Fwiw - just booked at Art Devlin's, 2 queen beds @ $84 / nite.
Cheapest non-crappy hotel rate I found.
(plus the parking at Northwoods can be a major CF. And Art's is right on the course!)

/end PSA.

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float , hammer , and jog

I don't have the ambition to look up the 2011 thread, but I'm pretty sure this part of the conversation is identical to the one that we had exactly a year ago. Can't possibly be worse than last year. I'm not descending in the rain. Etc.

This year, I'm invoking my one-time disability pass. The narcotics would be great for exceeding threshold on the way up, but I'm pretty sure that the effects would be less favorable on the descent. Good luck to the MLSC prospects .... true idiots among men :-)

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"The right to party is a battle we have fought, but we'll surrender and go Amish... NOT!" -Wayne Campbell

Thurs LP forecast: 40% chance of T-storms.
Swell. :-p

Glass half full - 60% chance we won't be utterly miserable.
Again.

That being said, I'll take the weight penalty to bring up more clothing if the weather is even remotely iffy.

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float , hammer , and jog

Heck, I might even carry a wetsuit up to Whiteface if that is what it takes to come down warm !!!

2 queen beds?
Who's the other queen?

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2015 American Zofingen Du is May 17.
R.I.P. Chris Gleason

You. The one staying home-o.

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float , hammer , and jog

Still hurting from Mooseman. With any luck Louis and I will get stuck at the border and be late for the Whiteface climb.

Bring a bag of weed with you - you'll be plenty late.
;-)

Weather forecast looks ok-ish. Chance of an afternoon T-storm both days. Typical Dacks dealio.
Hopefully IF it happens tomorrow, it rolls thru early and then that's it, so we can get it out of the way before we roll.

But, given our "luck" the past 2 years, it's for sure almost guaranteed to hit us while we're up on Whiteface.
Plan accordingly.

Rain during the run on Friday?
Yes, please!

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float , hammer , and jog

OK, Rolldown and I are booked into Art Devlin's. Scott_B, we delayed the start of WF so that the rain passes through and we all have time to get through the border! Now if my legs can actually even get me up a flight of stairs that would be a good post Mooseman start!

Bump for the MLSC crowd.

Weather forecast for this afternoon - 40% chance of rain/T-storms. Temps low-mid 60's.
Lovely.

Will be colder/windier on Whiteface, particularly if/when we get rained on.
Plan accordingly.

Pro tip - a swim cap is light head insulation.

PSA - I have a full, unopened jug of Hammer Espresso gel.
Good-thru date is this Monday.
If anybody wants some, bring a gel flask and you can have as much as you like.

/PSA.

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float , hammer , and jog

OK, we are packed up and ready to roll after lunch. Maybe I should wear my neoprene swim cap for the Whiteface descent today!!!

Chris Macknie (Rolldown) has some nice Chris Gleason memorial Epicman medals made up! Maybe we will get a nice bright day like 2009.

Oh crap, there goes my excuse for not doing WF. A 1 hour FTP ride does not sound like fun. My post-Mooseman quads are feeling quite a bit better. I no longer have to walk down stairs backwards. It's my calves that are still tighter than a nun's bum. Louis and I are heading out just after lunch.

No excuses. Can't you hear Chris G's voice saying that our Mooseman excuses expired on Tuesday when we officially returned to the "tapered list". I actually did a short 35 min easy run this morning so Chris G does not shout something down from the heavens about me being tapered. That would just be bad form (yesterday, I could not do any training on account of business meetings through the day, and customer wining and dining that went on till 10:30 pm).

Dev

Chris favored us with nearly perfect weather for the Whiteface jackassery. Alex crushed the field w a 53:xx finish.
Rolldown and I led the chase group at 58:1x (he apparently pipped me by :01).

Quick shower and it's a belated beer:thirty!!
10 hours until E.Dot.

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float , hammer , and jog

Jealous! Have a great day tomorrow.

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2015 American Zofingen Du is May 17.
R.I.P. Chris Gleason

It was raining for the drive over, but magically cleared up for the climb. Mtl (Alex. Albuqurque) went 53, Rolldown Chris Macknie in 58 a second ahead of ML also 58. I was planning to try to climb easy, but you can't climb this easy....61 min even off 248W. Kalber had gravity telling him they are enemies and came in around. 63. The two "fattest giuys" MTL and myself were first down the mountain, but ML was lollygagging.

Off for today's main event festivities!!!! Picture later!

What happened to the "descending devil"?

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2015 American Zofingen Du is May 17.
R.I.P. Chris Gleason

Hanging at HPC right now - Keith's massive wattage was too massive for his pathetic puny chain.
Will roll out for lap 2 shortly.

Lovely weather so far.

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float , hammer , and jog

So despite the advanced publicity, there was around 20 folks who showed up. So it looks like we had 6 finishers of the full Epicman: ML, Kalber, Rolldown, Louis Tay, Scott_B and myself......and we had 4 official finishers of the Whiteface Climb + Full Epicman (knows as the Murphy's Law Stupidity Challenge for obvious reasons): ML, Kalber, Rolldown and Myself. I got my full completion of the MLSC. This was probably not the wisest thing to do starting only 4 days after Mooseman was done, but the classic medal that Rolldown made in memory of Chris G was what kept me in the game. I had previously done 10 of the 14 full Epicmans but had "formally retired" from the full distance, but I thought that Chris would have done it, so I should . I'll write a full report with pictures later this weekend. I should probably catch up on all the work I missed on Friday.

Being a the summit of Whiteface with the guys was the most uplifing experience of the last 11 months. We were missing Chris, but that's as close as we can get to him for now.

Finally, of all the places I have ridden in my life across the US, Asia, Canada, and New Zealand, I found the drivers in Lake Placid remarkably rude. We stayed clear to the right, our group was quite small, but I think amongst the local population who don't derive any economic benefit from Ironman LP (hourly workers etc), there seems to be animosity that has built up to the hoards of cyclists on the roads.

We intentionally do this on a Friday so that we're not in the midst of the weekend crowds, but neverthless were greeted countless times with very aggressive behaviour. To some degree, I don't entirely blame these folks. So if you are going to LP, please train safely and do stick to the right (even though the shoulder is bad in places). We need to build goodwill with these folks, although at times, it can be trying. We're on their local roads after all. Please be safe.

What Dev said. About everything.

I was pretty sure I was "only" going to do EpicBoy (6m run in lieu of the 13.1) but once I saw the finishers medals that Rolldown created in Chris G's honor, well - I couldn't not get one of those.

Whiteface was amazing, utterly perfect weather. Sublime to be there with the sweeping views amongst like minded folks, in one of Chris' favorite places.

The E.Dot festivities were mostly fun and, other than Keith's trashed chain, uneventful. Weather was about perfect, but there were occasional huge gusts or wind. We decided that that was just Chris f'n with us - because he can.
Wouldn't you mess with your friends a little too, given the chance?
We were glad to feel his spirit and know he was with us.

The swim was certainly 1000x more enjoyable than the last time I was in Mirror Lake. :-p

Bike lap 1 was nice, we had a good train working. After the chain issue and half hour spent at HPC getting it fixed, Keith and I got busy trying to catch back up. We were trading pulls doing 27-28 mph along the "I am an AERO GOD" section from Keene to Jay.
Saw Dev and crew on the Haselton o&b, but didn't get back to the gas station quite fast enough to latch back on again.
Bummer.

Ride back from Wilmington was tough, windy, and we were both pretty toasty. I towed Keith where I could, but our bikes don't pedal themselves, and it's net uphill.
Negative split the bike by a few mins, in spite of crawling back.

Run was decent. Cruised along in z1, just wanting to get thru it w/o cracking. Met up w/ Rolldown and then Dev and crew at the far end of River Road. I was a dumbass, and f'd up the mental math of how far it was to the turn - 11 miles round trip, so that's 6.5 each way, right? D'oh!!
Plus side was, got the see the boys, and also only had to run about .2m past the pub and back to finish off my 13.1.
Got r done in 1:35 and change, felt ok.

Only minor downer, and about the only bad thing I can say about my Canuckistani brethren, is that NONE of them went to the pub!!
Keith and I took it upon ourselves to do Chris proud and uphold our long-standing tradition of beers and eats on the deck afterwards.

I am sooooo tired and sore today.
But it was totally worth it.

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float , hammer , and jog

ML, thanks for the blow by blow account. I'll download my pictures at some point. It was really nice spending time with you guys. I honestly did not think on Wed that I'd even be able to make it up Whiteface, after spending 3 days post Mooseman walking down the stairs backwards. Once I got up to WF, I felt that perhaps I could finish my first complete "stupidity challenge". Rolldown said, that I could have one of the medals on account of being Epicman organizer, but no way, I would take a medal without actually doing the distance. So I ended up with my longest run of the year, which happened after my longest bike of the year, which happened after my longest open water swim of the year! Nothing like a bit of peer pressure to make you push your limits.

The door to door time for yesterday's workout was 8:45....how is it possible that it started at 6 am, and ended at 3:50 pm....that means 65 minutes of "transitions, stops, pee breaks, and other assorted standing around". No wonder, I find that my most efficient rides back at home are 4 hours with no stopping, standing around, or pee breaks...usually those rides end up taking all of 4:10 with a few traffic lights to get out of town and perhaps a single pee break. But Epicman is more of a social occaision than "pure workout".

Anyway, 2 events down for June 2012. Now the back end of the month between Tremblant 70.3 and Tupper should feel a "bit" easier.

Rolldown and I discussed the logistics for Epicman Tremblant. I'm hoping that we can get some of you up to Canada....and sorry for our lack of brew pub presence. I hope you drank for us and kept Chris company!!!

Thanks Dev for taking the time to organise Epicman LP. This was first trip to LP since I was a little kid and was thoroughly impressed with the beauty of the region and the town. It reminds me a lot of Banff. I travelled down with Louis but unfortunately did not make it to LP in time to do the Whiteface mountain climb. Probably just as well since I was still recovering from Mooseman. Instead Louis and I did an easy 2-1/2 hour ride and met up with the the crew that did the Whiteface climb on the way back to town. Louis and I found a really nice restaurant where I ordered an awesome 8 ounce burger, homemade chips and a couple of pints of Heineken. Figure I was carb loading for Epicman.

Mirror lake is smaller than I imagined and have a hard time believing that 2500+ people can fit in there. I can see why there would be a LOT of contact in the Ironman LP swim. The water was a perfect temperature for a wetsuit swim. After changing over to bike gear all participants in this years Epicman went out in one group. Not having ridden the course before, I sat back and drafted the entire first loop - let's just say I was not doing target race wattage. The Keene descent was awesome. My max speed on the first loop was 83.0 kph when I decided enough was enough. My wife would definitely have been pissed to have seen me do that. The road down the descent was a little rough due to snow plow damage. Due to a mechanical, we lost the two workhorses who were at the front for the whole first loop leaving only four of us riding together for the second loop. The wind picked up as the morning went by making the Keene descent a lot more interesting. By the turn around back to town we had a pretty strong headwind which complemented the general uphill trend quite nicely. Dev, Louis and I started the run together. I thought the plan was to do around 10 km at an easy pace. This was to be my first run since Mooseman and I didn't want to put myself into a deeper recovery hole. Dev and Louis, however, made a decision to do the entire 21 km run as it is what Chris G would have done. I was not about to be the only one to not complete the full Epicman so I ended up doing the entire run. The final steep uphill to the tennis courts was a killer. Tired but glad I participated in Epicman and will be sure to mark this event on my calendar for next year.

That was a great couple of days in LP. I have to admit, i had not intended on doing the full stupidity challenge/epicman. But, after seeing the finishers medals, I had to do the full run. I'm honestly very happy that I decided to do it. Even though I was battling an abdominal cramp for the first ~5 miles of the run, and I bonked a little...it wasn't THAT bad. I'm sure that's due to the increased run volume I've been doing this year. I learned a lot...mostly that I need salt (and a lot of it)...and that I need a ton of fluid. I actually stopped by the river on the way back in and slugged down 4 8oz flasks (and had 2 more during the last 4.5 miles). I'm really not sure what the best option would be for the epicman run...maybe leave some bottles out on the course the night before?? run with a camelback ;) I normally run 10-13 miles with nothing...obviously I cannot do that in this scenario.

A fewside notes: 1) many thanks to ML for sticking around and doing the 2nd loop with me after breaking my chain. Thankfully that happened right near the bike shop...it really could not have happened in a better place. 2) the last 12 miles was really rough after mike and I dropped the hammer for the 2nd loop. I had all i could do to stay on his wheel after 100 miles (and couldn't on some of the climbs back into town). I would NOT attempt to negative split the bike at IMLP next year (or do whiteface the day before) 3) Canadians: McDonalds and subway? really? REALLY??? You know, they have awesome burgers and fries at the LP Brewery...billions and billions times better than McDonald's. You don't even HAVE to drink alcohol there (though I'm not sure why you wouldn't). 4) I felt like I was taking in a ton of calories. But, when I tallied them up at the end of the day, I was around 300 cals/hour. I probably could have taken in a bit more without overloading my stomach, but I felt pretty good all things considered. I honestly don't know how Patrick took in 750/hour at IMTX...though I'm sure willing to try (in training first, of course).

I was very sore saturday (shocking)...did nothing. Yesterday I was still sore...but managed a short bike and treadmill run. I was surprised at how easy the run felt. Everything else this year will be a piece of cake. I really need to drop 10 pounds for my next climb up whiteface. BTW...if anybody is planning on attending IMLP and wants to meet up for another ascent the day before, let me know...I am planning on going back up with a friend and volunteering at the race.

MLSC/epicman: it's not a race, it's an adventure.

Kalber...about calorie consumption and salt....I know everyone was mocking the Canadian faithful of the Subway chain, but the half sub I ate at the halfway point was probably one of the most satisfying "one course nutrition" items ever. As for salt, I had the sub totally loaded up with extra salt, although I should have eaten the half with the hot jalapena peppers the day before. Nevertheless riding along at 160W (barely 2.6W per kilo) it is much easier to absorb 800 calories (sub,+ drink + cookie for desert) in one shot than trying to do it at race pace. Not to push sponsor stuff, but if you use Infinit, you can actually get a ton of salt in your mix. Or you could have a burger and fries, or perhaps a salami sandwich with Mayo....real food rules!!!

I agree that your chain break could not happen in a more perfect spot. Of all the places to break it, right by the Arena was continues downhill to High Peaks....and they were open at that time!

The Whiteface Climb + Full Epicman is definitely an adventure. I guess technically I'm not an official finisher of the Murphy's Law stupidity challenge as I did not cap off the athletic adventures with the LP Brew Pub festivities. At least this year, I did not have the shame of being on the tapered list. I believe I took being on the untapered list to new level thrashing my quads with Mooseman first.

I still can't believe that Chris "Rolldown" Macknie backed up the entire Thu and Friday event at LP with the Rideau Lakes Cycle Tour on Saturday and Sunday. Depending on what route he took, it is 2x180-200K!!!

Dev

that's insane...i give him serious credit for pulling that off.

I actually use infinite (although I'm going to try EFS for a bit). At one point I had the salt cranked up, but it tasted like crap to me (maybe i needed more flavor?). Now, i just use salt stick tablets and infinite clydesdale mix. I'm all for eating real food. Most of my long training rides on the weekend are preceded by a big breakfast, so i don't need as much other stuff. But, for me, part of the epicman adventure was getting a feel for what I could do with race day nutrition. So, between infinite, powerbars, gatorade perform, some gels and water I should be ok. I might HAVE to put a big can of red bull/monster in my special needs bag though. That really hit the spot.

Really no excuse to not join us at the brewery afterward (thursday and/or friday) As I said, you don't *have* to imbibe in alcohol. Good times none-the-less.