Today is 6 months 'til Ironman Lake Placid on July 24, 2022! I’m signed up. First 140.6 for me after 4 x 70.3s. And first Lake Placid… Who else here is in? Any goals for the race? Done it before?
I’m in - lived in NJ for 6 years and never thought about doing it seriously - now I’m back in the UK I suddenly thought I’d go for it. Plus I’m aging up this year so thinking of having a crack at getting a decent placing.
Hoping to be able to come over to the US and do a course recce sometime in May, just to see how fast I can descend on Keene.
I’m in! This will be my third Ironman distance race (HITS in 2012 and IM Boulder 2015). It’s been 7 years since I my last ironman and feel like I have unfinished business at the distance. After failing to run well off the bike I’ve focused on running this time around and will be on a road bike. I participated in the 100 runs in 100 days and logged 94 total during the challenge but have continued to run almost every day since Feb 22. I’ve discovered it’s easier to run everyday than 3 or 4 times per week. Feeling better than ever with my run fitness. The goal is to run under 4 hours for the marathon and hopefully finish around 10 hours 30 minutes for the day. Sub 1 hour swim would be the secondary goal. But come what may, if things don’t go as planned, I’m gonna enjoy the experience. IM Lake Placid is the one race I’ve always wanted to do, so very excited to have the opportunity.
I’m in. First shot at IMLP. No time goals, BUT I do have one critical objective: to make sure my wife has a great time. IM Indiana was a slog for her, 13 hour drive each way, hanging at the reservoir with limited options for food and entertainment beyond what she packed, plus the rain. So for LP we got a nicer place right in town, and are treating it as a mini vacation rather than a race weekend.
See you there.
I’m in. First shot at IMLP. No time goals, BUT I do have one critical objective: to make sure my wife has a great time. IM Indiana was a slog for her, 13 hour drive each way, hanging at the reservoir with limited options for food and entertainment beyond what she packed, plus the rain. So for LP we got a nicer place right in town, and are treating it as a mini vacation rather than a race weekend.
See you there.
I’ve found that my wife has had the best time at my IM races… when she doesn’t have to be there. Lol.
Good luck at LP.
I did IMLP last year. Even though the transition area was moved due to construction at the oval it was still a great time. We stayed at an AirBnB in Saranac Lake and really enjoyed that area. Lots of small shops and restaurants, but still close to Lake Placid.
Just don’t overbike the first loop and practice fast descents if you can. 
can you say more on don’t overbike the first loop? doing IMLP and would love any help
The winds inevitably pick up on the second loop and make it much more difficult. So, don’t overbike the first loop, because chances are the conditions (temps, wind) will be much better in lap 1 compared to lap 2. And the fact that you ascend the last 15 miles of each loops makes it that much tougher as opposed to descending back into town. The Keene descent was really fun in the first loop (I hit 56+ mph…the second loop was less fun as the winds picked up).
appreciate the feedback! 56+ mph is crazy! how’s the run?
can you say more on don’t overbike the first loop? doing IMLP and would love any help
A substantial amount of IMLP is either climbing or zero watt descending. It is easy to overdo the climbing, and it is also easy to try to target an IM average watts and ‘make up’ for the zeros during the rest of the course, both of which are obviously terrible ideas. I would have a climbing power/hr target and a flat power/hr target (and probably red lines don’t go above limits as well) and not look at average power during the event. It is especially important not to overdo the climb out of town on the first loop, which almost everybody does.
that’s really helpful feedback as i usually stay in a range for avg. power for races.
can you say more on don’t overbike the first loop? doing IMLP and would love any help
A substantial amount of IMLP is either climbing or zero watt descending. It is easy to overdo the climbing, and it is also easy to try to target an IM average watts and ‘make up’ for the zeros during the rest of the course, both of which are obviously terrible ideas. I would have a climbing power/hr target and a flat power/hr target (and probably red lines don’t go above limits as well) and not look at average power during the event. It is especially important not to overdo the climb out of town on the first loop, which almost everybody does.
Some do it twice because they never learn.
Dev wrote this priceless article. This will be my 3rd IMLP. I always read this several times in the week leading up to the race.
This was awesome! Thanks for sharing
Agree on this. Since I tend to do hilly races, I usually switch the display around so I see normalized power and average power so that I’m aware of the true effort. My coach has done Placid a bunch, so in the past he’s given me intermediate power targets (e.g. be at XX watts at the turn in Keene, then look to stay at a certain range on the rollers along 9N, and then see it increase a bit at the climb to Wilmington, etc). I split a lap at the halfway and do it all again.
Looking solely at average hides those matches you can burn on the climbs and they add up!