IMAZ 4 weeks.....
Took Al's suggestion and started a new thread.....
Yes, looks like many of my fellow IMAZ EN peeps will be finishing in the daytime, will make for better finisher photos. Mine will be in the dark but that is okay with me as long as I am upright and smiling.
@Paul: thanks for sharing your Great Floridian experience, and I was hungry just reading about your lack of nutritional support on the bike, yikes. Your pics were cool too, and so now are you ready to rock it in Tempe town lake or what? Do you think you had a panic attack in CDA due to the water temp? I am a bit nervous about that for myself, am going to try and jump in some cold water around here soon.
Sounds like Gilberto has the run down, geez, strong work.
Hope you are all healthy and hanging in there. Happy 4 weeks to go!
Comments
I had good training sessions all week. I got called out on the carpet by my wife for himming-and-hawing on my Saturday ride. I couldn't decide it I should gamble and ride outside or go inside because of the weather. She called me out and told be to "cowboy-up" and get going. With my mind made up for me, I dressed and headed out. I was over dressed the entire ride except when the 80% chance of rain caught up with me the last 3 miles of my ride. The last 3 in a cold, driving rain storm had for a quick last 3 miles. I survived and headed for a hot shower. On the traininer for Sunday 3 hrs and the treamill too. It going to be a long taper if I have to stay inside for the entire time!! Have a good week and great RR#2s for every one.
This past weekend was good to me. Because of weather issues in North Dakota I decided to do long run Wednesday so I could do long bike Friday which was the best weather day. That went well with 90 solid miles. Saturday was brutal, though. Temps mid-40's at ride time with 10-15 mph winds pushing wind chills below 40. Was tired...mentally and physically and not in the mood for 3 hours, especially with my route having last 5 miles into the wind. Called it after 2 1/2 hours with 47 miles in but did do the brick run. I also made up the run I missed last week on Sunday. Back on schedule this week and feeling thankful that I get to be in AZ for my RR and Orlando all next week. It will be all pain cave the last 2 weeks.
Keep up the good work everyone.
nice updates! indoor and cold temp training is not for the faint of heart. it's all hard work and that equals infusions of speed for race day.
Paul: nice report. not sure what your symptoms were for the 'panic' in the water at CdA, but in cold water it is not uncommon to experience cold calorics. basically, cold water in ears can cause a temporary vertigo that can be really anxiety provoking when in the water at an IM race!!! a practical way to try to avoid this is to get in the water beforehand to get your body acclimated to the cold before the gun starts. better if it happens before the gun than after. it will eventually go away, so if this is what happened to you (or if it happens to others on race day), just realize what's going on and stay calm and roll over to breath or get to the side of the lake and wait for it to go away. a buddy of mine had it happen last year in AZ and he got over to the side and a kayak lifeguard came over and waited with him until everything came back to normal (a few minutes).
@AL/Coach P/Rich: my run is set with a range of 8:31-8:36 for the first 6miles and then 8:01-8:06 for the rest, with my line at mile 18. of course, should all go well and no bad luck, etc. after mile 18, it will be time for me to reveal myself (i.e. pro cycling speak for showing what fitness you got, not literally reveal myself
), should i have anything in the tank at that point.
i'll finalize bike pacing with a FT test this week and the RR#2.
the swim pacing will also be finalized over next couple of weeks. hoping for improvements in technique this year to get me near 1:10 from 1:20's of the past. however, i'll work with whatever i have and not let it frustrate me.
current weight at 159.0lbs.
safe training to all and keep up the good work!
GH
Wow - under 4 wks to go. I took yesterday off and felt pretty good this morning. I swam 3000 yards in the morning, did 10 mins of water jogging, then 4 miles @ 8:13 pace. Will hit a spinervals tape for an hour on the trainer tonight. Summer is back, the humidity is up, and this morning's low was 73 with a high of 90. I'll be pushing off Thursday's long run to Sunday to catch some "cooler" dryer weather coming in over the weekend (63 low - 86 high).
Great Floridian - they had 216 starters for the full distance event and 171 who finished within WTCs 17 hr cut-off. That's a 20.8% DNF rate. Did I mention in my RR report that it was hot, windy, hilly, with no mojo? Those stats tell the tale. If they fall under 200 starters, this race may be a goner which is a real shame.
CDA Panic Attack - I had a good warm up in the water at IMCDA and don't believe the temperature played a significant role. I believe most of the fault was mine for overseeding myself. Ever the optimist, I was gunning for 65 mins, lined up in the 2nd or 3rd row and hauled ass at the start. I went out hard and was thinking yeah...then all of sudden the real swimmers were going over me like I was a sand bar in their way. Within 400 yards I was hyperventilating like no tomorrow and thought that drowning was a real possibility if a few more people went over me. I realized that the only way I was going to survive was to keep pressing forward. Caught my breath - somewhat - before the first turn buoy scrum, did OK there, but the scrum at the second turn had me hyperventilating again. That's when I called for a kayaker and held on for a minute. After that I was fine, but basically had no competitive drive left for the swim and was just happy to be swimming along. The funny thing is that I started similarly at IMFL and had no problems. But the line up was more spread out down the beach and the water was 72 instead of 61. So maybe the temperature plays some part. I will line up much more conservatively at IMAZ and start my acceleration at about 1/2 mile. That's what I did Saturday although I felt like I was swimming at 90-95% effort. When I race I want the swim to be more at 95-98% effort.
I want to finish by sundown, but I'll need a perfect race and a PR run. It will take hard work, pain and suffering, and LUCK.
@ Terry - you travel all over! If you can get to Clermont while you are in Orlando you should ride the Buckhills and Sugarloaf Mtn. BTW, I was born in Maine, went to 7th & 8th grade in Iceland, then 9th grade in Minot, N.D. I went to college in Colorado and grad school in Wisconsin. I can do cold weather but hate it!
RnP say, "Swim just hard enough so you can maintain form" [Italics added] I think that means: "swim as hard as you can without feeling like your stroke is breaking down". "Just hard enough" implies taking it easy; " "as hard as you can" means ... just that. I think Paul has the right attitude. It is VERY easy to be lazy in an IM swim, and it is OK if you take that approach. BUT ... if you want a PR, if you want to see how good you can be, you must PUSH the swim the whole way. As well as drafting every chance you get and not fighting the direction of the crowd. It always amazes me how tired I feel getting out of the water, and then how strong I can end up biking. (Ditto bike to run) Oh, also, don't RUN out of the water. WALK until you feel calm, then start hustling. Again, do the opposite of what you see most people around you doing.
Paul: you did 11:16 at CDA, right? With a swim that lost you a good 10+ minutes? I did 11:36 at CDA, and have done 10:55 at AZ the last two years. I expect a daylight finish from you, maybe not *quite* official sundown, but not in the dark, for sure.
@ Al - I went 10:33 for IMFL08 - my first - which was right before sundown too. Had a bike mechanical at IMCDA too. I believe I'm faster in the water and on the bike now, probably the same in the run. So, if IMAZ is as flat as they say, I hope to pop a good one. I'll need to because my age group had 3 guys under 10hrs last year and the 4th went 10:12. Slots went 1-2-3-4 w no roll down. But if I miss, next year will be IM Regensburg which would make the missus very happy indeed.
i'm just gutting out these last few weeks. after 7.5 hard hours on the bike this weekend, i was pretty sore for my swim/run today. just looking to push hard for this last week before the volume goes down. getting pretty nervous (first IM), but very excited as well. I feel ready, just hope I didn't peak too early as I was feeling pretty burned out last week and skipped 2 runs and a swim. i also ditched my power meter this weekend and pushed it according to heart rate (easier as it gets cooler). was a nice change to not be obsessed over watts and my mph was faster on my typical routes despite some heavier winds.
anyways, we'll see about RR2 this weekend. after torturing through all these intervals, i'm pretty jazzed about a long slow ride
@AL: great. will do. heading out for a FT test today to zero in on pacing for the RR. i typically do very well with nutrition on the bike, so as long as i nail the pacing, then the run afterwards will be informative.
sarfe training to all.
GH
I've enjoyed reading everyone's posts and also learning more and more about the course and what to expect. thank you everyone!
Ellen.
This morning I lifted weights for 30 mins then ran 10 miles including 3 x 1 mile on the track. I know the schedule has called for doing them all along, but I've been slowly building my repeat distances up as the temps are getting better-- although it was 76 this morning and I'm still running w/o a shirt. Hit the miles in 6:55, 6:49 and 6:48. Getting old is no fun, but I'll take those times.
Tonight I will be on the trainer with my favorite Spinerval tape: "Recovery and Technique". It's only 45 mins and the easiest in my collection.
@paul, you're killing me bro, "Hit the miles in 6:55, 6:49 and 6:48" You and Gilberto are smokin' fast. I'll be the one plugging along near the back. I told my wife the other day, I may bleed, I may puke and I'll probably walk a bit, but I gonna finish!
I hit the pool at lunch. It felt good after a massage yesterday after work. I finished 3300yds in 1hr 1min. I am really looking forward to this weekend. My plan will be really similar to last RR but more attention to preparing from bike/run transition (nutritionally speaking). I'll put up my plan tomorrow. Train hard peeps and train safe, we're getting close!
@Paul: nice runs!
@Chuck: we'll all walk 30 seconds at the aid stations. pace well and you'll be zooming along the whole day.
@Ellen and Adam: IMAZ was my first IM in 2005. it's a great course. you will do great. train smart and arrive rested. don't over do it!
Ok, did my FT bike test. 98% in aero position, except when i had to avoid the non-ENers:
course: Rose bowl, Pasadena, California; 1.5mile up and 1.5mile down (mini-IMAZ course);
time: 42:17;
distance: 15.4 miles;
speed: min=8.9; avg = 21.9; max=29.3;
AERO NP: 214;
watts: min=0.0; avg = 209; max 331;
TSS: 72.9 (1.017)
work: 529kj;
VI: 1.02;
HR: min=122; avg = 158; max = 167;
cadence: min=3; avg = 81; max = 99;
For the rehearsal will go with 71% of 214, which produces gears: 144, 152, 160, and 167. Goal TSS is 286. Overall time of 5:45 would be nice and i'll be 100% in aero for the rehearsal, except when avoiding non-ENers.
good luck to everyone this week. next test is the swim...
.
GH
I nailed down my plans for IM AZ visit - I will be arriving with my wife Thursday afternoon, and leaving on Monday. I may not have my temporary teeth yet, and I may have to drink my food, but I should be at the team dinner Thurs PM, get my bib number and bracelet Friday, sign up for next year and critique the 4 keys talk on Sat (it's only my 4th in the last 17 months, I don't have Rich's delivery memorized yet), and of course be at the finish line (inside the transition area) to see you all cross the line, smiling, zipped up, and ready to collapse.
@ellen thats just awesome that your racing after "fixing" your heart(glad you found it). You may have different reasons than most for doing this race, look forward to seeing you on the course and finishing. similar to you, i had a heart issue last year, mine was a bit different, had a heart attack due to a plaque rupture in a coronary artery which clotted and blocked flow to my heart. Luckily i survived with no heart damage, i've got quite a different purpose going into this race compared to previous years. To top it off, my numbers are better than ever, it will be a very special day for both of us.
@al, look forward to meeting you, its cool your still coming out to see the race
Things appear to be lining up for me, important RR on friday. New FT at 290 Watts with 4.1 W/kg, met my goals. Did my fastest long run ever today(faster than my marathon PR), 22 miles at 7:15. I just don't believe it. Gotta stay healthy, and start the mental preparation for the race, which is always tougher and more important than i give credit for.
Am interested in feedback from all and coaches on bike pacing. I'm shooting for a TSS ~ 300, if conditions are similar to last year that should put me sub 5 hour, which maps to an IF of .77, haven't seen much discussion around TSS > .75. My last race i kept it at .75 and had a great race. I do have lofty goals of course and am trying to decide how much to trust the TSS of 300 and bump up my effort level? I'm kind of leaning towards leaving it at .75 right now, but i do want to have the fastest race possible. thoughts?
My plans for my RR are 210-215W first half, 215-220W second half. Although given the arizona course, i've been wondering if i should push the first half of each loop(gradual climb to the turn around) to something more like this: For each loop, 215-220 on the way out, 210-215 on the way back..??
Everyone have a safe RR this weekend, should be like clock work..
Todd- clearly you are a very strong biker. The best way to take advantage of that is not to push the bike as hard as you can, but to use that strength to set yourself up for a super run. Think: Andreas Raelert, not Chris Lieto
You ask if a TSS of 300 makes sense. If you haven't perused the table from the coaches on bike pacing an Ironman, you need to look at it and take it VERY seriously. To access, go to this page. Under "Bike Pacing", click on "Half and Full Ironman Bike Execution". After the downoad is complete, the file you will be looking for is called "Coaches_Call_Long_Course_Bike_Execution..pdf". You want to look at page 7 for the chart I'm talking about, but you should listen to the attached podcast and read the rest of the slides along with it.
Bascially, it would project that, for a bike leg expected to be 5:00 hours, your IF should be at 0.75 if you want to be able to run well afterwards. While 0.77 is "doable", unless you have shown the ability to run well in an IM after that level of bike effort, you are taking a big risk of blowing up in the second half of the run.
This chart is not something the coaches just made up on a spreadsheet - it's based on years of observation of their athletes' performance in the bike and the run, using a power (watts) based racing strategy.
If you want to have the fastest race possible, you have to take the risk that you will go too hard too soon. "The only way to know where your limits are is to go past them." In the end, unless you are willing to take that risk, it's better to go five minutes too slow on the bike than five minutes too fast. I've started 17 IMs. In the last 10 or so, I've followed the EN strategy in all but one. In that one, I got a little cocky, and went too fast on the bike for about 45 minutes at 10 AM. That was all it took to cause an ultimate DNF at 4 PM.
The best way to find out if you made a "mistake" and went too easy on the bike is to run the final 3-5 miles of the marathon as hard as you can (which you'll want to do anyway, if you're trying to go as fast as possible). If you are significantly faster in those miles than your projected pace, then, yes, you did leave something on the table when biking. And Coach Rich will let you holler at him after the race for giving you bad advice.
As to differntial power output on the "uphill" vs "downhill" parts of the AZ course: Again, the EN race execution stratgey works best if you try to achieve a constant power output, regardless of wind, gradient, etc. The closer your VI is to 1.0, the better your race will turn out.
Todd, I am an evangelist for the EN race strategy. It took me 4 years and 6 IMs of frustration before I found the light. I was walking a lot of the second half of marathons, or going way too slow on the bike. Ever since I started following the EN model for race execution, I have had consistent success (except for that one race when I got too arrogant): 4 AG victories, 3 course records, 6 kona qualifications, a second, a third and 3 fourth places. This s$#t works, in my experience.
i had a bad week, on Friday i wiped out on the bike, short story, but stupidity on my part. the bad news is that i definitely bruised my collarbone... i was forced to give it a few days rest as i also contracted a horrible head cold which floored me, i slept 18 hours on Tuesday. i feel refreshed, ready to do a 80-90 minute swim, a 6:15 or so bike and the run will be where is suffer. I had a calf injury that kept reoccurring and i really only started my run training 7 weeks ago! no Marathon PRs will be set. my overall goal is to finish, 14 hrs would be nice, 13 would be great!
keep the inspiring words coming
@Ellen: welcome, you are an added inspiration!
@Scott: I am with you being intimidated with the posts of our fellow peeps but like chuck said it is our race, so I am trying to keep it in perspective and not be too hard on myself, i mean a 7;30 mile is just not going to happen so I have to be okay with that.....
In terms of swim times, my masters coach said you can add about 20 percent to pool time to estimate open water time, am sure other folks will have input on this, I did use that calculation for my HIM in August and actually was almost the same time as my pool time so who knows?
@Paul; @Gilberto; @Todd: someday I will be as fast as you guys, amazing work, stay strong!
@John: welcome home
@Chuck: your kiddos coming too?
So long run yesterday about 10 miles in slight pain on the inside of my knee, walked home and iced. Worked last night and it is still a little sore with flexion, taking the day off......this is REALLY hard since supposed to RR swim but have trained through pain before and eneded up making things worse....trying to be Zen here.
Still planning for RR ride tomorrow, no power yet so going by HR, adding some nutrition for the run thanks to Paul's suggestions and will be focusing on relaxing neck and shoulders thamk to Al. Last RR was huge confidence boost so I really hope tomorrow will be the same, although may be cold......
Am getting really excited AND nervous, happy training!
Al: great to hear your coming to the race. i thought racing with RnP watching was pressure enough! now we really have to perform.
Todd: use the bike as Al and RnP recommend. you'll cream us all if you do!
Scott and all first timers: my swim in the 50m pool was 1:24 and on race day was 1:21. i think the wetsuit helped and i picked a line that had no traffic. maybe also i was able to draft on others, but it was not on purpose. in 2009 my 50m pool swim was closer to 1:20, but the race was 1:24 due to getting caught up in the clobberfest (i.e. i chose a different line than in 2008). my first IM in 2005 was in AZ and I did a 1hour 51 minute swim or something like that. My finishing time was 15:15. My IMAZ PR is 11:41 for my 4th IM (and 1st race with EN!!!), 3 years after my first ironman.
good luck this week.
rain predicted saturday morning for me, so i may have to do the RR tomorrow, Friday. Swim test Saturday.
GH
Now off to do that last long run.
Isn't VI just a ratio of Pave to Pnorm which is really just a measure of how much time your not pedaling, targeting a different pnorm thruout the race would still give you a VI of 1 if you never stopped pedaling.? I agree a constant output power is best, but i've seen slight modifications on some courses(hawaii for example). I think your right, the climb is pretty gradual anyway(its mostly flat) so a a constant(slightly negative time split) power level over the entire race is what my plan is right now..
Todd - Sorry to review the race strategy with you - clearly it wasn't needed. But I do think that one little piece of what I wrote may be important to you:
"If you want to have the fastest race possible, you have to take the risk that you will go too hard too soon. "The only way to know where your limits are is to go past them." In the end, unless you are willing to take that risk, it's better to go five minutes too slow on the bike than five minutes too fast. I've started 17 IMs. In the last 10 or so, I've followed the EN strategy in all but one. In that one, I got a little cocky, and went too fast on the bike for about 45 minutes at 10 AM. That was all it took to cause an ultimate DNF at 4 PM."
That DNF was in Hawaii, where there is no margin for error. If there's ever a race to take a risk in (like aiming for 0.77 instead of 0.75), it's Arizona. Despite the hype, the weather is just about ideal - bike temps in the high 60's to low 70's, sun low in the sky on the run, no humidity, and, at least the last two years in November, no real wind. I've been able to ride a TSS of 296 there (which translated to about 5:30 at my FTP), and still hit an IM marathon PR each year. With few turns and no real gradient to the climb, this course is made for pushing to bike a bit harder than I normally would, e.g. @ CDA, where the constant up and down and many turns punishes attempts at accelerations. There's really no place to accelerate in Arizona, just pedal away at a constant power, cadence, and speed.
As to your comment about VI, I think I was trying to respond to your plan to work the "uphill" harder than the downhill. On this course, as long as you don't go over EN's "gear 3" on the uphill, that strategy shouldn't affect your race. It's very hard to spin out on the downhill, it's just not that steep. So I think there is little to be gained in trying to work the uphill any harder than the downhill.
My conclusion: at your wattage/speed, once you start heading over about 290 TSS you are really pushing the envelope. The higher that IF goes, the lower your VI will need to be. Given your experience, this coming RR might be a good time to test that envelope. Build from 74% to 77+% during the course of the ride, and see how you feel at the end of the run.
@ Scott - your swim time in the race should be close to your swim time in a pool. Personally, I'm usually about 2 minutes faster in the race than in the pool, but I tend to work the swim hard when racing, and I'm not one of those people who kills himself in swim workouts. The good news is, the slower you are, the more of a difference the wetsuit makes!
As to your perceived lack of run training - sometimes that's a plus, as you are not deluded into thinking you should run faster than you are a able to after the bike.
@ all, my swim time in a .5 mile sprint was 21 mins earlier this summer, for a HIM in early sept was 42 mins (Nice improvement) and then my RR swim in a pool (with a miscounting of laps) was 1:31.... was hoping to double my HIM time.... suspect that for me, the open water, etc gets me going faster... not sure. we'll see.
@al, i have no delusions of running fast! though it is interesting when i am trying ot pace 11 min miles and find myself running 9:30s.... per the time that gilberto posted for his first IM, i am looking to finish, i have the lesson of having run my first standup marathon(London 95) off an an injury and doing a 4:30, coming back later that year to run NYC in 3:47, so i know in IMLOU next year, i will do better!
if i run a 5:30 marathon in IMAZ, i will be extatic!
@stacy - no kids, (i'm going to miss them, but they couldn't cross the finish line with me anyway) the wife, parents and my college roommates! Apparently they are planning a pretty sweet day-long party.
Long run Thursdays!! Love them!! COLD, COLD, COLD, 20 degrees, no moon so it was really dark too. I still managed 2.5 hrs and 15 miles. Everything was frozen too, my Fule Belt bottle tops were frozen close. My Infinit turned to slushy. The tough part was trying not get hurt dodging whats left of the snow and ice from Monday. Ran slow but got it done. Good luck to all during RR#2.