Ironman USA Lake Placid : Official Thread (Page 155)

Heading up to LP this weekend and checked forcast...  looks great very psyched!!!  Everyone tells me its awesome up there!!! 

Taper... just enjoying reading everyones thoughts, me I have no comment I am a newbie, just listening to my coach....

Ironman training... its been a roller coster of a time!!! 

Excitement....  It is starting to build more and more!!!!  Someone pinch me!!!!

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I'm at a decently high volume of training, but go to great pains to space the long workouts and the hard workouts, such that I can tell you I'm virtually never "feeling it" the next day.  I can't remember the last time, other than after a race, where I felt a workout was compromised by the workouts I had done 1-3 days prior.  And that is while running up to 50mpw and often biking over 200mpw.

Jorge... do you mind sharing your "gut" on my taper?  As an FYI - I generally feel good and do well in my B races where I have only a few day taper.  It makes me very wary of the heralded 3 week taper in so many plans.

Not sure if this was answered for sure or not, but I will say what I mean by don't test your fitness during a taper.

People, myself included, will have a crappy workout during taper and then bust out a hard workout (think hard mile repeats, etc) just to make sure that they are truly in shape.  That's what I mean by don't test your fitness.  Trust it's there, because there is nothing you can do about it at that point.  You can only shoot yourself in the foot.

That was pretty helpful, thanks for posting.

Great info!  Thanks DC!

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With the inevitable posting-rush that will take place once we all begin tapering, 200 pages is in the bag!

For next year's IMLP (oh no he didn't just say "next year") I'm just going to have my weekly bike volume equal the number of pages of the IMLP official thread.

Edited by JoshKaptur 2010-06-23 10:08 AM

If you usually don't feel drained or super fatigued during the week besides after very long/hard sessions then you are doing a good job at managing your load. Still, you can focus on learning how long it usually takes your legs to be back to normal after a 5+ hr long ride or a 2:30+ hr run or a 2-3 hr tempo ride or 1 hr run. This can help you learn your recovery cycle when "in shape" as I expect an athlete to be 5 weeks off Ironman.

Also by looking at your logs, you could learn for instance that it takes you 2 days to be back to normal after a long 5 hr ride while it might take you 24 hrs after a tempo/threshold ride. OTOH, it might take you 3 days to recover from a long run and a few days from a tempo run. In addition, you can learn that on average you can go with an intense training load for 2 weeks before you need to drop it to recover. This gets more specific as you might be able to log significant training load differently for all 3 sports, for instance maybe you can handle a high load for 3 weeks on the bike, 4 on the swim and only two on the run.

Using the above, it can help you map your tapering schedule, but given the little info I have from you I would guess that 3 week taper cycle is too long for you. (It is for most athletes) Maybe you can consider a 2 week taper in which you could start dropping run volume a bit over 2 weeks out, drop bike volume within 2 weeks and swim volume in the last week. This is just a general suggestion; only you with the information available can really set your tapering plan.

I hope that helps!

i think this sounds really cool (cheap training camps)....

If I were to do this, I wouldnt worry about dirty clothes and being sticky.  showers would be baths in the lake and I would re-use my desoto 400 bibs every day.  something like this, a very small goal would to be as stinky as possible.  Truly rough it.

food would all be in one cooler, pre-cooked, and  I would sleep out of my car. 

it would truly be very simple and there would be no plans.  I think we would all be surpised at how little we would actually need. 

I carry all my liquid nutrition on all long bike rides now.  1.5 bottles worth in my aero drink, two bottles on a cheapo 2 bottle behind the seat mount, one on the seat tube, and 3 more in my back cycle jersey pockets. 

thats 1 bottle an hour for 6 hour rides....usually plenty. 

I think this is truly a just go and do it thing, with each trip improving through experience.

Just go!!

Awesome questions DC:
Now I will tell you that I was by no means roughing it as people think camping is yet I was only paying $34/night (including taxes).  Most people feel that they need a hotel room and I disagree completely.  It's a luxury and one that can easily be done without.

I stayed at the KOA campground. 
- It had a huge clubhouse (where I could hang out if the weather was bad with tables, chairs, huge TV).  I never went in there, but it was available. 
- There were very nice AND clean showers available as well as multiple bathrooms.
- If I wanted to do Laundry, there were lots of washers and dryers

I got an electic campsite and I bought a 25' outdoor extension cord.  What did I use this cord for?
1) To charge my computer (I was sufing the web for hours on end...I mean...I was dilegently doing training plans)
2) To charge my phone
3) To power my coffee grinder (YES...my coffee grinder)
4) To power my coffee maker (for said Costa Rican Coffee Beans)
5) To inflate my Aerobed.  That's right...I had an awesome aerobed inside my tent and I was as comfortable as can be.

Nutrition: 
1) I use Infinit, so I had all of my powder mix with me and just used the water in the laundry room (ice cold btw) to fill up my bottles and to do any dishes I needed to do.  If you use Gatorade or similiar then you could buy them ahead of time and keep them in your car
2) I didn't do laundry all week so I had a bag that I put all of my clothes into.  It was a sealable 'laundry' bag, and I kept it in my trunk.  Even after this week it doesn't reek, but they are going right into the washer once I get to it
3) Post recovery food.  If you use things like chocolate milk, you could keep it in a cooler.  I used a power form (1st Endurance) and Mix-1 which does not have to be refrigerated.  

The only things that I wish I had were one of those back support things for camping so I could sit and use my computer more comfortably inside the tent when it was raining.  Also maybe a small heater for the first night it was a bit cold.  But I just bundled up and was fine in the end.

So in all, I had a tent with a good cover (for rain)
Coffee Maker and Grinder
Aerobed with sheets and a pillow
25' extenstion cord
Mix for all of my training and recovery
Bag for clothes

I kept all of my stuff in my tent and kept my bike in the car.  I was just as comfortable in my tent for the 3 days as I was at Art Devlin's for the other 3 days.  I actually think my Aerobed was more comfortable.

And Devlin's per night was more than the 3 nights at the Campgrounds. 

My recommendation:  Go for a long weekend training event  (AFTER Lake Placid) and just camp.  You'll find out what you need/want/can do without.

Hijack:

That was the most exciting soccer game I have ever watched!

It helps tremendously... THANK YOU.

I'm curious (and a tiny tiny bit skeptical) of the conclusions you formed based on my logs.  I would call my volume/cycles life-related, not training/fatigue related (working late, vs. unable to do workout because too sore).  But I have tremendous respect for your insights.  You basically have me worried that I'm a little to biased/blind to see these things in myself (which is why most people are not capable of self-coaching well).

What's the difference between life-related and training related in regard to resulting fatigue?

to me, they are the same....stress (and how it effects you) from life is no different then stress from training.

everything we do effects everything else

What's the difference between life-related and training related in regard to resulting fatigue?

to me, they are the same....stress (and how it effects you) from life is no different then stress from training.

everything we do effects everything else

I didn't look at your logs hence the word "guess" and the phrases "given the little info" and "this is just a general suggestion"

Nevertheless, I do think most age group athletes tend to over taper doing the 3 week taper thingy. The above suggestion is just based on what I've seen worked for different athletes of different abilities but in no way it was meant to be something you should definitively do.

Based on your tapering for other races and how fast your recover from different sessions/sport you can determine if that might work or what should be best for you.

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