Ironman USA Lake Placid : Official Thread (Page 4)

I think the reason that folks are having a hard time finding rooms is because between my wife and I we have booked everything that was still available. OK - that is a little bit of an exaggeration, but we did get our wires crossed a bit and each booked different places. We have a single king room at the Crown Plaza as well as a suite at the Mirror Lake Inn. We are keeping the suite at MLI, and will be canceling the Crown Plaza at some point. We will be losing one nights deposit, but would be happy to try to transfer it over to someone on BT if anyone is interested. We have it booked from Thursday 21st through Tuesday 26th. It is $349.00 per night, but you would essentially be getting one night free as we have already paid that. Feel free to PM if interested.

I got a house this year, right behind the Brew Pub!  About a .2 mile walk to the run course on Mirrior Lake Dr.  Great location for the family.....

1 week minimum (like verything else!), staying tuesday to tuesday....I learend last year getting there early is better then staying later....

2 weeks out, yoru itching bad to get to LP!!

Kathy, some friends of mine stayed off campus, like 5 minute drive (if y ou can call that off campus!)

got a house for not much more then a hotel on main street.

that could make some sense for you since you already know the logistics of race day.  Staying on main street is smart for 1st timers, but for someone who knows what race week is like, off campus can be easy

My wife and I spent some time on race Monday checking out various lodging. The prices they are charging with the minimum stay requirements are obscene. I refuse to pay $300+ per night with a seven night minimum. Sure, it would be great to be able to hobble a hundred yards from the finish line to the hotel, but I am morally opposed to that sort of profiteering. Yeah, yeah, I know; capitalism, free enterprise, supply and demand, what the market will bear, yadda, yadda, yadda. What some of these businesses are doing borders on the criminal in my opinion.

We stayed at the Cascade Inn, which is right at a bike aid station. It's a typical roadside motel and was $75 a night with no minimum. Of course it was probably a $40 room but I don't need much more than a bed and a shower. It was fine for us as volunteers but we are staying much closer next year at Schultes. They have hotel rooms and cabins (with kitchens), are on the bike and run courses, are less than a mile from the oval, and don't jack up their prices for race week. They do have a 5 night minimum but I'd want to be up there Thurs - Tues anyway.

Yeah I was shocked too @ the jacked up rates @ hotels, but then again this is the biggest $$$ making weekend for this little town, right?

I did the math, and for the amount that we are paying for a house for the week for the amount of people, it comes out to be $50/person per night. And with being able to cook my own food, I am SO happy I plunked down on a house the day after the race.

I am doing Tuesday to Tuesday as well. I want at least 2 days to walk around with the "Ironman Waddle" in my finishers T-Shirt around town

I'm sharing a house w/ a few of the families in my group that are going up.  I'd rather pay a little extra for a nice place with a kitchen since I'll be up there for a week.  Don't feel like having to eat out every night.  It is pricey though.

You gonna wear the medal too? Monday morning I was in line to register and saw a lot of people walking around with their finisher swag but was a bit surprised to see several wearing their medals. But hey, they earned 'em. I did see one guy out for a run in his hat and t-shirt.  Don't know if I'll be able to run the morning after.

heck yeah I am wearing that medal! isn't that what we all paid the $600 for?

On Monday after the race you could easily pick out who did the race even if they weren't wearing any race finishers swag. They walked funny!

The farthest point of the bike course is only about 2 miles from my house.  I thinking about either doing that one or the Ohio TTT as my pre-LP big race.

Hey all.....I'm in for LP 2011 after a rough go at IMWI this year so I am officially dubbing IMLP 2011 as my "Road to Redemption" Tour!!  I am really focused on nailing my training for this one so.....

1. Is this your first IM?- Nope, this "should" be number 6 for me

2. Have you done LP before?- Nope, only been in LP once to volunteer.

3. What are your goals for the 2010 race?- Payback for the 140.6 distance....I WILL NOT have the kind of "run" I did in Wisco.....I will break 4:30 on the marathon

4.How/Why did you select the Lake Placid Race?- Location and post family vacation opportunity!!

5. Do you have any specific questions that you wish addressed about LP (the race, training etc)...Not yet.....

Staying at the North Pole Campground in Wilmington in the recently purchased popup camper!!  Kinda like camping but with A/C and electricity...

Hi IMLP2011ers!

Just wanted to jump in on this... Tank, thanks for setting it up. I've been reading through the 2010 threads for a while too since I signed up for this. I feel like I somehow know a lot of the regulars that posted there... Is that strange? So, I've been really looking forward to getting the 2011 thread going and can't wait to share ideas and follow eachother's progress over the next 10 months!

1. Is this your first IM? - YES! I fell for triathlon hard. My first Olympic distance was in June followed by my second last week! I have an athletic background with running and rowing and see this is an awesome goal to work towards!

2. Have you done LP before? - No! I haven't ever even been to Lake Placid. I'm from Virginia and live in DC... and I rarely get north of here. But from what I've seen it looks gorgeous and I can't wait to get up there for some training and the race.

3. What are your goals for the 2010 race? - My goals are to train my body and mind completely and thoroughly so that I can finish the race feeling comfortable and happy!.. well as comfortable as you can possibly be for something like that..

4.How/Why did you select the Lake Placid Race? I wanted a race I could drive to (in a day) which narrowed it down to LP, Louisville, and FL. I know summers in the south and Louisville seemed like it would be brutal... FL was too late in the season (and at that point the oil was still flowing).. so I landed on Lake Placid. It sounded like it had a reputation as a great race!

5. Do you have any specific questions that you wish addressed about LP (the race, training etc) - Yes I have a ton of questions and I'm sure they'll be rapid fire for a while!


Great to have such a cool resource like this and I look forward to seeing everyone's progress to the finish line!

Ryan

PHEW! Just finished reading through the first 5 pages of this thread... It's getting busy ALREADY! This looks like an awesome group of people so far! Some of my thoughts to date...

- Re: Tank's and Dream Chaser's dialogue - I feel like I just read a spoiler for a reality show! I haven't gotton to June yet in the IMLP2010 thread so I didn't know how the race went but happy to know that DreamChaser is signed up for 2011!

- Re: Lodging - Is it just me or was finding a place to stay almost as hard as getting signed up? I finally landed on a place at the host hotel Northwoods Inn but getting it was like pulling teeth! I hope the service and hotel are better when I get up there! I don't have a room with a kitchen so hopefully I can get creative with meals - I'm the kind of person that likes to eat the exact same thing every day for a week before a race...

- Re: Next year's race schedule - I'm training for my first marathon in November - Richmond Marathon - After that I'm planning on a HIM (also my first) in April/May timeframe (probably Kinetic Half IM in Lake Anna Virginia since it's close to my house) then IMLP! I'd love to do some of the local Olympic events in May/June but just not sure how those would interfere or help with IM training since that will be the peak training time...

- Re: Training Plan - Part of the fun of training for me is being in the driver's seat, learning as much as I can, and putting together my own training plan. I know this is going to be hard for a novice IMer but I'm reading several books on it right now. I am trying to narrow down some of the generic plans with hopes of starting IM specific training at the end of Decmeber - Would like to check out the endurance nation one mentioned - I've also been looking at the trifuel 36wk program, don fink 30 week, the BT program... Does anyone know about the Matt Fitzgerald programs online? They looked pretty organized and tailored to the amount of time you have to use to train, etc...

- Re: Bike/powermeter, etc: Hmmmm... everything said about this so far might as well be in a foreign language. I did my first tri in June on my trusty hybrid and just upgraded to a real roadbike after that for the last one... So I'm basically a bike virgin and will most likely have a ton of question about it.. The real question now is whether to get a tri bike or stick with my roadie... then I'll be able to figure out the training... oh! and what trainer to get...


Lots to think about ... and get pumped up for!

Ryan

ryan-

youll enjoy northwoods.

I stayed there in 2010, clsoe to transition, and close to everything in placid,.

as far as main street hotels go, its one of the most cost efficient (hard to believe!), and very close to everything.

welcome!

Hey RJohnson I used a Matt Fitzgerald training plan for my first Ironman (Louisville). I bought his book "Essential Week-By-Week Training Guide" off of Amazon for cheap. It is a 24 week plan and then you can extend that with some off season training as well. There are 10 levels of training plans, level 10 being the toughest. I did level 1 and felt I was very prepared for my Ironman. I am using it again for LP and might jump up to a tougher level. If you are on a budget and cannot hire a coach I feel like this is a way to have a structured training plan for very little money.

All this talk about places to stay started me looking. I found a condo at Whiteface Club on Lake Placid for the week that seems reasonable. 2 miles from oval and on roads that don't close.

Anyone have thoughts about Whiteface Club?

Thats the book I've been using all summer to train. Used a slightly modified version of the level 4 HIM plan for Ironman Syracuse 70.3. Crushed my goal of sub 7 hours(6:14:11) so very happy with how it prepared me.  Now I have to decide what level I want to use for the Ironman.

This is a pretty general Q:

Where is everyone in their season? Still going strong? Wrapping up? Done?

I just hit the 4 week mark of being DONE. After a long season, I feel mostly recovered and healed (A freak foot injury showed up 5 days after my last HIM. I am afraid to call it healed fully). Either its this nice fall-cool-morning-weather or I AM fully recovered that my easy AM runs are a lot faster than during the summer @ peak training. I also love running not sore!

Regardless, running in cool weather is mentally bringing me back into the game more than anything. I renamed humidity to be Fumidity this past summer.

Ahhh...for me (other than the joys of my wife and kids) there is nothing better than Autumn Running. It's one of God's greatest gifts. . Right now I am in full blown marathon training with t-minus 20 days to my first legit BQ attempt at the Steamtown Marathon. Hopefully I'll Boston Qualify so I can run easy with my friend at the Philly Marathon 6 weeks later. I don't recommend this sillyness cause it comes with a lot of risk. But I'm a high risk/ high reward kind of guy. All or Nothing.

cusetri - Thanks! That makes me feel better about the hotel.

corner and drd - thanks for the advice on matt fitzgerald - i will look into the book - I had been looking at the plans he has online - http://home.trainingpeaks.com/training-and-nutrition-plans/featured-authors/matt-fitzgerald.aspx

Maybe they're the same thing though?

Hope everyone had some good training htis weekend!

Ryan

Wrapped up with tris, and greatly enjoying a little unstructured time. Biked an easy 60 on Saturday and ran 14 easy on trails on Sunday - took a nice tumble while letting my mind wander - but aside from a few scrapes and bruises, none the worse for wear. Like Dream Chaser, I really enjoy this part of the season when the weather finally breaks - looks like we have at least another week to 10 days of 90+ degree weather here in the south before it finally turns though. That said, I don't really mind the heat and humidity too much - I just figure it is the price we pay for the luxury of still being able to get on the road pretty much anytime in January and February. I love the fall 5k/10k/half season!

drdking - got a race report from the Syracuse 70.3?

I'm in the thick of big build to IM so my season is still on going.

Weather has changed so running rocks but it can be a little dicey getting long rides in depending on the weather. Next month will be even more challenging with weather and long rides. I'm tying to do a long ows each week but doubt water temps will permit longer than early October here in MA.

This weekend I'm doing the CheasepeakeMan Aquavelo then last race will be IMFL on 11/6. After that I'll do some cyclocross racing while doing unstructured training for a couple months.