Memorial Hermann Ironman 70.3 Texas : Official Thread (Page 2)

Of course I am in the last swim wave.  lol  Guess I need to swim and bike fast...

Thanks for all the tips!!  My big thing being new to this distance is not getting in the way of others who are serious about this race.  That's how I approached my first sprint race and my first Oly race.  I feel ok about the bottle hand ups, I've done enough one-handed eating on the bike to be comfortable with it, just didn't know the "flow" of how it works.  I'll only be grabbing water, going with Infinit for fuel for the bike and run, will concentrate for both.  I prefer to drink my calories. 

I like to run through every part of the race over and over again going through my strategy until it's second nature in my mind, including the "if/thens".  I find on race day that I just operate on auto-pilot executing that plan that I've gone over and over!

I was pretty excited to see the run changed to only 3 loops.  I'm not a fan of looped courses, I don't like seeing the same things over and over again, or knowing there's something coming up again that I dread. 

Since it's my first race at this distance, I'm going to just learn as much as I can, stay out of people's way,and do the best I can.  You only ever have 1 "first 1/2 Ironman" and I want to savor the experience!  LOL!

Oh...another question I thought of.  I don't think any friends/family members are going to be traveling to the race with me.  It appears that I'm in the 2nd to last swim wave to start (lucky me).  My question is what do you do with your personal stuff you don't want to leave in transition?  I like to bring my iPhone with me and listen to music before the swim start.  But I've always had someone I could hand it off to before heading to the swim start, or a team tent that we could leave a bag of stuff in.  My wave is like 1.5 hours after transitition closes.  That's just a lot of standing around time and I'd like to have a distraction. 

Thanks!

With the Half-Iron, you set up your transition next to your bike, on the down-wheel side. Keep in mind the amount of space you have is limited, given the number of participants.

Rick, how did they do it at 70.3 Worlds?

You could always lock it in your car 15 or 20 minutes before your wave starts. The parking lot is about a 5-minute walk from the swim start.

But then what do you do with your keys?  lol  I am just going to hang and watch and not worry about all the extra time.  Oh, wait, I forgot I will have "fans" there.    I think you will be plenty entertained though

1. Buy a new MP3 Player
2. Get a waterproof pouch
3. Get Lance to Sign MP3 Player
4. Sell Player to Random Lance Fan for 3x what you paid for it just before the swim.
5. Put the $$ in the pouch.

Step 3 might be the tricky part.

rbalazs - 2012-02-13 9:37 PM Ahh man, I just can't decide if I want to pull the trigger on this race or not. Swim and run are fine but I just haven't had the long rides to feel comfortable. Only 6 weekends left for long rides with a 1 week taper. I have to decide before the weekend to dictate how long my ride will be.

I'm in the same situation as you thanks to the kids' activities, but I pulled the trigger last night and am in.  This will be my 4th HIM, so it's not new to me and I want to see where I am at training wise since I am doing IMAZ this year.  Hoping to get in a decently long bike ride this weekend.

Did the race in 2010 and I personally didn't mind the multi-loop run course.  My swim wave went off an hour and a half after the pros, so I felt pretty lonely on the course until I got to the run.  

Pulled the trigger.  Finally.  Amazing how I can be so lazy about some things and not others.

Speaking of lazy.  Now I need to find a place to sleep the night before.

I was planning on doing Mooseman but I do better with flatter courses (I am 6'2" amd 186lbs).  However, this is 2 months before Mooseman.  Anyone care to look at my logs and let me know if my volume is there? I have 4 weeks and a taper week to get my long rides up.  I want to break 5 hrs this year.

I know someone who went into her last race way under trained compared to normal due to being pretty sick and that is exactly what happened.  She kept the pace easy and was able to execute perfectly and had one of her best races.  Weird but shows how much damage we can do to our race when we are well trained and healthy.  lol

I like that they mixed up the men and the women.  I have a long drive home that afternoon and the sooner I can get started the better!