Ironman Coeur d'Alene : Official Thread (Page 45)

Wow, there are quite a few "Carlson's" on the participants list. How many are related to you Kayla??

None that I know of!! (And it's KYLA... not Kayla!  

So I checked out my number for years past and last year a person was entered but has no times, the previous year the finisher was a 13:33 and then all years prior, my number had no racers. What's up with that?! Time to give my number a solid history!! 

Sorry Kyla .

Yes - do your number proud....shoot for 9:20. Thats what I'm doing.

Me too I am shooting for a 9:20 swim/bike split

Just a heads up...  If anyone needs an extra room I just cancelled an extra room I had at the Shilo Inn (208) 664-2300.  I believe the rate is $125 plus tax a night for two queens.

Yikes! Yes - take it easy out there, Jon.  Glad to hear it wasn't more serious. 

Scary to think of how strong you're gonna be if you're just now starting to absorb all of your hard training.  You are going to absolutely blister the bike course!

I was looking at the BT beginner plan for some ideas for what to do during these last two weeks of taper and it looks like a lot of the workouts are based on RPE.  I did the 90-minute workout on the bike yesterday, loosely following the BT plan, and an RPE of 7 was definitely not going to be sustainable for 112 miles.

I haven't seen anything about race pace RPE.  Anyone out there have any thoughts on how hard we should be pushing?  I'm sure it's going to be different for everyone, but I'm guessing the bike should be about a 5 or 6?  This is my first IM and, like everyone, I'm worried about what the bike will do to my marathon.  I'm really hoping to be able to run the whole thing.

I guess one way to keep it simple would be to go out easy on the bike and anytime you start to feel like you're maintaining a reasonably manageable pace in the first 80 miles, slow down!

Bob Spath #678

Hope to meet some fo you crazies.

"My HR for the marathon will be 8-10 bpm greater, although I plan on running the first few miles by pace (using the +30 sec. advice on the BT Race Execution video -great info). Then will kick it up to target HR and see where pace falls and continually evaluate by feel to hit negative split. Will also do the 30 steps past aid stations run/walk tactic."

Care to expand on this?

No worries triseattle -- just a common mistake and a small peeve of mine!

9:20? Awesome!! I'd hope to be well into my run 9:20 into the race! So crazy to think about the l-o-n-g day in store. That's where my brain is... "It's gonna be a very long day. Pace it. Eat/drink right. Just keep making forward progress. Enjoy the moment -- every moment, as even moments that might not be good ones were part of the bargain when I signed up for this. I trained for 6 months solid (with a good base going in). During those 6 months I had only one un-planned day off, due to illness, but only missed a swim on that day (my strength). I've done what I planned to do training-wise, now I get to go and execute. And savor the day, my body, my life, and this opportunity. When I'm done, I'm done. And I can't wait to see where I choose to go next."

Yeah, I'll be using HR, too.  My plan was 130-140 on the bike, but yesterday's ride at 130 was not good.  It felt too hard (harder than 7 - there's weren't too many more clicks available on the dial).  I think Sunday's pacing efforts took more out of me than expected.  My legs were too burnt to get the heart rate up and my cadence was down.  It's good to know that 7 is what you're hoping to spike up into on race day.  I think I'll shoot for 120-130 until we're heading back to town on the first loop and then gauge the effort based on what I'll know is coming the second time around the track.

For me, the run will be what it will be.  My HR will be high (for some reason, I'm low on the bike and high on the run).  I'm hoping to stay somewhere around 20-25 minutes slower than my standalone marathon time and will have to keep an eye on the pace so as to not go out too fast.  At Oceanside, I ended up running the first two miles off the bike 30 seconds per mile faster than my half marathon PR and I blew up.  I'm going to start off with straight 8s and see if I ever feel like picking up the pace.

Will send you PM re: weekend workouts.  May be doing coastal club ride / brick run on Sat and then Carlsbad half marathon course for last long run Sun (thinking about doing it later in day after possible AM Cove swim).  You're more than welcome to join us if any of that sounds good.

So, I'm officially stalking this thread now since I'm going to go up there to cheer/volunteer/sign up and just cause I love the BT IM race buzz!  But, as y'all talk about RPE, let me throw out some things I learned in my first IM last year that went off nearly as perfectly as a race could go:

A.) On the bike, I constantly told myself, don't blow out your legs, don't blow out your legs. I am pretty fair on the bike and I know where my speed zones should've been for IMAZ--but on the first loop I hit wind I didn't expect and it was on the incline there, I was in my small chain ring more than I EVER go into small chain ring, but it worked like a pro. If the thought of "maybe I should go small chain ring" pops in your head then do it.  I'm glad I wasn't focusing on HR, cause my Garmin wouldn't pick it up due to SO MANY PEOPLE with Garmins (by chance, I had one for the bike and a different for the run, they both failed to show HR due to other people's devices).  If anything, I tried to focus on cadence, staying comfortable, and doing what felt good at that time, but with the mantra of "don't blow out your legs." dancing in my head.  I did not blow out my legs. I thought my legs would buckle when I got off the bike to go to transition, but I had a smoking fast transition time, and I ran the entire marathon--which--for me meant a 3:56--WAY faster than my estimated "best pace."

B.) On the converse, my long ride training partner followed her HR exactly like she trained, but in the end, she felt like she didn't give the bike what she could've--she had a great run, but even at the end she felt like she didn't leave it all out there cause she didn't push that tiny bit more on the bike she thinks she could have. In follow on conversations with her coach, he pretty much said it was obvious race day adrenaline up'ed her HR, and that RPE would've been a better way to attack the bike.

Don't enslave yourself to the electronics--something could go wrong and you don't get HR, like me, or you could have just a few BPMs higher due to race excitement (likely).  Go comfortable within the pace that you know you won't kill your legs.  You know your body. You know how hard you can push.  I was, personally, a little disappointed as I was in small chain ring, going up an incline at 13mph thinking--"so much for my bike goal time, but I'm not going to kill my leg--race your race Britt, race your race."  This paid off, winds shifted, the downhills and flats gave me the speed to make it up, and I actually finished right on my goal time with legs still working.

Race your race--and only you know what that is. Race day can, and will, throw some speed bumps your way.  Adapt and overcome them and you will have a spectacular day that you shall never forget! I wondered if the people on BT were right when they said the training was harder than the race.  They're right.  Do your thing, do it smartly, and earn that finish line!
Happy Taper all!

9:20?!?!? Wow that's smokin fast!! I've been forced to lower my expectations quite a bit with this IT band problem. I'm just going to have fun out there and try not to kill my leg on the run. It's a bummer because running was supposed to be whereI made up some time for my lack of swimming prowess. Oh well. I guess it takes quite a bit of pressure off.

Sure... don't know if you want me to expand on the HR or overall run strategy, so I'll try to cover both.  Let me know if you want anything more specific. 

I'll also add a disclaimer that I'm an ironvirgin so this is all a grand experiment based on a lot of study and maybe enough experience to finally put it all together. 

The only way I've been able to throttle back on the initial run and not explode is to watch pace religiously.  I have a general idea of what I'll target for overall pace, so to play it safe, I add 30 seconds to that pace to begin with for the first 2-4 miles of the run, being super strict on myself not to let it creep faster.   This is pretty much in line with the Endurance Nation advice.  I've been practicing this throughout my big brick training sessions and feel good about executing on this now.

After I'm settled in and feel that I'm in stride and have good legs (past the initial explode on the run phase), I'll very gradually pick up the pace to increase to my target HR. 

My equivalent zones for the run seem to be around 10 bpm higher running than on the bike.  Thus, in order to keep my effort level equal through the bike and run, I'll bike at 140 bpm (Z2 bike) and run at 150 bpm (Z2 run).  I've tested this on my long bike/run session to some degree and feel relatively confident that these are about the right sustainable levels for me at this point in time - with high confidence on the bike.  With the run, I've felt good at this level on 1 hr bricks.  Ofcourse, running the full marathon afterwards will be new territory.

Overall pace thereafter will be dependent relative to HR.  I'll build to 150 bpm and basically hold that, assuming it still feels comfortable and sustainable until mile 16-18.  I'll let pace be whatever it is at that HR.  I'll pay close attention as well to how much pace deviation I get until then.  This is where I get to see if all the training and pacing has worked or not.  If pace is relatively steady, I might try to push it up slightly.  If not, I just bear down and continue to try not to slow down.

The one stand alone marathon I have under my belt was done at an avg. of 158 bpm so hopefully 150 will be manageable.

Overall, the HR averages will be lower that the targets though due to the slower pace initially on the bike and the slower initial pace / walk periods on the run.


Key to all this is leg durability and not walking (unintentially).  Exploding at mile 23 of the Carlsbad marathon was a great learning experience.   I feel much stronger now and can't wait to see how this all works out.  I've used walk/run strategies for long training runs in the past and had good success with that, especially comparing how I feel at the end of the run.

Therefore, again through the advice of the Race Execution video, I'm going to err on the side of trying to go easy, and walk the aid stations and beyond for 30 steps, then begin running again.  I don't think it will take away much time relative the insurance that buys in allow your muscles to recover a bit and not fail later in the run.

Well see.   Hopefully the race report doesn't end up being radically different.

 

Thanks for the advice, Brittany.  Hope you bring your wetsuit so you can join us for the group swim on Friday morning.

A couple of questions for the IMCDA alumni.

1. Bike pumps- read in the athlete manual it is suggested we do not bring bicycle pumps race morning, however later in the document it says to wait until race morning to pump up your tires. I am guessing this is to prevent expansion of the tubes in the heat of the day Saturday and prevent random blowouts. So... if I am unable to have a person there to pass my pump to are other racers that do bring pumps usually willing to share?

2. Special needs location- just trying to figure if I can dump by un-needed S/N bag off with my hubby as I pass him on the course- if it's too far I may re-evaluate what I put in there.

3. Are headlamps something I should be thinking about needing if I'm going to be out there 14-15 hrs? What's the streetlight situation like?

4. What time are you guys getting together to swim Friday morning? I'm guessing around where the race starts somewhere? The only person I was going to know racing has had to pull out.. he was going to do a tour of the bike course to fill me in on the important stuff, and ride the run course:-( so I'd be really interested in finding others to go for the bike & run course tours, as I'm sure my hubby will have had enough of driving by the time we get there!!

Made the packing list today... OMG the stuff!!! It's crazy!!! Going to need my own special trailer to get it all down there!!

1. Someone is always willing to let you use a pump. Bike support is also in transition to top off tires.

2. It is a ways (maybe 7 or 8 miles?) from bike special needs back to downtown. It does not seem feasible to me to pack your bag that far.

3. It will be basically light until close to 9:30 PM on race night. I finished in 14:25 in 2008 and had no need for a headlamp.

4. I think I recall reading 8:00 AM for a swim Friday morning. There is a moose statue out on Independence Point and we are meeting there.

Read back in the posts in this thread. Flyboy is offering a car tour of the bike course. He is very knowledgeable of the course as he rides it a lot and has raced CDA on several occasions.. If he has room he would be a great tour guide as he could really offer some insight.

I think we're meeting at the Moose at 8:30.  I'll probably be there early, though.

Just for the record - I was joking about the 9:20 race goal . I did 12:47 lastyear and am thinking I can cut an hour off (because of an absolutely terrible swim and consequently a below average bike). So, 11:30 - 12:00 is my realistic goal. Who knows though...maybe all of these donuts and ice cream will kick in at some point..jk

2. The Bike SN is at the turnround of the short out and back, which is about 5-6 miles into the second loop (lowest right point of the bike course on the map).  As sid, not likely anyway to get the bag to hubby.  Bags will be collected and returned to transition, so you MAY get your stuff back.  Bottom line is don't put anything in SN bags that you must get back.  (And if you lose a few dollars of gels, snacks, whatever, oh well.  It's a drop in the bucket compared to much time and money you spent in training and travel and fees to be here).

The run course SN bags are just before you pass through transition after the short out and back of your second lap (so about 14 miles in).  That bag you could hand to hubby in transition area easy enough.

(Unasked for hint:  If you are on your first run lap, so about 1-2 miles in, and you are having a suck day or really need something from your SN bag, you can get it then instead.  The SN volunteers have no idea which lap you are on).

3.  Headlamps are not necessary.  The first time I did CdA I finished in the dark.  They will give you glowsticks on the course when it gets dark.  The aid stations are all well lit.  And to be honest, it was freaking cool running along the lake in the darkness, just seeing the glow of the aid station a mile ahead and the moonlight on the water.  The run along the lake is on paved bike trail with a decomposed granite shoulder, so there's not much to trip on anyways.

Enjoy!

Just out of curiousity, how long does it take to get one's SN bag on the run?  Am I going to be waiting 2-3 min or does it happen really quickly?

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Last year at WI we tied a part of a pink boa to our T1 and T2 bags, and it really helped the volunteers find our bags in the gear rooms before we hit the changing rooms.  Is CdA set up the same way?  Should I go find a boa?!?