THE BOX WEEK 19
Hey team!!! Calling out to all our East Coast peeps....how did it go this weekend??? Everyone safe???? Seariously remember that a RR will not make or break your race- and that your safety ALWAYS comes first. Give us a quick shout out to know you are with us and getting ready!!!
The biggest thing to remember is that you are TRAINED and ready to EXECUTE this race.Your MIND and ATTITUDE play a huge part in this….SO lets keep our AWESOMENESS GOING!!!!
This week think about YOUR box, what you learned in RR1 and RR2 and how you can keep the box as large. Remember you are not out there trying to make anything happen on race day. You are keeping that box as large as you can for as long as you can, you're focused, calm, collected and executing ninjas.
All day long you are going to race inside a box defined by what you can control. Ask yourself "What do I need to do right NOW to create the conditions for success at The Line? Is what I'm doing right now counter to this goal?
Advice:On the swim, the Box is the space your body occupies in the water: focus on your form and the rest will come. On the bike, the box is probably about one aid station long. On the run, the box begins as 2-3 aid stations long but often diminishes to "from here to the next lampost/manhole cover/mail box." Regardless:
Keep The Box as big as you can for as long as you can.
Keep in The Box only the things you can control. Let go of the rest.
Exercise this decision-making process inside your Box: Observe the situation, Orient yourself to a possible course of action, Decide on a course of action, Act (OODA Loop).
And now I hand it off to the team....we have some experts here...what do you say???
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Comments
Also....As a side note...Is there any interest in meet up for a dinner?? There will not be an official team dinner. HOWEVER- I have a spreadsheet HERE
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...>
It is easy to use if someone wants to volunteer to be the ON SITE person. A suggested location is :
Mellow Mushroom, before the bridge on the Wilmington Side or South Beach Grille on the swim start side of the bridge . Mellow Mushroom also has gluten free vegan pizza options.
I also encourage you to use GroupMe which will begin on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday of race week.
Welcome to the taper, team. I'm looking forward to hitting the road one week from today. Like Jay (and I'm sure Nemo), my grand weekend plans for back-to-back outdoor rides got blown away. So, I sat on the trainer (5.5hrs on Sat, 2.5 on Sun) and watched Matthew take down a tree, launch my grill and cause a little roof damage. We were far away from the real action and obviously got off easy. I didn't get in the big training I needed to make some real noise this year, but I did enough. And I've certainly done far less for previous IM's. Either way, nothing I can do about it now.
I'm staying on the river, would be happy to meet up for any event/meal. Will probably attend the Welcome Ceremony on Thursday at 5 - it's free and next door.
Weather? Who cares. There's always a chance of rain, almost guaranteed to be cold in the morning and mild in the afternoon, and wind is a given. I take comfort in the fact that there's no chance of it being 90 and humid.
Water temps? The cold ocean water came in a hurry after the hurricane. It's now below 74, so the odds of it going back up above 76 are pretty non-existent. I'm totally planning on a wetsuit race.
Tide hits low right after 7:00am on race day. When the gun goes off at 7:20, we may have a little current assist as the tide starts to rise, with any meaningful benefit showing up the second half of the swim. I'm thinking . . . a couple minutes of help, probably no more.
The only thing I know about the bike course is there are a couple of bridge climbs, otherwise flat and exposed to the wind. ENer Ralph Moore posted this really helpful review of the course last year:
T1 - first mile : The T1 is near the Marina on Wrightsville. The first mile of the bike course is on some small roads the go towards the water and then circle under the bridge, through the parking lot of the boat ramp, and up over a metal-grate bridge. Comments : Take it easy through here, it will be crowded, the roads take several turns, there is some loose gravel, and after you circle under the bridge, there are speed bumps in the boat ramp parking lot.
Miles 1.5 thru about 8: After you cross the steel bridge, you will bear right onto Military Cutoff road about 1.5 miles from the start. This is 4 lane and overall pretty good quality pavement. At about Mile 4.5 you bear right onto highway 17 north. This is still 4 lane and a little more bumpy but still good road. At mile 8, you go up an overpass and immediately come down into a 270 degree turn. Don't get to fast on the downhill because the turn is pretty tight in the center portion. Be especially careful if it is wet.
Miles 8 - 20 : Interstate. This is pretty good road also, the only thing is the big bridge near the end, just over the bridge, I140 ends and you exit onto 421 north.
Miles 20 - 50. This is Highway 421 north. Note that there is on Railroad track a mile or two north of the interstate that will bounce a bottle out pretty easily For the first 15 miles or so, it is 4 lane and then it narrows to 2 lane. The road quality is pretty good with few potholes or cracks.
Mile 50 -63 (2 lane road) Take a left turn onto Buckhorn Rd. This is where Bike Special Needs is located. After this, the road turns into Wildcat road and then Ennis Bridge Rd. If you notice from my Ride posted above, there is a detour because Wildcat road was closed for bridge construction when I was there. I don't know if it will be open by race day or if they will adjust the route. The detour added about 5 miles to the ride. Overall, road quality through here was average, not bad but the road was not new either.
Miles 63-77 (2 lane road) This is highway 210 headed back to Wilmington. This road is pretty good and is mostly what I (as a flatlander) would call rolling hills. For those of you from more mountainous areas, you might think it is pretty flat.
Miles 77-80 (2 lane road) Rather than continue on Highway 210, the course turns onto Highway 53 for several miles. This is pretty bad road, lots of crackseal and patched potholes. It is a good place to lose water bottles and other loose items off of the bike.
Miles 80-82 (2 lane road) There is a short stretch of Highway 11 that brings you back to Highway 210. This road is pretty average.
Miles 82-92 (2 lane road) Travel on Highway 210 for about 10 miles and you will turn right at a little sketchy-looking country store. Overall, this road is also about average.
Miles 92-99 This is Blueberry Road. It is fairly shaded 2 lane road that brings you back to the 4-lane Highway 421 at about 14 miles from the finish.
Miles 99-112 Highway 421 South is 4-lane and brings you back into town. Note that you will cross the railroad tracks (again) and there is another steel-grate bridge coming into town. The course turns right after the bridge onto 3rd st and then another right onto Brunswick and Left onto Nutt and to T2 at the convention center.
Yup- that's my mantra at this point! I took Friday off in anticipation of the storm and managed to get in a final RR. After that, all bets were off for any training until Monday afternoon when I finally got in a short run. I'll be on the trainer this afternoon (weather is beautiful, but the roads are not clear) and just kinda hope I can do one more outside ride this weekend (might be doing loops around the HS track! HA HA HA).
Thanks for the run-down on the bike course. I don't have any definitive intel, but I don't think any portions of the bike course are currently under flood warning. So I'm hoping it will all be good on race day. My drive over there might be longer than expected though since I think there is a road out that I'd normally take which will force me all the way out to 95. But whatever it is, it is at this point!
In the spirit of the Race Captain's below message:
"Do you think my muscles have anything to do with me being faster and stronger?" Morpheus to Neo in The Matrix.....
Wishing all in the EN IMNC battle group great skill and solid execution next week!
SS
Here in Cleveland it was a cold start on Saturday so... 6 hours on the trainer with Zwift and Netflix... same for the last long ride on Sunday. This weekend I will get out on Saturday for a final 2.5 hours ride and then the bike goes to TriBikeTransport on Sunday.
I have a couple of questions for our race in 11 days:
- Thinking about the air temp in the morning, is anyone planning on using sleeves or long sleeved tops for the bike? Is the wind typically a heading or cross winds? Planning on using a rear disc, any known side winds issues in Wilmington?
- I read in a race report from a couple of years ago that they stashed shoes at the point of the wet suit strippers and put them on after the swim to run into T1 from there. I have never heard of such a thing at IM and didn't expect the run into T1 to be that long. Is anyone aware of this or is this just a one off thing from someone in the past?!
This is my seventh IM and first in NC really looking forward to it. Planning on going to the welcome dinner but if there are other dinner plans keep me in the loop. Looking forward to meeting everyone in a weeks time
I think this is a one-off. My understanding is that the "changing tent" for both transitions is actually inside a convention center or hotel of some sort. If the race report was by Jim Ebert, I can tell you that he has really bad mortons neuroma in his feet and even the shortest little run barefoot can send him into a downward spiral. That said, I haven't seen a map of the transition areas yet. The course map doesn't really help provide much guidance on that front. If anyone has some insight, please share!
The rest of the ride is as described. I found the roads to be pretty good and generally flat. I live in a hilly area and found nothing about this course to be hilly. There are some false flats to keep you honest but remember it is a net rise in elevation riding out of town. The biggest hill is around Mile 18 when you climb to the exit of I-140. After that pretty straightforward. Roads are also pretty good except for that section mentioned on Hwy 53 that is chip seal and patched pavement. Pretty short segment but will need some mental focus to not get frustrated.
The swim exit is at SeaPath Marina. It is the same swim exit used for the YMCA sprint held there every year in September. I've done that race 5 of the past 6 years. After the swim you will climb ladders to exit the water. Once on the dock you should see wetsuit strippers almost immediately if they are in the same place as previous B2B. Then there is a run down a cement boardwalk. This is where people leave a pair of shoes. The shoes are lined along a fence and people wear them for the run to T1. After running down the boardwalk there is a slippery left hand turn in to a parking lot. Be careful and take your time making this turn. I have seen people slip and fall here. Then you run through a parking lot, onto the road and across to T1. This area is usually pretty well swept but can be rough on sensitive feet with asphalt and loose pavement. In T1 I would expect the typical IM changing tents.
When you finish the bike you will be down by the river. In year's past the Convention Center was used as the changing area. I have heard that is not the case this year. T2 will again be the typical IM changing tents.
As for the weather I agree with Nemo. I will wait until next week to plan. As a guide though, in Louisville last year it was 48 when we finished swimming. I wore arm warmers and had bubble wrap tucked inside my tri top for the first half of the ride. I was still pretty cold for the first 20 miles.
I am staying near the river at the Marriott. Would love to meet up for a meal before the race. I also plan to go to the Welcome Ceremony. I enjoyed Louisville last year and thought it was pretty well done. Would be happy to try and plan something if anyone is interested in a certain time or meal.
As for now, we are still without power but the weather is nice. I'm not doing much now beacuse of time constraints. I hope the hay is in the barn. I'm actually headed to Wilmington this weekend for my son's swim meet. Not sure if I'll squeeze in a ride or not.
Be safe out there!