, with enough gear, you can flatten any hill.  Using the same effort (PM would help), the only thing that will change is speed.  I can't say it's from experience, 'cause it aint, but this is how I'm approaching my ride. 

I'm hoping I won't need all of it, but I'll be running a compact and an 12-27 (maybe an 11-28).  I'm not spinning out a 53, let alone the 50, so I'd rather play it safe and bring too much gear than fall short and turn a moderate effort in to a slogging grind that will cost me later on.  Your wattage example dictates my thoughts loud and clear. 

I am also new to this and just want to say THANKS for posting this info...  very interesting and cool to read...... 

I missed workout today, not happy...  it was a Bike for 75 minutes, but my body just crashed and I fell asleep when got home form work, been a long week after Eagleman, it is my 2nd workout I missed since Feb...  Feel much better now though...  I guess my body needed it.......

Spend more time thinking about that finish line, and perfecting that finish line dance. 

Why do you guys keep talking about Hills? 

I know we're all in our Build/Peak Periods right now, but let's Talk Taper.  My plan (BT Intermediate) doesn't have me doing a Bike over 90 minutes next week (seriously).  Then my plan has me doing a 6 Hour bike the following weekend.  Then that's it!!   A 6 hour Bike on 4th of July and then no more Long Rides, the following weekend a 2-hour bike, then an 1hr 40 bike the weekend before the race.  WTF?   Perhaps since the Bike is my limiter, that's why this seems ODD to me?  21-days without a Ride over 1hr 40 mins long???  Perhaps it's a per-individual thing, but for me, I think I'd definitely lose bike fitness/endurance. 

Regardless, I am going to Bike another 100+ miler next weekend, then the 6-hour Bike the following 4th of July weekend.  And then I'm thinking the Taper described in the below link seems more appropriate, at least for me. Having done seven Half Ironman's in the last two and a half years, my Best Performances have always come with a gradual and limited Taper.  Any severe Taper, for me, leaves me stiff and with poor race performances.  Three weeks with only two medium-long Bikes (2 hours & 1hr 40 mins) just seems awfully drastic.  Also, no Runs over an hour for 19 days.  Seems a little more reasonable, but still - a little drastic. 

This link below seems to fit me better, and the author knows a thing or two about this sport.   

http://ironman.com/holdingcell/2003/september-2003/five-perfect-weeks-to-konathe-art-of-tapering

Thoughts anyone?

My taper is going to be two weeks.  I'd feel better with the extra training week, but it won't be crazy:  Two 3 or so hr rides and a 10 mile run will account for the long stuff.  Then it will be taper time.  No more than 90 min bike, and 45 min run at moderate efforts week 1, and hour bikes with 3-4 mile runs early race week.  Just enough to keep loose in the few days before the race.  Nutrition and rest will be the foci of the last week.

That could change if I feel too beat up three weeks out, but probably not.

bryancd - 2010-06-19 5:38 PM My coach had me do a 2 week taper prior to IMAZ which you can see here when it started and the kind of workouts I did. http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/training/index-weekly.... The first week broke down into: Totals for the Week Swim- 10,112 yards Bike- 104 miles Run- 23.50 miles Total Time- 10 1/2 hours The second week not including the race was: Swim- 3806 yards Bike- 50.7 miles Run- 12.86 Total Time- 5-6 hours It's actually a good read about tapering and pre-race consideration if you scroll through my entries. Might be helpful.

Schweet Info.  Thanks BRYAN!!

I recently read that the 3-week Taper was originally adopted from Olympic Marathoners in the 70's, and that Olympic Marathoners at that time overtrained, and it took 3 full weeks to recover from overtraining so they were forced to taper for that amount of time.  If the article stating this is true, then a 2-week Taper sounds A LOT more sensible for me, as I am nowhere near overtrained.    The same article also stated that you begin losing Endurnace around 10-14 days.  If that is too true, I don't want to Taper/cut-out all my Long Bikes 21 days out.