Ironman Chattanooga : Official Thread (Page 8)

Guess your bib number! 

Ok.  so we can't speculate on race logisitcs.... Thanks Brian.  We can speculate on our race performance! I've recently discovered and app called TriAlly.  Within it there is tri news, race searches, various workout ideas based on time and intensity, AND a nifty estimate your pace calculator!

Based on my current fitness from my average training paces while allotting 15 minutes for transition time, my estimated finish time is 12:50:00.  Since this time is based on my average training pace I'm making this my goal time.  I have already lost 4lbs since registering and hope to be down another 25 by the time my training plan starts.  I am also adding in some basic functional strength training (i am very weak in some areas based on my run analysis). 

Let's hear your goals! And plan for acheiving it!

OK goals... hmmm.  If I'm being totally honest my goal really is to just finish.  However, with that said, I am a competitor if only with myself and I do need to have some sort of timing/pace in mind for training purposes.  I've done 4 HIMs and a bunch of marathons so I have a decent amount of past data to crunch to make some predictions.  

Swim - By far my weakest event, my form sucks and when I OWS I zig-zag like a pinball.  That said I hope to get better from some private lessons over the winter.  My typical longer OWS swim is currently in the 2:00 range, although I've never done more than the HIM distance.  So if I improve a bit in the off season, and with some help from the down river swim I figure I should be able to match the 2:00/100 time for the full 2.4.  Swim: 1:20:00

Bike - I'm decent on the bike and I do enjoy ridding so training to get to 112 shouldn't be an issue for me.  Two of my HIMs were fairly rolling courses and I was able to finish both averaging over 18MPH.  I don't plan on trying to ride hard at all, I think that this course will be a bit hillier, and its just a plain 'ol long day in the saddle so I'm figuring that if I maintain an average of 16.5 for the full distance I'll be happy. Bike: 6:50:00

Run - This is my best sport and I have the most knowledge of my abilities here.  I know that on most courses I can go out and run a 3:45 marathon without even thinking about it.  Properly trained and a well executed race will get me sub 3:30. Knowing that I'll have already put in over 8 hours by the time I lace up the running shoes, I don't expect to break any land speed records.  I fully intend that there will be walk breaks to take in fluid and gels and I will be simply hoping that I'm still able to run when I get into the 20s.  I'm figuring that about a 10:00 mile pace is doable w/o killing myself and forcing me to walk the last 5 or 6 miles.  Run: 4:25:00

I figure these are reachable goal times but I also know that anything can happen.  So with my estimates, adding 15 minutes for transitions I see a possible 12:50:00 finish.

My first IM I had 3 goals:

1) don't die

2) finish (fairly dependent on goal #1 holding true)

3) finish with my hubby and with a smile on my face. 

All three goals happened, but due to not a whole lot of training going on for the last 6 weeks leading up to the race, it truly became a day that I just wanted to get through. 

B2B is coming up for me in 3 weeks, and I'd like to think I'll have a better idea of what I'm capable of after that, but my dream goal would be to finish around 13 hours.  Super slow compared to some, but something that I need to work towards.  For IMChoo, I'd like to bring that goal down to 12:30, but we'll see how things look in a month or so. 

Have fun!  Any consideration of posting your log file for it?  I'd love to see some real data, as opposed to the rather vague (and mostly unreliable) description.