Ironman Coeur d'Alene : Official Thread (Page 35)

I think the rolling start will just spread things out a bit more on the bike. Sure you will have some faster swimmers/slower bikers that will be caught on the bike course but that would be the case with a mass start anyway. 

I did CDA last year and agree that I really liked it. While the mass start can be a bit of a mess it's part of the experience to me. I loved hearing the cannon going off and joining the rush of the crowd entering the water. Did I get hit a couple of times, swallow water, get kicked? Sure but it really wasn't that bad. From a spectator perspective it's sure a lot more fun to witness. It FEELS like a big deal when you watch that many people start a RACE. It's unique to the ironman experience.

Also, while I am not competing for the podium I still like knowing where I stand in the race. Like someone above said, when someone passes me, their ahead, if I pass someone I am ahead. Again from a spectator perspective, it's more fun for them to see where people are in the race and day. That being said if they could show me that a rolling start is truly safer and could save one life, I am 100% for it. At this point it sounds like the mass start will not be happening so I will just "Roll" with it.

Other questions....... I wonder how will they manage the majority of swimmers. If you took the swim times of past races I think it would look like a bell curve with 70% of the people being at or around the 1:20 mark? How do they get all these people through the start and will it turn into a semi-mass swim at that point. The majority people will be in a big group for most of the swim...

Last year they had a hard time getting 2500 people on the beach in 20 minutes to do the mass start. People were still walking onto the beach when the gun went off? They do a great job organizing this race so I am sure they will figure it out. I would just like to know.....communication will be the key.

Don't want my posts to sound negative, just concerns. So on a positive note, I do like the idea of more open water and more relaxed swim, if they can make it work. Hopefully it sets people up for a better day overall.

I would hope that they would look at that a little bit and have more "waves" where the majority of swimmers will be. They won't need a bunch of waves for +2 hours or even probably 1:45.

But guess we will see on race day what they have in their minds.

Just found this thread and looking forward to racing.  I have experienced both the mass start and the rolling wave start.  For IM Louisville they have this rolling start as you have to jump off the 2 docks into the water.  I will say that it does open it up and there is less mayhem at the beginning.  The down side is that slower swimmers do try to move up front in the start to give themselves more time.  The end result is that you end up swimming over people for a lot longer in the race.  With a 2 loop course, I don't know if that makes it better or worse.

Interesting thread on slowtwitch about this very subject.

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?do=post_view_flat;post=4562074;page=1;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;mh=25;

Sorry if the link doesn't work.  Dan AKA "Slowman" talks about the start like a marathon start.  Gun goes off, but the matt is in the front and your chip doesn't start till you cross the mat.  I have never done an IM mass start so I don't have any experience with that.  I have done a few 1/2 marathon starts and they seem easy enough.  Some people seed themselves wrong, but they just get run around or in this case swam over. 

I would think a 2+hour swimmer who thinks they are getting more time in the front might get a fight for thier life while being swam over by an entire field of better swimmers. 

My worry is not the swim, but the bike.  No way to really get used to going up and down huge mountains here in Michigan.

In the end our oppinions are just that ours and to get caught up on how the swim starts will be such a small part of our day that it just isn't worth the worry or race day stress.  To those of you actually racing this event for a Kona slot I would think finding your best competition would be the best plan and start with them if possible.

See everyone in less than 45 days.  OHHH BOOOOOYYYYY it's getting close.  Feels a little like Christmas...LOL   

Don't forget to add in the wind on those hills . Heck I don't even think the highest altitude you have in Michigan equals our standard elevation of about 2k feet.

Set up your trainer on about 8-10 inch incline. Sucky to ride the trainer that way but I found that it does have a different effect on me. 

I don't want to talk about any wind........

I did sign up for this 200K bike ride at the start of June.  http://www.michiganmountainmayhem.com/index.php?p=1_18_June-Route

I think I only have 2 or 3 build weeks left so not a ton of gains to be made in this last 45 days or so, but if I get stuck in the house riding I will for sure take your advice and do more climbing on my trainer.

Was anyone else wanting to join us tomorrow morning at 8 for ride, bike, than a swim? 

See above for the details of the workout. We are planning on parking in the museum parking lot. $1/hr for parking. 

2nd big week in a row. Today was 6:30 bike (scheduled, actual time turned out to be closer to 7:00) and 30min run. Went very well (except for the flat at about 6:00 on the bike.) I certainly learned a few things today

1) 300 Cal/hr is pretty close to my sweet spot for cal on the bike. Felt good through the ride and felt noticeably better on the run than last week. I think this is my final plan

2) check, and then double check your gear. Turns out I had emptied my bento box (which carries my tube/irons/CO2 etc) sometime over the winter. I managed to repack it with a tube which had a stem too short for my rims. CO2 needs a good 3/8" of stem, or so to seal properly. Good times walking to the nearest sporting goods store for a tube that I could actually fill.

3) Big 5 sports is NOT an LBS. Even if they do sell bike tubes (that are mis-labeled).  They do not carry threaded CO2 and their stock bicycle pumps are borderline kids toys.

4) My run clothes are going to be too hot. Something I would have never learned except for doing these long bricks. I always run in these clothes. Never had a problem until I tried after 6+hr bike.

Awesome Big 5 is not a LBS. Good lesson learned.  Way to pull in your fuel. That is always my hard part to. I think I have mine dialed in for the year to. Last year I had to change all my gels and drinks a month or so before CDA. My body no longer liked what I was using and it made life rough.

I was thinking about the run clothes to. The last couple years I have just gone in my tri shorts and top. I am a MOP person and was thinking this year to just change to fresh run shorts and a top. Still on the fence with it but am thinking about it. Anyone else do this?

Yeah, the good thing was that this happened in the only part of the ride that is anywhere near a place that sells tubes. I was even a relatively short walk from it. The sad thing is that there is both an REI and a real LBS within another 3mi or so from that Big 5 but they were not easy to get to and walking in my cleats is too difficult to cover the additional distance.

Regarding the run clothes - For me, mentally, it's a huge difference to be in something clean and dry. If even for only a short while. I'm not setting any land speed records so an extra minute or two is worth it for me.

Someone once threw out the phrase, "Semper Gumby" which means "always flexibile"(Gumby was a flexible toy turned into a saturday morning cartoon).   I have never been in any Endurance event that went totally as I had predicted.    I look foreward to Rolling with it.

Did anybody else get heart palpitations when someone wrote, "see you in 45 days".....Holy crap its almost here.  I always get anxious this time of year as my body starts hurting with all of the increased miles.   Makes me paranoid....is this new pain normal and block it out, or should I back off.

I did a full change into running shorts and a running top for my first IM.  It was nice to have on dry clean clothes.  I do however like to have the pockets on my tri top for nutrition and like to run in compression so I will not be changing.

I changed into a clean pair of tri shorts for the run, but kept the same top on.  It was just nice to have something clean and dry for a bit.

I'm turning into a mountain goat.  Friday was swimbikerun day - 3600 m swim, 3 hr ride up a canyon (12.5 mi / 3100 ft gain plus some other easier miles), 30 min transition run.  Today is 5.5 hrs and I'm doing a pretty classic Boulder, CO ride.   http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/485558  Something like 4000+ ft climbing in 18 miles.

Awesome Erin, since I just moved to CO I haven't done that ride but I've driven the roads. It's a great day for it. 

Yesterday for me at 100 miles on the bike followed by a 10 mile run. 

I've been thinking about what I'm going to wear on race day. For IMTX I wore the same thing all day. If I did change into something different it wouldn't have matter it was 90+ degrees and it would have been wet in a matter of minutes.

Are we going to try and meet before the race anyone? I have one date for some beers on Monday after the race, I'm looking forward to that :-)

42 days!

Train hard, stay safe out there!

I envy those of you that live in the Boulder area.  I absolutely love riding around there.  The roads are in great shape and the scenery is tough to match.  I was there for a couple of weeks last year and rode everyday. 

It was a good day yesterday. The water was tolerable after the initial shock. The heat did come around about noon and on the bike course there is no shaded areas at all so be prepared if race day is hot. 

if you live in a colder climate and are able to bike outside now, I would suggest wearing some extra layers of clothing since that is the only way you can somewhat get used to the heat. I know a guy who ran a marathon in Hawaii and he would run on his treadmill in the house with the heat turn up just so he could somewhat acclimate to the weather.

smithe68. thanks for the ride, run, and swim.  It all so much more tolerable when you have someone to converse with besides yourself.  Good luck at troika this next weekend.

I am not planning on changing. If I change anyhing as smithe68 says, will be socks. But I haven't quite decided on wearing socks for the bike as of yet.

So we started riding just a few minutes after 8 yesterday morning. Temps was just about 60-62 Rode the small Higgins loop and then went out on the big loop. Coming back after the turnaround, it was 88.5 degrees according to my bike computer. Getting back into town to the park it was 81 degrees but that was in the shade as well. 

I was wearing what you see in my picture plus some arm sleeves to keep the direct sunlight off my arms. I got hot going up the hills but on the flats and downhills I wasn't hot nor cold. I contemplated on taking them off but didn't want them to be in the pockets on my back. 

One thing I am possible thinking about doing is buying some socks from the dollar store and cutting holes in them. After the swim, put them on and when I get hot take them off and chuck them in the garbage at the age station. A friend of mine told me that little trick when dealing with cooler weather first thing in the morning after the swim.

http://www.lakecoeurdalene.com/lake-conditions/

Honestly I believe it's warmer now than it was last year on race day. 

smithe68 and I went for a quick dip yesterday. It was very tolerable and after looking at the link he gave this morning, I can say that is more like what it felt compared to 52-54 degrees. Amazing at how much a few degrees will make things in the water.

how was your ride, how were the hills

damnit this weekend was so hot lol. I only pee'd once during the 5 hours on Saturday so i think i didn't go hard enough on the water or maybe i was perfect? Either way i got in 68 miles and 6 running.

Thanks for the sock idea spie, i will probably use that if its going to be cold in the morning. Also someone said to tape Hand warmers to the bars and you can throw those off later too.