Ironman Lake Placid : Official Thread (Page 76)

Looking forward to the weekend...

Running the Grand Island 1/2 marathon on Saturday...Will be pacing my wife to her 1/2 marathon PR.  Barring some major setback, I am confident she will do it...

4hr hill ride Sunday with a fellow IMLP first timer...

Good luck to all !!!!!

Hello all - I am a first timer in LP this year (and first timer for IM!).  I have enjoyed browsing these posts recently for great tips and tricks, so thanks to all who share their experience! 

I live in the area (currently in Jay, just a couple of miles off the course) and I came across some info today that I thought was worth posting for this group.  The DOT has announced that Route 73 will be closed for two weekends for slope repair.  The road will be closed at the Cascades from dawn on Saturday until dusk on Sunday on May 12/13 and May 19/20.  Bike traffic will not be allowed through the closure. 

Also, swim buoys have been out in Mirror Lake for a couple of weeks now.  Not sure of water temps, I haven't gotten in yet but hope to soon!

Hope this info is helpful to some...

Tomorrow I have a little pre-race brick, Sunday a HIM in the North Georgia Mountains. The RD put the race together after getting tired of all the new races that have started up that are advertised as "flat and fast" and "guaranteed PR!" It features two categorized climbs on the bike (the largest is a category 1) and 4 on the run. 50% chance of rain, and temps in the upper 80's. Sounds like it is going to be a rip-roaring good time. Lots of local folks that are doing IMLP (and we even have one friend that has flown down from NYC) are racing - the timing and difficulty worked out perfect to kick off our final block of training.

I have a right hip and right knee that are feeling a little wonky - not really pain, but my knee just feels a little weak under inside-out lateral stress - My run mileage was really low this past month - I am curious to see how it holds up during/after the race.

Safe training weekend everyone!

Hey everyone - I think there is a lot of very good advice in the thread relative to the bike course description and gearing. Last year I came in right around 6 hours riding a compact and a 12-25 (I actually have removed the 12 and replaced it with an 11 just because I like to spin and keep a little pressure on the pedals on long descents rather than coast too much - for me it helps my legs be ready to go when they are asked to). I did not find the course to be difficult (I think I paced it very well) And the climb back to town was very manageable - it stair steps up and because of this even the steepest bits are short and you can roll right over them. I was in my large chainring for most of this climb even on the second loop - and I am by no means a super-strong climber: at the time I was at 3.6 W/Kg.

From my (very limited) experience on the course I actually think it is the climb out of town the second time around that gets folks really ground down.

For those of you who ride with a Garmin Edge 800, I strongly recommend that you use the course feature if you are not already - I use it every time I ride in the mountains and have it set to give me a two-mile "look ahead" on the topography - once you get used to reading the information you get very good at learning how to manage your effort based on what is coming up. If you have it set up correctly (which is a little ticky) it will give you time and distance to your next turn, which also helps to gauge your effort. Here is what the topo screen looks like when you are following a course:

This is from climbing in the North Georgia Mountains: the black dot is me; each square represents 80 feet of vertical climbing and one mile of horizontal travel. I like to look at power, but you can set the top two displays to show any data you like.

This is the turn-by-turn screen that shows distance and time to the turn:

The time to turn is based on your current speed and adjusts itself as you go along.

So, if you happen to be using the 800 and not currently using this feature, learn how - for me it is the single best thing it does when riding in unfamiliar areas and races.

Back from the HAMTREK SUPER SPRINT

TOOK 2nd OVERALL out of over 100 racers  Race Report to come.

Thanks for all the support and Good Luck to everyone this weekend!!!!

Great job ~ congrats!!

I was able to ride OUTSIDE this week ~ yay!!  I did my long brick on Wednesday (4 hour/45 min).  It was a flat ride (not the greatest prep for LP), but it felt great to be outside again.  And, with all the struggles I've been having this year (injuries, family stress, work problems) it was a really good confidence boost (and at just the right time!).  Whew ~ I feel MUCH better now

I'm running a HM (Cincinnati Flying Pig) tomorrow and looking forward to a nice, fun, supported training run.  My husband will be running the full marathon and is looking to break 3 hours (or at least get a PR ~ his current PR is 3:08).  Fast, I know!  AND, he just started running a few years ago!

Good luck to all racing this weekend!  Happy training to those who aren't!!

thanks for pointing that out-I have both maps in my folder and put the wrong one up

Here is the correct 'map my ride'-with grade info if you look at the elevation map

http://www.mapmyride.com/s/routes/view/bike-ride-map/new-york/lake-placid/18884160

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my 'big 4 days of training' continues-off to the Y to swim!

Glad you are finally outside, Stacie. Good luck to you and your husband in the race.

Great race, Jeremy. Your race report will be fun to read...

Awesome Job,   You Rocked that race.  That has to feel really good.  Congrats!!!!!

Did my long ride (4 Hours) and then followed by a 45 min run.  I have to say I'm in awe of turtles; those guys must have neck strength that rivals all other species.  This was the longest ride on my tri bike so I didn't know what would happened after an hour.  I made it about 2 hours because my neck started to get sore from holding my large noggin up.  After 4 hours I don't think I want to move my neck anymore.  The run afterwards didn't go too well.   I was feeling good after last weeks races but now after this long training day, I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to do the entire distance. 

Nice race Triguy1043!!! Yeah!

My weekend is going quite well...look what I got today!!

Still needs a saddle change...a new one is on order but otherwise ready to go.  My coach wants me on this bike more than my tri bike at this time so we will be hanging out quite a bit

Jeremy,

Excellent job. Imagine how great you'll race after a taper!

Nice ride,  Hopefully the Tri bike doesn't get too jealous.

Have you gotten a professional bike fit for your new tri bike?  I bought a new tri bike last year, had LBS do the fit, rode IMCDA with neck cramps and a headache from poor fit.  After the race I got a professional bike fit and I no longer have neck cramps or headaches.  I kept thinking during all my long training rides that I would just get used to it but never did and suffered through 112 miles on race day, the only real negative I had all day was from a poor fit.

New Zipps and Speedfil

Jeremy thats awesome. My wife used to work at Hamilton College...some of those kids put up pretty good times from what i remember! 2nd place against NCAA distance runners and swimmers is pretty impressive!

Yeah I got a professional bike fit when I got the new bike.  This was only my 3rd ride on it (outside),  All my training for the past 2 months have been on the trainer and I have found out that I'm looking down while watching the ipad so I haven't really practiced being in a true aero position. So going from 1 hour to 4 hours in 3 attempts maybe too fast.  Though it maybe my fitting as well it could be too aggressive.   I'll give it a couple more times and see where I'm at.  then. 

Thanks for all the great race feedback  & Suport!!!

My HAMTREK race report is posted and the kid who beat me was a JR. At Hamilton and has a full Tri schedule for this summer including Chicago And USAT in VT. He was the real deal!!!

\Fantastic! Congratulations

Did my 70.3 (Fink Plan) today at the Mountain Madness Triathlon in Ellijay, GA.  I picked this race in preparation for IMLP because of the climbs on the bike (around 3500 feet I think....which is a lot by Florida standards) and the very hilly run course.  Overall I was happy with the day, my time was not anything  spectacular (the course did not lend itself to a PR). Looking at my Garmin my swim looked a little like the kid in the "Family Circus" cartoon...I was all over the place.  Not sure how accurate but the Garmin says I went 1.37 instead of 1.2.  On the bike I tried to stay conservative due to the 6 plus mile Cat 1 climb in the middle of the course.  At first I was conservative by design and toward the end by necessity.  On the very hilly run, I noticed that even the "real" triathletes (excepting the leaders) were adopting the walk the hill run everything else approach.....who I am I to question them so that is what I did as well and it worked.  The tempature, even by Florida standards, was pretty warm (hot).  Still need to work on dialing in nutrition. Overall this was a great training weekend.  The race was very well run, particularly for their first time.  The competitors were great and very encouraging.....very impressed with the Atlanta Triathlon Club folks...seemed like a great group.

Rusty, sorry I did not get a chance to meet you today, although I suspect you were long gone by the time I finished.  By the way you won something at the post race raffle (nothing big....Road ID I think).

Had another good weekend of training as well...

Saturday we traveled to Long Island.  The family dropped me off at the end of the LIE in Riverhead and I ran to North Fork, Mattituck for a nice 14 miler.  Plenty of vineyards, horses, goats, and farm land to help the time pass.

Sunday's ride started in Mattituck and headed out to Orient Pt., then headed back to Patchogue for a windy 4 hour ride (2 hours at Z2, 2 hours at Z3) followed by a 30 min run w/ some good run splits!

Bring on the Monday rest day!

My Rule of Thumb is to go by feel.  On some parts of the Keene descent it is pretty steep and you pick up so much speed that it doesn't make sense to pedal and instead I focus on keeping the bike straight as I can and tucking aero.  And then as soon as the descents plateau in a few spots the instinct to pedal automatically kicks in.  I think the 'smart' move on the Lake Placid course is to just pedal easy on the descents were it plateaus a bit.  There's no reason to hammer pedal and push on the descents, you just need to pedal easy and you'll maintain a 30+ mph speed.  And the steepest areas of the descent you can hit 40+ (some people hit 50+ mph) so obviously no need to pedal at that speed!