Ironman St. George : Official Thread (Page 17)

That's cool - I'm glad they're keeping Ironman PERFORM. I definitely prefer that to Gatorade. I'd been training with PB Gels again this year but it definitely won't be a big deal to switch over to GU so good to know now!

Agree.  Freaking fantastic and inspires me to train harder.  Keep the posts coming over the next few weeks. 

I set a new 100 mile TT today on my training course after going near bankrupt on my 19 miler in the heat of the day yesterday.  Fantastic 4 miler after the ride.  Really liking how my training is coming along on all fronts and I think I am on par with where I was last year with CdA.  Now the bad news. I only managed 2,500 feet over my 5:45 ride today. 

Work has been crazy so no trip to SG it looks like.  I have Galveston 70.3 in two weeks.  A few more weeks of training then taper bliss.  I may try to fly to SG later this week if weather looks good.  Need a reality check soon on the bike so I can step up my training to a whole new level.       

I live in "sunny normal san diego".  It just so happens that every one of my weekends for the last 3 months has been weird weather.  WINDY WINDY I mean like 50mph last week, and this storm is a good one right now. is this our sign of future weather?  bring a trash bag boys its good training

Hopefully its getting it all  out of its system now

The OC boys made it back from SG in one piece!  I am an ordinary guy doing my first IM and not a multi year veteran.  So if there are any mortals reading this I would say disregard those who say it really isn't that tough of a bike ride.  We did the two loops and I am definitely softened by our nicely paved Southern CA roads!  The one thing I will say is that any time it felt like the course would drop me it seemed to let up.  Don't get me wrong- I am training my butt off for this so I'm not that green, oh, and I did complete the two loops in a very strong wind, but still the 11/28 cassette is about to go on my bike!!

As for the run- hats off to those of you who did the tougher run!  This is a fair course, the only challenge (aside from what we will have done and the weather!) was the bottom of the third arm to the top of Diagonal.  The run course has gotten slammed but I think the day of the event we'll enjoy the interaction.  I ran half and felt great some guys went 18 and felt the same.

Can't wait for May 5th!  Look forward to meeting some of you! 

Nice update - Thanks for that info.

Another great weekend for me on the flatlands and week 23 is now in the books.   

Over the last three days, almost 180 miles (110/20/50) on the bike and 25 miles of peak heat running.  Hot and humid in Dallas (80 degrees and 65% humidity).   

Did some hill repeats on the bike today and got tired kinda quick.  LOL.  This is my last full Ironman so I guess if you are going to go out, go out in flames.   

Gonna be interesting.

Galveston 70.3 in two weeks as a warm-up.   

If you have some 70.3s or other fulls under your belt give me an idea of your bike speed on the two loops versus other races you have done. 

QUESTION for any St Georgeans (Georgites??) St George locals......

I'll be down next weekend again for some bike-time, but I could really use some open-water swim time (The Ice fishers just barely pulled up stakes here). Any chance Sand Hollow will be 50 or higher????

Cody

Good to see all of the updates and folks checking in. Keep rockin' it people!

The weather was unexpectantly decent here this weekend (cold, but only the occasional passing shower) so I was able to hit the outdoors for a 65-mile ride yesterday after a 5,000 yard swim (that's a distance PR for me) in the morning. I headed straight for the hilly stretches and got in about 4,000 feet of climbing in the first 55 miles. That course is never flat, which it sounds like is just what I need to practice for SG. I tried to keep a moderate pace and not push hard since I hadn't done that many hills in a while and didn't know how my body would react. That all went well although I was quite tired and I didn't finish until about 7:30 last night. Despite my best efforts to keep up with calories and fluid, I woke up hungry more than once during the night before getting up for the planned long run this morning. The legs were definitely tired for the run today, but I was able to just put it in cruise mode, keep up the fuel intake, and finished 19+ miles at just under 8 minute pace. My quads didn't hurt and I feel much better after this one than I have before on runs that long. Every two miles I practiced walking through aid stations because that really seems to help my legs over the long haul. After each long run, I've been feeling better than the one before. Good progress. The big challenge this afternoon has been to not eat half the contents of the fridge!

Be well and have fun with your training everybody!

Brad

Oh, I forgot to ask ... I know it was posted on one of the earlier pages in this thread, but I'm too unfocused at the moment to find it. Does anybody know what the elevation gain is on the bike course? 

Also, has there been a discussion on good places to eat in St. George (besides the pie place - I love pie!)? I don't need carb-heavy things, just places with options for reasonably healthy non-greasy offerings.

Thanks, Brad

If you have some 70.3s or other fulls under your belt give me an idea of your bike speed on the two loops versus other races you have done. 

Extreme- I did Superfrog (70.3) in September and avg'd 19.3.  This ride was 15 but the first lap we were trying to figure out where we were.  I moved to Cali from the DFW area a few years back where I was only a runner (15 marathons).  I certainly don't put myself out as a great cyclist but I am starting to improve and have had a blast logging miles for this event.  BTW I don't miss the TX heat and humidity one bit (we lived in Southlake area for 20 years) and I got to sell my treadmill when we moved out here!!  Outside 365 and get to ocean swim 3 times a week.  Long answer and admittedly the bike is not my strongest of the three- but I am thinking there will be a bunch of folks who will be surprised by the course.  For me the surface took some getting used to and I would have liked an extra gear or two.  I would also point out that I use my top couple of gears here but I don't think I used them there.  I did pedal down the 18 but I also used it to recover so if I have to give up a couple on the top that's OK by me.  There will be 1200 or so people out there but I'm just racing me and that Timex! 

I met a girl who went to high school in SG and she said the "pizza shack/hut" or something along those lines is a must.  We were talking about the course and she said say a prayer to the wind gods as they are very unpredictable.   

LittleCat - 2012-03-18 8:40 PM FWIW I'm 42 years old. Vineman 70.3, 21.4 avg, I had a bone to pick with another girl. I blew myself up for the run, but I blew her up with me IMSG 2010, 15.4 Avg, never saw the course prior to racing on it so definitly conservative IMSG 2011, 17 Avg with a huge spasm in one side of my lower back gotten in the swim(got smashed in the face hard enough to break a lens and I twisted in some funky way...10 minutes into the swim, never let up till about 3 days post race. Sucked.) Shooting for 18-18.5ish. This has been my training pace so we'll see. I jumped almost 2 mph avg between the two years with exactly the same amount of bike build miles/terrain. I'm also alot more 'hungry' this year considering last years fubar.

Interesting.  All of my 70.3s are in the 22-23 mph range but all are Sunbelt races.  Hardly hilly, but hot and windy.  CdA was 20.2 with a heart rate of 142, but the easy weather helped (cool and limited wind).

On another note, anyone have thoughts on tires and SG chip seal roads.  I race Corsa Evos and I'm wondering if I should consider a harder tire. 

Great place.  We're close to it.  My wife was a teacher at that HS from 1994 to 2002. 

Probably not, based on the temps they posted several days ago.

You could blast on down to Lake Mead for some more reasonable chilly water swimming. Its about a 1.5 hour trip. Maybe do a little run or bike out there as well...

Accordingly to the IMSG site, the elevation gain is 4,862ft.

Thanks Colin. I knew I was in a fog last night. Can't believe I forgot to look at the darn map on the site.