nochain Posted March 30, 2016 Share Just a shot in the dark here-are you using the same product on race day as you train on? If for example if you use a specific gel on race day then maybe the stuff is too concentrated and that messes you up. I mostly try and stay with what I use in training but I do end up taking what I can on the run and don't worry to much about that. On the bike I normally stick to what I know.For some reason I have very bad luck with Ironman and my stomach...other events I never have any issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garfield2010 Posted March 30, 2016 Share I mostly try and stay with what I use in training but I do end up taking what I can on the run and don't worry to much about that. On the bike I normally stick to what I know.For some reason I have very bad luck with Ironman and my stomach...other events I never have any issues.a Gu gel seems to set my stomach nicely. I like to wake up early and drink coffee. This will give me my early morning shart about half an hour later and then I take the gel and I am set to go. Nothing like a good old pee inside the wetsuit moments before the gun goes off. IceCreamMan, Snytjie and clivem 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MK Killer Posted March 30, 2016 Share So with only days to go I am gearing up for my first IM... Must say its been hard to taper - a few days of pulling back and then you feel like you losing fitness and want to do a "hard session" again... Obviously I feel like I could have trained harder but now it is what it is. Given its my first one, although I have a sub 13 in mind, I just want to finish foremost. Is it normal for a "newbie" to be *** scared of the swim? I am a below average swimmer in terms of speed but have done a decent amount of mileage. I have however only done 4km swim and might do another this weekend. All i know is that once I get out of that sea alive I will be a VERY relieved man... Garfield2010, clivem and Snytjie 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nochain Posted March 30, 2016 Share So with only days to go I am gearing up for my first IM... Must say its been hard to taper - a few days of pulling back and then you feel like you losing fitness and want to do a "hard session" again... Obviously I feel like I could have trained harder but now it is what it is. Given its my first one, although I have a sub 13 in mind, I just want to finish foremost. Is it normal for a "newbie" to be *** scared of the swim? I am a below average swimmer in terms of speed but have done a decent amount of mileage. I have however only done 4km swim and might do another this weekend. All i know is that once I get out of that sea alive I will be a VERY relieved man...I am still *** scared of it and it will be my 4th..hehe.Only thing that gets me in the pool really.Best swim I have done is 1 hour and hope to do like a 1 hour15 on Friday then it's head down and hope for the best...The important thing about the swim is if you have a bad day or feel tired then just relax and go a bit slower..there is loads of time and 5 or 10 minutes are not going to make a huge difference at the end of the day.If you want to go really fast on the day then that's a whole other ballgame! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jewbacca Posted March 30, 2016 Share Ag lekker man. I always look at the Oceans and I think someday I'll do it. Looks like such a nice event. But sadly, I just don't enjoy running enough. So 42.2km's is where I draw the line. Not a meter futher. Banna, The gees is amazing, it just pulls you along. My friend had never gone further than a marathon and he cruised the last 14. The trick is easy, even splits for the first half and just gauging where you are from there. If you can do IM you will breeze through Oceans. Just do some hill work as the profile is slightly more challenging than a beachfront saunter! banna 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wheelsuck Posted March 31, 2016 Share I am still *** scared of it and it will be my 4th..hehe.Only thing that gets me in the pool really.Best swim I have done is 1 hour and hope to do like a 1 hour15 on Friday then it's head down and hope for the best...The important thing about the swim is if you have a bad day or feel tired then just relax and go a bit slower..there is loads of time and 5 or 10 minutes are not going to make a huge difference at the end of the day.If you want to go really fast on the day then that's a whole other ballgame!With the rolling start you should be better than the usual skop skiet en donner of the previous mass starts, It will get congested later but the initial madness at the start will be minimised. The hardest I have been hit was in 2014 when we started with the girls I think, Mistakenly I thought this was going to be so civilised. Untill the 3rd time I pushed a girl who was swimming skew, the next moment this little fist with pink nails pounds down on me. I should have been traumatised but was actualy more surprised. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
banna Posted March 31, 2016 Share With the rolling start you should be better than the usual skop skiet en donner of the previous mass starts, It will get congested later but the initial madness at the start will be minimised. The hardest I have been hit was in 2014 when we started with the girls I think, Mistakenly I thought this was going to be so civilised. Untill the 3rd time I pushed a girl who was swimming skew, the next moment this little fist with pink nails pounds down on me. I should have been traumatised but was actualy more surprised. Haha! You got chicked even in the fight. Ja, it's funny how some people take the swim so seriously. Jeepers, they should just chill. Just get out of the water safely and then you can start racing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snytjie Posted March 31, 2016 Share I love the way you assume he has an IM mag! hahahaha..... But yes, strong runners generally have the upper hand but like I said, in the elite is is not always so cut and dry as the margins are minutes, not tens of minutes.??He entered, he gets a mag. No significant assumption. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snytjie Posted March 31, 2016 Share Not quite. Frodo is an excellent runner. In Kona 2014 he biked 17 minutes slower than Kienle but ran the fastest marathon of the day. In Kona 2015 he biked the 4th fastest bike split and ran what seems the 2nd fastest marathon. Could have gone faster but if you lead an Ironman comfortably you don't go for broke. Also just because you can run it doesn't mean you can run after a 180km bike. I know guys who can run a 03h30 marathon but for some reason just cannot get below a 5 hour Ironman marathon. Personally I think it is a combination of a mental block and getting the nutrition wrong. You should be able to run well after the bike considering you are probably 3kg's lighter at that stage with an open chest and a warmed up engine.Indeed. I referred to a dense article in a cursory way. Allen's analysis shows that with regards to men, 14/26 of the Kona since 1989 were won by the fastest runner. In 5/26 the fastest biker won. The reference to Frodo is that after Kienle won 2014 with fastest bike, Frodeno did so at IM Frankfurt a few months later. And the fact that since 2009 no one won with fastest run. So it seems something is changing. He concluded in the article that there are many way to win Kona, but that as far as averages go running strongly gives you the best chance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snytjie Posted March 31, 2016 Share hi guys was hoping to get some advice on pacing during the bike using HR and power, how do you guys pace yourselves? my max HR is 180 and my 20min FTP is 206 so i was thinking of staying somewhere between 140-160 bpm and/or 140-150watts is this correct? my previous method was balls to the wall from the start and hit the wall at halfway then limp home not a great plan at all and want to change things this year.What worked for me in my 1st last year was to aim for 66% of FTP on the bike, with small spikes on climbs. I don't have a power meter so had to associate my particular HR with 66% of FTP over the last month of training. This is not completely accurate as many things influence HR on the day. It worked though and I had no "hit the wall" issues at all. I even run my 1st ever marathon without stopping... I will be doing the same this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snytjie Posted March 31, 2016 Share Biggest thing I also changed this year is a bit more intensity in my run training and added 2 gym sessions a week for the last 3/4 months. Did strength work before but not nearly as much as this time. Was extremely time limited this year so went for the best bang for my buck options.Hoping that the extra strength work will be there for me in the last hour or 2...Please come and tell us how it went. We will compare notes... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snytjie Posted March 31, 2016 Share a Gu gel seems to set my stomach nicely. I like to wake up early and drink coffee. This will give me my early morning shart about half an hour later and then I take the gel and I am set to go. Nothing like a good old pee inside the wetsuit moments before the gun goes off. To think they never let you win that GU comp where they asked us for the best race tips. Tsskkk, tssskkkk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snytjie Posted March 31, 2016 Share Is it normal for a "newbie" to be *** scared of the swim? I am a below average swimmer in terms of speed but have done a decent amount of mileage. I have however only done 4km swim and might do another this weekend. All i know is that once I get out of that sea alive I will be a VERY relieved man...For my 1st I only swam 3800m twice. That was enough even though I thought there was a bit of a current just before we came out and I tired just a little. Being an average swimmer and athlete who only started swimming 4 years ago for triathlon I can associate with people being nervous. I was but I realised we mostly think ourselves into tiredness by being unnecessarily nervous. I now listen to obviously very fit/prepared athletes talking about how scared they are of the swim and often think it is a bit unnecessary. I did about 25 sea swims over 1500m during the last 4 years and only once felt in trouble when we were swimming at Clifton and 3-4m waves were breaking about 300m in over a reef. If I was at Durban 70.3 last year I would have felt very nervous with that large shore break. I swam in some strong winds and largish swells and was fine. PE (and EL) have no/small shore breaks and the water is generally calm. It is not a pool: it has a swell and a chop, so you move around and get splashed in the face little more. You often can't see your progress as there are no floor tiles, so it sometimes feel as if you are going nowhere. But it is not inherently dangerous if you trained sufficiently. I'm not talking about adverse conditions like 2012; off course that is dangerous and we should be suitably nervous if that comes about. But in reasonable weather it is ok and it remains for us to just see the real challenge: swimming 4000m with a bunch of other people and moving around a little more than in the pool. Arrive early, warm up, seed yourself realistically, start slow with breathing on every stroke until you are settled, and swim 5-10m wide of the turn-buoys. You will be fine! Edited March 31, 2016 by Snytjie DPG 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
banna Posted March 31, 2016 Share a Gu gel seems to set my stomach nicely. I like to wake up early and drink coffee. This will give me my early morning shart about half an hour later and then I take the gel and I am set to go. Nothing like a good old pee inside the wetsuit moments before the gun goes off.For some people the shart might actually only happen when the gun goes off... Garfield2010, Jewbacca and IceCreamMan 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WernerLouwBosman Posted March 31, 2016 Share So with only days to go I am gearing up for my first IM... Must say its been hard to taper - a few days of pulling back and then you feel like you losing fitness and want to do a "hard session" again... Obviously I feel like I could have trained harder but now it is what it is. Given its my first one, although I have a sub 13 in mind, I just want to finish foremost. Is it normal for a "newbie" to be *** scared of the swim? I am a below average swimmer in terms of speed but have done a decent amount of mileage. I have however only done 4km swim and might do another this weekend. All i know is that once I get out of that sea alive I will be a VERY relieved man...Hi Gents Also doing my first IM. I feel very similar to MK's position. Although, if you told me a year ago I would do a 3km+ openwater swim on a Saturday morning (as i did last weekend) I would have laughed at you. Literally, pointed and laughed. I also agree with Snytjie...there is a huge mental aspect to the swim. Off course, your brain isn't doing the flappy arm part, so training is needed, but I know I am prepared well enough to have an 'average' or 'almost comfortable' swim. 70.3 East London was my first sea swim and there were even moments when I let myself enjoy it. I do understand that if the conditions turn nasty, the game changes, but staying calm & not worrying about 10, 20 or even 30mins longer should get me through. I know there will be some current, some splash, some chop (and some Tjops)...But it is the SEA, I don't expect anything else. I seriously can't wait. Snytjie 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woestersous Posted March 31, 2016 Share Experiencing serious fomo, did '11, '13 - '15, decided to take a few gap years but starting to regret my decision.Swim is not that bad......after negotiating the first left and mostly everyone chills out, you should be fine. One lap swim is much better! Run usually works me over and is my nemesis. Soak up the vibe and enjoy!!!!!! PS. Talking about a shart......poor dude in a red tri-suit had a moment last year and had a long brown "strontstreep" going up his back!!!! Immodium-melts is your friend Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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