Ironman Florida : Official Thread (Page 3)

I am doing St. Anthony's, Gulf Coast and August 70.3 as tune ups for this race. Just completed the ING Half Marathon (although it was VERY VERY SLOW) ...will probably do some more running events and cycling prior to St. Anthony's.

Things have been a little rough for me since IM FL 2008..but I am determined!!! Can't wait to watch this thread through the coming months and learn ALOT from all of you!!!

Ok schedule...St Anthonys, Probably crystal river sprint, probably Patriot HIM. probabl cranberry oly and the IMFL of course  

I am lined up for the patriot half IM in Sept.  I am planning on bike racing June and July.  This will help with speed.

I am 43, training for my second Ironman. I did IMLP in 2008 as my first and it poured and was cold all day. It was awesome doing my first in those conditions and battling all the ups and downs of the day to barely finish in under 16 hours. It was like my own personal olympic victory. As a clydesdale, I am hoping IMFL 09 will be a relief from what IMLP was with all the hills but I realize the training is different with no relief on the bike. At IMLP you could recover on down hills. I went from 243lbs to 205 for IMLP. My first tri was in June 2007 in Lake Quassy , CT. I have done 14 triathlons. 7 in 2007 and 7 in 2008. 1 Ironman and 2 half ironmans. MY full and halfs have been real slow. I have also done 4 centuries in the passt 2 years and 2 marathons (one in 1988 (NYC) and one in 2000 (vermont) and 15 half marathons between 1988 and 2008. I love to sign up for all the races. It keeps me motivated and passionate about my health and you meet great people. I followed Don Finks 30 week training schedule for IMLP. It is an awesome schedule and I know many people including 10 time ironman athletes who have used it and got PR's. It is great for the busy person that works full time and might have kids etc like me and has to manage their workouts. I would swim long friday night, bike long sat am and run long sunday am. All my other workouts were 45minutes to 1 hr 15 minutes from tues to friday afternoon. I like the longs being between 6pm friday and 10 am sunday because its like a mini tri in 40 hour period. And the real long weekends with a 3500 yard swim, 5 hr bike and 3 hour run you are doing like 9.5 hours of training so its like 75% of an iron for 3 or 4 weekends in your peak period training. Then with your 3 week taper it gives you what you need to pull it all together in 17 hours or less on race day.There are 3 schedules in his book BeIRONfit. A Just finish program, an intermediate and a competitive. The just finish program starts you off at 3 hrs a week, the inter about 6 hours a week and the competitive about 8 hrs a week on week 1. My training will start April 13th. Between now and then I am training with Team in training for the st anthonys's tri. I live in CT . See below for my schedule leading to IMLF 2009 below
April -St Anthonys Triathlon Florida Flat and fast
May -Bloomin Metric 62 mile bike Hilly
June -Shelton CT Triathlon Hilly
June RevTri Aqua Bike Lake Quassy, CT Hilly
July -Pat Griskus sprint triathlon Hilly (my first tri that I like to do every year)
July - NYC Olympic triathlon (Medium hills)
August - Park City Olympic Triathlon Flat and fast course
September Firmman Half Iron Flat and fast course (some rollers)
September Tristate Sea Coast Century ride Flat and fast course
November FLORIDA IRONMAN Flat and fast course

Don fink has an olympic and a half iron in the 30 week schedule and the olympic and half iron I am doing fall on the exact weekends of the plan and they are nice and flat like florida

I am a vegetarian since I changed my eating habits in 2007. I used to even blend my own ride fuel with coconut water, hemp seed, sea salt, dates and lemon. My first few years of cleansing I really didnt want to put anything processed in my body. However, its difficult to get everything from natural sources without all the fiber that comes with it and we are burning off those calories as we take them in anyway so I shifted from my 100% raw food lifestyle. I am about 70% raw and about 80% organic. My main carbs are fruits vegetables and Quinoa. Quinoa is gluten free and a great pre race night before carb meal. Gluten which is in most products is an infammatory. An athletes worst enemy as we all know is inflammation which is pain. I avoid semolina wheat pasta because of that. I have wrote a lot of articles and a book about nutrition. I did them for my own knowledge at first and as a hobby. I didnt realize how passionate I was about it till I got into tri's. Then I look back when I took Bee pollen at 17 years old and garlic pills and I realize now it was a passion even as a youngster but I didnt know it. Now for simplicity, I have looked for other options for the bike, but I get only 200 or so calories per hour from the "powder" type fuel and blend another 100 with it from hemp seed, banana or coconut water so that all the natural goodies and micronutrients and live enzymes can bring out the best of the extracted powder ingredients. I have used Spitz with great success as my powder. I have also used Infinite and Hammer products. Spitz has everything in it that an athlete needs. The glucose polymers which are complex carbs, the fatty acids, the small amount of digestible protein, the antioxidants for cell damage, the glutmamine and calcium for muscle contraction, the potassium and sodium and magnesium for electrolyte replacement. and a bunch of other goodies like Branch chain amino acids. However, I make sure the natural and organic food is added and blended in high calorie 3 hour bottles of which I use 2 for the ironman ride. I then use the water from the course. So I carry only one 900 calories bottle which last 3 hours and pick up the other which is cold in an insulated bag at the special needs area at mile 56. It keeps my bike light. I ususally use gels on the run but I am still trying to figure out the run nutrition. I was an old school college cross country and track runner and we never ate or drank anything back then on the runs and my heart rate gets up high and its hard to do anything except liquid nutrition in a flask. I only do liquid nutrition. For all the first timers its very important to train your body to be in zone 2 which is about 70 to 75% of max heart rate. Once you get above that you need more glucose to sustain te effort. The body burns more fat at a lower heart rate. If your not 140 to 155 lbs its difficult to maintain that fast pace in an ironman and have your body get the calories it needs from fat. And it does need some from fat You can only absorb 250 to 350 calories per hour.(95% of people). However you are burning between 900 and 1200 calories per hour in an ironman. So Aim for 25 to 30% of that being taken in per hour. You will lose a couple of pounds during the iron. There are 3500 calories in a lb so do the math. 1000 per hour for 14 hours avg iron is 14000 calories. You absorb about 300 per hour for those 14 hours so thats 4200 calories replaced. So about 10,000 calories will be about 3 lbs lost due to nutrition. Thats fine . We can handle up to a 2% of weight body loss. Problem is, You will also be sweating so if you dont replace the fluids that also leads to weight loss. The reason you take in nutrition on the bike is because your heart rate is lower on the bike and you can absorb more of those calories you will need on the run that are harder to absorb (unless your walking) Same goes for water. Most people will need 16 to 28 ounces per hour depending on their size and that days weather. About 15 fluid ounces of sweat is a lb of body weight loss so its important to figure out what you sweat per hour in various conditions of intensity and heat. I sweat 32 ounces per hour on the bike in 75 begrees and about 48 ounces on the run in 85 degrees. Very difficult to replace without getting a sodium and mineral imbalance and having digestive problems. My blog is at WillByron.com from my IMLP 2008 race which includes a link to pictures of that race as well as the top tips I learned from all my nutrition training I have had and going to various camps such as Mark Allen's tri camp and Dave Scott (6 time ironman champion) from Team in Training . I was fortunate for my first IM to have some experienced fast and slow ironmen help me with my journey as well as the Team in Training coaches who taught me to swim and Bike which I never did before 2007 so I just wanted to pass some info on to new people. I am really looking forward to IMFL 2009. I didnt think I would do another iron until 2010 but somehow the IMFL opportunity came along and here I am. I do sign up every year for the Ironman Hawaii lottery which is in October. Maybe one year I will get in.
Other tips - Depending on weather and body size you need some additional sodium, potassium and magnesium during the bike and run. Sodium is more critical. For me it is 300 to 600 mg per hour depending on heat. For pre race. I get up at 3.45 to 4am. I take in about 700 to 900 LIQUID calories. Your body uses 65% of its energy to digest food. If it is already liquid thats less energy to digest solids. I know a lot of people eat solids before their race with no problem. Their digestive systems may be 3 or 4 years into the making (used to solids during tri's) and completely cleansed, etc. Or it could be genetic and they have healthy digestive systems. Or they may do even better with liquid nutrition but never tried. The others however keep having issues with nutrition and are taking in too many calories and solid calories at that. Its all good. For me I bring a vitamix blender to the race if I drive or a smaller one if I dont. I blend steel cut oats, banana and spitz with some sea salt. Sometimes Dates which are the highest source of glucose which is what your body must convert other carb sources into for energy. I have a gel or date 10 minutes before the race. I may put a gel up my wetsuit sleeve to take when I get out of the water after the first loop.
I put black electricians tape over my holes on my race number and poke holes through them. I then use a race belt and the tape acts like reinforcement to prevent from ripping off. I wear my race belt under my bike jersey. When I take off the wetsuit I just put the number from under my bike jersey to behind my bike. Then after the bike I switch it to the run. Having a high cadence of 80 to 90 rpm is important on the bike and run so that glycogen stores do not get used up to quickly. Dave Scott taught me that when you first get on the bike do not take in nutriton for the first 30 minutes. Get settled into the bike and just sip water. Core training is important as well as flexibility. You cant get to the finish line if you dont get to the starting line due to injury. So take a day off once a week. drink herbal teas instead of coffee occassionally. The herbs are great for your immune system and liver and have a lot of antioxidants to keep you from getting sick One of the reasons I dont do soda, meat or dairy anymore is because of how acidic they are. That leads to inflammation and a weakened immune system. I havent been sick for years . Basically since I stopped eating meats. And that was with all the tri training. I learn something from everyone I talk to about tris. Some of it may be good advice but not for me. Or it could be bad advice and just for them. There is a lot of aold school knowledge still out there. I learned a lot from david Wolfe who is the worlds leading raw food nutritionist and superfood expert. I also learned from pro triathlete brenden brazier who wrote a book called Thrive. He is one of the best bar none http://www.brendanbrazier.com/book/index.html
I fyou want to take your knowledge from what we hear in the media and through word of mouth get thrive book and learn about superfoods.
Hope I helped at least one person. Look forward to staying on the thread and IMFL 2009.
yeeeeeeee haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa



Edited by marathon88 2009-02-15 6:56 PM

I was a swimmer throughout childhood, played club water polo in college, and picked up tris when I was running and swimming to lose weight. I wanted to do a tri just to see if it was fun, but I didn't ride or have a bike. Luckily, my boss was a cyclist so he helped me get into cycling and introduced me to the local time trial scene. That was in '06 and I've been hooked ever since! Did my first IM last year in AZ and had a blast, so I'm back for another round (this time hoping to drop a couple of hours).

I have a question for those who have done this race before.  Do you get your two special needs bags back after the race?  I am just wondering if you swap stuff out on the bike or run if you will get them back after the race?  Thanks to all.

Yeah, but I wouldn't put anything irreplaceable in them. Things happen and bags get lost. I think I put some food and a change of socks in my run bag, and some food and a spare tube and CO2 cartridge in the bike bag. I didn't even end up getting the bike bag during the race, but I did get my stuff back afterward.

I was a runner and swimmer in HS, 20+ years ago. Also rode a lot. Did my first back to back centuries (TOSRV) at 17 as well as a short distance triathlon. I had visions of doing the Ironman in Hawaii (when there was only one at the time)

I then went to college, discovered beer, and spend the next 15 years doing absolutely nothing athletic at all. Got myself up to 240lbs (graduated HS at 156).

So much for Ironman.

About 6 years ago I took up cycling to lose weight, and gradually worked up to riding 10,000+ miles a year. I also took up swimming in the off season as cross training. My sister did her first Ironman (Florida). While she was preparing for that, I rode with her a bit on the long training rides and at the same time, my wife did her first marathon as a 40th birthday 'present' to herself.

This encouraged me to try an Ironman for myself and get that dream back. It won't be Hawaii, but still...

Just one problem. Despite my cycling background and return to fitness and health, I hadn't run so much as a city block in over 20 years. And the reason I stopped in the first place, other than beer, was knee pain and what I have probably mis-interpreted as "turf toe". Pain in the ball of the left foot.

I started running again last October. Only a few tenths at a time. Fast forward to today; I'm up to 8-10 miles and working towards a Half Marathon on April 5th. I've found that my body is so wired for cycling that I have to completely rebuild and retrain it. I've had some hip pain and some muscle pulls and other strains, but I'm gradually making progress. No sign of the toe problems I had so many years ago, and what minor knee pain I have is actually worse from riding than running.

On the journey towards Florida I plan on a mix of runs, "challenge" rides, and two Half IMs.

I'm roughly 1/3 of the way there, and it's been an awesome experience so far.

Good luck to everyone!

Edited by dobovedo 2009-02-26 9:26 PM

HI folks Ran the Disney Princess 1/2 Marathon today..my 3rd half marathon in 3 months. Going to run my first sprint tri of the season next weekend here in Orlando. Hope everyone is kicking asphalt with their training!!

35 weeks?? Thats all?? Holy &^%$^ I gotta get moving!!!

Im staying at the Boardwalk...but this is because we have a friend that owns one of those condos and we borrow it from him for the race. Last year, everyone raved about The Shores of Panama. I think that is the best of both worlds...close to the race site..far enough away to keep your sanity

Good job Havin'Fun!!!