Good luck. I would position the paramedics at the shore for your "almost certain" hypothermia bout in advance of entering.

Don't forget that LP is almost 2000 ft above sea level. That makes it that much colder....and its north enough to be less than 100miles from the Canadian border and we all live in igloos and either skate or ski to school till late July....

Seriously, just go and bike bike bike and bike some more while you are there. Just put the bike miles in the legs and get familiar with the course...ride 2 loops every day you are there. You can run and swim when you are back in NYC...if you can ride the LP course fast without burning any matches and have a full tank for the marathon, you'll do really well on race day. You can pretty well target every 30 minutes fade on LP run loop2 back to going 2-5 min too fast on loop 1 of the bike.

The best thing you can do is get familiar with the bike course. There are lots of small hills on which you can spike the power on loop 1 (and which feel easy), but by the end of loop2, hills that were non existent on the first round become small ring leg busters...forget about swimming in Placid...its pretty well a waste of time. You can swim in NYC and get more training benefit than freezing in hypothermic conditions and getting sick.

Dev

I actually swam up there Saturday afternoon. I heard 3rd hand that the water was about 55, but no idea how accurate that is. Judging by how it felt, that seems about right. I had my full suit and just a regular swim cap and I was fine. The first 2 minutes were a little rough, pretty much just on my face, but once I got going I was fine. No hand/foot numbness and after half an hour I definitely could've gone longer. I have certainly been colder in the water (California 70.3 '06) I'm used to cold water, so give it a try but don't push it if you find yourself uncomfortably cold.

Not sure about the water temps, but it will be cold.

But seriously, you should really only run while you're there. Hundreds of miles of running trails...get some mileage into those legs, maybe a run focus of some repeats up and down some hills. Get some really strong running legs. If you could do some fartleks up and down the luge run over at the Verizon Sports Complex, you'll have a great day on race day. I suggest pushing a luge up the chute, that will teach your legs to be strong. Remember, NOBODY has ever finished an Ironman without having to run a marathon before.

OK, let me apply a layer of common sense to this quest to swim in 55F water.

I have no issues with training in 55F water, if you need to do a race in those conditions in the near term (say in the next week).

However, every year, Ironman Lake Placid is borderline wetsuit legal. The only reason why we wear wetsuits at that swim is because it is an IMNA race....by race day the water is quite warm. As such, it is pointless to "acclimatize" to training in 55F water 2 months out from race day, when it will be 78F on race day (or thereabouts). The training benefit is almost zero. In fact, it is likely negative as that session is sucking away valuable energy that would be better spent bagging miles on the bike course.

Jsmith needs all the help possible under the sun on the swim. But swimming in 55F water (or less as that Lake temp can drop quickly with a few cold nites) will not help his technique and it certainly won't help his fitness. Riding the bike course will help his bike fitness and will "very specifically" prep him for the actual race.

When he goes back to NYC he can work his swim form...he has plenty of fitness already.

Dev

Or just push the luge up to the summit of Whiteface or ride it sub 60 like this Kona qualifying poser ST crew (Konaexpress, Rolldown, Me)

If it is 55F now, it islikely to be colder this weekend. There was new snow on the high peaks on Tuesday, and snow, rain, and lows in the 30s are forecast for the rest of the week.

Victor

---

================================
blog
twitter

I'm not going to be there until next week. You think it will have warmed 20 degrees by then :)

-richard

---

June 22/08 - Ironman Nice
Sept 14/08 - Muskoka 70.3

is is easily swimable ...people have been in it for weeks...I was in for 40 mins. a few times already, the first being two weeks ago...I have not taken an official temp. but would guess it is about 53ish range.....it will wake you up!!! LOL

Can't argue with Dev about the swim technique issue - it has improved a bit this spring but it is not what you would call "good" or even "acceptable" - and swimming at LP one weekend won't solve it for sure. That said, my A race is IMCDA so I was just looking for some open water time in the wetsuit (only 1 wetsuit swim this spring in an april oly race) and as a cool down after riding my legs off on Saturday and Sunday.

At least it will work as a good ice bath!

jeez dev I thought you canadians were tougher than that. In the adirondacks the water is "comfotable" for swimming starting from memorial day weekend regardless of the temp ;-)

I'm not sure its about being tough, just about being smart and usiing training opportunities effectively, since most age groupers keep complaining about not having enough time to train. Jsmith, if you are going to Cda you'll have plenty of wetsuit opportunities race week....use Mirror Lake for an ice bath after your rides or runs! Oh yeah, I need work on my swim too. At least next week on business travel, I will have access to a pool. The past 1.5 weeks has been a waste from a swimming point of view :-)

If you see people swimming then it's warm enough! Toughen up!!!!!!

Are there any updates on the air and water temps at LP?

I was there last weekend. The water in my opinion is still too cold to go non-wetsuit. Just about everyone training there had a full suit on. I did the course, pretty hard in a full and the temp was perfect, never got really warm so I'm guessing 69-72ish.

It's more than fine without a wetsuit. Swam the course June 21st without a wetsuit and was perfectly fine. A little cool at first, but lovely once you get going.

I was swimming on the 21st, felt about 67-68 degrees to me.