Ironman USA Lake Placid : Official Thread (Page 5)

Just finished Savageman and now enjoying some rest...will start moderate training in late October with base laying in the winter.  Real training will start 17 weeks out of race.

nice job! did you make it up that hill?

Getting married on September 26 and then racing the HalfMax National Championship on October 2.  Hoping to go in the mid- 5:20s and make Team USA for the 2011 ITU Long Course Worlds.

Figure if I can make worlds, LP will help me in building a big base early next year.

yup..2nd brick for me.  Did the race in 2008 and it crushed me.  This year I chopped 90+minutes off of my previous time.  2+ years of IM training definitely increased my fitness.

I'm finished tri for the season. Last one was an olympic a few weeks back in Banff, AB. It was so cold...10C water=not nice. Haha. The air wasn't much better. Came 3rd in my AG...first non-finisher's medal ever! Woohoo!

Now I'm finishing off a final build phase of running for my Oct 17 marathon. It's my 23rd bday and I still haven't decided if it was a good decision to do my first marathon on my birthday...haha. Oh well, too late to take that one back. 2 races this weekend--1 trail HM and 1 road 10k.

I've also just started swimming up for the fall-winter. I've quazi returned to competitive swimming and will be doing that until the end of short course season anyways. I think I will have 1 meet a month from October-Feb. I'd like to try and get my times down compared to last season...maybe get my 200m free down to 2:20-2:25 and get my IM and backstroke going again...We will see how that progresses.

1. Is this your first IM?

Yes

2. Have you done LP before?

Nope

3. What are your goals for the 2010 race?

Finish around 14 hours

4.How/Why did you select the Lake Placid Race?

About a four hour drive from my home in Massachusetts

5. Do you have any specific questions that you wish addressed about LP (the race, training etc)

I’d really like to latch on to a low budget training weekend with other BT’ers sometime in early June.

I'm done with tri’s for the season, but I am doing some training for local road races

I’m using the “Be Iron Fit” training plan come the latter part of December.

P.S. Dream Chaser, good luck in Boston after you run your qualifier at Steamtown. Take it easy during the first ten miles, it’s downhill and can be a real quad buster!

Ralph

Edited by RalBorseth 2010-09-21 7:10 PM

Hey Corner of D - I just bought Fitzgerald's book to use his plan for IM LP 2011. I'm looking at either level 8 or 9 likely. LP will be my 3rd IM. I'm hoping to get to another level this year. Would you mind sharing your experiences with the plan? Specifically, the day-to-day stuff that you didn't realize about the plan until after you were in it for a few months? Pros? Cons? Limitations? Maybe something(s) you'd do differently using the plan again? Anything that might help is much appreciated! 

Tim 

I just finished SavageMan HIM and will be doing the Sea Gull Century on 10/9. After that it's winter maintenance mode. I do plan on focusing a bit more on the run by adding an extra run session per week, and I am still toying with the idea of hiring a swim coach for a few sessions. My swim has improved greatly on my own but I'd like to know if there are any major kinks in my form.

My next race is HarryMan HIM in late May '11.

I've only done one IM and this was the only training plan I used so far so I don't have much to compare it to. But I'll try to share my experience with it and hopefully it helps. As far as day-to-day stuff... you'll see just by looking at the plan that it is pretty redundant as far as what workouts go on what days of the week. Depending on the individual this could be good or bad. I kind of liked it, I knew what days to expect what type of workout I would be doing. For example on the lower levels of the plan Tuesdays and Thursdays were bike workouts with nothing else. The bike workouts change weekly though so it still changes it up some.

Pro's for the book: It's structured. You have build phases with a recovery week every 4th week. Pretty good descriptions of the workouts and exact interval, recovery, and total workout times.

Con's for the book: Limited advice and tips throughout the plan. Uses RPE for workout intensity. Includes build-up races (sprint, Olympic, an half) but most people do more races than that while training for an IM. I just kind of adjusted my workouts myself if I was racing during one of the non-race weekends.

Things I would do differently: I lived on a lake during training but did not have access to a pool. I missed the first 3 months of swim workouts. I moved and now have access to a YMCA. So I will follow the swim workouts closer. I would like to add strength exercises and spend more time on flexibility. This book has ideas and examples for both at the end of the book but I have not incorporated into my workouts yet so I don't know how good they are.

Overall I thought it was very good for my limited budget. My longest distance tri before my IM was an Olympic. I was surprised how good I felt during my first IM and how good I felt when I was done. Granted, it wasn't at a very fast pace but I did only use level 1 of the training plan.

Hope this helps, if you have any other questions I'll try to answer them.

I am new to this website, so bear with me if I accidentally post this a dozen times....


1. Is this your first IM?

yes

2. Have you done LP before?

no

3. What are your goals for the 2011 race?

make it to the starting line uninjured, and finish comfortably

4.How/Why did you select the Lake Placid Race?

love the bike course!

5. Do you have any specific questions that you wish addressed about LP (the race, training etc)

i am also interested in an informal bt training weekend in May/early June.

Hello Everyone:

This is my first post so bear with me. This will be my first Iron Distance race and I am curious as to which training plan or plans everyone is using?

I have done a lot of road races, off road tri's etc. but I am a little concerned about getting in the right shape for a race of this length. 

Just finished savageman and doing beach2battleship in november to wrap up the season.

What is everyone going to do for gearing. I plan on getting my hands on a compact crank. I haven't decided if my 12-25 will be adequate yet though.

Currently have 12x25....Going to change to a 27 or 28 in the rear. Keeping my 39X25 up front.

I'm going to train all winter with a compact and 11-25. I'll focus on hills and see how things are going by May when I do Harriman. I also plan on a preview ride at some point with that same gearing.

This user's post has been ignored.

whoops! typed wrong #....53/39 up front.

This user's post has been ignored.

waaaaaay too many #'s to remember in this sport sometimes

I just bought a new Cervelo P2. I think it has 50/34 crankset and a 12/25 cassette. Has anyone ridden this combination at Lake Placid? If so would you ride this setup again or change to a 12/27 cassette?

Many use the combination you use. What is your estimated bike split...bike strength should determine gearing.

Biking is my weakest discipline of the three. I'm hoping to finish the bike in about 6 hours and 15 minutes or approximately at an 18 mph average.

Dream Chaser - safe to assume you are using 12-27 with a standard crank, right? Not compact? according to Sheldon Brown, 39/27 gives you 39 gear inches, while 34/25 gives you 36.7 gear inches - that should be plenty, right?