how much do you weigh

Been up in Tahoe for a Team Training Camp and got a chance to ride the "hard to access" Martis Creek portion of the bike course yesterday. The climbing in Martis is MORE difficult and MORE STEEP than Brockway Summit. i was grinding at 340 watts in my 39/25 having to get out of the saddle a few times. 11-27 or 28 will be my gearing come race day. We have also rode the maze of additions in truckee north of 80 and there is some climbing there as well.

Now for the swim- we took a clinic today with Jeff Pearson of Boost Swimming http://www.boostswimming.com/index.html. I HIGHLY recommend to take one of these clinics if possible. They set up at the beach where the swim will be with an abrieviated bouy course and work on starting strategies. Here is the issue, the water at the start is ankle deep for 25 yards then goes to knee deep and then back to ankle deep before dropping off after about 100 yards. The work associated with running, porpoising, back to running will send your HR through the roof quickly and you will find yourself hypoxic and flailing in no time. The swim is quite simply going to be a SHIT SHOW with many paniced swimmers before bouy 1 if they are not careful and pace the start properly.

Cheers,

D

How did you get into Martis Camp? I will be racing Donner on Sunday and was hoping to drive over and give the hills a shot again. I was going to go into the back way but if I can start the correct way.

YEP, this is why I have 50/34 11/32 gearing. I do not ever get out of my seat on 20% grades. The Donner climb is probably harder than anything on Tahoe so I am ready.

Great inputs on the swim. Seems like just walking the entire way out may be a good option? I assume the bottom is the same where we come back out. Now, since we have to do 2 laps of the swim,
are we going to get this issue 4 times? My goal is to not lose it on the swim. Plus in Sept, good chance the temp will be in the 30's, so I keep thinking about what stuff I need to have to wear.

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Remember that the lake level will drop too come September, especially if it stay this hot up there. Could end up just being a 100 yd sandy run...

With the rest of the course, outside of the two big hills, being pretty fast do you think times will average out? Kings Beach all the the way through to Truckee seems flat and fast.

Met some of your other team mates at Donner today. One of your teammates killed the race and kicked butt in the half IM.

Talked to the assistant RD for IMLT at the race. He said as far as he knows, the Martis camp stuff is a done deal. He expects the rock to be removed from the race. But the best news is about the swim. He thinks they are going to start the swim as a deep start, and do the 2 lap swim with a buoy out in the lake, so no having to get out and run across the beach. YEA!!!!


I tested some swimming at altitude at Donner today. For me, starting out slow, and basically breathing 1-1 90% of the race allowed me to never had an issue. But .92 is not 2.4 But I will use the same approach, just pace, breath and not worry
about the time.

I totally agree that the flats do not come close to making up for the hills.

8 weeks, and I will hopefully be out on the run at IMLT.

Another post I made.


Okay, just got back from doing the Donner Olympic distance tri. All the same altitude and hill stuff as IMLT will be. Lots of folks were there doing the race, including the Half IM, who are doing IMLT. Was just too tired to drive over to Brockway. So, my take aways from swimming at Altitude, 68 degrees. I started out real slow. Stayed away from folks. What I found is rather than starting the swim with 1-1 breathing, I stayed with it 90% of the race. Never lost it. Had a good swim. Going up the Donner hill, 3.5 miles, steepest about 7%, I found I was using my 28 a lot pushing around 100 rpm. Once in a while I would get into the 32 to keep the rpm's up. I was going by lots of folks who were mushing away, or standing up. Sure showed up during the runs times that the spinning saved my legs. With the 8-10% stuff at IMLT, I expect I will be using my 32 a lot.


,That would be OUTSTANDING news about the swim!!!! We had a few Team EMJ guys there today. I ended up staying on the West Shore to hang with the family- they were getting sick of my 6am departures all week during a family vacation.... Ritch Viola won the HIM today by about 20 minutes I believe.. :) We have a ton of SUPER strong guys racing IMLT and I can't wait; It's going to be a blast!!!

D

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Are there any other IM courses at such a high elevation (6,000+ feet)? I'm guessing the elevation will brutally decimate a lot of racers, though perhaps not folks in the top 10-20% of the field.