Ironman Louisville : Official Thread (Page 47)

A question from a first timer,  IM, about fueling.  I will be using Accelerade, have been using it throughout training.  Is there cold water at the transition to fill fluid container prior to bike start.  I will have a concentrated bottle for refills along the course.  Or any suggestions would be appreciated.

Almost there!!!

I did the entire course with amymengel, David tri's and jboeve two weeks ago and plan to do it again probably 3 more times.  Last year I did a 5:42:40 bike (19.6 avg) and a 4:20:26 run (9:56 avg)... was hoping that I could cut down on the amount of time that I walked on the marathon and try to get that under 4 hours while keeping my bike the same.  Making up more time on the bike is a frightening proposition just because of the potential for an implosion on the run.

PS They have absolutely destroyed the IMKY website.  Its fantastically terrible now and you cant find your race results anymore!

I would get used to fluids being warm and expect nothing to be cold on race day.  I dont remember anything in transition ... I had all of my bottles pre-mixed the night before.  What you could always do is fill one bottle on race morning and leave the rest of your bottles with just the mix and wait until you hit an aid station and grab a bottle there.  Good chance they will have cold bottles of water out on the course.

Not to steal Garrett's thunder but I rode the course with him a couple weeks back and was wondering the same type(s) of things.  GN, please feel free to correct me brotha!

My experience was the following...

I, like you, live in a relatively flat area.  Have seen nothing like the hills that are on the IMKY course.  We rode the entire course and by the end averaged 18 MPH.  One of the first questions that I asked GN was what metric he placed the most emphasis on during the climbs (MPH, Cadence, etc. etc.).  He mentioned that he didn’t think that at any point he should drop below 10 MPH and he was interested in keeping his cadence at a higher level (which for me is 95-105).  I used this advice and felt like it worked really well. 

With the exception of maybe a couple hills I was able to stay seated for the vast majority of the climbs AND maintain a 10+ MPH/high cadence.  On the downhills I would say you probably average around 30-33 MPH with a couple exceptions where you will definitely hit 40+ with ease.  Like I said… that basically put me at an average of 18 MPH. 

Two places that you can pick up MPH that we didn’t really push b/c of the nature of the ride we were on (it being a training ride and for 2 of us, our first training ride with a substantial amount of hills) are the flats on the way out and probably the last 25-30 miles of the course where you can jump into the big chain ring and absolutely hammer. 

That’s my .02, hope it helps at least a little.  I have to say that I found the course to be challenging for sure but a LOT of fun and with beautiful scenery. 

The response was spot on, Josh.  Thanks.
Looks like several more "flatlanders" appreciated the description, as well.
I also read your ride description on your blog.  Good stuff.

I've talked to an '07 finisher who said the largest downhill on race-day was scary given the number of bikes on the road (both directions).  Apparently the more timid riders were cruising down at 30, while the more bold were hitting 40+.  That led to situations with bikes 3 or 4 wide on the downhill, passing at high speed, while weaving climbers 2-3 wide were struggling on the uphill just across the yellow line.  At least one rider went down, finishing the day in an ambulance. 

So on race day, I'll be sure to keep an eye out behind me before passing on the large downhills.  Bombing at 40 seems fast when passing someone at 35, but there may be someone doing 45 trying to pass me at the same time (Heather Gollnick said she could only hit 50, while the pro men hit 60).  Once I'm done with the big hill on the out/back, I'll be much more comfortable.

Big weekend ahead.  Train hard everyone.


  

51 DAYS!!!!!!

Good assesment of the course from Josh.  This course has very little in the way of stop lights or stop signs so you can go for long stretches with no obstructions.  Other than River Road (the first and last 10 miles) and the section of the loop on 42 from 153 to 393 it will be non stop rollers, constantly changing gears, not a lot of out of the saddle work, but just enough to keep you constantly changing your pace and cadence.  Looking at my data from last year, this might give you some more details on the topology.

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Alright… so I have a bad case of pre-race anxiety already.  Judging by the insane nightmares, constant daydreams, and ever-present worrying… it’s going to be a LONG 51 days.  That being said I took a moment this morning to sit down and do some brief “number crunching,” to help put my mind at ease.  I suppose that this is probably only interesting/relevant to 1^st time IM’ers (such as myself) whose only goal is to finish the race. 

I broke down, by discipline what an IM would look like if you were to take the maximum amount of time (nearly) for each discipline as well as 30 minute transition times.  So here’s my breakdown.  If I’m wrong, my apologies.  Nonetheless, I find this to be semi-comforting. 

If you were to take 2’ 15” of the allotted 2’20” of swim time you would have to swim at a pace of 3:29/100m.  Seems doable.  Follow that with a leisurely 30” T1 time.  Once you hop on your bike you would have 7’ 15” until the 10 hour cut-off hits.  So, assume that you take nearly the entire time and finish in 7’ 10”.  To do this you ride at a pace of 15.62 MPH.  T2 is another 30” break.  Then to finish within the 17’ time limit you would have 6’ 35” which breaks down to 15:04/mile.

Of course none of this means anything come race day but who knows… maybe someone else will be encouraged by this in the same way I was!