Ironman Arizona : Official Thread (Page 16)

Just wanting to vent some, was notified this morning that the hotel I had a reservation at just went out of business.....  Great!    Vent over, thanks.  Now on to find a new hotel. 

You should be fine.  The light rail goes right by the Days Inn, and it has a stop just about 1/4 mile south of Tempe Beach Park, which is IM central and the finish line/transition area.

Here is a link to the Metro site.  You can pre-pay fares and get more info on rail routes, times, etc.

http://www.valleymetro.org/rail/index.html

 Nice job on the Drainer ride!  I may have to do that this weekend.  We are moving into our new home on saturday and that would be the only way for me to get the long ride in.  Not looking forward to it.

  Thanks for the info and the link!

My first reaction to the snow when I got up was "kind of looks peaceful" and then I realized I'd be spending 5 hours in my garage. Watched portions of Kona and a couple of movies as well. How was the IMAZ spinnerval?  Let's keep our fingers crossed we have at least a couple more weeks of sunshine on the weekends

Skip the rest of this post if you are grossed out easily....

I woke up Monday and peed blood...a lot of blood. No trauma that I know of over the weekend. Even my workouts felt easy (boring, but easy). Got into my doc's office a few hours later and though everything appeared normal by then, they still found more blood. Poked, prodded, and questioned for a couple of hours and they think it's probably related to the training (especially the time in the saddle on the trainer), but they aren't certain. Waiting for blood test results and possibly a referral to another doc. Of course, now I'm really paying attention to every little feeling, etc so I *think* I feel fine, but now I'm paranoid. Not in any pain, etc. Would appreciate everyone keeping their fingers crossed that it's just my body saying "I hate that saddle, get me a better one please".

Damn, thats stinks. Hope all turns out ok and glad your feeling ok.

Riding outside is finally getting nice here.   Down in the 70's instead of the 90's/100's  5.5 hours yesterday and a century planned for Saturday.

Anyway...  Who is familliar with the IMAZ course?  Is it really as flat as it seems when I map it?  Or is it "rolling"?  It looks like it's about a constant 0.5% for 20 miles then tilts up to a whopping 1% to the turn around point, back down and repeat x2.

Exactly- no it is not rolling. You had out fairly flatish, then go "up" a bit, then turn around, come down, go flatish to the turn around point, repeat, repeat again, then RUN!

Through town it is all flat, although you are gaining a bit of altitude.  Beeline is a gradual rise to a...  hill ?  Not really a hill, but if it's windy by the third time, it'll be a PITA.  Certainly not rolling, more like that annoying false flat ride where you think you should be going faster than you are, but just aren't?

I noticed when I did it that a lot of folks were in the big ring all the way up Beeline from the first loop.  I dropped it to the small ring all three loops. 

X2!

I saw this on the IMAZ website. Has anyone used these?   See below

"No Aqua socks (neoprene booties) unless the water temperature is 65.0 degrees Fahrenheit or colder"

I flew into Phoenix when I went last year to volunteer. I stayed with my uncle. The room was clean and the price couldn't be beat. I'll definitely stay there again (read: I can't help with hotels).  This year, however, my family will be there with me. We've rented a condo somewhere. IIRC it wasn't too pricey. We booked that probably three months ago. Good luck on getting into 2012!

On another note: Thanks for the concern from everyone with whatever is going on with me. I am still waiting to hear anything from my doctor, but they said test results could take a few days. I'm still following my training program and I feel great. Everything "appears" normal, but more time will tell I guess.

I'm sure I can figure it out, but it's easier just to ask!

For those who have RACED before, what's the logistics on race morning?  I can't compare it to IMSG.  There, we found local parking at the finish and they bused us out to the swim start.

Is there reserved parking for athletes like they had for volunteers?  I figure I would stay at a hotel a bit further from the venue or my friends house (about 20 minutes out).  BUT, I don't want to have to fight for parking when I should be setting up transition.

Park in the US Airways building 500 feet from the finish.  Free.

The parking garage is as convenient as it gets.  There are plenty of parking spaces and it is less than a 5 minute walk from the Tempe Beach Park.  

On another note - I am feeling these peak weeks!!!  I feel sluggish on all of my workouts.  I am trying to keep the motivation up for 1.5 more weeks of peak mileage.  

Yeah, I got two more long rides and two more long runs to go...  One of the runs is tomorrow and I signed up for a local century ride this weekend for one of the bikes.  It's really nice to have a group thing to count as training.  My second long run will be in London or Paris next week!  YAY!

I will have to put my last long bike off untill I return - a 6+ hour session.  I'm hoping I can talk someone into suffering with me.

I have enjoyed reading the thread over the past couple of weeks as I am signed up to volunteer at run aid station #5 from 10-12 and am excited to cheer you on.  

I have a question for any of you who have done the race before or who are from there.  When I volunteered for IMFL, I took my wetsuit and did a practice swim in the ocean so I'd know what the swim would be like on race day.  Since the water temps can be cold in AZ, I was hoping to do the same thing this year.  I get really cold really easy on the swim and would like to swim in the water while there.  According to the athlete guide, ONLY this year's participants can do the practice swim and they must have their wristband and chip.  Is there any way for me to be able to do a practice swim or are they really strict about it?