Ironman Coeur d'Alene : Official Thread (Page 5)

Well, no IM is a walk in the park, but IMLT was the first IM that I ended up walking much of the run due to the 12% grade hills trashing certain muscles in my knees/calves and cold. I stopped shivering on the bike at mile 40 and my feet regained feeling at mile 70. There were like 1000 people who DNFd. I do hope to go faster at CDA than IMLT for sure though. And that is its own challenge.

Hey guys so I just decided to pull the trigger on IM #3. I just finished IM Lake Tahoe which was absolutely brutal. Didn't do as well I as I had hoped but based on course and conditions I was happy just to finish. I did IM Texas in 2012 and hope to make CDA the best one yet. Look forward to getting to know all of you over the next couple of months. Happy training everyone

Grats on finishing IMLT, I was there, it sucked, my hat is off to anyone who finished that course. They sent me a survey asking if I would recommend IMLT to any of my friends. My answer was not if I want them to remain my friends. Aside from the course and conditions the organization was certainly the worst of any IM experience I have been in or heard of. I am not sure that T1 tents would have been big enough even if they doubled the size of the tent, probably 3-4x the size would have been needed and yes lights in the tent are a good idea, then you can see your gear.

First post on BT Scoping this out as possibly the first Ironman. Well, it's CDA or IMLT. I know IMLT was brutal this year but it's within driving distance....touch decision as they both appear to be awesome courses.

If you were not a competitive cyclist in a past life I really wouldn't do IMLT as a first IM. It will add 2-4 hours to your IM completion time and for a first that might be cutting it close. If you are a really strong cyclist where you do 10-12% grades without difficulty then you can probably be fine for IMLT. However, bring lots of winter riding gear, wet on the bike in 30F temps was cold. If I had it again I would have brought windproof pants and put a windproof cover on my helmet, maybe a heavier jacket on the bike and definitely heavier gloves. Something like 1000 people didn't complete IMLT wihin the timelimit (some of those might have been DNS but a lot didn't finish at least 25% and maybe as much as 35%). But everyone makes their own decisions. I will see you at one or the other 8).

Welcome to BT. No matter which race you choose you will have a great time. IMLT was brutal this year but it was also beautiful and a really fun race(minus the freezing conditions). It took me about an hour and a half longer to finish IMLT compared to my IM Texas time the year prior. I felt like I was in way better shape for LT but set unrealistic goals for myself based on the course. Good luck with whichever race you decide on. If you decide on LT my advice would be to ride nothing but hills until you can't ride anymore and then do it all again at least 5 more times. Good luck You will do great

Welcome! My two cents on which to choose is to go with CdA. That's just from the perspective of making your first IM as enjoyable of an experience as possible. CdA puts on a terrific race that is a good challenge, but isn't super hard. It was my first IM and a ton of fun. The next year I did the very hard IM St. George. I loved the town of St. George and the race, but if it had been my first IM, I don't think I would have handled it as well and I'm not sure when I would have done another IM.

Congratulations on finishing LT! Well earned respect. Enjoy your recovery!

Thanks for the insights, Brad! Looking forward to making a decision fairly soon - and if it's CdA, I'll be coming for a ton of guidance.

Galas2, cool! Yes, that's one good thing about living in northern california is that there's no shortage of hills around here to practice on - thanks for the tip. I do realize there's a ton of climbing there but the proximity makes it a very appealing race.

Perhaps all of this is jaded with the recent IM 70.3 experience in Cozumel - the race was great, but it's a trek!

I hear you - you're right, saw the analysis of IMLT and there were a ton of DNF on the bike and a good amount of DNS as well. Respect to everyone that crossed the finish line. Appreciate the guidance.

How much time are my fellow IMLT ers taking off before starting anything resembling training again? I started walking a couple miles every day after the IM and just needed to drop back and heal more. Too many nagging muscles, want to get good and healthy before rebuilding again.

Just finished 70.3 Augusta last week (4:56) and was very happy w results, pacing, planning, etc. It has me really looking forward to CDA. Took past week off basically to recover. Tomorrow starts Marathon training for me as I will run JAX marathon at the end of December. I will put forth most of my training towards running but will be sneaking in some bike and swims as it tends to keep me injury free. Then onto IM training. But first, trying to settle on CDA lodging.

Tom

I did a sprint this past weekend in San Diego which is always a fun race for me but other than that I have been taking it really easy and started lifting weights again. I really want to focus on my run for the next couple of months before jumping back into the IM training program. I want to have a strong run base before starting to train specifically for CDA. Looking forward to taking it easy for awhile to let the body fully recover.

Wow! You smoked it Tom! Nice! :-)

Alright, so I'm in for CDA! This will be my second full. Just had a baby 1 week ago so I might as well make life even tougher. All about the balance for me. Strong training without taking too much away from the family and a nice race day is the goal!

It's been a while for me as I was down with an injury foe over a year. Just did Malibu Nautica Olympic and it seemed very hard with only a few months training....! long way to go but with the help from my Mentor group, Baowolf and back and forths on this thread w should be good to go!

Congrats on the baby

Congratulations on the baby! Wow, you must have a very understanding spouse to be ok with you signing up for an IM right now.

Congrats - that's awesome that you're "back in to it" so quick!

Thank you all! the baby is awesome, and so is my wife... although she is not particularly pleased with my decision. It's all about not taking away too much family time this training. Trying to keep the wife happy...

I just ordered an IMCDA bike course video from a new company at www.Tricoursehd.com Once I get it, I'll do a review for everyone. That way you'll know if it's worth the 19.95 + tax & shipping.........
You can go to their website and watch an overview of the course video if you want... and NO, I'm not on their payroll, I just thought it would be good for the winter time trainer rides.

Thanks for the headsup, I look forward to your review. It is actually fun to ride the course while on the trainer. Unfortunately they didn't have a video that I found for IMLT with the closed section for this year.

That's cool - thanks, look forward to it.

Thanks for the tip.  I just ordered a copy for myself. 

Its nice to see that the grade meter on the demo video never goes over 6%.

Edited by ultramike 2013-10-09 5:41 PM