Ironman Arizona : Official Thread (Page 32)

Good luck, hope weather stays away.  I think you are wise to be wary of thunderstorms.

We are on the opposite end of that.  We've had great weather all summer, now this weekend the forecast is for mid to upper 90s.   Should be ok for the long ride tomorrow, but long run on Sunday may be interesting.

I'm in for a 5.75hr ride tomorrow.  I'll wake up extra early so I can avoid the heat.  For my 5.5hr ride, 2 weeks ago, I was on the bike at 6 and didn't finish until 1pm.  I'll end the day tomorrow with a 45 minute easy recovery run. 

I have to get up early on Sunday as well because I scheduled myself for a 2.4 mile swim, but it's a 2 hour drive.  I need to leave the house at 4:30.  It will be nice to have a time race distance swim done, but it's going to put my 2hr 40min run in the middle of the day or late Sunday night.

Hope you have netflix and a heart monitor for your 5 hour ride!

No long rides for me this weekend, I schedule them on Wednesdays!  Long run tomorrow though, hopefully around 14, then long swim on Sunday, about 4500.

The longest run on my plan is only 15 miles, I personally feel that's a bit conservative, does anyone else find that too short?  How long will all of your longest runs be?

Here is a good look at the IMAZ swim exit.
This is taken the day before, during the practice swim.

Notice the swimmer in the water struggle to get onto the bottom step.
On race day, Helpers are there to pull you up and onto the ladder.

(RampExit_IMAZ_Swim.jpg)

Last shot and it's time to run.

This was taken from shore, looking over at the dock area.
Walk out and jump.  Then swim a couple hundred yards over to the startline.

(SwimStart_IMAZ.jpg)

The volunteers are great!!! They lift you right out and onto the ladder. I will suggest when you are getting into the water dont jump in so that you go deep...there is cement right near the dock and if you go too deep you can hit it. On the practice swim I went deep and scraped my toes.

I'm in the 2nd corral.  Shooting to break 1:30 is all I'm going for this year, I'm not super fast by any means, ran it in 1:34 last year.  I'll probably start out around 9:30 then drop down to around 8:30 for the last 6-7 miles, if I'm feeling good.  If that at all fits your plan we'll have to get together.

How did September work out for everyone's training?  Did we all have our biggest and best months ever?  It was by far my highest volume month ever, and my first 100+ mile run month.  I've never exceeded that 100 mile barrier before, whenever I tried to ramp up the volume I started getting overuse injuries from improper training paces, but now I think I finally get it and it's all coming together!

Well, call me crazy.  The weather did not allow for an outdoor ride on Saturday, so I did a 5 hour trainer ride.  And let me just say that it sucked!  But, I did set a good example for my son as his soccer coach told him later that day "if you want something bad enough, you'll do what it takes to get it".  I guess so.

I still need to work on getting the swims in, did have a week where the pool was closed.  Will start to focus more on OWS to get use to the wetsuit again, and the cold water.

September's totals:
Bike:    28h 38m 39s  - 509.4 Mi
Run:    19h 54m 16s  - 123.32 Mi
Swim:    3h 41m 10s  - 10100 Yd

Missed a weekend, too, with travel, so feeling pretty good about things at the moment. 

 Need to pick up the swimming, and keep consistent for one more month!

Thus demonstrating that its possible to be both sensible and nuts at the same time!  Congratulations on getting it done, that should give you some mental strength to rely on come race day.

September was finally an all around strong month for me. No travel or mechanical issues getting in the way meant I was able to get in all of my bike workouts. Hope the trend continues now in the peak weeks of October!

September Totals

Swim - 9h 34m 6s / 34,882 m

Bike - 29h 15m 56s / 568 mi

Run - 20h 34m 51s / 151.59 mi

My long ride on Saturday ended with a bang when a driver made a right turn in front of me.  I had enough time to skid to the side as to not t-bone him, but still slid into his car and went down.  Cracked my aero and base bar but I'm okay.  I just have some scrapes and bruises.  The bike is still in the shop being checked over.  They'll probably have to order in new bars so I don't know when I'll be getting it back.  My ride was going great though.  I was keeping a steady pace without pushing myself.  I decided to let the pain come to me when it was ready but it never really showed up.  I got in 107 miles before the accident.  I only had 10 minutes left in a 5:45 ride and was just a mile from home.  I did a shake out recovery run that night and nothing felt out of place. 

Sunday morning I did a timed 2.4 ocean swim and won the Male 18-29 wetsuit division.  The water was pretty rough and sighting wasn't the best.  Swimming in Arizona is going to be awesome because there's no questioning if you're on course and we don't have to deal with swimming out through the waves.

Sunday night I negative split a 23.67 mile run.  I'm capping my distance there.  For my remaining long runs I'll stop between 20 and 23 but try to run them at a faster pace. 

Nice job.  Hope that the bike comes back to you quickly and that no hidden physical issues show up.  Sounds like you are on the way to being more than ready for a good effort.