Ironman Coeur d'Alene : Official Thread (Page 27)

So how much sleep has everyone been getting?  I have seem to be sleeping for 10 hours at a time on my heavy days, 9 hours on a lighter day.   Once the days get longer I might be going to bed when it's still light outside

Achen2Iron - Sounds like a good route, I would join you if I was still living in Spokane .

Sleep, hmmm. Well, before we got our puppy 4 months ago I was on the 9 hours on a good night schedule, 8 on a "bad" night. Now, its 9 if I'm really luck, 8 on average and 7 on a "bad" night. He is getting better though - he has gone from lasting about 6-7 hours without a peep to a solid 8 hours, and 9 hours if he gets a lot of sun/exercise that day! As training gets heavier, I will definitely try and make most nights 9 hours.

Wow, we are under 70 days until the race. I actually had my first bad dream (nightmare) lastnight about the race. I forgot my wetsuit at my house, ran home to get it and was late for the start. Yikes.

wowzers on the amount of sleep some are getting. I get between 6-7.5 on most nights during work week. 4 kids and coaching track results in me being exhausted by friday. I missed my long bike this saturday as I was wiped out! I need to get more sleep.

Going to try to be better about checking in over here... My time online dwindles as my time training increases.

And yes, I've been feeling a bit more tired the last couple of weeks. 

Am impressed with how much sleep some of you get. On days when I do early-morning workouts (usually 3x a week) I get about 6.5 hours. Other days I hit about 7-8. Maybe once/week I get 8.5. Wish I were getting more!!

 

prior to this last week i was getting 7 hours on a good night 6 on a bad night. This past week i was getting 4 to 5 a night. I was in charge to help plan our dispatcher appreciation banquet which was Saturday night. So now i hope to get back on a regular schedule.

I have to work.  I rode the north loop this weekend.  They have the top of English Point Road tore up for utility work.  There are some gravel sections but it is still passable.  Still some sand / gravel in the corners so be careful on the downhill curves.  Enjoy your ride. 

My husband and I were just discussing this last night.  Originally we thought that it would be cheaper for us to pay the airline fee and fly with our bikes- we already have bike cases that we used for IM Cozumel and figured we should get our money's worth out of it.  Our bikes will weigh in under 50lbs since we have soft cases so we'd only have to pay for the over sized fee.

But...we would have to worry about our bikes getting there since we'll have probably at least 2 layovers to get to Spokane.  And assembling them when we get to CDA.  We had major bike mechnical issues on the Cozumel bike course so I'm little haunted by those memories and don't want to have to take apart my bike to transport it.  And  with 2 bike cases + 2 tri bags + 1 suitcase we'll have to size up with the rental car which will cost more money. 

So....maybe flying with our bikes won't be cheaper and we should just pay $250 each to use the bike transport our local tri shop offers. 

We are still trying to decide.  We need to figure it out and also book our airfare.  And arrange for wetsuit rental- gosh, so much to do besides the training piece.
But of course we still don't know what we'll do.

Edited by runnergirl 2010-04-19 2:52 PM

Yeah- it is really expensive.  Our tri shop will truck the bikes as well for $250 a piece so it's a little bit cheaper.  I'm doing the math and if we trucked them we could include a gear bag in with that cost, meaning we wouldn't have to check any bags.  We could each bring a carry on with our clothes and all our gear can go with our bikes.  So no baggage fees for us   We would just have to deal with a limited wardrobe which is ok because our condo has a washer/dryer- perfect!

If we fly with our bikes then we'd each have our tri bags as our carry ons with all our gear which is free.  But each bike would be the first piece of checked luggage.  Alaska Air has the best deals for us right now and the first piece of luggage is $15 so that would be $30.  Plus the oversized fee- which can be $50-$75 each way per bike depending on the size.  Plus, we'd have to check at least one suitcase with clothes so that's another $25 one way since it would be considered one of our 2nd checked bags.  Geez- the airlines don't make it easy on the wallet to travel with bikes at all.  So with that that added up plus paying more for a larger rental car to fit all of our stuff, it might be cheaper to truck our bikes.

Why does this sport have to be so expensive??

Triseattle, you should check out the local tri club when you get here (Desert Sharks).  There are a fair number of 100+ mile rides.  Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it, there are usually some pretty significant climbs if you want to do a long ride around Salt Lake.  If you are here in time, you should check out the SL Century (May 15).  It may be the only flat course in this part of the state, and it's always nice to have fellow sufferers!  Have you every checked out the website mapmyride?  There were some good rides mapped out there last time I checked. 

tribrandi - I have heard of the Desert Sharks, just be snooping around a little bit online. May 15th would be perfect for that 100-miler. Are you doing it? I have also heard of mapmyride, but haven't used it much at all. Are there any sprint/olympic distance tri's that you are doing before CDA? Thanks for the info. Right now I am trying to find housing in SLC and it is harder than heck with a dog...geesh .

triseattle:

I am doing the SL Century, there is also a century ride the weekend before that I think I will do.  I am not going to do any more races before CDA though.  I am planning to spend some time  biking up the canyons too to get ready for the hills!  I don't think there are any good olympic races in May/June (water is too cold).  August and September is a great time for races near Salt Lake.      

Dogs are the best, but they do make it hard to find a place to live!?  Good luck.

I'm flying Southwest.  As of now, it's just $50 (each way) to ship a bike.  Of course, then you need some sort of carrier.  The cardboard boxes bikes are shipped in will work - I know a lot of pros still use them (and pack a lot of other things in the box as well).  I usually rent one from the Tri Club for $25.00.

Public Service Announcement: If you haven't done so yet, now is the time to do your 'spring cleaning' on your bike for IMCdA.  There is nothing like diminishing the chances of having a 'mechanical' out of the equation for race day ... and as the old adage says: if you take care of your bike then it will take care of you. 

After 2500 miles since the last major tune-up and a very wet winter,  I just had my the bike stripped down to the frame, all parts cleaned, drive train cleaned, pedals serviced, new cables installed, cassette, chain and front chain ring replaced due to wear and a new bottom bracket.

The reason to do it now is so that the new replacement parts can 'break in'.  New cables stretch and therefore the deraillueres need tweaking to keep the shifting smooth.   It also gives you a chance to decide upon which cassette to use for the race.

Nobody likes to spend money on maintenance but the difference from the before to after is incredible ... smoooooth like buttah!

I am extremely exhausted. I try to get 8 hours of sleep but on nights before Masters, I am lucky to get 7 as that is a 4:55 wake up call. I actually skipped it this AM as I just could not get out of bed. First time I have done that all year. I finally went to the pool but just had no energy. Gave up after a miserable 1000m.

But maybe I've earned a little rest. The other Atlanta Brian and I did a trail run on Saturday followed by first OWS of the year, my first century ever in Alabama mountains on Sunday (yes, they have them. not CO but bigger than ID), and a 2 hr run on yesterday.

All this was the culmination of a pretty heavy 3 week block so glad I finally get some rest this week and that this exhaustion sounds normal. It is 7PM and I'm in bed tonight by 9.

Good luck to us all in these coming heavy volume weeks. Stay injury free!

Off to the closest sports doc tomorrow (100 miles each way).  Hopefully I can get some info on how to rehab my leg or what is wrong with it or something.  I feel soo discouraged, but still plan on "participating" in the race.  I have been afraid to push any intensity on the bike and well the swim just isn't coming along as I had hoped.  I don't anticipate any improvements in the swim time this year.  I have no real reason for feeling tired, I am not even running and am typically only doing a single workout during week days.  I am even taking a day off every week this year.  The 3-4 inches of snow on a bike day is probably not lifting my spirits much.  Oh well.  Hopefully good news tomorrow will snap me back into the mood for training hard.  Even being allowed to walk 5 miles would be welcome at this point. 

It breaks my heart to see such a training animal as you have been the last few years be up against such a barrier. Good luck with the sports doc and let us know how it goes. Tomorrow is another day and I hope your mood is better, but I know how discouraged you are.

Me, tomorrow I'm off to CDA for a training camp with my coach's mentor and several other local athletes. Have never been to CDA, and I am looking forward to running and riding the course. We won't be doing any lake swims, just two pool workouts. But I hope I can stick my hand in the lake, at least!! The weather looks lovely on Thurs/Fri. Saturday we are biking the course, so I hope the rain holds off!

A friend of mine and I from Portland are riding the course on Saturday too.

Hey Everyone! Hope your training is going well.  Baowolf - sorry to hear that your calf is still giving you fits.  Hope you get some encouraging news from the doc.

Boston is done, so I'll be on the shelf for a week or so.  Hope to ease back into things before too long as there's really not all that much time left before we're supposed to start tapering.

It's been raining here the last few days (weather was actually better in Boston than San Diego - go figure), so I don't know how soon we'll be able to get into the open water.  I'm hoping maybe by Sunday (Monday at the latest) we'll get some clearance on the coastline.

I'm going to try an easy ride on Saturday and then I'll be out at Torrey Pines, cheering on runners at the top of the hill around mile 6 of the La Jolla Half on Sunday morning.

Ill be out on the course on Saturday as well.  I'll be the only guy on a bright yellow Cervelo. haha

Quote KKCBELLE "Me, tomorrow I'm off to CDA for a training camp with my coach's mentor and several other local athletes. Have never been to CDA, and I am looking forward to running and riding the course. We won't be doing any lake swims, just two pool workouts. But I hope I can stick my hand in the lake, at least!! The weather looks lovely on Thurs/Fri. Saturday we are biking the course, so I hope the rain holds off!"

I am very jealous of your training camp. Please share all the details so I may live vicariously through you. That goes for all you other folks able to train on the course as well. I love hearing the details!

Edited by D-Smoke 2010-04-22 8:18 AM

A lot of people have recommended that I get some ear plugs for the CDA swim so the cold water won't make me dizzy.  Has anyone done the CDA with ear plugs?  If so which ones do you recommend?  I've never had to wear ear plugs before and have no idea which ones work better.

Well, went to the sports doc today.  He said I have a calf tear and recommended no running for  1 month.... with CDA 2 months away.   So that will give me 1 month of walk run building before the race.... not ideal.  I might be able to pull off a run walk thing for CDA.  I will just have to see how that all goes.  

Aside from that we had snow yesterday... and I got a flat on my trainer!  Sigh.