Ironman St. George : Official Thread (Page 22)

I've been tweeting something like this the past few weeks as i think of them:

I think the 910XT is having problems with elevation gain/loss.  I've had the Edge 500 for a few years and just got the 910 in Feb.  I've done a few known rides using both devices and the 910 is recording much more climb than the Edge.  This past weekend the 910 had 10,200 feet of gain (and 11,200 feet of loss!) for a known ride that starts and finishes at the same place.  The Edge had 8,200, which is about what I think it should be.  All other metrics were within .05%, so something just seems wrong with the elevation gain.

A friend rode the IMSG course a few weeks ago and uploaded to Strava.  He had about 6,000' of climb.  I'll look around for some GCs using the Edge devices as I think those are the most accurate right now...Here's one: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/84168886 (7,000')

Next up for me is Boston and then the Mount Laguna Classic next weekend before tapering off for the race.  Hopefully, the water won't be any colder than Oceanside - I know we're still a ways out, but anyone know what the temps are these days?  Are we looking at mid-50s?

Music to my ears as a flatlander.  I'll be an interesting test for this bike course.   

Glad I'm doing it this year.  Most HIM/IM triathletes/coaches I talk to say I'm crazy to pick this course/race.  Too hilly and too tough for a flatlander.  They say nobody produces an impressive time on this course and it has the highest DNF numbers.  I really enjoy scenic courses and totally loved CdA.  Having done Miami 70.3, and Longhorn 70.3, and Lonestar 70.3, I could not imagine doing IMFL, IMTX, or IMAZ.  I need a real challenge and want a scenic view to boot.  Unfortunately, time is really important to most triathletes and so is effort.  Throw that with an early year race and I'm not surprised with the participant numbers.  Most people are scared of this course.                  

LittleCat - 2012-04-09 6:25 PM Connected with the session well, with some help from a coke and a cupcake with a mound of frosting at mile 90 121 miles, 6009 feet of gain, 7:01 time, avg cadence 65-yep I'm a card carrying masher!

I bet that cupcake hit the spot! The best treats I've ever had were associated with long events. A couple of summers ago, I was out on a hard 75-mile ride with temps in the upper 80s. I was 15 miles from home and running out of energy in a hurry. I pulled into a mini-mart and bought an ice cream sandwich. Best one I've ever had. Utterly fantastic. Cruised home the rest of the way with a big smile on my face.

The other one was the half of a Snickers bar I had in my run special needs bag at CdA last year. Man, that was soooo good.

Brad

Agreed. A challenging course definitely has it's own allure. I understand why people like fast courses or ones that are perceived to be less difficult. Heck, I looked for marathon courses like that when I was going for PRs. But I also appreciate a good challenge. I think some people worry they will fall apart on a hard course and finish near the back, but they forget everybody else is doing the same hard course too. The funnest events I remember doing are things like RAMROD (Ride Around Mt. Rainier in One Day) - 150 miles with 10,000 feet climbing - and Tour de Blast (climb to Mt. St. Helens) - 6,200 feet climbing in 82 miles. Sharing challenges like that with a group of people is just fun.

Brad

Nice work! Best wishes for your body holding up.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/166624429  finished my last big ride Saturday, 100 mile ride/7500 gain, Rode what is probably the toughest climb in Southern California and where the TOC will finish this year. Took me over 2 hours to climb this beast, followed it up with a 13 mile run.  

Had lots of time to think during the whole ordeal and wondered if I should of just saved lots of money and vacation time and done my own self supported Ironman. Mainly doing this event to check Ironman off my bucket list, doubt I will ever do another.

Oh well riding my motorcycle out to Utah and doing a week of backpacking afterwards has me equally excited as finishing the event.  

I swam in 46ish degree temp today here in N. Utah so 59 will feel nice (I'm headed down to St. George this weekend for one more training block on the course). Today I swam out to a bouy, and back to the shore (approx 300yds) where I had large bucket of hot water that I would pour down my wetsuit, and then repeat those out and backs. Didn't dare get to far from the shore with as cold as it was.

Speaking of water safety, last year I bought this ISHOF Safer Swim http://www.ishof.org/cgi-bin/mivavm?/Merchant2/merchant.mvc+Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=SF that you blow up and pull behind you - you can also stash your keys, wallet, phone and it all stays dry. Maybe some of you already know about it, but for people like me that swim alone out on the open water, it's provides a little peace of mind (not to mention that because it's bright orange, your more visible to waverunners, boats etc that have ignored the areas that say 'no boats). I use it on every OWS practice.

Does any one know how accurate map my ride is in regards to elevation? It seems dead on with mileage but I don't have a garmin or anything to cross check for elevation.  

Just wondering about a couple rides I did. 

I was wondering the same thing. I've been tracking the elevation of my rides on mapmyride and kind of comparing them to the 5000ft of climbing listed on the St George website. I pulled up a St George profile on map my ride to get an idea of how long/steep the climbs are which helped me plan out some other rides in my area to get a sense of what it would be like.