Ironman Lake Placid : Official Thread (Page 69)

keep up the good work as well all, April is fast ending.

she's purdy!!

Hope everyone had a good weekend of training!! Mine was a little crazy yesterday I did a 4hour ride and it was 49 degrees with huge winds but I rather suffer outside then suffer inside.

Heres a link to my ride. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/170894760

The Fink plan has 4 rides per week, one is a Z1 ride.

So my long ride on saturday got cut short....due to being retarded.

I put on my new wheels 50/88 and off we went for a 70 mile trek!  63 miles in POP! Back tube blows...aww crap.  Get everything out to change it, took about 25 minutes to get the tire off...that bastard was SUPER tight...took 3 tools to pry it off.

Put the extender on the new tube and fed it through...not long enough.  CRAP! I never thought about the fact that my current tubes wouldn't be long enough for my 88! 

Thankfully with only 7 miles to go the other two guys headed back to the house and picked up the truck to come get me.

On the way home, I bought 3 new 60mm tubes.

I have the right size tubes, but my tires are horrible to get off and on!!! The first time it took over an hour to remove one! I just replaced the tire the other day and I'm down to 45 minutes with a cut up finger. Thank God I'm not using these to race with! ughhh!

My weekend training didn't go much smoother than anyone elses it seems.  Did a longer bike and run brick on Saturday and felt great.  Then I woke up in the middle of the night with sharp pains in my foot.  My foot felt okay in the morning but by the end of my long run it felt terrible.  So now the top of my foot (like right above the arch area) is noticeably swollen, red and painful and I have no idea what I did to it!  Seemed to come on too quickly to be anything overuse.  I've heard shoe laces being too tight could cause pain in that area, but I wore different shoes on Saturday than Sunday. Both I've been wearing for at least 4 months and I just slip my shoes on and off without untying so it seems unlikely that's the cause.  

I have an appointment later today, so I guess I'll know soon but really frustrating with the season just starting to ramp up.  

That doesn't really sound good, hopefully they'll be able to tell you what's going on so an get back on track. Maybe shoes are done and need replacing?

And here I was about to complain that my HR strap is giving me faulty readings (55 HR an hour into my run. Said that for 5 min...I think not) and having to train without it until a new one is shipped from REI. Thank god for their customer satisfaction, this is the 3rd one ive replaced through them.

Is anyone else using the feedbottle technique for taking nutrition while on the bike?  For years I've been resistent but I started this year.  After a couple tweaks to refine the mix I think I really like it.  Yesterday I did a 101 mile ride with all of my calories in one bottle.  I just sip on it through the ride and have lines on the bottle so I can track and make sure I'm neither getting ahead or behind on calories.  I only supplemented with a 100 calorie Lara Bar when I felt hungry and the need for real food.  I felt good throughout the ride and transitioned well into a 30 minute t-run.

As this is still very new to me, I'd love to read other's experiences and some possible pitfalls to watchout for.

In case it helps with the critique, yesterday my mix was 2:1 unflavored Heed and flavored Hammer gel that, together with the Lara Bar, provided 200 calories per hour.  With me I had extra Lara Bars and a gel flask in case I needed it but, like I said, I didn't.

Thanks.

"And here I was about to complain that my HR strap is giving me faulty readings (55 HR an hour into my run. Said that for 5 min...I think not) and having to train without it until a new one is shipped from REI. Thank god for their customer satisfaction, this is the 3rd one ive replaced through them"

Perhaps you have just gotten into really great shape

I'm a big fan of Hammer Perpetuem. I make different mixtures depending on how long of a ride I'm going on and do the same thing you did. Mark the outside of the bottle with lines and take sips every 5ish miles and ensure I'm at the right line. 

For IMLP I'll use two 3 hour bottles. One on the bike to begin all mixed and one with just powder in my special needs bag. When I get to special needs I'll just swap bottles and fill it with water from another bottle on my bike.

I just started the same thing (using a feed bottle) on my ride Saturday.  I used the Perpeteum(sp?) Orange-Vanilla.  I was not real thrilled with the taste but it wasn't horrible.  Fortunately, I seem to able to take in most types of nutrition (snickers, power bars, sports beans, PBJ, etc.) on the bike, however I think I take in less than a lot of other folks.  Right now it has not been a problem but once my rides start getting in the 80 plus range I will have to see how it goes.  I am 5'11 - 200 but the thought of taking in more than 250 calories an hour gives me a little concern. 

What exactly is the feed bottle technique?  I've googled, but I mostly get either baby related, or medical related results.

Are you basically talking about a bottle full of super-concentrated sports drink, and supplementing with plain water as appropriate?

yea that's pretty much what it is. It can either be super concentrated paste like, or less concentrated and still sip through a water bottle. If its a 3 hour bottle, you'd mark 3 lines for each hour and "feed" on it theough out that hour, supplementing with water or other hydration. It's a convenient way to keep track of calories and easy to mix (have bottle with powder, add water, shake vigorously, good to go). Depending how many hours making the bottle, might need to add powder, water, shake, then repeat to get well mixed. I like the method and will be utilizing it.

www.hammernutrition.com has on their site a good way to do the multi-hour bottle. Perpetuem or Sustained Energy is the product people do it with.

Thanks, I"ll definitely check that out.  

It's a long story, but I was reading TJ Tollakson's IMLP2011 recap blog post a few months ago, and was astonished at the calories he consumed during the bike portion, and a light went off in my head as to why I had bonked @ 80-85 miles on the bike during the three 90+ mile rides I did last year.  Typically I had just been bringing gatorade with me, extra powder for when I hit a refilling station, and some solid food of some sort.  Once I saw how many calories would be needed, I started realizing that energy gels were a more dense way to carry calories with me.  It occurred to me that a thick paste of sports drink might be just as good, if not better (due to electrolytes) - so I'm glad to hear other people do it, and that I won't be the only nutter considering it

On the other hand, I had also been planning on taking full advantage of the support every 10 miles, with them passing out Perform.

Any experienced folks have an opinion on whether it is better to bring some of your own fuel with you, or fully depend on volunteer support? 

yea the Perpetuem mixture is nice cause it'll also include protein for you that HEED or Hammer Gel doesn't include. And hammers bars are gross after being in the back pocket after hours on end...*gag*.

I'm going to apologize now if this has already been mentioned (on phone and can't look up things efficiently) but to get around the "warm sludge" part you would have a bottle prepd at bike special needs and prep it there.

some people I've talked to have put hammer gel in their mixtures as well to get more carbs / calories without having to carry an extra flask...to each their own though.

That is why I use two bottles during the race and don't mix the second one until I grab it from special needs. If I remember correctly I think Perpetuem even warns you that it should be used soon after mixing esp during hotter days. 

I do depend on the course for water on the bike, and on the run I plan to completely live off the course(other than maybe some electrolyte pills).

I haven't posted a lot but thought I would share a few lessons that I learned from my one and only Ironman on nutrition and a few other things.  I finished it in just under 13 hours (12:50) so I'm not one of the fast guys but just trying to finish and hope to be around the same for LP.

On nutrition: I have been trying CarboPro 1200 which is a 16oz bottle with a thick liquid that has 1200 calories per bottle. It is  a little expensive but is so far working for me. Last year for IM Wisc I trained with Perform and it never really worked for me. I don't know if it will be this way at LP but the bottles that they handed out had a twist type top instead of a pull up top. The volunteers trying to be helpful would turn the tops open for the racers and unknowingly loosen the caps. Twice half the bottle went down my shirt instead of in my mouth. The other issue that I experienced with the Perform bottles were that they did not fit very tightly in my bottle cages (I used an XLab sidewinder between my aero bars) and twice lost the bottles, once on railroad track and the other on a bumpy section of road. Needless to say this put me way behind on calories and slamming Perform to try and catch up only ended in a stomach ache. By the time I got to the run the only thing I could stomach were pretzels and water which actually worked pretty well and settled my stomach. Try lots of stuff in training and you may have to think on your feet in the race if what you planned isn't working.

One other note was the water bottles that were handed out were taller than a normal disposable water bottle and were very thin. They easily crushed when I put them in the bottle cage behind my seat. Not a big issue but made it a little more difficult to get them in and out of the cages. 

On clothing: For the run I thought I would leave my bike jersey on and had trained running in it up to 10 miles. For the race in my special needs bag I put in an extra running shirt and a pair of socks just in case. When I got to 11 miles in the race my bike jersey was starting to chaf me (maybe the Perform that had soaked into it because of the drinking problem...) so I was glad I had put in the extra shirt. I got to special needs made a quick change and thought wow that is much better.. I'm feeling better and good to go. About mile 15 the balls of my feet started getting hot and after another half a mile or so I new that I wasn't going to be able to continue running with the way my feet felt. I stopped on a curb took off my shoes and much to my dismay found holes in the bottom of my socks. I had worn these socks for about a month before the race and thought they were in good condition. In the end I turned the socks inside out and upside down putting the holes on the top of my feet and finished the race running with my socks like that. 

So I guess the lesson that I learned is be flexible, things might not go the way you planned. Try to think of as many scenarios as you can and train for them, but realize it might be different in the race. Loosing the bottles of Perform could have ended my race, if I had it to do again I would have stopped and gone back to get them. Both times it was in a fairly fast section of the course and I thought I could make it to the next station, only to have it happen again.

A little off topic but I hope this helps someone..

I plan to go with water and Perform off of the course and to bring my own gels (taped to the bike) and Powerbars in a pocket.