Ironman World Championship 70.3 : Official Thread (Page 2)

I have heard Frontier will not charge for a bike if you buy their second tier plane ticket.  It costs more than their 'bottom" tier ticket, but you get to fly the bike for free.  Again, this is what I have heard, I have not actually done it. 

What day(s) of the week did you ride the course?  How was the traffic?  Any concerns safety wise while training on the bike course?

Thanks!

It wasn't bad at all.  I'd assume that traffic is never that bad in the national park, which is a good chunk of the ride.  I rode in the middle of the week starting at 6am, and I'd say about 5 cars passed me in the park... good shoulder as well. Traffic will noticeably get heavier when you get closer to Henderson (as well as lots of traffic lights/turns). I'd say you're better off skipping the last section and just drive it.  All the stopping at lights, and figuring out where to turn in Henderson was a pain in the a$$.

Thanks guys.  I almost booked US Airways until I found out how high the bike fees were.  Ended up going with Southwest.

Now just have to find a bike case.  The LBS will give me a cardboard box, and I found a shop about an hour away that rents cases for $50/week.  Unfortunately due to our travel dates and the distance to the shop I would have to rent 2 weeks and that seems ridiculous.

I might just end up trying to find a used case on Craigslist.

Check with ALL your friends (acquantinces) .  .  . I ended up borrowing someone's bike box. 

This is what I'm doing as well. Sure will beat the $500+ it cost for my bike to get to Beach2Battleship last fall!

Still no luck.  I talked to most of the local cyclists and triathletes and nobody has one.

The issue with the shop an hour away is their hours... unless I take time off work I can't get there mid-week during their business hours.  Looks like I might be stuck paying for 2 weeks at $50/week.

Anyhow, we're 2 weeks out; getting excited yet?

I am!

I'm also hoping for a blizzard. Heat sucks.

Last 60+ mile bike today. A couple more harder workouts early this next week, then time to ease back the volume.

Two weeks will go by quick!

I'd be happy with a high in the mid 90's - that would probably mean a temp around 90 around 11 AM. Without humidity I don't think it'll feel drastically different than the 80's and high humidity I've done a majority of my summer training in (at least that's what I'm telling myself!).

Ok- I also finished what should be my last 60 miler before the race today.  Carrying a lot of fatigue though, and it just wasn't what I wanted it to be.  Legs felt dead and the wind took a lot out of me.

I know the hay's in the barn so to speak, but wondering what everyone's thoughts are on doing another long ride next Friday... I have off Fri and Mon for Labor Day so it would be good timing.  I am planning to start cutting a little volume this week, then full taper the week before the race.

It's more of a mental thing- i'd just like to have one more long ride where i'm feeling great.  After that i'll probably get in a trainer session or two over the weekend, then a 35-40 miler on Monday as a final shakedown with the race wheels installed, then start packing up the bike (flying out Wednesday after work.)  So I really won't be riding much the week leading up to the race.

Thoughts?  Also thinking about doing an easy ride on the part of the course leading out towards Lake Meade Thurs afternoon or Friday if anyone's interested!

At less than 2 weeks to go, you cannot add any material fitness that will be there for you on the race day. That is the short of the physiology of it.

The art: no taper model advocates long riding that close to the race day, however many do prescribe maintaining of intensity or just a notch over your race pace for all 3 inside 2 weeks to go.

In other words, this is a quote: "you cannot make your sword bigger now, but you can make it sharper".

I did not look into your logs, nor I claim I know the subject, but you can possibly do more harm than good. Many will suggest, go faster not longer, but don't take it literally.  

Taper period for HIM is usually a staggered pattern, 2-3 weeks long, whose main objective is to  shed fatigue.

I think you have done the work.

That is a good point above. If you are coming down from 70-90mi long rides, 50mi with some intervals at race intensity is no big deal, is appropriate actually. That is why I mentioned I did not look at your logs. 

I will have a 50mi ride 9-7 days before HIM race, it will have some race effort segments in it, but I have been doing 70-80-90mi regularly during the prep. They did vary in flavor.

Another rule of thumb, the more fit you are, read more fatigued, the longer the taper and vice a verse. Which means that if you are beginning to taper from a relatively lower volume, less fatigue, taper/ can be shorter, 7-10 days for HIM.

Hopefully you are getting some ideas. It is really very individual.

I'm planning on doing a ~36 mile bike and 6 mile run, both at race pace, this Friday as my last bigger workout. This is a 2 1/4 hr workout that I can recover quickly from. It'll be nine days out from Vegas. I did this same workout the Friday before my last HIM and felt great going in - a real confidence booster.

I'm using roughly a ten day taper, but the volume is decreasing from 20 hours last week to around 14 this week, then around 8 in the week leading up to Vegas.

Good points; thanks Atasic, Brigby, and Nate.

My longest ride this summer has been 110 miles, with many in the 50-60 mile range.  However, nothing between a 63 miler and the 110.  I have been focusing on trying to minimize the weekend time I spend away from my wife and kids for long rides, so instead do a lot of 20-25 mile trainer rides midweek.

I just looked back, and I have averaged 133 miles per week of cycling April through August.  I think that I'll probably be fine to ride 50-60 miles next Friday (9 days from race day.)  I'll definitely take the advice to not push too hard, though.

My training has been a mess, after getting first a foot tendon issue, then Achillies issues for the last 8 weeks.  I'm just glad to be healthy now!

And wave 18?  Seriously?

Could be worse. I'm in wave 19...    At least we get to sleep in.

No idea how my run will go either. Past 2 months have been a mess. First, hip trouble, then calf was acting up again. Just see what happens on race day.

Yeah, I'm doing ok on hills around here. Not nearly as long, but some can be quite a bit steeper. It's all duration and intensity related now.

Seems like it's best to look at it as on a long ramp, 3%-ish most of the time. Two miles up, two miles down, repeat a few times.

Looking at results from last year, it looks like the difference in splits on the down vs. the ups is around 1-1.5 min/mile (I think there must be timing mats at the bottom and top turn-around points). So, if you're aiming for a 1:30 HM run, you'd probably need to be around 6:20 on the down section and around 7:30 on the up section.

I'd like to say I have a plan for the run that I can execute, but I've never really experienced high 90's-100 dry heat, so I don't know how my body will react.