Quick Race Report from LP - More detailed report to follow.
Don't know my splits yet, because I just wanted to get out of there and take a shower. But, I PRed the IM distance by 14 minutes thanks to the EN philosophy. I finished IM Moo 2004 in 12:27 on a 6:10 bike split with a 5 hour marathon. In 2007, I finished IM Moo in 13:15 after eating the paste and hammering the bike to the tune of a 6 hour ego death march on the run. Today, I had a 6:12 bike split (IF=0.67) and set a 25 minute PR on the marathon with a ~4:35. That's almost as good as my only stand alone marathon time.
I'm very, very happy with the result. It was SOOOOOO hard to let all those people pass me on the bike and run, but most came right back to me on the run. I lost count of the people I passed after mile 18 at about 250.
Gotta run... my stomach says I need food, and pizza is on the way. Great day for Team EN.
Comments
That says it all! Well done and congrats!!!!!
Congratulations! That's a whole lot of road kill!
Awesome job again and it was a pleasure to be able to chat w/ you and your brother online yesterday while waiting to pick up some finishers gear (which they had NOTHING!). You executed well!
Steve, great race and great race report! Thanks for detail! That run PR is massive, especially considering that the LP run course is much harder than WI. Nice job!
On the swim, there was no real difference.
The run course at Wisconsin is far flatter, the only hill being Observatory hill, which seems like a pitcher's mound compared to the hill into/out of Lake Placid.
The bikes are just different. The hills on Wisconsin are smaller, but relentless and unending. On LP, you have more steady climbing, but you also get the descent into Keene and the flat-to-shallow rollers on which you can recover. I think I'm in better bike shape now than I was 3 years ago in Wisconsin, and certainly better than 6 years ago. However, my bike time was 10 minutes slower in LP than Wisconsin in 2004 and 16 minutes slower than Wisconsin 2007. However, judging from a 25 minute PR on the marathon, I think I clearly went too hard on the bike in 2004 and 2007.
I think weather plays a part, too. At Wisconsin 2004, it was mid-to-upper-80s and fairly humid. In 2007, it was mid-70's and ideal for racing. In LP this year it was virtually the same. 72 for a high and mostly overcast, so there was not a lot of sun. The wind was a little stronger in LP than Wisconsin, too.
Aesthetically, LP is more pleasing to me, but then, I just love the mountains more than farmland. I liked Madison, the town, better than Lake Placid. More options. More urban, and the run course went all through downtown, so there were far more people on the course cheering you on.
If you pressed me, I'd say I think the LP course is probably a little harder, but mostly because of the run. It's not like comparing Lanzarote to Florida (not that I've done either race, but I've seen the profiles). I think if you had a similar effort in each race across all three disciplines, my guess is that Wisconsin would be a little faster.
Wisconsin bike course: second most challenging US course, after IMSG, simply because it's so difficult to figure out. You never do one thing for more than 3-5' at at time, if that. You're always being forced to make decisions: power up, down, sit, stand, shift, don't shift, turn right, turn left, etc. As we know, Ironman is about making good decisions and if you screw up all of these small decisions, you'll have a bad day.
LP bike course is easier to figure out. You're doing one thing for a long time: similar rollers...for a long time. Descending...for a long time. Flat...for a long time, etc. That said, I suppose you could say it creates the opportunity to do the wrong thing for a long time and really pay for it later.
LP run course is much harder than WI and it's harder in the worst place: miles ~19-23 are a lot of uphill. If you've boogered your race you're looking at potentially walking, up hill, for a long time.
Weather is probably equally inconsistent at both races, though I'd say that LP is generally cooler than WI. Both, however, can be a relative crapshoot.
Yeah. That's what I said.
P