Ironman Coeur d'Alene : Official Thread (Page 18)

I am doing IMAZ this year as well.  This will be my first one, so a little nervous.  I am feeling more confident as my training progresses.  I got off to a late start this year, but should be able to put up some decent numbers for IMAZ.  

This forum is incredibly active!!!!  It is destroying the IMAZ thread!!!

Chris 

I agree! This is one of the most active threads I've ever seen!

Chris, don't hesitate to PM/ask me questions about the Arizona course. I seriously know this course inside and out.  I live about two minutes away from transition (Tempe Town Lake beach park) and most of my training is along this course (or at least starts out on the course).  It's a great race to do as your first; very spectator friendly and flat. You'll have a blast. 

Hmmm.. sounds fun! I have a Computrainer so I think I'm going to buy the real course video of this course.  I don't think I'll make it out there before the race so this will have to do  How is the run? Is it similar to Lake Stevens as well (little rollers throughout)?

CdA run is mostly flat-ish.  It follows the top of Lake Coeur d'Alene, same as the first part of the bike course.  There's one hill that's maybe 300 yards(?) at the turnaround point (you hit it twice -- the run course is 2 laps).  The one part that bothered my knees a bit is out on Centennial Trail, the pavement is somewhat slanted to the side.  At some of the aid stations the volunteers had "themes" (ex: bagpipes playing at one) so that was kinda fun.

You ride over the hill on the bike course, so you know what to expect.  It just feels a lot worse on the run

I have to chime in here with a funny story totally relating to this. I'm happy with my current weight -- it fluctuates a bit but I don't stress about it. I do weigh myself daily and make changes if it starts to creep up.

When training for CDA 2010, one morning my husband remarked, "You know, for all of the training you do, it's not like you're rail thin!"

OK -- that sounds very a-holish (he does not think I'm fat, I do not think I'm fat, but he will tell me if jeans aren't flattering, haha!). Anyway, the point he was making, I learned going farther into the conversation, was how incredibly hard it is to lose weight through exercise alone. I'm a pretty healthy eater by nature, but I do allow myself a nightly dessert. It's one of the reasons I like to train!

I think IM training is a very fine balance if you want to lose weight. I was having a hard time on some of my workouts because I wasn't taking in enough calories after long workouts the day before. It was eye-opening to me how important the fueling and re-fueling was -- eating the RIGHT foods, and ENOUGH foods as well.

Welcome Elliot, what other IM's have you done?         NM, figured it out 

Edited by Shermbelle 2010-09-17 10:15 PM

I’m in for the goal race weight challenge / motivator or whatever we are calling it. 

Current weight 186

Race weight 170.

Good luck to everyone on getting to their goal weight. 

Edited by tribean 2010-09-18 2:41 AM

I have crazy flunctuations in weight.
A month ago I was getting close to 200 lbs in the runup to IMFL.  Thought I would be 195 by then.  Sprained ankle, wrecked my bike, and now have elbow bursitis so my volume has really dropped.  So, now I'm back up to almost 208.  Ugh.  SOOO easy to outeat a 3 hour run.

I would like to be as close to 190 by CdA as possible, but I'm not going to sweat it if I'm not.

For anyone interested in using it , I've set up a google spreadsheet here:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=0Aneb-6HRbOtbdDFGMm9PYi1rdzl...

for folks in the group to enter their weight loss goals and track progress between now and the race. Just send me a message if you'd like to use it and I'll send login info.

I managed to get my weight loss done this season, losing 10lbs a month for six months from February to August and putting my BMI right in the middle of the normal range. The big challenge now is to actually keep it off, as I've lost weight on fad diets two times previously but gained most/all back within a year. So having CDA out next spring better keep me motivated this time.

The number one weight loss thing I learned this year is that counting calories really works, both what you consume and what you burn through day-to-day life plus training. I used an iPhone program to keep track of everything, which makes it so much easier than doing this would have been a couple of years ago. For the calories burned side, I used standard metabolic rate formulas for day-to-day life and software for my heart rate monitor to calculate calories burned during training, then added those together to get my daily total.

The engineer in me was surprised when I plotted all this out and saw that my actual weight loss matched my predicted weight loss based on the standard formula of 3500 calories per lb of fat, within one pound for the entire six months. I now get asked to go out to lunch and describe the mathematics of weight loss to all my engineer colleagues. There are lots of psychological/emotional sides of weight management, but it really does all come down to the numbers in the end and the smartphone programs out there are a great tool.

Reactions to weight loss are funny. In my case, many of my friends pass on stories of coworkers expressing concern about me either being horribly sick or under way too much stress since I've lost so much weight. The project manager from NASA for our Jupiter probe even came into my office very concerned, knowing that I've got just about the most stressful part of the project to manage. I responded that yeah, it's so stressful it drove me to triathlon to maintain my sanity outside the office and is one of the better things that's happened to me.

Anyway, I'm happy to help anyone out with left-brain weight loss techniques if you want more details.

In my case, many of my friends pass on stories of coworkers expressing concern about me either being horribly sick or under way too much stress since I've lost so much weight.

You must be close to race weight... Heard this somewhere and it's kinda stuck with me.


When people you haven't seen in a while come up and ask how you've managed to lose so much weight, you know you're within 10 lbs.
When these people approach your friends and ask you if you've been sick or are on drugs, you know you're within 5 lbs.
When these people stage an intervention for you... you're there.

40 weeks from today....just sayin

or 10 weeks till start of training. Yikes!

10 weeks until official training, but less than a month to ski season. Gotta try to get enough mountain biking in before things get too busy.As far as weight goes, I'm at 168 and single digit body fat. Last saw my parents a couple weeks ago and my mom expressed concern about my weight; the gf is saying I'm too thin, and creepily obsessed with tracking my caloric and exercise levels. I must be getting close.

Edited by beanmj 2010-09-20 12:23 AM

I would definately stay off of Gov't Way and Northwest Blvd. no matter when you go. Most of the other roads are pretty quiet for the most part. Here is a link to a modified ride starting at the library which keeps you off of the more busy roads. Have fun. Wish I could join.
http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/id/coeur-d%26%23039%3ba...

If you will be skiing in 1 month, I will not be pleased!!  I have been jones'ing to go skiing since about June (Last day I went was 5/30). 

That will be the interesting thing, is balancing the skiing with the long workouts.

Who here is interested in participating in Jorge's winter cycling program?  I NEED to actually ride my trainer this winter, and I find that competing with others / holding each other accountable helps a great deal. 

I've done Jorge's plan in the past and will vouch for it.  I plan to use parts of it this winter as well.

Still looking for a place to stay in CDA.  Has anyone heard anything about Shilo Inn Suites?  Close and cheap.  I mean my expectations are low based on the pictures, but wondering if anyone has personal experience.

Sadly most VRBO spots have been taken. Cheers 

Regarding places to stay - the official IMCdA website puts this out, which they say is a "complete list" of hotels, but it's far from complete:

http://www.ironmancda.com/lodging.php

... so now you know which places will be booked   Now go to Google Maps for the area or yellow pages or whatever and you can find several hotels that aren't listed in the IMCdA guide.

If you still can't find a room nearby, you can check Post Falls, ID which is just a couple miles out.  And as a last resort you could stay in Spokane, WA which is a 30-40 min drive.  But I'd be surprised if you had to go that far.  I registered very late (Jan?) for the 2010 race via a Foundation slot and was still able to find a room in CdA.

Man this town loves to strong arm IMers.  5-7 night minimums all over the place. Thanks for this list.

Im still without lodging partly as a function of a late start and partly due to my wife finally deciding not to bring the kids. Probably end up being me and a friend to sherpa. So ill probably be looking later in the year when the prices hopefully will drop some or there will be room to haggle. Im not too panicky yet.