SBR Utopia Season II - OPEN (Page 24)

Only?? We would die here. I love my desert climate. Our heat can be stifling, however, and when you add 30 mph winds, it's like being hit with a blow dryer. We don't bring towels to the pool. No need.

You're gonna do great!!!!

As a bigger guy heat KILLS me.   THe end of today's run was about 75 ish and i was pretty warm.   If it's much over 80 I collapse.

And we're very close to the same size now, so yeah, about the same for me. First couple miles might be ok, but late in the run, I just want to die. The HR sensitivity is a bit surprising to me. I can keep sorta it down by slowing, sometimes, but even just the slightest bit faster and it will rocket up like I jumped at least 45 sec/mi or more.

What I'm trying to get a better handle on how to approach this. Like what type of runs. Fast ones, long ones, easy ones, doesn't matter as long as it happens fairly regular. And then frequency. I've talked a little with an elite guy in the past who seemed to do ok in the heat, at least as far as I could tell at the time (2:14-2:19 marathons) and he recommended something like 30% of the time making it hot. But when runs were supposed to be really easy, as in recovery or close to that, stay out of it as best I could and really keep it easy by all ways. Trying to see if there is more up to date info or if something like our size difference might affect what he said. 5'9", 125 lbs for him and 6'3", ~180 lbs for me.

I was reading some of the web updates on for the Ironman European Championships in Frankfurt and it mentioned that the pros and 200 of the fastest AGers went off in the first wave.  Has anyone else heard about this where top AGers are allowed to start first instead of a strict PRO and AG starts?  I've always wondered why they didn't do this for all their events.

The second wave has now started. At 6:45 they sent off the pros and 200 of the fastest age group athletes. Now the rest of the 2,600 athletes are swimming in the Langener Waldsee.

http://www.ironman.com/triathlon/coverage/detail.aspx?race=germany&y=2013#axzz2YQGrjc5P

One of the joys of living on an island is that 60% is pretty low humidity.  It's pretty common for us to be 85% or more.

It's the first I've heard of it but I think it's a good idea.  With the likely switch to wave and rolling starts, it wouldn't surprise me if this became more common.

Think I've heard of it, but can't remember if it was Ironman or not. Definitely over in Europe though. Also think it's a good idea and will be curious to see where they go with it. As in do they just get a cleaner start or will one eventually have to be in that wave for something like a  Kona slot? And what one has to do to get into that wave.

Yeah, I can't decide what's worse.  In the mornings here in Houston, it's not entirely uncommon to be 80F with 99% humidity.  When you run in that, you can get literally no evaporative cooling.  The afternoons will get up into the mid 90's, but much lower humidity (say 70%).  Though it's a hotter temperature and the sun is beating down on you, I sometimes feel like it's easier with the lower humidity.

It's a toss-up though....Houston weather pretty much sucks!  But I do like training in it and then racing somewhere nicer

How do they pick the 200 fastest AG'ers?  I assume it's based on previous races?  And when they say the "fastest AG'ers", is that the fastest swimmers or the fastest overall racers? 

Interesting idea.  It's such a pain when people seed themselves improperly for races (not just for swimming, but for others as well).  I'll be curious to see if they do that in other races as well.

I have decided that the "F" in 99F means "freaking," "flipping," "faching," "effing," or whatever you choose.

That is all.

Around these parts we talk about how much faster we are when it is cool and dry. Heh.

Low humidity is generally faster than cooler temperature for me.

The annual online chatter has begun as to whether IM Lake Placid will be wetsuit legal or not (it most likely will be as the only time it was not was in 2011 when the entire NE seaboard was suffering a 100 degree heat wave). It doesn't really matter to me one way or the other, but I mention it in this context as it would be interesting to see what WTC would do in a non-wetsuit swim with a rolling start. Maybe we will find out in a few weeks.

Someone posted in the ST thread that the RD said wetsuits would go last.

Yeah, I read that as well, but the supposed email was so "unprofessional" that I just wrote it off ad the poster trying to keep the thread alive. I do imagine that is what they would do, however. As one of only about 300 folks that went without a wetsuit in 2011 I still think it was a good decision, but the mixed swim was a mess.

Originally posted by mcmanusclan5 Not sure about this (as in " don't understand"). Could you elaborate on why wetsuits last would work better?I'd think that it would be the other way 'round to avoid people swimming through all the previous waves. No?And, yes, imanoob...

The issue with IMLP is that if it is not wetsuit legal, you still have the option of wearing a wetsuit, but you won't qualify for awards or a Kona spot.  Which means the fastest athletes will all ditch the wetsuit, and you'll still have a whole bunch of average AGers who will still decide to use the wetsuit because they want to swim faster but have no chance at a podium/Kona. 

When you mix those two together, then you get a whole bunch of swimmers who are normally slower now mixing it up with the top AG swimmers in a huge scrum.  Naturally you could make the argument that the swimmers could seed themselves accordingly based on if they are wearing a wetsuit or not...but good luck with that.  Imagine telling a guy who's trying to KQ with a 1:02 non wetsuit swim and a 9:20 overall finishing time that he needs to start the race 10 rows back.  That's not going to happen.

OMG, I'd be dying in 60% humidity.  But then again it is over 100F here.  I find that when you are super slow heat doesn't slow you down too much.  lol  The first week the heat hits here is hard but I adjust pretty quickly.  But when monsoon season hits and our humidity climbs out of single digits, that is when I really get impacted, although I have never really paid too much attention to how much pace wise (go back to that super slow comment), but effort is where I feel it.  The runs always just feel harder, even when running super easy

Originally posted by Jason N

Originally posted by mcmanusclan5 Not sure about this (as in " don't understand"). Could you elaborate on why wetsuits last would work better?I'd think that it would be the other way 'round to avoid people swimming through all the previous waves. No?And, yes, imanoob...

The issue with IMLP is that if it is not wetsuit legal, you still have the option of wearing a wetsuit, but you won't qualify for awards or a Kona spot.  Which means the fastest athletes will all ditch the wetsuit, and you'll still have a whole bunch of average AGers who will still decide to use the wetsuit because they want to swim faster but have no chance at a podium/Kona. 

When you mix those two together, then you get a whole bunch of swimmers who are normally slower now mixing it up with the top AG swimmers in a huge scrum.  Naturally you could make the argument that the swimmers could seed themselves accordingly based on if they are wearing a wetsuit or not...but good luck with that.  Imagine telling a guy who's trying to KQ with a 1:02 non wetsuit swim and a 9:20 overall finishing time that he needs to start the race 10 rows back.  That's not going to happen.

Thanks.  

Decisions people make never fail to amaze me, and I'm about as die-hard a cynic (for an optimist) as you'll find.  I wouldn't have even considered anyone choosing to swim in a wetsuit if it's not "wetsuit legal."  I know it's legal, as in allowed and you won't get pulled off the course, even if you're not "really" in the race, but it doesn't feel that much different from doping / surreptitiously taking T and the like for some reason.  I know plenty of people apparently do this.  And draft.    But still…  

Odd, perhaps, but it just didn't occur to me that someone would still use the wetsuit to swim fast when it won't "matter" from an official result standpoint.  Why would you?  Wouldn't you want to compare your time to the field and normalize it to the day in some way?  I suppose it's all about beating a previous time and competing against yourself and all that, but once it's not "wetsuit legal," it just seems to be not "wetsuit happening."  And I'm hardly a Kona contender!!

Am I missing something?  I really don't mean to sound self-righteous (if I did, you'd know!), just really surprised by this one.  Is there a common way of thinking on this in the tri-community that I haven't seen?  As disclaimed, I'm a noob and admit to missing pieces of the tribe's culture - especially on situations where I haven't personally had to make the choice (like, not surprisingly, a wetsuit non-legal swim).  Just going on gut here...

And if I use "quotes" one more time, I'm going to ban myself from online forums for a month.  

Matt

I have yet to swim in a race that was wet suit legal, but I was close until the Kansas 5150 swim was cancelled.  Anyway, the bold above is my issue. I'm a weak swimmer, but having not much experience in my wet suit (two swims), I'm not convinced it gives me any advantage or security. I prefer swimming without it and am thankful I haven't needed to race in it. Bottom line: I overheat easily. I only purchased the wetsuit for the 5150 because it looked like the water temp was going to be dangerously low (around 50F when I purchased it a couple weeks out), otherwise, I was planning to swim without.

Which makes me wonder -- how low would you all swim without a wetsuit?