Memorial Hermann Ironman Texas 2012 : Official Thread (Page 41)

Kevin, that blows. Heal fast and get back out there. Good luck to you.

This weekend blew for me (though not nearly as bad as Kevin - so sorry to hear that). I had my last 100 mile ride and a 3 hour run scheduled and then taper time, but on Wednesday I started coming down with a chest infection...after a 25 mile ride and a swim on Thursday, I went downhill fast. Antibiotics and rest - I AM SO FRUSTRATED!!! I was ready to taper!

I will give myself a few more days to heal and then try to get in my last big ride and a long run. Not sure that I'll do the 100 miler at this point as it could take too much out of me and I can't afford to relapse, or stretch this illness out.

UGH. It's such a mental hurdle to not be able to finish training on schedule...

We are 20 days out from the race... with only two weekends left for training. At this point scratch your last 100 miler. Taper time. Can't cram for this "test".

Rest up and get better.

That's funny because I was just going to ask opinions on doing my last 18 mile run tomorrow. I missed it due to a sick little boy. Do it or rest up?

Water is 80 degrees this morning. Just an FYI

Yeah... not sure about that... since it is tomorrow. Hum. Nothing in your Logs so I can't give an educated answer.

Here's an article about tapering.

Enjoy your taper for those who have started this week. Anyone else doing a two week taper? I've found that I feel much better with a two weeker.

Three week taper here. And my coach has dropped my volume DRAMATICALLY this week. He has me down for only 8 hours and a 1.5 hour ride this Saturday. REALLY? Well, I'll be riding 3 hours. Thank you. His taper is just too much.

My client's taper is 3 weeks... he has 15 hours last week (last high volume week), 12 hours this week, 8 hours the next, and something like 4 on race week.

My coach is nuts thinking I'm only going to do 8 hours this week (with two weeks left after this). Weird.

I'm with you with a 2 week taper. Planning to ride the course Sat and long run this Thursday. Gotta go to Brazil Sunday to Friday next week on biz.

With most in taper or one longer ride left (let's say 3 hrs or more). Which section of the course would you ride and why? Which section gives you the most accurate representation of the whole 112?

This might help you decide:

http://www.endurancenation.us/blog/results/imtx/ironman-texas-2012-...

Here is my review when I rode the course three weeks ago:

All right, so about the course... Going out of town was... interesting. More like scary. It's going to be a bugger on race day with TONS of cyclists on the road. Once we were in the country, it was better. The course is weird... in that a lot of the hills are false flats. Doesn't look like a hill, but your cadence slows down and you have to work harder... so it is a hill. Hum.

The first half of the ride was awesome. Easily rolling 17-22+ mph. Oh yeah, the tailwind was our friend! So nice.

Then we had to turn around. Sweet mother. I'm already not a strong cyclist, so get me into a headwind, and my speed drops down to 10-13 mph with my HR in zone 3. It was a grind. I had a friend riding with me, but we refused to draft, because we can't draft on race day. So basically we rode for 56 miles into a headwind (up hills) or into a crosswind. BRUTAL. One section was so bad, it took us 25 minutes to go 5 miles. BRUTAL.

It is pretty empty out there in the country, but I did see some horses, mules, and cows on the course. The chip seal section of the course (into the headwind, of course) wasn't THAT bad. I've been on MUCH worse chip seal. There is this one cut through road on the course (not sure which one), where it is pretty much nothing but cracks. Should be interesting on race day dodging cracks and cyclists all over the place.

The one nice country store out there, Richards, was packed when we rolled up. I bought a Coke and had hoped to use the restroom (no other stores out there)... but they were "out of order". Hum. A gal in line told me they do that so the cyclists can't use them. Nice. I went past the sign and used the restroom. Luckily I didn't get caught. My friend did though! Ooopsss!

So, just now, a guy who was running the SAG wagon called me (I had called him Sat. morning and he called back just now Sun morning to see who called), and he said that yesterday's winds were really bad. While there will be wind on race day, it hopefully will be the typical wind that doesn't blow as hard, and without gusts. He also just told me that some of the strongest riders he knows called it a day 20 miles out from the finish and SAGed in. And we did see bikes being taken back in, in the backs of cars. My friend and I felt pretty darn good for still being out there!

Going back in FM 2978 was scary. A 3 foot shoulder, with cars flying by at 55+ on our left. It was basically a 2-lane highway with a shoulder. SCARY. I can't imagine hundreds of bikers fitting on that shoulder on race day. Should be interesting. So we see this cyclist dart over to make a left turn in a sub-division. Hum. We stop. My friend is adamant we MUST get off this terrifying road. And we are turning too. Then she realizes it is the left turn we need to make. On the map it said the road was Windfern Place, the name of the road was actually Greenmore. My friend looked up the route the night before and recalled that this road had been labeled incorrectly on the race map. This explains why all these cyclists missed the turn and were coming from the other direction. Some even passed it up! Unfortunately, all the signs Outrival racing had been picked up by the Woodlands.

So we made the turn and then followed the map back to the start. We made it back without adding extra miles. Other cyclists, not so much. My other friend got lost and added 5 miles. Ooopsss! But I did call and give him the name of the street (Greenmore). If other people got lost, they weren't looking at the map we were given before the ride.

Overall a great ride. While the course isn't hard (super hilly), it isn't flat, and the wind going back into town will be a challenge.

Edited by KSH 2012-05-01 8:18 AM