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Ironman Louisville : Official Thread (Page 5)
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 2016-10-14 1:55 PM in reply to: JBacarella |
 261  |  Subject: RE: Ironman Louisville : Official ThreadOriginally posted by JBacarella Originally posted by deboerkj I was happy with my race. Here is what I wrote on my FB page: The swim: it was a rolling/time trial start where 2 athletes jump off a dock at a time instead of all 2700 swimmers at once. We swam point to point, which means we started and ended at different locations. 1/3 of the swim was upstream in the Ohio river while the later portion was with the current. Besides being murky, the swim was uneventful. The bike: the first and last 10 miles were flat, while the other 92 had a total elevation gain of 5000 feet, or 55ft of climb per mile. Coming from MI there were limited options for real hill training; the hills kicked my arse. From mile 15-40 I questioned life, but finally found my rhythm riding the hills. The run: standard 2 loop course. We ran by Louisville University (very pretty campus) and next to Churchill Downs. The kicker is that the turn around for the second loop is about 10 yards from the finish, so tempting! The finish line was pretty awesome, lots of people cheering you on and just a welcome sight. Final impressions: would I do this race again? Yes. Would I train differently? Just the bike. Enough cannot be said about the Ironman staff and volunteers who spend countless hours supporting the athletes. I hear you about the hills. I thought I was riding hills until race day. Now I have discovered what hills mean. The first couple were ok, but when I realized they were never ending, it became a grind. These were not Michigan hills. The real killer was you couldn't get good speed on the downhills and there was no relief. It took me about 3/4 on the ride to unlock the puzzle of how to ride them effectively. I loved the swim. It was warm and calm compared to Lake Huron. Downwind from the horse stalls, and the start of the second loop were a little rough. The rest of the run was decent. It was fun to talk people from around the world, especially when it came to talking about the bike. Us flatlanders thought it was hilly and challenging, while people from Colorado talked about how flat it was. Overall, I thought it was a great race and great location. We really enjoyed our time there. I'm from Michigan as well (Grand Rapids area) and a buddy who pre-rode the course over Labor Day told me the hills weren't that bad and that he rarely had to get out of his big ring... lesson learned, don't take course recon advice from skinny people who happen to be strong cyclists! We rode the loop when we got down there on Thursday and it was one of the most depressing rides of my life. Fortunately I must have learned how to ride the hills b/c I had an absolutely perfect day on the bike which set me up to negative split the run... something I never thought would have been possible for my first IM! I actually just finished up the rough draft of my race report... warning, it's really long! http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp... |
| 2016-10-16 9:44 AM in reply to: Toefuzz |
Expert 2811  | Subject: RE: Ironman Louisville : Official Thread I don't know if this is normal, but I have not been able to think about anything but doing another IM since last week. |
| 2016-10-17 10:15 AM in reply to: Toefuzz |
Veteran 494 Berkley | Subject: RE: Ironman Louisville : Official Thread Originally posted by Toefuzz Originally posted by JBacarella Originally posted by deboerkj snip I hear you about the hills. I thought I was riding hills until race day. Now I have discovered what hills mean. The first couple were ok, but when I realized they were never ending, it became a grind. These were not Michigan hills. The real killer was you couldn't get good speed on the downhills and there was no relief. It took me about 3/4 on the ride to unlock the puzzle of how to ride them effectively. I loved the swim. It was warm and calm compared to Lake Huron. Downwind from the horse stalls, and the start of the second loop were a little rough. The rest of the run was decent. It was fun to talk people from around the world, especially when it came to talking about the bike. Us flatlanders thought it was hilly and challenging, while people from Colorado talked about how flat it was. Overall, I thought it was a great race and great location. We really enjoyed our time there. And here I am, thinking my little ring never got more love.... EVER. This was one of the first big races where finishing the race I thought, yup let's do another. It took me until Tuesday to feel normal again, no power in my legs yet but the normal "pain" was gone. I'm from Michigan as well (Grand Rapids area) and a buddy who pre-rode the course over Labor Day told me the hills weren't that bad and that he rarely had to get out of his big ring... lesson learned, don't take course recon advice from skinny people who happen to be strong cyclists! We rode the loop when we got down there on Thursday and it was one of the most depressing rides of my life. Fortunately I must have learned how to ride the hills b/c I had an absolutely perfect day on the bike which set me up to negative split the run... something I never thought would have been possible for my first IM! I actually just finished up the rough draft of my race report... warning, it's really long! http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp... |
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