Ironman Coeur d'Alene : Official Thread (Page 8)

In 2010 there was no snow in the mountains. There for there was no runoff. 2011 records level snow fall so lots of runoff of very cold water.

This year should be a normal snow fall year but we will have to wait and see. I would think that 59 to 61 water temp. The 67 temp is from the summer time for Lake Coeur d' Alene.

Well that is quite crafty of WTC to use 67* as the average water temp!

I did just fine in 68* temps a few weeks ago at Redman wearing a sleeveless, so I hope that with full sleeves, 59-61* will feel similar. 

I'm doing Ironman Cozumel in less than six weeks.  That will be my first Ironman.  CdA will be my second.  :-)  I only started swimming a few months ago, so I hope to be much better at it by the time that next June gets here.  

I'll do a 70.3 in preparation--probably Rev 3 Knoxville or the Mountain Madness Tri (in GA) on May 6, 2012.  I'll find some other benchmark races to do in there, too, just to keep it interesting, as well as plenty of spring centuries.      

With the talk already regarding water temp I thought i would jump in. My first IM was this years' CdA race and the 2 main things people asked prior to the race were: what size gears to use for the hills and how to deal with the water.

One of the BTers on here said he worked in the med tent at the water start. The OFFICIAL water temp at the start was 54.7 degrees. When I got in town I swam Wed, Thur, and Fri. The water temp was about 58 on Wed. But the last 3 days before the race it was windy and cool which dropped the surface temp of the lake. Ive also seen it listed that a few years back it went from 57 to 61 in the 5 days before the race so its anyones guess really. A high snow pack will certainly affect it. Spokane which is about 30 miles west had a record snowfall year I believe. This years' water temp was the coldest in the 9 year history of IM CdA and still over 2100 people finished. Keep that in mind.

How did I do>?   I live in seattle so I trained in cool water. The lowest was probably 57 or so and gradually increased as CdA got closer so I had some good cool water time in. I used a neoprene cap and 2 swim caps and wax in my ears during the race. I also wore a light base layer under my wetsuit to have a little more 'space' between my skin and the wetsuit. You need to try all that you think might help you to get ready for the 2.4 swim. Its all a mind game and also positioning yourself relative to your swim ability at the start. I went on the far outside about 10 people back. I didnt want to be in the middle of the huge packs for the turns. The turns suck, plain and simple. But you get thru it as well and then get horizontal again and back into a groove.

As it gets closer everyone will be looking at the USGS website that has the water temp listed every hour. I bet that site got more hits in 2 weeks before CdA than the previous year combined. We all were concerned but we got in, dealt with it, and did our best.

Its an Ironman. Its not supposed to be easy

i prefer to ride a tri bike.  getting areo saves a lot of time. 

I have a road bike with aero bars.  I tentatively planned on getting a tri bike early this coming spring, but I'm second thinking that.  I like my roadie and I am very comfortable on it so I'm not sure I'll make the switch before CdA.

Yeah I think that's probably true.    I definitely will be buying one, just not sure it'll be in time for CdA.  

I hope to have the money together by IM cda for a tri bike.

I rode a tri-bike at IM St. George in 2010.  Very comfortable although I am not sure if it saved any time going up the hills.  I definitely could have gone "up" faster on my road bike as it is lighter and just climbs really well.

I plan on riding a tri bike next June. 

Probably obvious, but if you choose to get a tri bike for the race, make sure you give yourself plenty of time to get acclimated to it beforehand.  Even on one that fits well, it definitely takes some getting used to.  For me, it felt like it worked my leg muscles slightly differently and my neck had to get used to the different position.

Are you all doing any "tune up" races next spring?  My plan (Fink's IronFit) calls for an olympic the last weekend in March and a half the last weekend in April.  

There aren't any races around here that are more than pool-swim sprints during that time frame, so unless I want to travel overnight for Galveston (4-1, so too early per the plan for a half) or New Orleans (4-22), I may just have to simulate a race on my own.

That, or there is a race (1 mile swim, 40 mile bike, 9 mile run) on 5-20.  I think that may be a little too close to CdA, though.  

I thought about that and I won't buy if there is not some time to get acclimated. Thank for having my back.

I plan to simulate my own half-ironman sometime in May.  We could all simulate on the same day and compare experiences/lessons learned/heartbreaks/successes? 

Gators only bite if you swim with a "rat" dog.   

Noted...leaving rat dogs at home.