take kitchen garbage bag, cut holes for head and arms, now you have a vest! Put it on in T1 obviously, probably easier if you have a 2-piece instead of a onsie. I remember Heather Wurtele posting that she did it for a Challenge race in Iceland, seemed to have worked out for her.

Where do you see 39? If I look at google it shows race time temp of 48. Personally, if it’s ~50 or higher at bike start I’m making no adjustment other than gloves and wearing socks + aero shoe covers (will take time to dry my feet), maybe arm warmers. 45-50F will put on an aero jersey over my tri suit and definitely do arm warmers. <45 will take time to dry off as completely as I can and do a long sleeve jersey + leg warmers. < 40 and/or <45 + rain and I’m sleeping in, have fun!

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Dimond Bikes Superfan

it now says low of 45/46/45 Sat nite> high of 60/60/60 Sun-with 25-50% chance of rain

https://weather.com/...nday/l/USNY0778:1:US

https://www.accuweather.com/...orecast/339681?day=6

https://www.wunderground.com/...cm_ven=localwx_10day


I'd love 50 for a low and 65 for a high! But my Raynaud's doesn't like sub 50 degree temps and my hands will be blue on the bike, probably even with gloves


And many thanks for the garbage bag trick-I just made one and practiced pulling it off under my tri-top without issues; just had to cut the red tie to make it easier to come off. Very simple and it seems quite warm just wearing it inside. I'll tape the vents on my shoes for sure...

That was my favorite race of all time, it was 48 and raining almost all day. Forget the distance, think it was like a mile swim/50bike/11mile run, and I did the entire race in my lycra one piece suit!! I remember not being hungry and had a couple bottles of coke for the entire race, felt supercharged from the cold and water cooling rain. Dont recall anyone within 10 minutes of me too, probably all putting on 3 layers of clothes.(-;

I have said it before, I really wish triathlon had been a winter sport, weather can be such a factor in how the results are posted at the end of the day. I wonder if anyone still has those old Lake Placid results from the early/mid 80's?? Would be fun to see the course we all did back then as compared to what you are going to do this weekend. I do recall going by a ski jump and the roads pretty much rolling all the way...

Down to low 40s on these forecasts now. Damn.

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Dimond Bikes Superfan

Any idea on current (or expected) water temps?

I was going to ask the folks on my tri team if there was A/C in our rooms, guess thats not a problem anymore.....

I wouldn't believe any forecast in that area ever. Especially a week out.

The LP 70.3 Facebook page (and I think latest email) said the lake is 72 degrees, quite warm compared to last year!

yeah, all participants got that email and the one that said it'll be 85 degrees on race day...

I know the weather changes a lot in Lake Placid, but it's best to prepare for the worst. It ain't gonna be 85 and I doubt the lake is going to be in the 70's on race morning. The last 'guesstimate' forecast had the low at 37 the night before. There is a cold front coming in which should make the run actually pleasant, something I've not had all year. But then again, the last time I wore gloves on the bike was in May.

I'll be there Thursday afternoon and I'm planning to swim and I'll post the water/air temps and an update.

They were reporting 73 yesterday at the Mirror Lake beach, but that temp is always a little warm since they measure it where its shallow and the typical beach-goers are swimming. It felt just a little cooler, about 70 to me, when I got in to swim a lap.

It's supposed to be relatively cool over the next few days, so I wouldn't be surprised if the temps get to 65-67 by race day. Still pretty perfect water temp.

My go to for rain days in Lake Placid/Adirondacks are the following:

1. Leave swim cap on under helmet
2. Rubber layer garden gloves....you can buy them at the Stewarts convenience store across from the oval, and that's great on a training day, but now you're trying to buy vs 2000 people....better to buy at home
3. Duct tape all vents shut on cycling shoes and aero helmet
4. One of those Ironman transition/special needs bags inside tri top
5. Can you swim with a full length polypropro (LIFA) top. These are reasonable aero when dry. You wear this under a tri tank top (also aero)....stuff the plastic bag in between
6. Where leg compression sleeves.....they are kind of like tights, keep you warm and more aero than skin

If you do all of that, you can thermo regulate on the bike and stay reasonably warm. Worst case you stop at an aid station and unpeal the duct tape on your aero vents and ditch the gloves. I can't remember the rule for removing your helmet when stopped and ditching the swim cap. Personally whenever I started with the swim cap under the helmet I needed it and never took it off. But if you are bigger and overheating and need to remove, I don't know the legality of removing the helmet on course when stopped but without your bike racked at T2


The above set up is reasonbly aero and keeps you warm "enough" especially if you are not 138 lbs with 5.5 percent body fat and look like a refugee from South Asia who was unfed during his taper.

I know this has nothing to do with the cold weather, but for the veterans I was wondering:

a) if there is a practice swim in mirror lake or anywhere else to swim Saturday?
b) can you jump in the lake and warm up before the race on Sun?
c) any public showers around after the race is over? We won't be able to get back to our airbnb before checkout and we have a 5 hour ride home

Thanks

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Strava

You can swim in Lake Placid ANY TIME ANY DAY....other than on race morning in that I don't know how they have things partitioned, but if they are using the rolling start then I would imagine that they would let you warm up on the "other side" of the dock from whatever side the rolling start is on.

In terms of showers, I would suggest after the race, go for a dip back in Mirror Lake, towel off and drive home. Water is pretty clear (well less clear after 2000 of your friends pee in their wetsuits on race morning but the volume of their pee vs the volume of water in the lake probably still leaves the water drinkable (not to gross you out, but that's probably accurate).

Thanks Dev, appreciate the insight. The athlete guide never mentions if there is a swim warm up available and I think this is pretty important information.

In terms of the pee concentration, it's probably 1000x less than the municipal pools I swim in here in NYC (I'll plead the 5th on whether or not I contribute to that)

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Strava

Depending on how much you are willing to walk, you can also jump in the lake further up Mirror Lake drive. You should be able to walk ~400m and dive in behind the boat house, so your warmup and walk back to your corral. No one can stop you from doing that. There are many water access points along the road, but the closer you get to the start area, it becomes complicated. The last time I raced in LP was the Ironman in 2013. Swim ran clockwise and you could basically warm up in the swim area until just before your wave. They needed to get everyone off in the rolling start in 20 minutes anyway because Andy Potts would be coming in for Loop 2, so I think they closed the warmup area (swim finish) around 10 min or so after the pros started just to be safe.

Not sure what they do now, but with Messick's swimsafe program they intro'd a while ago, I think a warmup area was a preferred option where the venue allowed it.

Like Dev said, but I just want to reiterate this... You can swim ANY TIME you want to in Mirror Lake as long as the lake is liquid... The race course is set with a buoy line shortly after the lake thaws in the spring, and they leave the buoy line and cable there until it's basically too cold to swim. The IM course is available at any time to swim. This is the best thing about this race and this area. So no, there is no "designated" practice swim but that is because it is quite literally unnecessary to organize one.

I don't know about the 70.3 but for the full they always allowed people to get in the "beach" swimming area to get used to the water before the race.

Post-race, you can just jump back in the lake. It's *that* clean. Alternatively before 6pm you can always go into the bathrooms at the swim start and there is a "beach shower" in there. You can't take a "real" shower in it since it's just a shower head in the back of the bathrooms, but that's certainly an option to rinse yourself off.

Thanks so much - I wish the race directors would communicate this to us! Instead we get the standard boilerplate info in the athlete guide with actual venue information somewhat lacking.

I'm looking forward to finally visiting LP. I've swam in Lake Champlain and a lot of other upstate NY lakes. I guess I wasn't sure about the swim practice and warmup because some lakes have boat traffic and other restrictions. Other than the 39 degree forecast, this looks to be an amazing race on Sunday.

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Strava

The forecast keeps getting colder. I canceled my hotel room, am not going. Knew this was a possibility after last year, thought I'd take the risk. Oh well. Report back what happens everyone!

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Dimond Bikes Superfan

I am driving from Canada and too expensive to not show up as an AGer imo. i will be doing the plastic bag, extra aero jersey over top, arm + leg warmers, swim cap, and gloves if need be.

Yea, it's probably gonna suck. Still, we've never been to LP so interested in checking it out. I hope the water temp is warm (with the weather the past few days, it could be) which I think may help a little. 40 degrees isn't so bad if it's sunny and you have the right apparel on.

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Strava

I just googled Heather's race report from Iceland and she swam with the garbage bag vest under her kit, so it looks like it could serve as a liner of sorts for the swim and the bike, and you don't need to take the extra time in T1 to put it on under (not over!) your kit. I have a sleeved kit and going to try and cut a bag such that it fits without sticking out.

Anyone else have any experience doing this successfully?

From her blog: http://www.teamwurtele.com/...tures-in-awesomeness

"I took a little time in transition to put on gloves and arm warmers. These, plus a kitchen catcher garbage bag that I swam with under my race kit (super handy for blocking rain and wind + trapping body heat) kept me plenty warm on the bike. All systems were firing as I hammered away on the incredibly scenic, but very challenging, bike course. "

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Strava

It honestly won't be that bad. The worst part is when you descend into Keene still wet from the swim, but as soon as you get going and begin the climb back into LP you'll be fine. The run will be the best temperature you'll get in a 70.3 too.

I'd recommend socks, thin gloves and arm warmers on the bike.

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https://www.strava.com/athletes/4391866

Agreed. And we will all have roughly 10mi of generally uphill riding before the drop to Keene to warm up the core.