Ironman Lake Placid : Official Thread (Page 59)

You can watch the entire finish line video feed at livestream.com search for lake placid finish line

Once arrived at Lake Placid I felt all kinds of nags and pains (hip, back, ankle, foot). The easy workout turned into self doubts. Maybe it was in my head or maybe it wasn't, but on race day I was pretty relaxed. I had only done one other Ironman (IMFL 2012). I had it in my head that this would take at least 30 to 45 minutes longer given the bike / run course compare to pancake flat IMFL. On the Garmin I never even checked the clock. Just used it for HR / Cadence on the bike and HR / Pace on the run. Having never ridden the bike course it turned out to be as tough as everyone said it was. On the run I as paying dearly and was reduced to the run / walk (which I've heard about but never trained before). I soon realized that my walk is way too slow. On mile 15 was the first time I check the race clock. To my surprise, I had a shot at PR if I could sustain a 12 minute mile. Right then and there I decided that to try to focus away the pain. I stopped walking. I just kept thinking to myself "anything is possible". Seeing other run / walker pass and re-pass me I still didn't give up. Eventually, my legs came back and I got into a rhythm and even up the pace to 10:30 by the last 4 miles. I crossed the finish line not knowing if I had PR. Only after getting back to the hotel having showered and getting ready to go back to see the midnight finish had I checked my time. I have PR by 15 minutes.

I saw a sign a couple of times over the weekend that said exactly that...3% racing...97% training.

Thanks for sharing that link! My wife had missed the actual finish and was able to see me cross.

Hey all!

Had a pretty good race for the lack of training i had due to work the last 2 months before the race. I went into the race only wanting to beat my time from last year and I knew that was a good possibility as I actually had a nutrition plan this year and just knowing what to expect also helped a ton. I had a 1:20 swim which was actually kind of disappointing as in my Half Iron i did in may I went 32 min. I think i might be the only one who says it but I started at the very back of the 1:10-1:20 group and got absolutely massacred out there by the group behind me. It almost seemed like people were going out of their way to swim over me as I was about 10-15 meters off the line the whole time. But still, 2 minutes faster than last year.

The bike is where I really wanted to focus. Last year i didn't really eat much on the bike and once I got to the climb back from Wilmington I just kind of relaxed and spun easy. This year I wanted to really work that section as it is not really a long climb as it is a bunch of steps up. So i would do the short climbs and then get back into the groove on the flats and push it. I went through the first loop at 2:52 which I knew was too fast as my fastest loop last year was 3:34! My second loop I dialed it back a little and focused more on the food and got my loop to be 3:32! Overall I cut almost 45 minutes off my bike just by focusing that one section!

The run really let me down again. I come from a running background but running off the bike has always been hard for me as it never really feels like my legs refresh after a while like most people say they should. although i refused to walk. ever. I may be been doing the old man shuffle for a little while there on Ridge Road but i never walked. I cut about 25 minutes off my run time still only running around a 4:51.

Overall time was 12:51 cutting over an hour off time time total and not passing out or being force fed food afterwards like i was last year! I know i can do so much better, but as for now, i am taking a break from Ironman after doing 2 years in a row. Work has really picked up and I am saving up money for Grad School, plus, I would like to spend some time actually with my Wife since I started my training the week after we got back from our honeymoon this past year. Thanks for all the support and I will always consider LP my Ironman home!

I could almost copy and paste andybyu's post lol. 2nd year at Lake Placid. Was petrified of the distance last year and followed finks plan to a T. Total game plan was to be slow and steady and make sure I finished it. This year I wanted to take at least 30 min and hopefully and hour off...there was room for very easy gains over last year. I got kind of lackadaisical training this time, tried going harder but a bit shorter. I felt much better this spring and early summer than i did last year. Much more rested. Was really worried I would feel great till about half way thru the run and then the lack of training would catch up to me. Im not sure if it was the fact it was 10deg cooler this year, the cumulative effect of 2 years of training or If I just had a good day but I look 3.5 min off my swim, :57 off my bike and :13 of my run. All my splits were just about perfect. Last year was14:06 this year 12:53...my total transition time was still over 30min so I think thats where my easy gains will come next time lol

Taking next year off from Placid, hope to go back up and volunteer with 3-4 others that want to do it. Plan on doing a cpl halfs next summer try to get a little more speed out of this old body and then take another stab at placid in 2015 for my 50th Bday.

Like klassman and others have said, its way more about the journey and the life style than it is the race.

If anyone is interested in my RR here it is..
IMLP WAS AWESOME!!!!

http://espejo09.blogspot.com/2013/08/ironman-lake-placid-rr.html

The support here was great

I realize this is a long shot, but does anyone here want to trade their "Large" finisher's jacket for a "medium?" I ordered a large at the expo, but it turns out the cashier ordered me a "Medium". It showed up in the mail yesterday, and it doesn't fit well. I'm really bummed and annoyed. WTC is not being helpful at all (surprise!).

I've only done a few local races. Could someone enlighten me to these "changing tents" that we're "required" to use?

I'm a bare-bones racer, only changing footwear...so I'm a little confused as to their necessity. Thanks!

2012 was my first time experiencing the changing tents. If you have ever gone shopping the day after Thanksgiving, when the stores first open up, It's kind of like that, except everybody is wet, and there is equipment flying everywhere. I can't say what the women's side looked like, but the men's side was like a 40x40 tent with about 50 chairs there. You end up getting your transition bag and you sit down and do all the things you would normally do in a short race except you get to sit down. So coming out of the swim, you get your bike bag that has all your biking needs (shoes, helmet, socks, race belt sunglass, maybe some nutrition that you store on your self. etc) you sit down put it all on and there is hopefully a volunteer there that helps you out (Getting stuff out of the bag, and getting all your stuff back in the bag). Then the same thing coming off the bike, you get your run bag, have a seat, pull out all your run stuff that you would normally use on your run (Sneakers, socks, more nutrition, visor, etc). I didn't actually do any clothes changing, just my normal transition stuff. Since none of the stuff will be sitting next to your bike it call gets shuffled around using the bags.