Home Racing Forum 🏎

TTT Pacing

I've done a HIM and Oly distance before, and between this and the race execution discussions I'm pretty confident in the execution strategy.

That said, I'm doing TTT Ohio in a couple months and not sure what to do there.  Friday evening is a super sprint...250M swim, 5 mile bike, 1 mile run.  Saturday has 2 Olys.  First at 7AM and the other at 3PM.  Sunday is a HIM.  



Anyone that's done a TTT before care to share their thoughts/experience on pacing/execution?

Comments

  • We have some veterans here who can help...all I know is that you are going to hurt!!! image
  • Jeremy, I have done this race twice. You need to think of the whole thing (except maybe Friday night) like an Ironman. And that's how you should pace it. Seriously.

    The contrast between Saturday morning's energy level and Sunday morning's energy level is marked. And not in a good way. People who treat the two Olys on Saturday like Olympic distance races and knackered by the time Sunday rolls around. You can make big gains (and I mean BIG) if you think about TTT as all about getting to that 13.1 mile run on Sunday in shape that you can actually run it (not fast, just run the whole thing).

    The course is TOUGH. The bike course is different for each race, but equally challenging. Tons of hills and lots of turns. The run course is the same each time - out and back for each of the Olympic distance races and out and back twice for Sunday. I did the race in 2008 and in 2010. Both years parts of that run course are like running in a dry creek bed. Seriously tough. Hilly as heck too.

    Pace yourself. Eat well between races. Lie down between races. And above all else, pace yourself. :-)

    ---Ann.
  • Hi Jeremy. 

    First off, you're going to have a great time.  The HFP folks put on a great race.

    Have done TTT 2x, once as a team and once solo.  Team was a lot of fun, solo was very tough mentally.



    As others have posted, you will be well and truly shagged by Sunday, so expect that to be the case.  Also, FWIW, recommend you take Friday easy and ignore the desire to hammer and see what you can do.  It will come back to haunt you on the run on Sat afternoon and again on Sunday.

    The prior post about treating this like an IM overall is very good advice.  If you're looking to do well overall, it will be critical that you can run as much of Sunday's run as possible.  Be aware that there is a stand-alone HIM (Little Smokies) going on at the same time, so you'll want to keep an eye on the TTT folks within the field and focus on them as opposed to the fresher folks from the other race.

    In terms of race/equipment/food execution, consider setting up all your race nutrition needs in advance for the whole weekend so you don't have to mess around with it during the events - esp. between races on Saturday.  You'll want to get off and stay off your feet as much as possible.  

    Same deal with race kit.  Nothing worse than pulling on a likely wet (or if not, then crusted) and very rank set of kit for Sunday when you know you're going to be out there all day. 

    As others noted, the bike courses are very tough w/ many short, steep rollers as well as at least one longer climb.  Bring your climbing legs and gears -- compact 34x25 at least - 26 or 27 would be better, esp on Sunday.  Your legs will be thrashed and it will help.  Consider doing a lot of trail running; the Lampblack course is very rough terrain -- think running on Int/Adv single-track MTB course with lots of loose gravel/rocks.  If it rains, it will become mud. (and if rain is forecast, bring extra shoes for the later races/days).

    Last, in terms of training, consider going out and doing a moderate/moderate hard ride or brick in the morning, taking 2-3 hours off, and then repeating it later in the same day.  This closely mimics what you are likely to feel like on Saturday and proved valuable, mentally, to our team the year we did that.  In fact, we went to an OLY race on a Sat AM, went and biked ~40 later that afternoon and did a long swim/ride on the following Sunday AM in final prep.  It burned a whole weekend, but it helped -- so if you can squeeze that in to the rest of your life it's worthwhile.

    One other thing I'll add, which surprised me, but which may or may not happen to you or others:  It was VERY hard to sleep, esp on Sat night.  The level of exertion is quite high and you may find yourself overheated or sweating and with a high HR as your body tries to recover overnight on an accelerated basis.  That and the fact that your head knows you have a HIM to do on Sunday can combine to make Saturday a very restless evening.  YMMV, but happened to me and my teammates when we were solos and a team - and it degraded us all by Sunday.  Not sure if there is much you can do to prepare for that other than being in very good shape and rested, but just good for your head to know in advance that it may happen to you (and if it does, its not some deadly illness)

    Overall, if you are using TTT to prep for an IM, it is great training, esp for IMLP in terms of where it is placed in the calendar at 8 wks out.  Bear in mind that you will be fried after and it may take you over a week to get back to your normal training loads.

    Good luck and have fun!

    Tim

  • ok,,just checked out the website...you are nuts (in a good way)...I'm no no veteran here but I would investigate strategies on ice baths after each day and or race...

    please post a race report once completed...
  • Jeremy,

    Let me echo Tim's excellent points about food and kit. You will be wearing the same singlet for all 4 races. But bring a fresh pair of shorts for each. As soon as you are done, head in and rinse out the singlet. It will be muddy (even if the weather is nice, the water we swim in is not!). Worse comes to worse, dry it out with the hair dryer in your room before heading out again. Also, bring your food with you. The race site is not near any town. Bring a cooler of food into your room and fuel up.

    Also, really good point about the gearing. I have a 28 in back. Even if you don't use it, it is nice to have the insurance. There is a hill on Sunday (the gorilla? Godzilla? help me out here folks) that is a heck of a hill. I am happy to have the 28.

    Finally, yes, come to the race well rested. I don't sleep well on the Saturday night either. And you need all the help you can get on Sunday.

    I am signed up to do it again this year. It is a great time! A great sense of community as we all suffer out there together. You will have a ball!

    ---Ann.
  • Thanks all...the message is clear and consistent.

    One thought on preparation. I'll be entering the HIM training plan soon, but since you all say I should execute per an IM, should I also train per one? Or at least double up a couple workouts as suggested to project the Saturday races?
  • Great Q, Jeremy, though I suspect it may be best directed to RnP in the macro thread or to Ann, who is doing this again this year.

    All I can add from my experience, is follows:

    *  When I've done TTT in the past, it was en route to an IM, and not an end in and of itself.  As such, I went in knowing that my biggest block of IM training was to follow it and used the event to jumpstart that effort and log what amounted to a very big weekend of catered brutality. 

    *  That said, I have each time in the lead-up to TTT done at least 1 or 2 long rides and runs (100 mi ride, 2.5 hr run) PRIOR to the race as well as the stacked weekends mentioned in the earlier post. IMO, the latter is more valuable than purely IM training for the TTT as an event.  In EN-speak, if you can fit in Big Day or Big Weekend events to get more successive volme days that may be a good approach?

     

  • In 2008 I was doing IMC so used TTT as a big start to the serious IM training that was going to follow that race. Last year, I was just playing and not doing an IM so I actually came to TTT woefully underprepared for the bike (we had a long winter and a cold, rainy spring and I didn't ride enough).

    I would certainly do several 2 hour runs (3 maybe?) but have never done anything longer than that for TTT. If you can, I would also do a couple of longer rides - if you do 3 hour rides as your long ride for a half, I would do 1 or 2 four hour rides for TTT if you can. I am not that strong a rider and was on the bike closer to 4 hours than to 3 hours for the half both times I was there. I think Tim's idea of a Big Day or Big Weekend is a good one.

    See what else the coaches might say. I'll be curious too!

    ---Ann.
  •  As a TTT newbie racing it for the first time, this is all excellent stuff! Side question: In the second Oly on Saturday, do people wear wetsuits? It seems like the speed advantage would be wiped out by the time it takes to get one on and off; unless the water's really cold, and you need it for warmth ...

  • Hi Graham.

    In my prior experience most everyone wears a wetsuit.  The water in OH in May is cold.  

     Also, the afternoon OLY on Day 2 is bike first (TT for solos TTT for teams - cool format, BTW), followed by swim, then run.    Putting a wetsuit on over sweating legs with your HR sky-high isnt easy, BTW.  Lots of tricks for that ... TTT has its own whole universe of race execution stuff, a lot depending on whether you're solo or not, whether you're doing it to finish or to perform well overall, which race in the group, and the weather -- but that's a whole separate thread.

    In any case, not having a wetsuit to swim in over overcooked legs would likely lead to some serious cramping issues; there were many with calf cramps from the cold water and the swimming position combined with worked legs off the bike (and off the prior 2 races).

    Just to give you an idea of how ugly it seems sometimes, when they called the TTT people to the start for Sunday's HIM during the 2004 event, people actually were so slow to get in the water that the race was delayed ... when's the last time you saw a tri where the athletes didnt want to start?? 

    This race is a ton of fun, but the prior characterization of catered brutality is not far off.

  • Posted By Tim Bixler on 08 Mar 2011 04:38 PM

    Hi Graham.

    In my prior experience most everyone wears a wetsuit.  The water in OH in May is cold.  

     Also, the afternoon OLY on Day 2 is bike first (TT for solos TTT for teams - cool format, BTW), followed by swim, then run.    Putting a wetsuit on over sweating legs with your HR sky-high isnt easy, BTW.  Lots of tricks for that ... TTT has its own whole universe of race execution stuff, a lot depending on whether you're solo or not, whether you're doing it to finish or to perform well overall, which race in the group, and the weather -- but that's a whole separate thread.

     

    Lay it on me. I promise to summarize and wiki-ize.

  • Yes, you definitely want the wetsuit for all swims. Both years the water has been cold. If you have a thermal cap, you might just bring it in case we get another cold year. The first year I was there, it hadn't yet hit 60 degrees! Putting on the wetsuit after the bike is one of those things that provides some comic relief in transition as people are hopping around, cursing, laughing, falling over, etc. If you are doing the race solo try to find someone in transition with you (you keep the same spot all weekend) and help each other get the wetsuit on and zipped up. If you have a partner, you're good.

    I have also witnessed the reluctance to start on Sunday morning. Folks just dragging out to the water and really not wanting to get in. So, remember, it is all about PACING!

    ---Ann.

  •  

    OK, Graham, and since you asked, here are my rough cut TTT race execution tips. Ann and other vets, please feel free to add/correct and amplify. It’s been 5-6 yrs since I last did this race and stuff may have changed, so assume all the usual caveats. Let me know if you all find this of interest and I can edit/expand/wikify it or also add some training-specific thoughts, expanding on the items above in this thread.

     

    ·         Even though Triple T is four separate events over the course of 3 days, from an execution point of view, it is worthwhile, at least from an ROI perspective, to think about it as one very long (IM distance +) event; train and plan for it accordingly

     

    ·         Pre-race/logistics/food/kit/gear. 

     

    o   The race is essentially in the middle of nowhere Ohio (in a beautiful, rugged, quite remote State Park), not near any major towns or particularly close to many convenient stores, restaurants or hotels.   Fortunately, the race organizers arrange housing at the state park in cabins and also arrange for pretty nice spreads of food and schwag post-race, for each race, and a stand-alone pasta feed at least on Saturday night. 

     

    o   Format of the event is historically sprint tri Friday evening (mostly to set up time gaps for Saturday AM), like a prologue in a bike race; typical Olympic distance tri on Sat AM; Oly distance tri with modifications on Sat PM; and half-ironman event on Sunday. More about execution of each event below, but just to ground you for now in terms of what you’re likely in for. There are individual and team classifications. The latter affords more strategic opportunities for balancing your team’s skillsets across all 3 days – particularly if you have designs on doing well.

     

    o   The housing is very basic and unless you’re on a team (and probably even if you are), this means sharing a modest cabin with somewhere between 3-5 other type A triathletes for the weekend. This always is great at the start, people are fresh, relaxed, etc., but just be aware that it may get harder as people get tired and occasionally cranky over the course of the event. Living in very close quarters on little sleep and lots of race fatigue doesn’t always bring out the best in people. Bring earplugs, your own personal care kit and just relax and go with it. After all, you’re all there together to do a fun, really tough event, so you have a lot more than you think in common.

     

    o   Very worthwhile to bring your own food needs if there is anything other than typical pre- and post-race food that you want to eat. Have a specific energy bar you can’t live without? Need to get up a 3 am and have an Ensure smoothie (note above about close quarters, your beeping watch alarm may not make you popular with your housemates)? Then bring it with you. Stop on your way into the park, fill your cooler with ice and put your food/nutrition needs for the weekend in there. This will save you a ton of time and allow you to enhance the limited recovery you will get by going back to your cabin promptly after each race, getting off your feet and getting your recovery calories without having to deal with driving around to get food while folded up in the back of some rental econo-box trying to stave off leg cramps.

     

    o   Whatever you would bring for a very long training day, bring it – you’ll need it. Nutritionally or equipment-wise.

     

    o   In terms of race kit, bring along a clean set of shorts and socks for each event. You’ll get a singlet that you must wear for each race, but it helps a lot to have at least dry if not clean clothes to put on, esp for Sat afternoon and Sunday. Nothing worse than a soaked/salt-crusted/rank pair of tri shorts to really get your half ironman off to a bad start. Not to mention the obvious points about blisters, chafing, etc. Be prepared, since it will probably happen at some point. Anticipate it, deal with it and keep going.

     

    o   In terms of swim gear, pretty simple – wetsuit and goggles. There are sometimes folks who will bring a sleeveless for Friday and use a full for Sat/Sun, but they were at the very pointy end of the field (Gordo, Clas Borling, Bruce Gennari, etc.). Most people just use a full. Think of it as an IM and do what you would do for that race. The water is cold (usually ~ 60 degrees), Turkey Creek Lake is shallow and about the color of coffee. Lots of sand and gravel in the wash, and it will get into all your stuff – so expect to find sand in lots of interesting places, almost as though the swim were in the ocean/surf as opposed to lake. There is virtually no current and the swim courses are well marked.

     

    o   For the bike, make sure your ride is in top working order and free of mechanical issues. Highly suggest compact and very forgiving climbing gearing e.g 50/34 and 12-27 or 28 or 53/39 and 13-28 or even 13-30 if your rear derailleur can handle it. There are often people in this race with a triple – and they get a lot of use, esp on Sunday for the mid pack or slower cyclists. Probably a good idea to leave your disc wheel at home.  I’ve seen people in abject misery on Sunday grinding out one of the long climbs on a tricked out tri bike with a disc and 39x23 max gearing; people get off and walk, no joke. If you have a road bike, it is worth considering using it for this race instead of a TT or tri-bike. There is so much climbing (and some hairy descending on Sunday) that unless your bike handling skills are rock solid (climbing, high-speed technical descents, team time trial paceline) on your tri-bike, a road bike may be a more comfortable and safer set up.

     

    o   For the run, the usual gear you would have for a trail run. It is probably worth considering running in sox, even if you usually don’t, because of the rough nature of the trail. There is a lot of loose sand/gravel/rocks, since a good portion of it is a dry creek bed. You will get rocks and sand in your shoes; not a big deal on Friday … but can turn your feet into hamburger by the second loop on Sunday.  Also very worthwhile bringing extra running shoes, esp. if rain is in the forecast or even a possibility; having clean, dry shoes that are not mud encrusted will be a real help. Also, note that if it rains a lot, the creek bed won’t stay dry. So be prepared to slog through a creek crossing or 2. Fun!

     

    ·         The Race Events.

     

    o   Friday evening is a very short race/prologue, usually just to warm people up and set seeding for Sat AM.   It’s done in a typical tri start, something like 500 yd swim, 5 mi bike and 1 mi run. The bike has a steep climb from the race site up to the main camp lodge, so it is not necessarily fast. Swim is straightforward and the run is just a short loop from T2 to the beginning of the technical section of the Lamp Black trail – really just an appetizer. Truly, the primary goal here really should be just to get through it with as little loading as possible and avoiding anything silly like a bike crash or a turned ankle on the run – as either one of these could end your weekend early.   Best advice is to resist the temptation to hammer this race, as you will probably feel rested/fresh. Don’t worry, there is plenty of time to feel shelled later and several hours of racing to let you make up the fact that you could have gone 3-4 minutes faster.  If you have power, rely on your watts on the climb and stay within yourself. If you wake up Sat AM sore from Friday evening, you’re going to have 2 VERY long days. For teams, the team time is the cumulative of all of the individual times from this event – so usually no significant strategic advantage to sticking together – unless you’re all going to keep each other honest on bike and run pacing, and are evenly matched overall.

     

    o   Saturday AM is a traditional order Olympic event. The individuals and teams are seeded, and historically (check the event website to see if the rules have changed) are sent off in time-trial order, based on finish order of the Friday evening race. Swim is straightforward, but often cold. The bike is where the real fun starts. There are a number of short, steep rollers on this course, including at least one significant climb (~1+ mi at 8-9%) that comes immediately after a 270 degree turn – think no momentum (any road with the name “____ Hill Road” is going to be bad). Taking the long view, it is very worthwhile to spin up these climbs, sticking to your planned watts/HR/RPE and save your legs. Again, be strategic in terms of how you approach the morning bike – many, many miles to go. The Sat AM run will be your first true taste of the Lamp Black Trail. 3 miles out, turn around at the bottom of a long downhill section (thanks, race director) and go back the way you came. The course is basically simplified to about ½ mile of grass and sports fields to get to the woods, then 3 miles mostly uphill, with rollers, and 3 miles down. It is a challenging run, and again, the best long-term approach is to be conservative and run closer to IM pace than HIM (and certainly not Oly) pace. The only potential exception to this would be if you are EXCEPTIONALLY strong, competing high up in the overall and/or gunning for the overall or AG podium in this leg of the event. Not sure if they still do this, but there have been in the past (again, check the race site) time bonuses for those placings – so if believe you can manage the physical fallout and not give back more time later than you might get in a bonus … go for it.   Just as a reference point, the fastest overall times for the morning races tend to be in the 2:20 range for men and 2:40-50 range for women – so probably anywhere from 20-30 min slower than these elites could go; that’s a testament both to pacing and also to the significant difficulty of these courses. For the team event, I think the team time is taken on Sat AM individually, so again, no really specific need to stay together, unless one of you has a real issue and would benefit from help to get through it. If you’re in the individual event, it’s all on you.

     

    As a race execution point, as soon as you finish on Saturday, you’ll want to get some food from the post-race buffet and get off your feet, quickly. If you bring along your own personal masseuse for the weekend, not a bad idea to get a bit of work done to try to flush the toxins from your legs. There is also a creek near the finish line that became a very popular post-race spot for an alfresco ice bath equivalent in the 50 degree water. Again, think long term and maximize recovery. You will only have something like 2-4 hours between events, and you will need to get to the Sat PM bike start, and get organized, which will take some time. Some people (if the weather is decent) actually just stay in transition, lie down or go to their cars and take a nap. Do whatever works for you, but get some rest – you will need it.

     

    o   Saturday afternoon is where the real fun begins, and if you’re seriously competing, you will see who has the legs and who doesn’t. This is also an Olympic distance event, but the order is different – team time trial (or individual TT) on the bike, swim, then run. The team rules for the afternoon are also interesting, since you are allowed to draft from your team-mate. If you have a rider who is significantly  stronger, then s/he may want to take longer pulls on the front in this section to speed up the overall team time. Bear in mind, however, that the rules require teams to start and finish together – so you can’t drop your hard riding friend later on the run. I have actually seen teams tie surgical tubing around a weaker runner and pull along or even push (gently) from the back on the uphill sections of the run to stay together and get the best overall time. If you’re on a team, decide before this race starts how you’re going to attack the bike course. The course itself is very challenging and not necessarily a typical 40k TT course. There are few turns and limited cross-traffic, but there are several short, steep rollers and many find it hard to get into a rhythm on this course, since you’re constantly changing positions in and out of the aero bars and also changing gears. Be prepared for tough, punchy climbs and make use of your powermeter (if you have one) to manage your efforts across the rollers. If you apply EN-style climbing technique and have the right gearing (and use it), you will not only probably go a bit faster, you will save your legs (or what’s left of them) for the rest of the event.

     

    The bike to swim transition is also quite interesting. Be prepared ahead of time to have a very hard time getting into your wetsuit. Get help from your team-mate (and help him/her in return) or do the same with anyone near you in T1. You’ll all have the same issues. Don’t freak out, it’s not just you; everyone has the same problems. Just know that it will be hard to do, deal with it and get into the water.  Consider putting plastic bags on your feet to get them into your wetsuit faster. Also, a side note, if you oil up or put embrocation on your legs for the bike/start, it will be quite interesting when you get into the cold lake (and not necessarily  in a good way). Take the swim slowly and be prepared to deal with leg cramps.   I’ve seen several people seize up getting out of the water or even mid-swim with issues, esp. calf cramps. Best bet here is to control your exertion and try to swim at a speed that lets your heart rate and RPE come down. Keep in mind, you have a hard run coming (plus a long race Sunday), and this is your only time to rest on Saturday afternoon – take relative advantage of it. The swim to run transition is also another opportunity for strategic behavior. If, for example, your team-mate is a stronger swimmer, but you are the stronger runner, it may make sense to allow your teammate to gap you on the swim and get a head-start on the run, grabbing plenty of nutrition along the way. The weaker runner plays rabbit to the chasing faster runner – once the stronger runner catches up on the run, you can decide as a team whether to run together or not. Again, recall the rule, you need to finish together – so if you drop your runner team mate, then you will get (probably) a slower overall time.

     

    The run is the same course as the morning. The good news is you now know how hard it is, which may also be bad news. At least you only have to do one loop this afternoon. 

     

    See the post-race advice above for Saturday. It applies with equal, if not greater force, to Saturday evening. Get off your feet! Go to the pasta dinner, eat and get out of there. Stay off your feet and try to rest. Be aware that you may not sleep well on Saturday evening – many people don’t. The quadruple whammy of the hard day Saturday on your body, and its efforts to recover may lead to high HR or other issues that inhibit sleep anyway (eating caffeinated, sugar-laced energy food all day probably doesn’t help either), the fact that you’re staring down a half-ironman in the morning, and close living quarters and all that comes with it, sleep on Saturday may prove elusive.

     

    o   Sunday AM – Little Smokies Half-Iron. This is the queen stage of the TTT, and it is also a stand-alone ½ IM event. So be prepared to see a very full parking lot and transition area, and a bunch of hyped up type –A triathletes hanging around before the race starts. This will be how you appeared on Friday, only you won’t look that way now. The ½ iron folks will think you are all zombies (and most of you will be). Just be aware that there will be a lot of people and energy around in the morning – which is to say it’s probably a good thing otherwise no-one would be fool enough to start this segment of the event.   This is a tough race, period.   Again, for reference, winning teams in the TTT do the half-iron in over 5 hours for men, nearly 6 hours for women. Solos are slower (b/c they can’t draft on the bike, among other things). It’s not at all unusual to see many of the TTT competitors in the 7 hour range for the ½ IM portion. So calibrate your expectations accordingly.

     

    The swim is staggered start based on cumulative time, fastest to slowest, with the team being given the start time of the higher placed person. After all the abuse on Saturday, it is worth taking a measured approach to the swim portion, try to warm up your muscles and stay relaxed. Many people will be sore and tired from Saturday, so the swim on Sunday AM is a good start. Definitely worth treating this though it were an IM swim and going at or slower than IM pace. Again, plenty of time to make up time later.

     

    The bike course is very challenging. If you’re riding as a team, worth making a plan and working together to get through it, particularly since you can draft off each other. If you have a significantly stronger swimmer/slower biker, s/he can go off the bike and ride at a comfortable (essentially JRA) pace until caught , then you can work together. This course has a ton of climbing – something like 6000’ ft of climbing over 55 miles – so you will be out of the aero bars a lot and will need to address a number of high speed descents with some hairy corners. I think this course is still 2 laps, so at least you know what you’re in for the second time around, but it has some ugly surprises, like a turn-around at the bottom of a screaming downhill (again, think going back up 10-11% grade with virtually no forward momentum or speed) or a kinda sketchy rail crossing that I remember bunny hopping at something approaching 30 mph (not recommended, see the comment about about bike handling and selection). Any case, at this point, if you (or you and your partner) have good legs it’s worth letting things out a bit, esp on the second loop. Also, if you’re on a team and the stronger cyclist is the slower runner, then consider balancing your pulls in favor of the stronger rider, and counting on the stronger runner to have good legs and motivation for the run. BY the end of the bike, most people will be fairly well thrashed – except for the truly gifted.  When you (finally) get to T2, make sure you take the time to get some nutrition in and get all your gear set for the run. If you’re in a daze, on the verge of a bonk, or if you take a header on the technical single-track run sections, the run will be brutal, or worse. So take the extra minute or two (in a 20 hour race, it really does NOT matter) and make sure you’re good to go.

     

    The run is just hard. It’s the same loop as before, now just twice. Many experienced trail runners will tell you to walk the uphills and run the downhills, and if your quads can otherwise take it and you’re out of gas, this might be a good strategy for the second loop of the run. 

     

    ·         Post Race

     

    o   First off, see the advice above about eating and trying to get off your feet. Do that – only now you can relax a bit more because you’re done!

     

    o   The post-race banquet and awards are great at this race, and they have a ton of great schwag to give away. Stick around and tell war stories with your compatriots and pick up some cool stuff. With so few people in the event overall (probably less than 100) and tons of nice things, there are most always a large number of good items up for grabs, and a raffle with great odds. 

     

    o   In terms of recovery, expect to feel pretty beat up for at least 2-3 days. Many people report that it takes 5-7 days to get back into regular training, depending on how much of the run they actually ran and how hard they pushed things on Sunday. Be prepared that you’ll probably need a week of EN Transition before you jump right back unto IM training.

     

     

     

     I'll add more if I think of them, and vets/others, please chime in.  I can't be the only word on the subject!!

     

     

     
  • Great stuff. I just have a note to add about accomodation: I've booked a room at the conference center in the park, which sounds like a regular business hotel (two double beds), so the options may be somewhat broader now. I also know an athlete who raced last year who stayed in a Motel 6 or somesuch in the nearest town.

    Graham

  • Tim, truly an epic piece of work! Thanks for all that. You've summed it up beautifully. The only thing I would add is that on both Saturday morning and on Sunday, the early part of the bike will be very shady (the sun is not up far enough yet) and as a result it can be very cold - especially as you get on to the bike soaking wet from the 60 degree water. Arm warmers, vest, gloves were very welcome for both rides - and I still shivered for a good 20-30 minutes. Just be prepared both clothing-wise and mentally for this to happen.

    Now, how many of us are going to be there? :-)

    ---Ann.
  • Wow...this is great stuff.

    Tim..your dissertation was amazing...thanks for taking the time to share!

    I added a Triple T Ohio Group, so we can get an idea for who's in and discuss race execution, etc further.

  • Thanks for setting up the group. No T-T-T for me this year, but perhaps we can have an EN team or two there in 2012.

    Thanks Graham for posting to the wiki and I agree with you on lodging options; I had forgotten that, but I think those rooms fill fast? Ann, you're right about the cool temps. I had forgotten, since by Saturday and Sunday the shade was a welcome respite from heat and humidity.

  • Tim, yeah, I booked my room way back in December, I think, long before I had registered for the race. The cancellation policy on hotel rooms is far more generous than races image
Sign In or Register to comment.