Ironman USA Lake Placid : Official Thread (Page 69)

1. Is this your first IM? Yes 
2. Have you done LP before? No
3. What are your goals for the 2011 race? To finish and not throw up at the start
4.How/Why did you select the Lake Placid Race? No need to box my bike, and my buddies are doing it too. 
5. Do you have any specific questions that you wish addressed about LP (the race, training etc)..tons...

Okay - i admit it, i have been lurking but have not posted a thing.   I did my first sprint of the season this weekend and it sucked... i got seasick on the swim, missed my row in transition and cramped on the run... i guess thats what the first one is for ...working out the kinks... This weekend is Patriot ..hopefully that will go better... i certainly need to get my confidence back. 

You are all certainly doing great on your training and its helped being able to read your comments and concerns... i will try and be better about posting ;-) 

Welcome aboard, aliicia - no worries on the race, getting a couple of races in back-to-back is the right thing to be doing right now, just to get dialed in for LP - getting your check lists in order and your transitions/set-up, pacing, and nutrition nailed is really, really important!

Dream Chaser - 2011-06-12 3:56 PM

mndymond - 2011-06-12 10:06 AM Looks like everyone is busy training this weekend! I'm having a difficult start to the morning and procrastinating the start to my ride. Can anyone relate to sluggish? haha. Got to get a move on!

I procastinated this morning, but it was more weather-related.  Make sure you are getting enough sleep!! That will help with the sluggishness.  Also: Caffeine is your friend

WHERE THE HECK IS EVERYONE!!!  We started this thread with A LOT of people, and it seems 75% have just 'disappeared'.  Where you at Ironman Training BT Peeps? 

Way to go DC - get all of us jump started!
To tell you the truth, training is going well, but not sure how all of you that are balancing family/work/training do it! You are all my heroes! Seems like I spend all my time sleeping, prepping, training, eating, cleaning clothes/bottles/bike, eating some more, and then sleeping again. I am chipping away at getting my BT logs back in order, but keeping all my training data up to date in three places is a real chore...

Did my last tri before IMLP today (still have a 5k swim race in 2 weeks) and it went pretty well, considering I went in untapered. Easy on the swim, a practice costume change in T1, build through the bike to average 90% FTP, then a 43 minute 10k at tempo HR - I will take that. Really looking forward to a few more big weeks.

Wait! only a few more big weeks to go?!??!!??! GAAAAAAAAAAAGHHGHHHGAHG!!!!!!!!!

mndymond - 2011-06-12 10:06 AM Looks like everyone is busy training this weekend! I'm having a difficult start to the morning and procrastinating the start to my ride. Can anyone relate to sluggish? haha. Got to get a move on!

Story of my life! Not really sluggish, but it seems like if I take a peek at work in the morning before I get out the door, the next thing I know I have burned 3 hours. On the upside, it sure has helped my heat acclimation!

ckunst - you didn't ask - but I just hought I would pass on a couple of thoughts:

1) it will most likely require the purchase of a new chain, but I would really recommend making sure you have a chain that is the correct length before IMLP. While it is not good practice, you should really be able to cross-chain big ring-to-big cassette, unless you are running some wacky big cassette that outstrips the capacity of your real derailleur.  Check out this link:
http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help/chain-length-sizing
for determining proper chain length.

Also, in the tool kit you carry on your bike make sure you have a chain breaker and a spare master link - who knows, you might be able to share it with someone else on your next ride!

RB - sorry I missed this - hope your tune-up race went well?

I am back and forth through Montgomery all the time - was just there a few days ago.
We are pretty involved in tornado reconstruction and was there meeting with FEMA, legislators, etc.

Brad - you are back - how are the ribs feeling?

Tripadigin - you asked one of the most important questions on the thread thus far. My favorite I the Local Lake Placid Brewery. It has best selection of micro brew beers I have ever tasted and it is located on the short out at back part of the run, by Mirror Lake, right near transition. The ubo (?) is the most popular and bizarrely, the only one I do not like. The 46 and Moose Head are awesome. They do savage burgers / ribs and I fully intend on going there straight after an IV drip post race. In fact, i`ll be up there is a couple weeks for another training/wedding combo trip and will collect some of the beer to bring back to open on the 1st July - after I complete my first ever dry month since I was 16 (I'm Scottish - we start early).

Training - I could not face a day on the bike on Saturday. The 112mile ride / 8 mile run brick was ditched to be replaced with a easy 25miles in Central Park. I punished myself with a 21mile run in the park y/day. All the bike chat made me neglect the run stuff. I guess the way I see it is, you can always ease back on the bike but the run always hurts so best get used to it. I log my training by time. I'm not sure 180mins on a bike compares to 180mins on a run. Last week I only did 6 1/2hrs training and 5 1/2hrs was running (11,10,21miles).

Dream Chaser - I have ridden both but to be honest, I'm not sure I can say which is harder. I rode rev 3 quicker than the LP route but then that was a race versus doing the LP course twice. Rev 3 seemed to be more consistent in the ups and down - long and long but all spread out. LP is up, down, down, down, flat, flat, rollers, up, up. I know this was probably useless info…

5 weeks this Sunday……. Yeeeee haaaaaaaa

Anyone know somewhere to buy a cool tri top. All the stuff I see on like and in shops is boring. I was something with a little color but stylist. Not just red, black or baby blue!!!!!!!

OMG 6 weeks to go.

My house is a mess, i have no food for the week, im tired, i havent see my family in a few months and they live within 15 miles, ...........................

I know it will all be worth it, in the end. Please confirm.

Dream Chaser - 2011-06-12 3:56 PM

mndymond - 2011-06-12 10:06 AM Looks like everyone is busy training this weekend! I'm having a difficult start to the morning and procrastinating the start to my ride. Can anyone relate to sluggish? haha. Got to get a move on!

I procastinated this morning, but it was more weather-related.  Make sure you are getting enough sleep!! That will help with the sluggishness.  Also: Caffeine is your friend

WHERE THE HECK IS EVERYONE!!!  We started this thread with A LOT of people, and it seems 75% have just 'disappeared'.  Where you at Ironman Training BT Peeps? 

Training for an Ironman! LOL!!!!

Had a big weekend of training and it continues into tomorrow. Rode 5 hours on Saturday, wound up with 97.75 miles, then bricked it for an hour and held a sub 8 pace! Woo hoo! Then I hopped back onto the bike and got those last 2.25 miles

Sunday was another 1 hour run (held 9:12's and had to fight for it!) then hopped back onto the bike for another 2.5 hours and held a sub 16mph pace. Yowza! I did some damage on Saturday and even easy easy felt super hard on Sunday.

I do my long run of 2.5 hours tomorrow.

Soooooooo, THIS is what training for an Ironman is like

Yeah.  Forget running out of money to afford equipment my grocery bill gets bigger and bigger each week yet I always seem to have less food.  Regardless, I CAN CONFIRM, it will all be worth it. 

Looks like a lot of positive training mojo is flowing for most folks, good to see and hear! I'm in the same boat as most, last build phase with some races coming up to dial me in.  The stars aligned for me and I'm actually lucky enough to be making it up to Placid this coming weekend for a 'training camp' with some teammates of mine.  The following weekend I'll be racing the Tupper Lake Tinman (a 70.3) just down the road from Placid and the week after that I race a local olympic 'A tri in the Buff'.  Then I get ready for taper soon after!

Here's a question for everyone.  I practice a ton of mental imagery techniques and race-day simulations in my head because I find it fun and it really prepares me mentally for anything I could see on race day.  Everyone's fitness seems to be up there, how is everyone's head doing?  Is everyone almost mentally prepared, a ways off, already to go?  Personally, my head feels about 75-80% ready.  I need these last two races to top it off just to get a little more race-day 'pain' to wrap my head around before Placid.

Mentally I am hitting a wall between 4 & 5 hours on the bike. I now understand why everyone is SO happy to be off the bike. I love riding my bike, but there is a limit.

Also, my coach has me doing an uber long hard day on Saturday, then an easy, but long day on Sunday. Physically I can do it and it helps me recover actually, but mentally its tough getting back onto the bike for another 2.5 hours after a 5 hour ride the previous day. Fortunately this will all be over soon!

Hey Placid peeps!  I had somewhat of an easy week/weekend recovering from Rev3 Quassy.  My biking legs were left on the Rev3 course and my long ride was not fun!  I did my long run down in Maryland where it was 85 degrees and 1000% humidity at 8am!!  Yikes that was tough.  BUT - I was down there performing bridesmaids duties for one of my best friends.  Wouldn't have had it any other way!  Man, I CANNOT party like I used too.... 3 drinks I was done... staying up til 3am on Saturday was harder than my hot run!  Now that the partying is over - I can focus on solid training til our race - eek!

re: rev3 vs Placid.  If I had to do a 2nd loop of the Rev3 bike.... that would be really hard.  I think 2 loops of Rev3 would be tougher than the 2 loops of Placid.  Placid has steeper climbs but the hills of Rev are just relentless!  And I think the run is harder at Rev3 too.  It was a great tune-up race though!

I think my mental status fluctuates. Sometimes I feel really ready and then sometimes I am fretting that I haven't spent enough time riding and running. It fluctuates rapidly during the day too...sometimes I feel tapped out in the morning and then sometimes I feel great. Haha. I've got an olympic left before LP. I think that will be a hard race because I have a long ride planned the day before...but I figure it will be good to do an oly on tired legs to work through the fatigue and get some confidence for LP.

Also...Training results in way too much self reliant time...I guess you have to like yourself to train this much, eh? Haha. Lots of alone time. Whew. It doesn't help that I'm basically living alone right now without my regular crew who force me to be social even when I don't want to be. Too tired to make new friends...haha. I guess being in a lab this summer helps...but I probably prevent people from getting their work done because all I want to do when I get to work is talk talk talk talk talk!!

re: rev3 vs Placid.  If I had to do a 2nd loop of the Rev3 bike.... that would be really hard.  I think 2 loops of Rev3 would be tougher than the 2 loops of Placid.  Placid has steeper climbs but the hills of Rev are just relentless!  And I think the run is harder at Rev3 too.  It was a great tune-up race though!

Angie - I think you got it spot on.  I could not agree more about the run.  Although, when running round and round central park y/day, I remembered that there were some rollers on the (beautiful) LP route.  And I’m not sure where I can train for that steep hill (up and down) in LP!

Mentally - every now and again I get mentally exhausted thinking about it.  My fiancé is living the IMLP dream and training exhaustion.  I WAKE UP AT 5AM THINKING ABOUT TRIATHLON.  I love cycling 50-80miles with my mates, at a good pace, chatting and stopping for some coffee - but I’m not doing that.  I’m going out earlier and by myself so that no-one feels like they will hold me back.  There are no coffee breaks when doing IM, the best we get is caffeine GUI.  Lets hope that the next one(s) (IMLP 2012, IMLP 2013 etc) do not take so much of my mental capacity…  I need to focus on work too….

To fellow IM "beginners" doing IMLP - I'm right there with you!  My longest Tri has only been a Sprint and I immediately signed up for IMLP mostly because of all the people who said I couldn't (or shouldn't) do it.  Throughout my life there have been too many people who told me what I could not do, and each time I have made it my mission to prove them wrong.  I'm nervous as hell about not doing enough, but am down 40 lbs since last year and my fitness has improved beyond what I would have thought!

I am certainly not fast - my goal is to finish in daylight, though I know that will be a tough accomplishment in such a grueling event.  Maybe someday I hope to place in AG (if I keep working at it like I have!), but I have modest goals for now.  It has been an amazingly selfish venture, but after everything I have done for others over the years I think I deserve this one.

I mostly lurk, but even when I ask stupid questions, you guys have been tremendously supportive and I look forward to meeting most of you there!  Hopefully you will save me a beer for the finish and won't be too sleepy by the time I get there

So cheers to the few of you who are in the same boat I am.  I'll see you on the course and look forward to celebrating our first IM completion!  Now I need to bail out of work this afternoon for a run/bike brick...

Brett