Ironman Coeur d'Alene : Official Thread (Page 93)

I always interact with the people that come out.  In Boston, I hit the mid point at the college and........well, despite my focus on time, I, well, you need to run that course to know what comes next.

I've never run it but I hear it's mammaryable.

Yeah tough to beat Welsey College and the experience of screaming girls crowding the road down to one lane

Down to one lane?  When I ran it in 2008, they were all behind barricades on the right side of the road and the rest of the road was wide open.  It was great to hear all of the screaming, but to be honest, I thought the Boston College crowd was louder.  I've got my qualifier to 2012 and if I make it there as planned, perhaps I'll have to do more careful analysis!

Makes me feel old to say it has been since 00 and 01 that I ran Boston but both years there weren't any barricades and the girls crowded the road making a small "tunnel" to go through. The noise was deafening. You could hear them from 3/4 of a mile out.

the cold weather race day questions seems like something we should address.

obviously during the swim you will have your tri suit underneath, some may wear compression calf sleeves, and you will have your cap and goggles. some will go for two caps or a neoprene cap too. we have discussed a layer of vaseline on your exposed face but not near the eye sockets to loosen the suction. if really cold, you can wear booties, if i am not mistaken. any other things?

bike-layers, and there are some tips about covering your chest, long sleeve bike shirt or throw away tight sweatshirt, head covering, gloves, wool socks, leg/arm warmers.

run is pretty self explanatory. throw some stuff in there if you can. this was just off the top of my head.

One thing I remember last year was hearing comments from people who live farther south, like:

"Does it ever get dark around here?"

A lot of people are pleasantly surprised how long the summer days are when you get up north.  Sunset is around 9pm that time of year.

But yeah - it's still smart to prepare for anything and pack your bags accordingly.

I need an "Aww!"

My B10 with Di2 is not working properly.  The LBS is struggling and sending back the Di2 to Shimano.  Now I am squeamish about showing up to CDA with Di2 and I am contemplating a new bike.  In fact the LBS owner is dropping off a Trek 7.5 to my house in about 10 minutes.

What exactly was it doing?  Was it ridable?

I bet Shimano will make good on it.  That's their cream of the crop... they want you telling your friends how awesome it is.  Hopefully they'll get a quick turnaround and have you rolling again in no time.

Now THAT would have been great!  Sort of like a running version of one of those Tour de France climbs where the fans are all over the road.

Does anyone have an accurate elevation gain for the bike ride?  mapmyride shows approx 1475 ft/loop.  However I checked it prior to Oceanside and it gave 1600 and I registered around 2200 ft.  Any clarification would be appreciated.  I am headed up to ride the course here in a few weeks but it would be nice to be prepared. 

Sure appreciate everyone's great advice here on the forum.  This is my first full IM so I'm excited for the whole experience.  Happy training to all of you!

I wouldn't describe crank vs. wheel power meters as better or worse.  Both have been shown to measure power accurately within a very small margin of error.  Think of it more as advantages and disadvantages of each.  But if your main criteria is accurate power measurement, I think they SRM, Quark, and PT are peers.  In my humble opinion, you are looking at perhaps slightly better accuracy with the crank system, but it is only measuring one side and then extrapolating... vs. the potential for a slighly less accurate measurement of what you are producing with the PT, but it is measuring all of the force applied to the wheel (which is what really matters).  In the end, it's a wash.

Things to think about - do you want power in training and on race day?  With PT, your only choice is two of them (training hoop and separate race day wheel laced to a PT) or a wheel cover for your training wheel (which is a very good option).  With a crank you don't have to think about it.

Do you want to have power on multiple bikes?  If so, imho, the easier choice is PT since you can just swap the wheel (though swapping cranks isn't a big deal either with the tools... but certainly more of a hassle than opening a skewer).

Do you want to ride different crank sizes (I know more than a couple people who have a standard on their road bike and a compact on their tri bike)?  A PT will allow you to switch between both with no calibration.  I believe (but could be mistaken) you can swap chainrings on some crank-based systems, but the unit would need to be recalibrated.

You are right, however.  It seems if money is no object, most people gravitate to an SMR or Quark... which does lead me to believe there is an ever so slight perceived advantage to those systems. 

Hey guys... I know I'm guilty of sometimes thinking the way I do things is the way they should be done for everyone.  I'm conscious of that and try to avoid it -- emphasizing rather a discussion of why I've made the choices I've made, and giving a chance for you to evaluate if that reasoning makes sense for you.  With that in mind, given the timing, and given the excellent reminder we just got to start thinking about race logistics (wardrobe, meals the day before, etc), I wanted to make a suggestion regarding tire/tube selection.  And apologies if this has already been discussed... if it has I don't remember it.

Many new (and even experienced) IM racers throw away a ton of time riding a slow tire/tube combo.  I know sometimes it can be annoying being so focused on equipment when your concern is more about making the cutoffs or finishing the race than it is about where you place in your age group.  But I'm here to advocate for a relatively cheap expenditure that can shave a ton of time/effort off of your IM bike, with minimal risk. 

What's more?  The slower your ride, the more a fast tire/tube combination will benefit you.  Aerodynamic drag (CdA) increases exponentially (^2) as velocity increases... meaning that if I double my speed the drag increases 4 times.  The coefficient of rolling resistance (Crr), however, is a constant.  An easy way to think of Crr is how much energy it takes (ie, how much you lose) for your tire/tube to flex and then return to shape at the front/rear contact point.  

Except while climbing, CdA and Crr are the two major forces you overcome while riding the bike.  And so the faster you go the greater the percentage of resistance comes from aerodynamic, and the slower you go the greater the percentage of resistance comes from rolling resistance.

Okay, enough technical talk.  Here's the takeaway...

Different tires and tubes have different combined Crr.  The higher the Crr, the more energy you lose... ie the less energy from your pedals actually gets converted into forward momentum.  Depending on your speed, I do not think it is extreme to suggest that a low Crr tire/tube combo could save you 5-20 minutes over an IM bike.  Put another way... the savings between the highest and lower Crr tire/tube combos can approach 20 watts per tire.  I know a lot of people who would be willing to sell a kidney for an instant 40 extra watts for their IM bike... good news is you don't have to.

Here is a chart listing tires tested with latex tubes.  Latex tubes and fast tires often need to be ordered on line or from your LBS (probably won't have them in stock)... so I figured I'd post this now when you've still got several weeks.  IMHO, you can't go wrong with the specialized mondo open tubular (a clincher tire) in terms of Crr and durability.  It can be ordered from the specialized website, or is basically the same tire as the Vittoria Open Corso EVO 320tpi CX.  Some people (me included) use a narrower tire up front where there is 1) more of an aero benefit on the front wheel, and 2) less of a need for durability on the front wheel since more weight is on the back and many flats occur when a front tire kicks up debris and the rear tire runs over it at a wierd angle (vs how it wants to lie flat on the road).

If I ever get back into racing seriously, my tire of choice will either be Specialized Mondo Open Tubular (again, really a clincher) on both, or maybe just on the back with a Bontrager R4 Aero up front.  I personally consider it insane to race on butyl tubes (though your spare should be butyl, see below).

People often worry about flats when going to a race tire, but FOR ME, I've not had any flat troubles in hundreds of miles of racing and a couple hundred more in race rehearsal rides.  If I do flat in a race, it will cost me 3-5 minutes because I can change a flat in my sleep after much practice... and that's an OK risk to me since it's already saved me dozens of minutes in the races I've done so far.  Plus IMHO most flats people get in race tires likely would have occurred on standard tires too... flats just happen... period... you can't assume it was the race tire/tube that did it.

The only flat worry, in my experience, is a pinched latex tube.  They are way more flexible than butyl tubes and are therefore harder to install without pinching under the tire bead.  If you are nervous about it, it might be a good idea to have the LBS install.  However, if you are really careful when installing (maybe a little talcum powder, inflated slightly while installing and getting up into the tire then deflated to check for pinches and then fully inflating), there's no reason it can't be DIY.

Last word of caution... CO2 leaks through latex much faster than air, so always pump up latex tubes using a pump.  If you do have to change a flatted latex tube on the road, you'll want a spare that is butyl because the butyl tube will be easier to install quickly and will hold CO2 just fine.

Climbing down from my soapbox now... thanks for listening.

PS - good BT forum disucussion on the topic here.

I'm going with the R4 Aero front and back, partly due to the better ride quality since it is a 22mm tire.  But it's splitting hairs when you get into the top few tires on that chart.

Another word of warning - the R4 Aero seems to be consistently backordered and hard to get ahold of.  You can't order it online that I've found - you have to go through a local Trek dealer which can be hit or miss.  So I'd start looking now if you're planning on using that tire and don't have it yet.