Ironman St. George : Official Thread (Page 7)

Making St George your First Ironman? Not at all. It was my first Ironman. Just make sure you put in the hill work. AND if you can ride the course before the race I would encourage you to do it. This will help familarize you with how much effert to put out on some of the harder hills. I didnt have the chance and I ended up riding way too conservatively.

I stayed at the Comfort Inn. GREAT place & friendly staff. Good breakfast, shuttle service to the buses which will take you to the swim location (just in case you dont want to have anyone drive you there so early). On race morning they also had breakfast open early and OATMEAL!!! Yeahhhh.

The Pasta Factory was nice for that pre-carb meal.

One more thing about it being your first ironman. I spoke with several racers who have completed multiple ironmans and they all said the same thing "After finishing St George there's not another ironman out there that you cant tackle" 

And with only 5 months to train? 

Keep riding the GWL like you did last weekend and you'll be fine

Hi St. George folks. I missed out on IM AZ online registration so now I'm taking a look at St. George. I read through the pages on this thread quickly so forgive me if this has been asked and answered already.

What's the scoop on the swim? I see that it's an in-water start with one loop. How bad is the washing machine factor at St. George? In other words, how much full-body contact is there?  I did IM CdA this year and the one thing I didn't like about it was the narrow start with two loops. Just way too many people in too small of a space. Is St. George more spaced out than that? I figure it must be at least a little better since there aren't as many athletes racing in St. George.

Thanks!
Brad

p.s. Good to see you '11 CdA thread alumni, 3Aims and kstater.  

I kept a low profile on the cda forum but I was around.  I did cda 11' and watched st george 11'.  St george looked like a waaaaaayyy nicer swim than cda.  Its not a true " deep water" start.  Its more like you're standing in the water and then you go.  Plus there were a lot fewer participants which may change this year. 

Dude, the swim looked like a huge draft session.  Ducks in a row swimming, Im pretty pumped for this swim. 

cold? I don't know.  Im thinking if we could hang at cda we'll be good at st george

Now that's what I like to hear! Thanks for the comparison.  I agree with you about the CdA swim - if we can survive that water temperature and that monstrous mass of humanity climbing all over each other, St. George has got to be an improvement.

Good to see another CdA person. Enjoy your training!

Brad

How to deal with the below 60 water?

Booties? How much drag do they add? Coat self in Vasoline?

never used booties so I can't talk about that topic.

CDA water was 54ish, depending on who you talk to.  I used a full suit and a 5mm cap under my race cap.  I didn't notice the cold untill I went to transition.  My motor skills weren't working well.( i was out of the water in 1hr11min.)  

My solution is to be out of the water as quick as you can, train for it, full suit, and a warm swim cap.

A couple months out of cda I would get in the cold ocean water with no suit and stay in as long as I could take it.  Then ran or rode for 30min or so in order to get my body used to moving while cold.  (An ice bath would work just as well if you dont have a lake or ocean)

I've heard of people taking a 1gallon of warm water and pouring it in your wetsuit before the swim start.  Keeps your body warm and as the cold lake water flows in your suit its not as shocking as a cold rush all of a sudden.  

My wife might to st. george.  She doesn't do well in the cold.  Our strategy is to get her out of the water as quick as possible( i think this is most important) along with the cap, full suit, warm water, and she is going to bundle up on the bike.  Even if its hot outside she will wear warm clothing on the first part of the bike so she doesnt chill from the wind.  ( strip clothing as needed)

p.s. she is going to spend a lot of time in the ocean but doesnt know it yet. hahahaha

Bethany,

yeah, after looking at your IM swim times you will be out of the water fast.  My buddy that did st george said it was the best swim.  Not a lot of racers and a huge chance of drafting.  So you'll be faster than normal.  

Plus I dont think the water was sub 60 last year. ( correct me if im wrong) I believe the year before was 56 or 57.

Either way, you're so fast it may be a little uncomfortable but shouldn't hurt your performance since you wont have much exposure time

The first official race of my "Ironman season" tomorrow.

100km mountain bike race (in Hermosillo, Mexico).

We don't have to be slaves to the pavement all the time eh?

Hey, thanks for the info. I have never heard of the pouring water beforehand. I will have to try that. Like what you said about less crowded, lots of drafting opps in swim, and faster than normal. That info makes me more excited and less apprehensive about the swim!

Also, will practice some OWSing in winter/early spring to get acclimated.

Does anyone know the total ascent on the run for each loop? I'm trying to find a run here in Logan that would be similar.

I've plotted a route that is a back and forth (similar to the run) between Main Street and USU, with a final climb up to the stadium. The gain for the 8 1/2 miles is about 600 ft.

Hey everyone, apologies if this has been asked before - but...

I've done IM Florida the last 2 years and giving serious thought about St Georges in May (anyone got the low down on how close to full it might be?)

Anyway, main question is the bike, are tri-bikes the norm or do people use road bikes with clip ons? I have a Kouta tri-bike and she can be flighty, looking at the bike profile I'm thinking that my trusty Trek Roubaix with clip-ons might be a better suit.

Just read a few of the posts here - water temp 54 degrees - yikes.

TIA Glen

Hey Folks,

sorry for hijacking the thread but I have a computrainer real course DVD for St George available for sale.

I sold my CT so this is no longer useful for me...

The DVD is sold for 99.95$ on racermate website.

What about 50$ ??

Let me know if one of you is interested.

Have a good training

Okay, Thanks.

I only own a couple roadies, no tri bikes.

But I rode the course a month or so ago and will be VERY happy to have my 3 forward gears on my roadie. I'm even thinking of swapping in a new small gear with a couple teeth less. A couple of those hills are KILLER on the 2nd loop. I predict a decent amount of people walking those hills from bikes geared too high.

My regular rides are on hills, would plan on using the compact double with an 11-28 cassette.

I've done St Croix 1/2 several times and "the beast" is always like a pedestrian precinct!

So I guess I'll start planning of using the Roubaix

I did cda on my tri.  53/39, 11/27 cassette.  Im probably going to throw some aero bars on my road bike. 50/34, 12/25 cassette.  Save my legs a bit for the run. 

i've heard it said " the race doesn't start untill the second lap of the run" ( this was specific to st. george and the old run course) 

Its going to be all about hill and power training till may. Pacing the first loop is a must

This will be the 3rd yr.  first yr was cold and 2nd yr was 90.  Its always windy just depends how bad.  The bike course is hilly and the run course was brutally insane. hills steep hills hot wind hot hills steep hot... This created a huge dnf %.  

The run course is diff. this yr.  3 loops.  people are calling it flat but it still has some hills.  Nothing like the old run course though.  The reason for the change is two part.  construction on the course throughout the year which was perfect timing because they wanted to attract more athletes. They may go back to the old run course for 2013 but dont know for sure.   

I dont know anything about the future of the race but there is someone who works with the st. george athletic dept who posted about the race a while ago.  

Not sure if everyone has seen or knows about this...

IMSG has a giveaway where you can win a freebie into any North American Ironman race, HIM, free trip to Kona with VIP passes. If you registered early for IMSG like I did, then you can go to this link and just click your way thru it to register for this giveaway free.

http://www.active.com/register/index.cfm?CHECKSSO=0&EVENT_ID=1955398&ticket=ST-537649-CEK1hHdQfaa9vzOl0fDznqmh4V9eRXKaVhi-sso2

PS. I was not automatically entered, I had to go in and actively register for the giveaway. So many other IMSG'ers may be in the same boat.