Ironman USA Lake Placid : Official Thread (Page 54)

swishyskirt - 2010-02-25 10:31 AM Dream Chaser, if you want to worry about the weather, the appropriate question to be asking is not "Will it be windy" but rather, "Will it rain?"

Not worried about the wind--as my town is a wind tunnel and I'm used to training in wind--just curious.  As far as the rain, I am expecting it to rain.  By mentally convincing myself it will rain (which it probably will!)  I'll be happily suprised if it doesn't.  I've also done several races and training rides in the rain so 'no worries' with the rain.  

James, nice work on the bike!

Rain: I have some songs on my ipod that mention rain, and when I train I listen to them and imagine it's pouring at LP and I'm LOVING it. I actually do like swimming in rain (if there's no lighting) and running in the rain. I'm working on the bike part... So it better rain after all my psychological training for it!

"Debbie Downer"...  that sounds like the character's name on an ABC Afterschool Special.  Debbie popped pills and withdrew from sports and school.  Her peers started calling her Debbie Downer the Frowner. 

I'm in New York, and oddly I've been getting more training in these past few months then some Spring and Summer months of past.  Crazy I tell yah. 

Last week I was in a funk, mentally and physically.  I took a few days off and now I feel fantastic.  Ever since I started training 8 to 10 hours consistently, it seems like Fatigue hits me in waves or cycles.  Like I can go a certain amount of weeks and train consistently and feel great; and then Fatigue comes and it's like I feel like and can't do .  And it's not cause my muscles are sore, or my body is beat-up, it's just a deep down fatigue.  But I know if I take a few days off, focus on nutrition, I'll bounce back stronger than before!

This weekend I have an 17-mile run planned with my buddy for Saturday morning (which is now getting pushed back till Sunday morning due to the snow).  Later today and tomorrow I'm just gonna get on the drainer and stay on it as long as my brain will let me.  It's all mental for me getting on that thing. 

LP MARATHON QUESTION:  How is everyone planning their Marathon Pace? 

Truth be told, my Race Plan is very simple: moderate effort on the Swim ; EZ to Moderate effort on the Bike ; track everyone down on the Run.  But how do you pick your Marathon Pace?  Especially for a course like LP? 

I mean, I know I should keep it Aerobic, but other than that -- how does one choose an Ironman Marathon Pace? 

I've found the following ( an adaption of Daniel's V-Dot ) to be pretty accurate, in terms of estimating what race paces you'll be able to hit.

http://www.personalbestnutrition.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1223516487/0#0

And from my experience ( having made the error twice now ) going out too hard the first 6 miles is disastrous.  It really is key to run the first 6 or so controlled.  :30 slower on the first 6 miles is 3 minutes.  :30 *faster* is going to cost you a lot more than 3 minutes on the back-end of the marathon.

Dang, that thing looks pretty accurate from my experience; minus the Ironman marathon which I have yet to run.  Running 6 controlled miles to start sounds like a good strategy.  

My stand-alone marathons are 3:33 and 3:34 ... so I'm hoping to get my swim and bike fitness to the point where I can run a 3:45-ish.  

7.0 earthquake here in Japan this morning.   I live in a cement duplex on a small Naval base and this thing was shaking like someone was shaking a doll house.  We're still trying to find out more info but there's no damage around our base.

Honestly, I think someone was trying to shake the lazy out of me.  It's been a tough week, but I need to HTFU something serious.

swishyskirt - 2010-02-26 6:08 PM OK, I'm less down now than I was before--thanks for the pep talk. Mostly because I FINALLY tracked down a pair of my favorite Asics that were sold out in my size EVERYWHERE. Very excited. Anyway. TRAINING QUESTION.(sorry, long post) Currently, I'm following a modified winter maintenance program right now. It's from the site, but I don't have full access, so I'm going by volume and sort of plugging in workouts to fit my need to improve on the bike and PR on a half marathon towards the end of March. I'm planning on following the BT beginner IM plan, which officially starts March 8th. Winter maintenance ends...this Sunday. So I have an unplanned week between the end of one plan and the beginning of another. AND then for the prep period on the IM plan, the hours start off at like, 8 per week, while currently my weekly plan is anywhere from 10-12 hours. ISSUE ONE: What to do in the week between plans? Repeat the previous week? Make it a recovery week? (Seems a little silly considering the prep phase of the IM plan will feel like a recovery week simply because of the lower hours). ISSUE TWO: That said, is there a reason not to drop down on the hours? Will I lose the fitness I've gained from doing higher hours on the maintenance plan by suddenly dropping down to fewer for a few weeks before building again? If so, should I just make the workouts longer? What would BT do? Your advice and opinions, as always, are super appreciated.

Where the heck is Jorge when you need him??  He'd know exactly what to do!  It reminds me of the middle of the movie Superman II, and Superman leaves planet earth (BT LP blog in this case) at just the time when the people need him most.. 

Glad you're okay!

That's awesome!