Ironman Louisville : Official Thread (Page 30)

The swim practice thing sucks. That was all part of the pre festivities I was looking forward too. Hopefully there is enough of us complaining about it that they at least hold 1.

I was looking at the volunteer sign up page for IMKY and there are still categories for "Swim Practice check-in" showing. I don't know if it is an old posting.

Does anyone have a point of contact at WTC that we can contact about a BT swim? If we are going to do this, it is probably a good idea to get the ball rolling as soon as possible.

I'll volunteer for contacting WTC, but a point of contact would be helpful.
 

Morning Everyone-

The temperature has been climbing here in Wisconsin, and I'm feeling more and more confident everyday with training / racing in the heat.  I have a question though regarding long rides / runs for the weekends.

What do you do if you reach your maximum distances early on in your training?  With a little over 2 months to go, I've already made it to a 100 mile ride on the bike, and two 23-mile runs.  I don't want to burn out before race day and keep pushing it every weekend, but would every other weekend of maxing out be alright?  (e.g. this weekend, do a century ride on sat, 20+ mile run on Sunday, next weekend, drop down to ~80 mile ride and ~16 mile run, then bump it back up the following weekend)

Last year for Ironman I didn't reach my maximum distances until like 5 weeks prior to race day, so I'm a little lost now.  I follow a training plan loosely, and just do what I feel is right on the weekends.

Any ideas?  Anyone else "ahead" in their training plan? 

Wow! 2-23mile runs?? The 100 mile bikes sound good but I can't imagine running 23 miles twice in the 95+ temps and humidity I have down here. Actually I only ran up to 3-20milers for my marathon training. Seems to be a lot, but your plan to drop down and pick back up is okay. The problem I see with your big base is you really don't want to "peak" this early. Plans are there for a reason, its to get you to peak for race and not just be fit to do it.

Please don't take that as a discouragement. Your doing GREAT! In fact I wish I was putting in more run miles like that, its just too freakin hotttttt in mississippi.

I think its hotter in Hattiesburg.

Agreed.  That is part of the reason I was going to head down on Thursday.  Now I might wait until friday to head over.

where do you keep track of your training millage?

I actually don't log my training anymore.  I used to do it on TrainingPeaks because I liked they're setup more, but no more.  I guess a question like that would be better with a bit of background on my part, but other than slowly building up on the weekends as per any training schedule, I just ended up longer on the weekends than my plan laid out for now.  I will add that I ran a marathon in April, thus the 23-mile runs.

I actually just listed to a talk given by one of the coaches from Endurance Nation (I signed up for their email list) which gives loads of good information, including some relevant material on the subject of weekend workouts.

http://tinyurl.com/26rpdpz

Around the 10 minute mark it starts to get interesting.  One line that I pulled out from that talk was "If I'm your coach and I find out you're doing a 3 hour long run, I'm going to hop on a plane and come punch you in the nose."  The speaker says that the distance between a 2.5 and a 3 hour long run is negligible from a cardio perspective, but takes much more time to recover from.

To be honest, its one of the best talks I've heard on general Ironman knowledge I've heard / read.  (other Endurance Nation podcasts here http://www.endurancenation.us/podcast/)

Question for Jay or anyone else that has been on the bike course:

Is there anything on the course that you don't see coming?  I was doing a training ride and had a few times where I thought I was at the crest of an incline, but the road curved a bit and revealed more climbing!  Is there anything like this where a hill will pop up out of nowhere or be longer than it actually looks?  I know you mentioned Old Sligo Road was an area where you turned and faced a climb.  Also are there any technical downhills sections that you wouldn't really be able to tell how techy they were until you were on top of them? Or any sections that look technical, but really you should be able to cruise through them without a break check or leaving aero?  If yes for any of these could you give me approximate mile marks along with the street name since I'm not familiar with the area. 

And on this same note... did anyone that did Louisville last year have trouble with the sabotage tacks?

Article Here

I don't want to waste time because jerks put tacks on the road...

The tacks are exactly why I am not considering race day wheels and going with the clinchers. I was there spectating last year and heard about it. There are a few people in La Grange that don't realize that they have a world class event in their backyard.

Talked to the state inspector over the Harrods Creek bridge rehab, they are supposed to be done by contract by Sept. 1st. I asked him about the IM and he thinks it should be open by then. I'll keep you updated, also I'll start giving river updates as we get closer, but so far the river conditions have been great this year very clean for a river







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Hey folks, I just found this thread and it's been great reading everyone's experiences. I finished my first marathon last year and was hooked. I've always lived around Louisville so I decided to sign up for this race. I didn't know exactly what I was getting myself into but started reading everything I could.

I never really picked a specific training plan but just sorta made my own from reading the Complete Triathlon Book, Triathlon Training Bible and a few other plans. Basically I just try to get a long run in every Saturday, long run every Sunday, then fill the week with some speed interval work, threshold training etc.

So now here we are pushing on July... the heat is taking a toll on my running but I'm feeling pretty good there. I've done the bike course (without the 2nd loop, so 75-80 miles) a few times and feel good about that too. But I made the mistake of waiting too long to really ramp up my swimming, and I've discovered I suck at swimming.

I think this has a lot to do with my form and breathing, so I'm doing the drills in the Total Immersion "Triathlon Swimming Made Easy" book. I'm getting better but still freaking out a bit. So I guess my first question is... how bad do I actually have to be to DNF the swim? If I can at least just keep making forward progress (even if I have to switch to backstroke or sidestroke) is 2 hours pretty doable even for a bad swimmer?

My second question... even though I've done the bike course a few times, I just this week got aerobars. It took me a while to get comfortable going fast downhill sitting mostly upright, but the thought of not even having my hand on the brakes makes me really nervous. Does this get easier? Does anyone do the IM without aerobars?

And lastly... I signed up for a half IM (Muncie Endurathon) which is on July 10. It seemed like about the right time in my training where I should be able to do half the distance. Is that crazy? Will I spend too much time recovering from it and interfere with my IM training? I don't plan to taper much for that race, since 70.3 miles in a weekend would actually be like a weekend off at this point :-)

BTW... I just finished my first ever triathlon a couple weeks ago, a sprint distance. Was supposed to do the Olympic but pulled a muscle in my back the day before (while lifting my wife's much-heavier bike into the rack!) So do a fair amount of people go from no tri experience to IM in one year or am I really just nuts?! If I cross the finish line, I'll be happy and look forward to hopefully doing another in a couple years (with a much better plan...)

Welcome to BT, welcome to the thread, and welcome to triathlons!  Pretty hardcore that you're just jumping into it, but it does seem like you have things pretty under control.  

For the swim, It is possible to miss the cutoff, but personally I think if you are constantly moving forward with whatever stroke needed you should make it.  Especially if you're in the swim line early since your cutoff time will be extended by at least 30 minutes. To cover 2.4 miles in 2 hours you have to be moving at an average pace of 2:50 over 100 yards.  If I were you I wouldn't focus on just making the cutoff though, continue to work on your swim with the mindset that you must improve to cover the entire distance in your best/comfortable time.

Riding the the aero position definitely takes some getting used to.  After a couple weeks you it should start to feel more natural, but comfort on downhills may not come before the race.  It's okay to be hovering over the brakes though, it's not going to cost you the race.  And yes, many people will have straight up road bikes without even clip on aerobars.   Jump to 6:35 of this video and there is even a guy on a road bike racing in jean shorts (I wouldn't recommend that).

I can't tell you how you'll feel after your Half, but go into it remembering that it's a 'B' race and just part of your training.  Don't go all out if you think it might hurt your Ironman training.  

I did one quick season of of sprints and an olympic and then jumped to Ironman in my second season.  As long as you set realistic goals and put in your training you will do great.  It's only impossible until it isn't.

Thanks for the welcome guys.

@Destroyer, point well taken on the Half being a "B" race. Definitely not gonna kill myself but I mainly wanted some more experience with open water swimming, sighting, and transitions, plus observing others who are better than me (which will be most of them!) I just love being around so many fit people and seeing them perform to their fullest, I'm already in the best shape of my life and getting better, I just wish I didn't wait until my mid 30s to do it!

I'll take a look at the video, thanks. When I got my bike the guy at my LBS said aerobars aren't a must so I just practiced a lot without them (though my hands are always numb by mile 60, even with gloves), but then when I looked at the video on ironmanlouisville.com I couldn't see *anyone* who didn't have them. I guess they edited out the guys in jean shorts :-)

@brown_dog_us well if I knew what the problem was I'd fix it :-) I just know that even after a couple 25s in the pool I feel like I'm already starting to struggle and my form starts to fall apart so I'm obviously doing something wrong. I think maybe I'm just going too fast; pacing myself in the pool is much more difficult than on the road.

Swimming in general doesn't make me freak out, it's not like I'm afraid of the open water or anything, I just mean that race day is getting closer and I'm not where I'd like to be and don't see myself improving enough each day. I'm hitting the pool for an hour or so almost every weekday morning, and I see all these other people effortlessly knocking out lap after lap like they could do it forever. When I did the sprint tri, I didn't sight at all for the first minute or two (big mistake!) and when I looked up I was swimming *away* from the first buoy! So that shot my confidence quite a bit too, although hopefully I learned my lesson there.

So I'm still watching all the swimming videos I can and reading about technique, and a friend who's a much better swimmer is gonna hit the pool with me to give me some pointers. So hopefully I'll keep getting better as long as I don't start doubting myself too much...

Thanks again and see you guys on race day!

I know that every time I swim in a pool, like you, I lose confidence because I get tired quicker. But here's the thing I've found out.

When swimming in a pool, the natural thing for me to do is overswim. I'm predicting a 2-hour swim myself, but when I'm in a pool I do my 100s at 2 minutes even. That's an irresponsible 50 seconds faster than 2-hour pace. I think it's because we're in a pool we think we need to sprint to the other side as fast as we can, but in open water, we see it as a marathon and swim an appropriate pace.

Since it's summer, I'd recommend swimming as much open water as you can. It will wear you out a lot slower. For pool workouts, just force yourself to go slower, or go a lot longer between stopping for a break at the wall. Also, if possible, find a 50-meter pool rather than the 25-yarder you're using. It helped me when I found a YMCA with a 50-meter pool.

Anyone doing cardinal harbour or have done it? Seems to be a good tune up for the race. Could you give me some info on it?

I'm signed up for Cardinal Harbour. Plan to do the loop of the KY course the next day before heading home. I hope this gives me a good idea of where I stand for August

Hey, I'm doing Cardinal Harbour and was planning on riding the course (part of it anyway) the next day too!  I'm hoping Cardinal Harbour goes well, and can't wait to ride the bike course.

Thanks, that makes sense. A friend of mine actually has some land with a pretty decent sized lake (several hundred meters across) so I plan to start swimming in that shortly. I think you're right, it's just hard to go slowly in such a small body of water as a pool.

Im really thinking about this race for 2011. Hope WTC gets that "tacking" cleared up, crazy rednecks!!

FM
"The" Cube

I was the exact same as well.  I could always "hang out" in the pool but could not swim with my face in the water. The first time I tried lap swimming I did 4x25with probably 5' in between each 25'.  At the time I was training for a 50K so I was in great running shape.  I struggled to swim 200 yds for probably 3 months.  After I signed up for my first tri on a whim.  I made 300 at 2:30 pace.  I few weeks before my race I told myself I was going to swim as long as I could and go slow.  I make it around 750yds and felt great.   I went back 2 days later and swam 1500. Neither day was very fast but  I was not tired.  I then bought total immersion book and read  it.  Did not do alot of drills except the balance drills.  I watch alot of videos and now 4 years later I am swimming 1000yds at 1:30 pace.

Key was definately slowing down and learning some form of technique.  I don't think mine is great but I am tall and lean and probably built to swim.  I think if I actually had a private coach I could get fairly fast.