Ironman 70.3 Pocono Mountains : Official Thread (Page 4)

My training is meh

I havent gotten the opportunity to get in the pool in 2 weeks. I have been focusing on my bike and run (run being my weak sport). weekday workouts have been tough and the wife is starting to get frustrated with me even though I am gone at 6am and get 70miles in abd back by 11am. Swimming is all done at 5:30am. I just can't seem to find the time in the afternoons night to get any workouts in with the kids (2 under 4) and normal house stuff. Irene didn't help as I was without power for 2 days. I hope to get back on this this week as life goes back to normal now

I wonder how the course faired through the hurricane.  If anyone has any updates on the bike course especially, please share.

31 one days to go!!!!!! Who's not ready???

besides me?

triguy615 - 2011-08-31 2:27 PM I started to pick back up my training after taking a week of recovery after Timberman (my first HIM). I plan on training my @$$ off for the next 5 weeks for this race! I'm hearing the bike course is pretty hilly, the elevation profile looks similar to Quassy....

1500 feet of climbing over 56 miles.  More hilly than the average ride out here in SW Ohio, but they could have made it a lot worse.  Of course, I'm saying that after doing an Olympic distance tri that had 2800 feet of climbing on the bike course, so after that, this should feel like a breeze.

I'm working on getting back into a good training regimen the next couple weeks before I begin a 1.5-2 week taper.  Work took over my life for a couple weeks and it was hard to keep up the training.  Nursing some shin splints right now that hopefully don't sideline my running more than a day or two.

Also, if you have the right cassette for your biking fitness you will just spin up most climbs.  I'm using a 12-27 cassette.  Plenty of bailout gears.  I'd rather spin up a few climbs, and maybe lose a minute here and there, but still have fresher legs for the run.

I guess I said that because it looks like on the Poconos course you are either going up or down, doesn't seem to be any flat(ish) parts of the ride.

This is my first HIM, did the Philly Oly this year, and a couple sprints last year.  This is the first race I'm using a real training plan for, and I've stuck to the swim plan pretty closely, however the bike and run; well I'm trying to get the volume, but haven't done the workouts exactly as written.  So we'll see how that works out.

A few weeks ago I did the Wildcat 100, a new two day staged 100 mile mountain bike race.  After those two days I think I can handle a HIM, at least to finish.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/106221063

So I guess the main thing to figure out, as in all iron distance races, is how to pace myself on the bike and save enough to not fall apart on the run.

This is a hilly course although not too bad for 56 miles but according to the couple of FaceBook posting for those that have ridden it it will be about 3200Ft of elevation gain. Almost 500ft/10miles is really not too bad as an avg.

MapMyRide says only 1700 feet gain.  Did those people ride it twice?

MapMyRide has been off on courses before.  It said Rev3 Knoxville was ~1,500 ft, but Garmins were measuring ~3,150.  The Oly course only showed half of what Garmins actually measured too.  Other races have seen significant differences as well.  I don't trust MapMyRide for complete elevation, just pointing out the major hills and the directions.

And I just signed up for this because some major events got in the way of my A race.  Bumped it back a month to this one now.  Looks like fun!  My training has been for a hilly course without really significant hills and weather might be a little cool.  Looks like things might work out well!

With swim course speed, it will really depend on one's swim speed, the current speed and the balance of upstream/downstream distances.  I'm just going with whatever it ends up being and not get too excited about most of it being downstream.  Like riding an out and back with wind or  a long hill involved.  You have to go farther with the wind/hill to make up for how much slower you go into/up it.  It's entirely possible for the swim to take longer for some even with more downstream distance depending on the balance of the above variables.

MapMyRide usually underestimates elevation and Garmin satellite definitely overshoots elevation.  If you want accurate elevation you need something like a Garmin Edge 305 with a barometric altimeter.  An altimeter will measure elevation more accurately. 

I've ridden pancake flat courses and my Garmin Forerunner has told me I did 800 ft of climbing. 

Either way, we'll find out in just a few short weeks.  

Yeah, just wanted to make sure people don't get too excited about the mostly downstream.  Just swim it at a decent effort and you get what you get.

And with the elevation, I used a Garmin Edge 800 to come up with the ~3,150 for Knoxville.  I have played with the elevation corrections and the satellites do seem to add some, but these have been much closer to the 800's measurements than MapMyRide.  Sometimes it's 200-300 ft over the 800 with a few thousand ft of ascending, but others might be 10 ft or so different.  These rides I'm thinking of are typically 80+ miles, sometimes 100+.

GPS ones can be on, they could be way off.  Some of my 310XT measurements don't need much correction, but in a recent duathlon with noticeable tree cover, both 5k distances said 500-600 ft of ascending.  Corrections changed that to 56 and 58 ft of ascending, haha.  When looking at GarminConnect whether it's your own or someone else's file, it should say what device was used and whether corrections were enabled or not.  I'm still trying to decide if I like the 800's measurements or the corrected better, but would easily take either of those over GPS based or MapMyRide.

Starting to wonder if I should get a full-sleeve wetsuit pronto.  Only have the sleeveless for now.  Did ok in 68 or so with this type before.  I've had a lot of trouble with the shoulders though.

I checked out the equivalent thread on Slowtwitch.  Might be worth reading for the kicks and giggles.  Wow are there some hypochondriac types there!