in 4:02. It was a hot…hot day. I thought Spencer was retired? Guess not. David Harju had 3 flats and abandoned the bike. He did the run anyway just to get some training in. Saw him in bike transition when he started the run. He had a great attitude about the whole thing. It is amazing that every year this race is ALWAYS on the hottest day of the year to date.
Mike P.
Glad to see Spencer Smith out and kicking ass again. Hopefully we’ll see him out in Kona. Too bad about Dave Harju. I’m sure he’ll bounce back later in the year. I had the pleasure of doing a 50K XC ski day with him this winter. He was totally hammering me into the ground. The man has an incredibly high pain threshold and can work like an animal. In addition to that 50K ski, he also did 2 hours of swimming, 2 hours on the computrainer, a winter sprint triathlon (~55min) and a 30K 2 hour tempo run on the same weekend.
"In addition to that 50K ski, he also did 2 hours of swimming, 2 hours on the computrainer, a winter sprint triathlon (~55min) and a 30K 2 hour tempo run on the same weekend. "
Whew. So what’s he do during the rest of the week?
Whew. So what’s he do during the rest of the week?
PC’s 
Ive been on this forum for a while, and watching you push PCs at every opportunity is pretty funny. I hope you arent like this around your friends/SO, “Oh man, i just spilled some soda on the carpet, do you have any carpet cleaner?” “Sure, and after that, you should use PCs, theyll make you a faster runner too”
Head to Head with Tom D then, eh?
Spencer was heading in to the finish line while I was headed out on the run course. He looked way to strong for the conditions. Very hot out there but a very fun race. Race Report for me at
http://www.trinewbies.com/phorum2/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=25389&posts=1
I’m glad I’m not the only one thinking this. Defending your product is one thing, but bringing it up for no reason constitutes a commercial post. I hope Mr. Day is paying Dan Empfield for this privilege.
Please give the man a little space. It is not like he hides his affiliation.
IronStevie, Nice race report. What kind of bike training (mileage, frequency, etc) were you doing to prep for Gulfcoast. Also, I would expect Disney to be just as hot. Did your hydration/nutrition plan work for you?
hey, im just joking around, dont take everything so seriously. just ask yourself, WWPCD, “what would power cranks do” (answer: make you a better cyclist and runner… hahahaha)
OK, you got me on that one.
WWPCD,
I agree with John…joke or not it pops up on nearly every thread. Enough with the PC’s already, I’m sure they work great but I will stick with single leg drills on my trainer to strengthen HF’s.
Scox:
Shoot me an email address and I’ll shoot you my training logs for the past year or so. For IMFL last year, I rode as much as possible, all at low HR. Probably did about 6-10 hours on the bike a week at the peak. This year, I probably rode 4x a week. 2 x 1 hour, then both Sat and Sun. Sat and Sun were usually 2-3 hours each.
Regarding hydration/nutrition, living in FL you get used to paying close attention to this issue. For me, what works is as follows:
pre-race: 3 boost and starbucks doubleshot. 1 endurolyte before swim. On bike, 1 bottle per hour of 2 scoops GPush G3 (gotta find something new) and 2 scoops carbopro. Suppliment with on-course water depending on heat. 1 endurolyte per hour. On run, take 1 bottle of G3/CP with me and alternate aid stations between G3/CP and water. 1 endurolyte per hour. Last week I started with the coke at about mile 9 and should have waited a little longer, as it made me feel very full.
Overall, if you are doing disney in 2 weeks, you should already have a nutrition plan ready. I wouldn’t recommend trying anything new unless you are already out of options out on the course. Finally, if you have having problems with fueling, slow down. I can eat a cheezeburger on the bike at 110 BPM, but get my hr to 180 and I probably cant digest the bugs that wanter into my panting mouth…luck
Cerveloguy, that was a 10 hour weekend of training for Harju. Based on my discussion with him, it was approximately a third of his volume for that week. Realistically, not that much different from the rest of the Ironman pros, except that he was pulling it off in the minus 20 temps of our Ottawa winter on top of being a school teacher. The man has an incredible work ethic. And as Franks said, many of his indoor sessions were on PC’s. Perhaps Frank was pushing his product a bit, but nothing like a businessman who gets behind the athletes that he sponsors.
Getting back to the topic of this thread, let’s hope that Spencer Smith joins the elite club of sub 8 hour Ironmen in Austria this summer !
IronStevie, Your nutrition plan kinda backs up what I’ve found through training in hot conditions. It looks like you got your calaries from liquids, which is about the only thing you can absorb in Florida heat at race pace heartrates.
Congrats on your PR on the bike. You did well.
Now, I’d like to know what that 38 year old age grouper, Bruce Genarri, did to come off the swim/bike cummulative split in front of all the professionals. Did you see his bike split?
I’m with IronStevie, Spencer Smith was crossing the finish line right as I left for the run. Kind of disheartening actually… 
I missed my 5:30 target by 18 mins from getting 3# dehydrated on the bike, and having to rehydrate with endurolytes and water on the run. But I recovered at about mile 5, beat my brother by over 15 minutes, and passed at least 20 or so people in the last mile, including 5 in my AG. If I hadn’t spent a whopping 13 minutes in T1/T2 I might have come close to my target. Finishing in the top 1/3 still makes me happy, considering in 2002 I stumbled to a 6:52!
I think I dehydrated on the bike because with the constant headwind I didn’t notice quite how much I was sweating. At 21.2mph I didn’t push amazingly hard, but I noticed that the only people that passed me had either 404/disc or 404/404. I saw a LOT of Renn discs there. Anyone have a suggestion for a good removeable sticker to cover the stem hole? Electrical tape doesn’t stick for crap in the heat.
You’re right, all this product pushing is starting to be really tiring! I mean… smartasscoaching will make you faster than PC’s, but you don’t see me me popping up in every thread
"on top of being a school teacher. "
Now that is incredible. Guess the question should have been what’s he do for a life. Thirty hours weekly training on top of his job must be a very tight schedule.
Cerveloguy, based on my discussions with Harju, the man trains, work, races, manages sponsor obligatioins, sleeps, eats and continuously repeats this cycle. Yes, his schedule is indeed tight from the sound of things. It was great to see him break through last year, win Ironman Wisconsin, and get on the cover of Triathlete. He is truly a testament to the old saying, “Suck it up and do the the training, and results will come”.