Ironman Louisville : Official Thread (Page 57)

Alan, nice job on White Lake.  Despite your "disappointment", 2:45 is a great bike time, IMO.  Looking forward to possibly getting together for a training ride in the near future.

Question for the group: Mavic Carbone SL vs. SRAM S60

For those with experience or knowledge on either or both of these wheeelsets (or others in a similar price range), I'm looking for some guidance and/or feedback.  I'm in the market for a set of aero wheels. These are two sets that I'm focusing in on, but not wed to either. 

Budget range $1000-$1400

I'm 5'9" 155-160

Thanks in advance for any help.  Looking forward to IMLou! Week 15 of 30 "Be Iron Fit"!

Dwight

My set of Sram S60s will be here tomorrow Via the man in brown (UPS), so I will get my 3 hour training ride with them on Saturday. A lot of the folks here are very knowledgeable with wheels so I know someone will chime in.

Jillian,

Let me know what you think of the S60's.  They are high on my list.  Mind if I ask where you ordered them from?

Thanks,

Dwight

I ordered them from Cycle Wheel World, but I would not recommend them. I ordered a set of Sram S80 off their website on April 25th for $1300, they charged my account but I heard nothing from them for a week, getting ticked off, and wanting them for my May 7th race, I called them on May 2nd, and they said "oh,those are on backorder, will take another 6-8 weeks for delivery". I told them I didn't want to wait that long and I just wanted a refund, instead, they said they had S60s on hand (with the red stickers which wasn't my first choice) and would sell them to me for $1229 and refund me the difference since my account had already been charged, and that they would ship them to me the very next day with free upgraded 2-day UPS air. I agreed to this, since after some thought I figured S60 would work better for me anyway, so I waited and waited, and after 2 days I called them and asked where my wheels were, since I didn't even get a UPS tracking number, they said they had to wait for them to get sent to them from the distributor. I was really getting upset now since my race was on the 7th. On the 6th I finally got UPS tracking info, they sent them regular UPS, not 2-day air like they had promised. Race day I got the same old wheel envy I always get on race day, but this time it was worse since I knew I had ordered wheels almost 2 weeks before, wanting them for the race, and they had just left New York the night before. This whole situation had made me so heated, I just want my wheels. The UPS trackers says they will be delivered tomorrow afternoon-2 and a half weeks after ordering the original set.

Hey, Sam!  Yeah, we should ride some time although I'm afraid I'd make it pretty much an "easy" workout for you.  Also, I've built quite a few bikes and found this guy on ebay who makes name-sized decals but can also make larger-sized ones, too.  Just for your information, he charges $1.50 for two name-sized decals.  I pretty much have our names on all of our 8 bikes now (my wife thinks it's kind of anal, but I think it's cool).

http://cgi.ebay.com/Personalized-Bike-Decals-custom-mx-helmet-dirt-bike-/120464962558?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c0c4573fe

Jeff417- I saw your fueling question, and I didn't jump on it because I know there are many "numbers" people out there with nutrition, and similar with my lack of gadgetry, I go by feel with fuel as well. Having said that, here is my answer, but please ask other people and try things out for yourself. My nutrition plans come from experience more than "secret formulas". I would guess that most people start with some type of formula and adjust it to make it their own. 

GU is my energy prodcut supplier of choice, so I go with GU gels, GU Chomps, and GU Brew Electrolyte drink. In addition to this I take in water and a Clif bar or two depending on how long I'm going. I don't go by numbers of calories, but by what has worked for me in the past, and by feel. However, I have a feeling that if I "numbered it out" it would be similar to what other people might do as far as caloric intake. As you know, depending on a variety of factors, such as intensity, weather conditions, what has been consumed before, etc. nutrition can be effected. I have found the best thing to do is try things out and discover what works most consistently, with the understanding that conditions and circumstances can change your plan.

Now, I have a fairly tolerant gut, so if I don't have GU, I can adapt to other products like PowerGel, Hammer Gel, etc, but they are not my first choice. I've also taken in coke, grapes, cookies, pretzels, and even chicken broth during an IM during the run because it was being offered, and they sounded good at the time.

I have not used salt tablets yet, but I think I should try these this year because I've noticed I've had salt residue caked on me after a couple of long rides and it hasn't been hot yet. This could be due to a variety of factors, but it won't hurt for me to experiment with salt tabs.

I would certainly recommend trying what the race is going to offer on the course to see how you are going to respond to it.

I realize this probably isn't the spefic kind of answer you were looking for as far as numbers, but I didn't want your question to be ignored either.

Peace...Sam

Wheels ~ I have the Mavic Cosmic Carbone SL's.  I just got them last October, trained with them a few times and used them at IMFL.  I haven't even put them back on my Tri bike yet this year (Tri bike is still on the trainer!).  So, I don't have much experience with them and no other race wheels to compare them to (my first set).  With that said, I really like them so far and am happy with my choice.  They look good, ride smooth and seem very solid.  I definately wanted the carbon/aluminum hybrid, as I did not want my breaking surface to be carbon (personal thing here, but have heard of many problems, especially in rainy weather).  I did some research online, found some great sales and ended up getting my LBS to order them for me, directly from Mavic, at $900 for the set.  I then ordered two wheel bags from Ebay for $20 each.

Nutrition ~ I have, through much trial and error, finally dialed in my nutrition on long bikes.  Everyone is so different on this, but I'm happy to share what works for me.  I aim for about 200 - 250 calories per hour on the bike.  Here is what I did at IMFL last year:

Two "2 hour" bottles (4 scoops each) EFS = 800 calories  *One bottle per each half.

6 Honey Stinger Gels (the only gel I can stomach) = 720 calories  *One stinger every hour.

Bananas = approx 160 calories  *1/2 Banana at every other water stop.

Plenty of plain water.

**I munched on a few Cheez ITs at special needs, but not as many as I thought I would**

My bike split was 6:45, so this worked out to be about 240 calories per hour.  Perfect (for me).   This took a lot of training, tweaking, racing, crying, screaming, questioning, etc.. to finally nail down.  I'm so glad to finally have a formula that works for me.  Now, I wish I could say the same for the run, lol, that is still a work in progress! 

First race of the season tomorrow. Jersey Shore Kickoff Classic. .4s / 10b / 3.5r Aiming for sub 1:10 

6:50am wave start...I picked the wrong sport. =)

Best wishes, Fesslern! 

Rest day for me today, and then the 25K River Bank Run in Grand Rapids with my graduating high school senior daughter Saturday.  My wife and one of my older daughters are running the 10K, so a family event day, woo-hoo!

Say, this is an open question to anyone who's done IM Louisville before.  I'm wondering what sized water bottles are handed out on the bike (the taller or short style, if you know what I mean).  Also, do most people just empty the bottles they pick up into their aero drink bottles?  Or can you dump and empty bottle and ride off with one you just picked up?

I know it's a piddly question, but my double-bottle bracket under my seatpost is kind of a home-made, schlepped sorta rig, and I'd need to make some adjustments to handle to taller water bottles.

Have a great weekend, all!

Tailwinds,  Todd

I think it takes about 35 minutes to get through everyone. When I was there I was toward the front, relatively speaking.

Your race time starts when you cross the timing mats just before you enter the water.

Lol ~ good one!!  Congrats guys!

I'll be back there with ya', Jeff!!

Great work all!

My wife Maggie kicked some butt today at the 5th/3rd Riverbank Run 25K. She scored a 2:00:19 (or something very close to 2:00 hrs.). Good stuff.