Ironman Canada : Official Thread (Page 3)

The group that I've been training with has been using perform for the last 6 months or so.  I personally like it a whole lot more than Gatorade.  I'm a sweater and am stoked since it seems to have more sodium than Gatorade as well.

On another note. . .

What type of gearing is everyone going with for IMC?  I'm going with a standard 53/39 in the front and a 12/27 in the rear.  I have an FTP of just under 300w, but weigh ~83 kg.  I'd like to have an easier gear to spin the climbs and save my legs for the run.  I'd also love to shed an extra ~5 lbs before the race and keep my bike as light as possible for the race.

That sucks! I hope it's not. We are so close!

I also did the GWN Half Ironman last weekend and felt pretty good. I basically went my Ironman pace (which is kind of the only pace I have right now, I guess due to a lack of interval training).

We have had some pretty awesome weather for training here in Saskatoon. On Friday I did 127km with my bf and I felt really good. He was hurting, so I went at his pace a lot. By the end I was not feeling well because of the heat (it was around 28 degrees), but my body felt pretty good otherwise. An ibuprofen and a cold bath for the legs made it so that I couldn't even tell I had done anything! I still have some work to do on my running, which will start this week. I'm not too worried about the swim, but will get in two a week from now until Ironman to maintain.

I'm being truly inspired by the Tour de France these days. Good luck on the last few weeks of training! Almost there! Stay healthy and stay strong!

congrats on the slot spacebabe, and welcome to BT.

the mountain passes on the bike aren't as bad as ppl make them seem.  train long (7-10 mile) consistant hills and you'll be prepared for race day. 

a local legend in my area has done IMC 12 times.  his PR for the race came when he won entry into the race just 2 months before the race date.  train smart and don't over-do-it. get to the starting line healthy!  see you in a couple weeks

This is a great forum - it will feel like old friends when we are all up there - I'll be the 'deer in the headlights' one. 

I have borrowed or rented race wheels for my past few HIM's (this is my first full!) but want to get something of my own for this event - what do you veterans of the bike course advise? 

Thanks!  Everyone take care!

6 weeks to go!!!

How we all feeling. Still lots of time to warm up, but i've heard that water is still pretty chilly. Like everywhere else, they've had a cool spring/summer so far.

training has been solid for me, hope its going well for the rest of you! slight speedbump was introduced, that i will be on business travel for the next 15 weeks. haha, .  at least i still get to take my PTO for calgary (2 weeks) and IMC. i will keep an eye on the temperatures when i am in the "area" for calgary. 

train hard, but also train smart now, better to be undertrained than freak out and inury yourself trying to get hours in!

Great to see so many on the sight now. Getting a little scary at 40 days. I was on the I wish I could find some of the Power drink. The site says all running rooms carry it but not here in Winnnipeg. My daughter works PT at Running Room so she is trying to track some down, will post in a couple days if they do in fact have it or its coming.

Will be my first IM and as the old guy in the group I just want to finish and look back with a smile on the experience. Training lots and following my program, did a HIM the past week-end in brutal heat but we survived and used it as just another training day. Have done 3 century rides so far and will hopefully do another 3 before the big day. The marathon will tell the tell for me I'm hopeing for good old autumn weather enough of this 30c+ stuff. Not much for mountains on thre prairies to train so they are going to be a challange. Doing hill repeats about X1 a week  but as they say life still goes on.

Take care all and best of luck staying injury free.

I was in Penticton July 1 - 11 and I got in 4 OWS in Skaha Lake and the water was quite cold. I tried it with no wet suit and it was just not possible. With the wetsuit it was no problem. The lakes will most likely warm up a lot by the end of August.

I also did the Valley First Gran Fondo 160k bike ride while I was there, my first 100 Mile ride, and excellent event and a great training ride.

I was able to get some Lemon Lime Ironman perform and I personally had no issues with it. Did my brick on the weekend using it and all was good. Element Sport in Edmonton will ship it if you don't mind paying the shipping.

Did a trial run of the bike course on the Computrainer thanks to the Real Course Video. . .whew. . .6 hrs 15 minutes on a trainer was tedious.  I was trying out the nutrition and pacing / power plan for the bike and everything seemed to work well though perhaps I was taking in too many fluids (4 bathroom breaks.)  Ended up with 5 1/2 bottles of Perform and 3 1/2 bottles of water.  I had a couple of really strong fans going so perhaps my sweat rate wasen't as high as it may be on course.

I'm hoping  that 6:15 will translate into a sub 6 on the actual course considering that I was still pumping out 210w on the downhills in order to get some decent speed (still only about 31 to 32 mph.)  On the CT I seem to get all the disadvantages of being 185lbs on climbs with none of the aero benefits of having a tri bike and ZERO COASTING. 

I ended up averaging 215w for the entire ride and felt pretty damn good on my 30 min brick run afterwards (averaged a conservative 8:50 mile pace.)  From people I know who've done both the RCV is much harder. . .hears to hoping thats true!

holy crap. i have the RCV and haven't even thought of doing the entire ride!

my favorite section is ~32 mile mark (richter) to base of yellow ~85. kudos for busting out the entire thing. i think it is fair to say you will be quicker on race day.

I ordered Ironman Perform online from Running Room they had it delivered to RR on Kenaston.

Thanks for your training report. Out of curiousity, what cassette are you running on your bike?

I am planning on going down next week by myself to ride the course - glad to hear it's safe. I always get nervous to do long rides by myself.

Thanks for all the info! I didn't even think to check the road construction situation. Silly me! Is the road past Yellow Lake closed, or just busy/dangerous? I got held up on my ride today for 15 minutes while they are rebuilding a section of highway up here that got washed out with all our rain. Totally annoying!

I have an 11-23 on my bike but kind of want an 11-25 or 11-27. I did IMWI last year with a 12-27 and didn't like not having the 11 for the downhills. I need as much momentum as I can get going into uphills!!    After the past two weeks of 90 mi rides, I think I am going to have to be satisfied with simply coming in under 17 hours. I am not feeling fit at all, hopefully after a few more weeks training and a nice taper I will be in a more positive mood!! I guess I'm starting to freak out.

Hey Jellyman, we must have been out there at the same time. we had 13 of us from calgary come down for the weekend.

I put on an Ultegra 11-28 on My P2. I had a 12-25 prior. Thought it might be a bit of overkill, but it was great for Richters. Nice spin up the hill. Anything to save my legs for the 42.2k after!!

We rode the course on Friday, and the construction right now at the top of Yellow Lake is sporadic. It was closed from 1:30-2:30 as they were blasting some rock. We timed it well, and only had a 15 min wait at the top. The road is open all the way through though.

Glad I rode the course. Mclean creek was a surprise. For some reason I didnt expect a climb on it.Richter wasn't as bad as I was expecting, the rollers sucked though. Headwind when we got there. I was expecting 'rollers' not 5 min climbs. The out and back will be sucky on race day, but at least we'll see lots of people on the road there. Yellow Lake will be fine. Lots of spectators pulling us along. Remember that there is 30k or so after Yellow Lake back to T2.

Lake was nice and warm.(at least by our Calgary standards). We ran from Skaka Lake to the turnaround in OK Falls as well. Really nice run, with a pretty major hill  ~3.5 k from the turnaround.

IMC is going to be my second IM. When I signed up for it, I hadn't even done one (though I was signed up for one), but a lot of people in my club do it so I figured it would be fun regardless.

Unfortunately, I am injured and so can't run very fast at all (it aggravates everything the faster I run) and haven't done much running this season. As a result, I tried a new strategy two weekends ago when I did Vineman 70.3. I went all out on the swim and bike and then walked the aide stations on the run and this approach worked quite well. I was worried I'd have an even harder time running if I pounded on the bike, but I actually had my best run yet!

I can't make it out to ride the course beforehand so I'm relying on you other Calgary peeps to give some comparisons

How does Richter compare to the climb out of Edworthy to Coach hill?