Longhorn Ironman 70.3: ARENA FINISH!!!! (Page 9)

You have a much nicer bike than I do, and you are a bit faster. Therefore, I have to recommend you stay off the big chainring the whole way.

There are a couple of short-but-very-steep climbs on Blue Bluff and Monkey Rd, and a really long climb up Taylor. The rest is mostly rolling hills. If you handled CapTex fine, you should be fine at Longhorn (with the added distance, of course.)

Setup used for Capital of Texas Olympic
Crank Shimano Ultegra, 39/53
Rear Cogs Shimano Ultegra, 12-23

Would this setup work for Austin, I ordered a zip 808 and need to order a rear cog for the wheel and wanted it set up for Austin.

While I am ordering a new rear cog I thought I would make sure that the chainring is set up correct as well.

Keith, do you have more info on the live athlete tracking yet? Last email I saw said essentially "more info coming soon".

p.s. There's a typo on your site for their site. You've got one too many "www"s at the front of the url.

This race is looking good guys!  I have a question for everyone out there.  I have just picked up my training again after a 6 week lay off due to a family emergency.  Prior to this I have completed various sprint and olympic distance triathlons and a few half marathons.  There is really only about two good weeks left of training before taper week.  My training was going very well prior to the emergency.

I am still planning on doing the race, but am looking for recommendations on doing it.  Would it be wise to follow through?  Your suggestions are appreciated.

Really hard to tell- your logs are completely blank, so I have nothing to go on to give you advice. What does 'really well' mean? A 6 week lay off is kind of a lot, especially if this is your first HIM. Going off of what I would do, knowing my own body, I would lose almost all of my fitness in 6 weeks, and I've already done 10 HIMs, and have been racing triathlons for 3 years now. I could not make up 6 weeks of lost fitness in 2 weeks time. You absolutely CAN NOT 'cram' for a half-ironman. It's not like studying- you can't just cram your body full of fitness, 3 weeks out from a 70.3 MILE race.

But, I believe that a lot of people might be able to just barely make the cut-offs on an HIM with only residual fitness- it just sure wouldn't be pretty, and it's not the way I would spend my Sunday, regardless of whether or not I paid for the race. Pay attention to your body, if you decide to do it, and pay very close to attention to pacing and nutrition- know that you'll be out there a lot longer than previously planned, so eat and drink accordingly. Go slower than you would've 2 mos ago, so you don't hurt yourself permanently. That's my advice, if you decide to do it. Oh, and adjust your planned goal time

Thanks for the information.  I appreciate it.  I am going to continue the training plan that I was on and gage how I feel.  If I am too sore, then I will probably back off.  I don't use the logs feature here but I was up to long runs on the weeked of 17-19 miles.  Long bike rides consisted of 60 - 75 miles.  Brick workouts for 50 mile rides with 10 mile runs after.  During the week, I would do 8 mile runs and 5-6 mile runs.  Swimming was incorporated as well, about a 1 mile swim with drills.
Short bike rides during the week due to lack of time; 18 - 25 miles if lucky.
I had been training like this since February of this year.  Used the sprint and olympic tirtahlons as training.  I have not had any injuries and honestly felt tired but not hurt or sore after the workouts.  But 6 weeks off is a long time.  I just did an 8mile run this morning and a 1 mile swim around noon.  Planning a short 20 mile this evening.  See how it goes.  thanks again. 

Jeesh- were you actually training for an IM?? What kind of HIM plan were you on that had you running 17-19 miles for an HIM- just curious?

Anyways, sounds like you did have a lot of fitness, and I think you'll be the best judge of how you feel this week and next, to determine how you'll feel at Austin. I still think you can complete the race, but it might be a lot harder to really race it, like you probably could've before. Also, again- don't try to cram in extra training right now, to make up for lost time- it could just backfire and make you too exhausted once race day comes around.

Agreed. If you were doing that kind of volume up until a few weeks ago, you shouldn't have any issues finishing the race. Get some good volume in this week to see how you feel. My suggestion would be to taper a little less. You don't really have a lot to recover from, so do a bit more volume next week than you normally would (though not as much as a normal training week) and then taper the final week.

I would say they more than prepare you for Longhorn's bike. There aren't any hills on the run in Louisville like there are at Longhorn, but otherwise I think you'd be fine.

Race details are up on their site, very detailed and informative....

Ah man, wave 16 8:40, last wave....makes sense since I am doing the aquabike, just hope I dont get cut on the bike.

Yea I'm near the back again. It sucks, but you can't make everyone happy with swim waves.


3 loop run course? And maybe I'm reading the map wrong, but it looks like Quadzilla's gone???

Was wondering whhat heppened to the run myself

WHAT?!? NO QUADZILLA?!?

I've run that stupid hill in training multiple times for weeks, and NOW they change the course? Its less than 3 weeks till the race! Who do they think they are? They've taken out the hardest, most brutal 1/2-mile potion of the run, and...

wait...

Why am I complaining?!? I'll just shut up now.

Yea I'm a bit conflicted myself. I wanted to come back and take on that hill again, but at the same time the run course looks significantly flatter(and faster) so I might end up getting a better overall time than I had planned. I'm sure on the 3rd loop I'll be more than happy that Quadzilla's sitting off to the side.

Well, this is my first HIM ever, so I guess I won't complain. However, knowing the run won't be as brutal means we may have to push a little harder. But not much harder. The road going back and forth between the Expo Center and the Lake still has a couple little hills that shall not be ignored.

We've been out there a bunch, and there's some really rough parts on the offroad section that I've become increasingly concerned about. I don't want folks spraining ankles, etc. The drought has really affected things...Of course, now it's raining every other day.

I'm gonna go out there again this weekend, and map/run both run courses. Worst case, Quadzilla will rear it's ugly head again in 2011. I have to make safety our first priority.

YES, the run will be MUCH flatter without Quadzilla, but I'd still call it challenging. Lots of rollers, and we use the shaded lefthand side of the park now, which is also rolling.

We still have 12 groups for the run course, which just means there will be even more fun stuff out on the course for you, to take your thoughts off of the pain.

6 bands too



We've got some really special stuff this year, including what we like to call "Christmas in October".....you'll just have to make it to the run to see what we're talking about....

Man us Aquabikers miss all the fun

No complaints from me.  I'm sure the course will still be plenty challenging, especially for us first timers.  Really starting to get excited!  Anyone know if there's going to be a BT tent?

Understood, and I'm sure you guys have valid reasons for leaving it out this year. I bet the whole event will be great, last year's event was very well-done!

3 loops?! Gaaaah.
Man I was looking forward to Quadzilla myself. OH well.

I've asked multiple times in multiple threads and gotten zero response.
I'd assume no, at this point.