OK OK....we're going up, but as long as there is no ice. I don't want a Gavia descent. The problem with snowbanks is the snow melts in the sun and then has a chance to "refreeze" as it hits the pavement in the shade if the pavement is cold. I assume the pavement will be warm enough for this not to happen. We won't know until we start going up. The problem with these 'adventures' is that you really don't know how bad something is for descending, until you are actually descending!!!! Everything looks fairly benign climbing at 7- 8 mph, which is a lot different than the interaction with the pavement at 40-45 mph!!!

I'd rather not "interact" with the pavement, at ANY speed.

The re-freeze part of your scenario is unlikely. Shade or no.
LP is forecast to have highs near 80 and rain this weekend.
Lows around 60.
Granted, it's colder on Whiteface - but enough so to get near freezing is a stretch.

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float , hammer , and jog

I suppose we could always tie sleds to our backs for the climb?

Have fun!!!

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Barry Dmitruk
2017: Florida 70.3 (done); Mont Tremblant 70.3 & Ironman

Anyone have an update on Whiteface yet? It was 10C in Ottawa this morning. That would generally equate it to being below freezing at the Whiteface summit given the extra 4000 feet they are above us. What's going on with the snow there?

This is from the ORDA website Whiteface Vet's Memorial Highway webpage "picture of the day", although it is unclear what "DAY" it was taken:



It "appears" that the road has been cleared off and the snow pushed to the sides.

Some more pics from there website (clearly on other days):

OK, aparently ML is bringing the GoPro camera to video the descent. It will also be there to ensure that he does the entire course and does not get a lift with Motoman to the summit of Whiteface....then again, all forms of cheating (water rovers, drafting, fins, course cutting) are encouraged at Epicman....get it all out of your system on a training day and play by the rules on race day!!!!

The weather forecast for Thurs has taken a turn, to the "interesting".
50-60% chance of rain/T-storms. Yay?

We managed not to die the last 2 times it was like that, lets hope the 3rd time is NOT the charm.

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float , hammer , and jog

which means there's 100% chance of that. I'm sure the view from the top will be awesome. <sigh>

I'll tell you guys what to expect on Whiteface when we drive over from the St. Lawrence valley. The track record is that whatever moisture comes off the Great Lakes and up the St. Lawrence valley quickly turns into rain/thunder/Noah's Arc deluge when it rises up that extra 2000-4500 feet of vertical. Every time we get poured on during the drive from Ogdensburg via Tupper to LP ensures that the Whiteface summit will we a slightly warmer, but wetter version of Gavia.

Dev

Damn, I was hoping this was next week, not this one. Wish I could be up there with you guys.

Discretion was the better part of valor, due to it being 50 degrees and rainy in town, so the MLSC was cancelled, and replaced by a run (for which 50 and rainy is quite lovely).

It's beer:thirty now, and we'll be headed over to the LP brewery for UBU direct from the mother ship.

IF its not raining after the swim, we may hit Whiteface in the am.
Or "just" ride 112m on the LP course.

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float , hammer , and jog

I envy you being in LP heading to the LP Brewery and swimming in Mirror Lake tomorrow, but no thank you to the UBU beer. I tried to like it, but was disappointed.

That weather seems like a ground hogs day.

It was mid 50's and pissing rain for about 98% of the time we've been here. The 2 trips (so far) to the LP brewery have been the highlights of this years E.dot festivities.

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float , hammer , and jog

seems like this 50s and rainy weather follows you around. Maybe you should stop with all the rain dances.

I got home, unloaded my bags, unloaded my bike, then looked at the heap of dirt-ladened, sopping wet gear piled in the rear of my car. I've got a can of gasoline in the garage, and I'm burning that shit. Easier than cleaning it.

As always, many thanks to everyone that came out for another miserable adventure and the good times that ensued.

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

Full report later....just got home after a 32 hour trip to LP with 10.5 hours of training, 6 hour of sleeping and 8 hours of driving. That's adds up to 24.5 hours. I guess the rest of the time (which would be around 8 hours) was spent preparing gear, eating, preparing more gear, preparing nutrition, worrying about the rain and cold....worrying more about the rain and cold and listen to Murphy's Law talk smack. I've never head as much smack from someone who was the definition of the "TAPERED LIST"...however, what's even funnier is that he is the only person in the 15 year history of Epicman who actually gets away with being on the tapered list and seems to do it with honour. The rest of us seem to do it with some semblance of shame. Well, I got my share done.....Thu PM, 23.5K run + beach to beach to beach wet noodle swim. Today another pathetic beach to beach to beach wet noodle swim then 6:06 of biking with 1800m of vertical including an unplanned Keene climb to find Konaexpress Dmitruk, whose Quarq Riken crank aparently came loose....3500 Kilojoules later, it was off for 8 k of running which I have to say was the LEAST miserable time of the entire day!

Actually got all my laundry done and washed all my crap off. Old military habit. When you come back from deployment, it all gets "disinfected' before it comes back into barracks. I can't believe that Rolldown is going to do 2x200K of riding tomorrow along with Chris Belair, who complete the full Murphy's Law Stupidity challenge with a Whiteface climb last night and then the full Epicman today....3K swim, 180k bike, 21K run. I guess he did not get the cancellation notice and said that the Whiteface descent in rain that was borderline snow was the stupidest thing he has done in his life....well, we kind of knew that it the possibly the stupidest thing you can do. OK for Andy Hampsten descending Gavia to win the 1988 Giro...but he's descending to be the first American to win the Giro...we're not descending Whiteface to win anything!

It ain't called the Stupidity Challenge for nuthin.
Particularly in conditions like these.

I guess he was also the only official E.dot finisher this year?
Mega props.

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float , hammer , and jog

I was told by Chris "Rolldown" Macknie that the event director gets to decide what constitures an official finisher.

I think for this year's version, anyone who actually wasted a vacation day to drive 4-6 hours to hang out with us, and train in 50F in pissing rain, swim in water just above 60F is an "official finisher" simply because they got to the start line of Edot. I was just sharing this with a few friends at home:

The amazing thing is that everyone took all "events of the day" in stride. I was telling Chris maybe that is why there were so many Kona and Vegas qualifiers out there. It's not as much in any genetic advantage these guys have. Many who do not qualify like to think that, but in reality, 98% of their competitive advantage is their mental attitude and what they are willing to put themselves through without complaining, because it is part of "the journey". Some days are aweome, others truly suck, but when it truly sucks they deal with it.

I know a bunch of guys who said they wanted to come to Epicman and then in the last moment they gave me all kinds of excuses about not being able to get out of work etc etc. Seems like those excuses popped up to coincide with the horrendous weather forecast.

Simply put, champions don't complain, they just do, and putting all the smacktalk aside, after 15 years, this is why I keep going back to Epicman....to hang out with some guys with perhaps a few "loose screws" but who are bit extra ordinary compared to the folks I hang out with in other aspects of life.

Dev

PS. Barry Dmitruk dropped his chain and get got caught up in his Quarq magnet. Then the magnet actually attached to the chain somehow and actually did not come lose!!! He did not want to do more damage as he heard a gridning noise so he walked up hills and coasted down hill back to LP. Turns out, it was just a magnet attached to a chain. He made it back to LP and got it all fixed up!

cheating was in full effect at this years MLSC + Epicman (or should we call it Ape-icman)



As always, it was "fun"....well...as fun as training in 50's and rain for 2 days can be. At first on the bike I thought I felt ok after "only" running 13.5 miles in-lieu of whiteface. But it became pretty evident that I wasn't really in much better shape than normal after doing whiteface. Perhaps one of these years I'll skip any form of stupidity challenge and "just" do epicman. I would imagine it could actually be more enjoyable that way??

I have to admit, I'm a little bummed I didn't run after the bike yesterday (ok...not really)...but I didn't feel like it was a great idea. I probably would have run if it hadn't started raining again for the last 5 miles of the bike. It's one thing to dig yourself into a hole...yet another to dig your own grave. I just thought that if i kept going then I was going to wake up sick.

At any rate, my last 6 big workouts/races over the last 6 weekends have gone like this:

St Croix (grotesquely hot and humid...2nd worst half ironman of my life...the only one worse was my first half (and triathlon) ever)
1 weekend of pretty nice
American Zofingen Long course (50's and rain. All. Day. Long.)
4 hour bike in 45 degree's and pouring rain. This was the single worst riding experience of my life. It made AmZof and Epicman seem pleasant.
Last weekend 90 degree bike (I cracked).
Ape-icman...2 days of 50's and rain.

I feel like I'm an expert at dealing with fairly miserable conditions at this point. But...I will still take 50's and rain over 90 and humid any day of the week.

After the first loop of the bike ML, Chris Wilhelm and I were standing in stewarts with the kid (Kevin Miles) getting some hot coffee and food and the skies opened up for a few minutes. It was already going to be rough getting back on the bikes for the 2nd loop. But, if that downpour had continued for much longer, it would have been very hard not just calling it a day at that point (I'm sure one of us would have made the others suffer through it...but the thoughts were there). The kid was laughing at us whilst eating an ice cream as he was heading home for his last few hours of high school. He took some big pulls on his 1 bike loop...which was nice. However, apparently the only thing he left with was his bike and ice cream as he left all his personal belongings strewn about in the greater high peaks area. Thank god he's off to West Point in a few weeks. Perhaps they can square him away. ;)

Chris Wilhelm and I considered doing something this morning after several for a PB while watching the bruins sweep...but decided that breakfast and maybe working out later at home with no rain would be the better call. It definitely was and now it will be soooo much easier to take today completely off with my honey-do list.

Good luck to the crazy canadians doing the bike tour this weekend. The iron-taint award is officially yours!!! Massive kudo's to Chris Belair for taking on whiteface and doing the entire epicman yesterday. Now he *might* know better.

Once again, proof positive that it don't hafta be "fun", to be fun.

And believe me, there were large chunks o' time when it was about the exact opposite of fun.

Strava didn't recognize that other activity I did, prior to the aqua-velo. I guess it had no frame of reference to compare it to?
"Drowning with directionality" apparently isn't an available activity option, yet.
I think I swallowed a lot less water during the swim, than the bike. Keeping well hydrated was not remotely a concern.

The "new (to me) car smell" of my Jetta lasted for <~3 days. By the end, it looked and smelled like the inventory of a tri shop was sunk in a swamp, then dredged up, and deposited thoughout my car. I think J-Dub's idea of just burning it all is a good one.
My bike is a shambles. Again.

Great to see everybody, as always.

PS - MANY thanks to Eric/Trihumor, for his karmic sponsoring of the 2013 G Chris Gleason LP Brewery Scholarship Fund.
That took care of the 3 for a PB (tm) for several of us on Thursday nite. Exactly as Chris would have wanted it.

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float , hammer , and jog

thanks guys for sharing in the misery that was this year's epicman...currently sitting in dorm room after day 1 of rideau lakes bike tour..134miles on the bike and it only rained for about 2hrs!!! After this year's epicman I think I could actually enjoy weather conditions at IMLP like in '08.

Have another great 220K ride back from Kingston to Ottawa today. You and Mr. Macknie are making the Ultraman guys look lazy. After you get back to Ottawa, you can add another stage on Monday, which would be a double marathon from Ottawa South to Cornwall. It could be our version of running from Hawi to Kona on day three of the Ultraman although Ottawa to Cornwall is 105K....but for studs like you guys, that's just an extra half marathon over the 84K ultaman double marathon....and as much as I joke about this, this is exactly how Epicman started in the first place, then Murphy's Law adds in the Whiteface climb, and then guys like Chris Macknie tack on the Rideau Lakes bike tour to the back. So what's the logical (or should I say illogical) extension of all of this ultra-stupidity?

Ditto exactly what you said, Chris. Thanks to everyone for the fun/misery that was Epicman '13. It was one for the ages and it was great to see the usual cast of misfits attending.

I'm sitting in a dorm room at Queens too, after the 220 km ride from my door to here. Who knew such a long ride could feel easy, at least compared to the last two days. Sorry we didn't meet along the way. I am going for breakfast at 5, heading out at 6ish tomorrow for the ride back if you want to meet up. Though I don't think I am worthy of cycling with you after your ascent of Whiteface in those conditions!