Marbella here I come. More to follow in the days ahead.
What advice do y’all have for cold weather races? Coeur d’Alene looks like it’s going to be cold this year: low 45ºF/7.2ºC, high 60ºF/15.6ºC, 55% chance of rain. Water temperature is currently 68ºF/20ºC.
I’m less worried about the swim, with these temperatures a shortened swim is possible (or cancelled altogether, if the lake turns over and the water temperature drops). I’m more worried about hopping on the bike wet in those temperatures. I’m thinking:
- Skip the one-piece trisuit, wear tri shorts for the swim and put on a long sleeve jersey in T1
- See if I can buy a gilet or rain jacket this week, or at the race expo, in case it rains
- Wear full-finger gloves and/or toe covers
Anything else I should think of? Open to any tips.
You have a good plan.
In the one true cold race I did I was able to put on a long sleeved cycling jersey/jacket. It warmed up enough to remove the jacket for the run. Fortunately, no rain that year.
I dont have tri experience to draw from with this recco but having ridden and getting completely soaked in the PNW(simulating getting out of a swim) even if its low 50’s you’ll dry off pretty quick. My worry would be your fingers getting cold out on front of the tribars leading to some discomfort. Is there any kind of sock/ glove you can put on the tip of the bars and put them on while you’re riding? That wont take you any time in T1 but send you out there with some extra gear.
Same with no tri experience with this situation but rainy riding, I’d do anything to avoid having to wear a rain jacket. They’re just so slow.
If you think the rain might stay away and you’ll warm up then you could maybe do arm warmers that you could then peel off once you get drier. But definitely long finger gloves. Nothing worse than numb hands while you’re trying to shift and brake.
I need some advice, and its probably in this thread, but i haven’t found it. Im considering buying a tri bike for a 70.3. The course is moderately technical and very lumpy, no real climbs but still over 1000m elevation. My main reason for thinking of getting the bike is to position myself better for the run. My current bike is a tarmac sl7. Thoughts?
How’d the race go?
Incredible. The cold was a big nothingburger, it turned out to be perfect weather for racing. Got a personal best (5:30:22) and finished 16th in my age group. I’ll post the race report once I’m done typing it up.
Here’s that race report. I’m still on a high from this race.
Nice report and finish! Glad the weather worked out even though it seemed like total chance as the day went on.
Did you enjoy the more solo swim experience until you caught the other group? The distance is so individual that having somebody else you’re trying to chase or keep up with can blow you up but also a wonderful motivator to go hard for race day.
Yeah, I think that’s probably part of the reason why my time was a little slower than St. George, but it was nice to just be able to swim and not worry about getting beat up. Drafting and swimming in a big group is something I should get better at, though.
Did a brick workout this week to test my new trisuit (2xu) which performed quite well. A bit tight across the chest/shoulders but unzipping during the run solved that. Getting out of it was incredibly difficult and i popped a few threads in the process.
Ride was just an hour with 4x10 min efforts in TT position, then right into a 10k run. In the first 2 miles of the run I had a lot of tightness in the back of my ribs - anyone experienced this? I’m thinking its due to bike fit and I need to stretch out more or less. Any thoughts?
Eagleman RR short and simple
Swim was choppy but it was my best swim at Eagleman. 32nd Age Group
Bike the first 44 miles were very fast, it sprinkled a few times and kept us cool. I jinxed myself at the turn that heads back to the race site I leaned over to a woman I was passing and said “welcome to the fast part of the course” a nice steady head wind forced me to pull back a little and save for the run.
7th Age Group
Run Instead of using Multisport Mode I created a Garmin Workout to keep me focused on my pace. For the first time in four years it was not especially hot. I carried a small bottle in my rear pocket that allowed me to take gels and electrolytes every 20 minutes, then drank water and coke at the aid stations.
1st Age Group
Finished 4th Age Group.
Tridot RaceX predicted my time to be 5:11:36 actual finish time 5:11:12
Today I did the Tidewater Striders Sprint Duathlon 2 mile run, 12 mile bike, 2 mile run.
11th overall, 3rd Masters. Full Redline the whole way. A very fast and tough top 10. Sixth place male pro at Eagleman won, his girlfriend the swimmer who came out of the water at Eagleman with Lucy female overall win and 4th overall, 10th place was a relay team. Afterwards a very very hot and humid 2 hour recovery ride.
On to IM Maryland then Marbella
Great job. Sounds like for you and others I’ve read about the tridot race predictor is pretty accurate.
I am still not putting full faith in RaceX. It is showing for IM Maryland that I will run 8 minutes faster than my best stand alone marathon
Just trying to get a quick idea of the demographics in here… 
How fast are you?
- Pointy end: winning or close
- Fastest 25%
- Middle: 25% to 75%
- Slowest 25%
- One of the last, just trying to finish
0
voters
Time for an update. Been absent from the forum for past couple of months. May and June were relatively low volume months due to lots of work and personal travel…can’t complain as got to hike for a few weeks in Norway but it did impact training a bit.
May (total of 42:55:00)
- Swim: 4:41:00 - 14327 yards
- Bike: 14:15:00 - 375 km
- Run: 13:26:00 - 116 km
- Gym: 1:23:00
- Walk/Hike: 9:09:00 - 34 km
June (total of 39:31:00)
- Swim: 1:55:00 - 5725 yards
- Bike: 16:08:00 - 439 km
- Run: 7:28:00 - 64 km
- Gym: 1:30:00
- Walk/Hike: 12:28:00 - 50km
Races upcoming:
- Aug 24: International Distance
- October 19: International Distance
- October 25: IM North Carolina 70.3
Undecided:
- November 1: IM Florida 140.6, or
- December 14: IM Florida 70.3
Good luck with training and racing everyone!
Signed up for my official first and second Tri events.
July 12th - Whatcom county - Olympic
July 20th - Seafair Tri - Sprint
Putting in about 3 more days of ‘big’ training then reducing volume and throwing a few days of short intensity. I find that I feel my best swimming the third day of a [rest, swim, swim] situation so i’ll plan to do a swim and a light 2 mile shakeout the day before.
Training this month was low because I much like @teetopmlp was in Norway hiking and drinking (mostly the latter)(Sogndal and Halhjem for me) for 8 days.
Hit a new 8 min power PB on the bike which confirms fitness is going in the right direction but wish I had some more volume in me going into these races.
Transitions will be interesting considering i’ve just done mock changes in my garage. Any wisdom from the group?
I’ll swim in a one piece tri suit with sleeveless wetsuit on top. Will throw socks on in T1 and have a gel or 2 while I guzzle down water and get my helmet on. Bottle 1 will have ~100g carbs for the 25 mile ride and the other big boy bottle will just be water. Extra gel with caf in my pockets. I’m thinking of driving out to preride the bike course to get an idea of the shade coverage to gauge how hot it will be and if I need to rig up a third bottle. T2 should be quite simple with just a helmet swapped for a hat, a caf gel, shoes, and stuff my pocket with another gel or 2.
Pretty decent month for me.
| Workouts | Time | Distance | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Swim | 6 | 3:56 | 11 km | ||
| Bike | 16 | 24:26 | 730 km | ||
| Run | 8 | 10:52 | 124 km |
I got some work and life stress going on that’s gotten in the way of my training so my volume went down a little, but I still managed to race a decent half marathon at the Grand Teton Half Marathon, and got a personal best at Ironman 70.3 Coeur d’Alene. I’m tentatively racing Ironman 70.3 Boise at the end of the month, we’ll see how that goes. I’m expecting it to be super hot, but hopefully the wildfire smoke cooperates.
- Checklists, checklists, checklists.
- Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.
- Practice putting on socks on wet feet like this: https://youtu.be/yc754UrViQY?t=168
Golden, Thank you!