2017 70.3 Lake Placid Welcome and Introductory Thread
Welcome to the IM 70.3 Lake Placid Sign In Thread!
Please use this thread to introduce yourself to your fellow teammates, telling us a little bit about you, your goals for the race, etc! and
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Here is who I have listed as racing to date
Alicia Chase
Kyle Mongold
Natalie Pilon
Kristin Kandiel
Patricia Thompson
William Bejin
Mark Keeling
George Penn
Thom Reid
Carlos Sanchez
Timothy Fortuna
Brian Kelly
Dominic Malleo
Jessie Bouchot
Jennifer Mason
Comments
ME: "Question about Saturday workout for HIM LP Beginner. It's Race Rehearsal and on the bike instructions it says to pick a flat course, preferably one you can repeat as needed. Is that correct...that it should be flat? We are planning to ride on a fairly hilly course. Please advise."
BRIAN: "the idea is to have a space where you can simulate your effort as close to what you want on race day as possible…vs picking a hilly course that crushes you. I am willing to accept hilly but you might want to cut it a little short (we don’t want you to over do it by riding super hard and long so close to race day). I hope that helps. Remember, practicing your nutrition and shifting, & monitoring your effort are all WAY MORE important than what you ride! Good luck!"
ME: "Thanks I still have some questions: "Practicing nutrition, shifting & monitoring effort are more important than what you ride" Does that go for all rides or just this one? If simulating effort to race day I don't understand how it will be simulated if we are riding flat in this workout and hills in the race day. Can you explain that? Since a course with hills is what we have available in order to ride right after the swim how much would you cut it to... 40 miles? And then would you add miles on another day (Friday or Sunday at this point) to make-up the total weekly mileage?"
ask Patrick your questions and he'll get to you, usually in 24 hrs, or over a weekend by end of day Monday...
my answer to your question would be to use a course that has both flat and climbing sections. if you were doing a full IM, depending on where in NJ you are starting, I'd tell you to ride up to bear and back, but omit the climb up Perkins. 9W with the Alpine descent and then return climb and the climb north out of and north of Nyack (and then returning) is a really good place to simulate what you will have on race day (fast descent (Keene in LP & Alpine on your route) long flattish TT sections (9W south of Alpine))
climbing up to and beyond Wilmington into LP, lots of that on this route..
btw, unless you are going to the jersey shore or Long island, you are not going to find "flat" around here.. I am in rockland over the weekend, pm me here for contact info if you want to grab a coffee in Nyack or Piermont and discuss.
the real focus of an RR is riding varied terrain at steady power or HR, practicing your nutrition and running well off the bike. go get em!
You may want to open a micro thread for this, but I'll try to provide some assistance with your questions in this forum. "Practicing nutrition, shifting & monitoring effort are more important than what you ride" applies to all rides. If you get in the habit of making sure you're fueled properly; that you're shifting so that your always keeping a steady cadence and that you are monitoring you effort on every ride, it should come more naturally on race day. All three are keys to success on the bike.
By monitoring your effort, it means that you are putting out a steady output, whether it be in watts, watching your heart rate, or, if you aren't able to track either, your perceived effort is steady state. You don't want to go easy for 2/3 of a ride then hammer the last 1/3. You don't want to go completely in the red on hills and soft pedaling on the flats. You want to find a pace you can sustain the whole ride and still have something in the tank for the run. I hope that makes sense.
Regarding the mileage for your ride tomorrow, maybe think of things in terms of how long you're going to be out there on race day. By now you should have a general idea about how long it takes you to ride 56 miles. Lake Placid is hilly, but it's not the Swiss Alps. If it takes you about 3.5 hours to ride a flat or rolling 56 miles, and this ride you have planned tomorrow is super hilly, maybe you only cover 40 or 50 miles. My girlfriend and I are both doing Placid and I took her on a ride last week that exceeded Placid's altitude gain in the span of 37 miles. It took her 3 hours and I guarantee those 37 miles will be harder than the 56 she does at Lake Placid. Again, I hope this helps.
If you have been following the plan pretty closely, don't worry about adding miles in to compensate for a shorter ride tomorrow. You'll be fine.
Good luck!
Thom
@Thom Reid Thank you for the explanations and perspectives on pacing and distance... very helpful!