Tupper Lake Thermal Zone

Triathlon Forum
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Oh man…was that ever a tough half Ironman at Tupper Lake this afternoon. It was windy and the run was up in the 80’s with air so thick with humidity that you could cut a knife through it.

I crossed the line in 7th overall, in a pretty slow 4:39. My run split was 1:38 a full 7 minutes slower than last year, but truth be told, no one past me on the run. Most people were going even slower. In the end, I got shoved down to 11th as a result of a 4 min penalty.

The swim was solid, I managed to stay on Stefan (Kus’) feet for a while before being discharged off the back. Out of the water in under 31 which was awesome. Onto the bike and my legs were feeling super Pretty soon, out of T1, Sebastian…aka the Prussian Rocket from Epicman catches me…as the Germans say, first man to T2 wins the race. So before I know it, I am in man to man full up race with Seb to get to T2 first. We got caught at 35 K by another stud biker of similar ability to us. When we accelerated he would not let us by (ie drop back his required 3 lengths). Caught Stefan at 40K, and tried to blow by him, but he would not let my Roberto Heras legs toast him on the flat, so before I know it, I am in a four man hammerfest with the two Goliaths from Deutchland (Sebastian and Stefan), and another biker with quads the size of Erik Zabel. Bad news…all these guys are a foot taller than me and outweigh me by over 40 lbs…what am I thinking.

I had to hammer to get back to the hills at 65 K ahead of them to make sure I win the race to T2. Anyway, my ego got the best of me and I would not let the fourth stud get away. Stefan wisely backed off the pace heading into T2 to save himself for the run. I’m in a race with the two other bike studs. Sebastian wins the race to T2. I pull in 2 seconds behind. Germany wins the race to T2 :slight_smile:

Off the bike in 2:27…3:01 out of T2. The run (according to Kona vets Chris Macknie and Barry Dmitruk feels just like Hawaii). Heading up the hills out of town is like a blast furnace. I feel good, but my run splits don’t lie. No sub 7 min miles, just 7:30’s, 7:45’s and some 8 min miles. I passed 5 more on the run despite a personal worst 1:38 on the course. Cross the line in 4:39. Hours later at the awards, I find out that I got a 4 min penalty on the bike, pushing me down to 4:43. I only have myself to blame. I felt stong on the bike and a few times did not pay attention and found myself pulling up to the “other guy in our group” on false flats when my light weight was an advantage. I’ll be more attentive next time. Pass decisively or hang back 5 lengths…not the legal 3, cause a few times, I ended up 2 lengths back…bingo…YOU LOSE 4 minutes my friends.

It kinda sucks. I’ve raced Tupper lake 12 times and I’ve been close to the top 10 so many time and always miss. Today 7th and shoved down to 11th…once again out of the top ten. A good lesson learned today. Ride squeeky clean. Don’t even think of riding near the legal limit cause from 100m back, to the marshal, it looks like your nose is up against the other guys ass :-).

In any event, another awesome event, with lots of Slowtwitch dudes. Chris Macknie (Treppie) was 8th overall winning the 40-44. Stefan, finishes just behind me, but that will be the last time I beat him. He is the total package. Parkito kicks ass in the 50-54.

My next stop is an ill advised Peterborough Half Ironman in two weeks. Then Ironman LP in 4 weeks. My main goal for this season is to knock off a half Ironman sub 4:30. LP will just be one long 141 mile tour for me. I’m more of a half Ironman guy !

Great job to all the slowtwitch studs. Full results at:

http://www.sportstats.ca/res2005/tuppertin.htm

We should have a group of 15 or so know for the IronTour Lake Placid next weekend.

Dev

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Dev,

Nice report, thanks. The weather for Tupper sounds similar to what we had at Eagleman a few weeks ago.

With the recent WTC vs. USAT stuff…would you have preferred to serve your penalty on the course instead of finding out about it after the race?

Nice job yesterday.

Regards,
Matt

3

Matt,

…yes I would have liked to serve my penalty right there on course. It really sucks not knowing that you even have a penalty. As it turns out, I only learnt of mine at the awards ceremony…somewhat deflating at that point after finally getting into the top 10, but in any event, I do know that I took more than 15 seconds to pass the guy in front of my on a few occaisions so I did deserve it.

The main problem was that the “4 of us” were all equally strong, and the 4th guy (ie not the two Germans Stefan and Sebastien), would start to accelerate every time you tried to pass, but no one was really stronger than another. We were all very evenly matched, competitive guys racing for the same age group hardware…you can already guess the dynamic :-). Lesson learned. If you get passed, just drop back 6 lengths, not 3 where there is room for interpretation against you. When you pass, get by in 5 seconds, not 15. I should know better. After 21 years of racing, this was only my second penalty (last one in 88).

In any event, a great event to race like that in the heat. If it is hot like that at Ironman LP, I’ll be mentally ready. I might have to do a few more runs with a sweatshirt on during training to get used to running in the heat with a jacked up core temperature !

Oh yeah, it was a real blast riding “against” the Prussian Rocket, Sebastien from Rochester. The funniest part was that I was actually riding quicker than the huge German bohemoth several times on the flats with my 140 lb toy body and he was blowing up the climbs ahead of me. The guy is built like a Green Bay Packers defensive end. He sure can ride…“First man to T2 wins the race”…its all about the bike (triathlon is just a bike race with a warmup swim and a cooldown run) :-). Then there was Stefan (Kus) from NYC. His position on his P3 would be highly slowtwitch position police approved. The guy is 6"6" and his position on his P3 (with no spacers) is almost lower than mine at 5"6" (my position is a sale like highly unapproved position).

Dev

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Record high of 88 degrees yesterday in Tupper Lake. Might have had something to do with the times.

Hey, you actually beat CJ (if not for the 4 min., I didn’t scroll all the way over when reading the results last night.)! You’d be a hero here in Rochester!

Also next time you’re riding with Sebastian the best thing to do is to play mind games with him. Like say stuff like " Sebastian you’re riding with me but you’re actually five minutes behind me." He really likes to hear stuff like that! :slight_smile:

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I am in total agreement, that was one tough day in Tupper. I was 3 minutes up on last year’s race coming out of T2 and lost 9 minutes in the run. Finished fourth in my age group (50-54) because I let the number 3 finisher pass me during the run and I couldn’t respond due to not tapering before the race. Your race time was fantastic but I noticed that everyone’s times from last year were understandably slower.

Great job on a tough day.

Are you really going to do another 1/2IM before LP. Given yesterday’s race I hope the weather is a lot cooler from LP. I’d even take the monsoon weather we had 2 years ago in LP over yesterday’s weather in Tupper.

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TMadd, Stefan and I were both 7-8 min slower on the run than last year. I think the times through the woods were also slower due to the footing being worse than normal. The bike was also windier (actually substantially windier) than last year, resulting in most people being more fried off the bike and then running right into the Thermal blast along highway 3. All in all a much tougher day.

As for doing another half Ironman, I’ll play it out. As I said, I am going to LP just to finish another Ironman and be part of the festival like atmosphere for the weekend and be out there with all my friends. Its gonna be a long day of touring. Half ironman is where the “racing focus” is for this year of tri. I have only done one 2 hour run since April and the other runs were no longer than 90 min, so I have no huge expectations going into Ironman LP. Swim as hard as possible, bike steady, and then do what my legs will allow on the run :slight_smile:

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well - i definitely had a tough day too!

after getting seriously lost on the swim (everybody told me the sun WILL be in my eyes on the way back - why didn’t i listen …) with a disappointing 35min split the bike ride was ok.
when i passed dev i thought i wouldn’t see him again until way into the run but mister 140 pound sandbagger just didn’t let me go. then this kinda unfriendly fellow showed up from behind and the race was on. dev was absolutely right about this guy - whenever anybody passed him he would pass back and then force the whole group to slow down a bit. when he was leading he constantly checked if anybody would be drafting which was kinda annoying. dev tried a few times to start a friendly conversation with him but as far as i could see he never got a reaction from him. i wonder what he was telling him …
i tried to break away a few times but it only worked for a couple of minute (although i suspect that in the heat of the T2 race dev was doing more than his share to reel me back in :wink:

anyway long story short – my race was over in t2. I just can’t stand the heat and was seriously struggeling just to finish the race. I got passed by many many people and finished 89th. So the 9th best bike split despite a very slow pace (must have been the wind :wink: is my only highlight of the day.

trevor - you better put some spacers on your stem (bc you’re way too low) and get rid of those poser bars :wink:

just for the records – perfect organisation, millions of friendly volunteers and a great buffet at the finish.
this race is absolutely great!

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just for the records – perfect organisation, millions of friendly volunteers and a great buffet at the finish.
this race is absolutely great!
You at the buffet table after the race would have been something to see. Too bad for the 700 or so people that came after you. :slight_smile:

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Trev…I was just looking at my poser set up with sail like position with the extra spacer, wondering if I should just remove it…but then I figure that I do need to run off the bike, which means I have to digest food and drink. I still might experiment with a slight lower position for the second day of the Irontour :slight_smile:

I like this concept of the race ending at T2. They should just make these half Ironmans 2k swim-90K bike - 5K run for all us cripple old guys :-).

Sebastien, as for getting lost on the way back, there is this large smoke stack from one of the local factories that you can see from the swim turnaround. You need to keep this at around 11 O’clock for the first half of the return leg and 10 O’clock for the rest. Don’t worry about veering too much to the right, the lifeguards will ensure that you don’t swim into the oncoming traffic (they will keep you to the left of the buoys). The big danger is pulling way right which I suspect you did :slight_smile:

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ummm 11th because of your penalty :S
are you doing caledon?

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It was a tough day for mere mortals as well :slight_smile: The temperature was already balmy during the pre-swim hours, which is generally not a good omen for the rest of the day.

I felt OK on the bike, despite the wind and heat. However, any thoughts I had of besting last year’s ~5:30 time vanished with the heat and hills on the first few miles of the run. My HR was skyrocketing and the dreaded side stitches started to appear - only by backing off the pace was I able to keep running for the majority of the course. I eventually finished in what felt like a very long ~5:45 (swim and bike were essentially the same times as last year - the difference was all on the run).

Highlights of the race, in brief:

  • beautiful Adirondack scenery (and wildlife - at least four kinds of nesting warblers along the course as well as other songbirds)

  • well-staffed with enthusiastic, friendly volunteers

  • the local residents also get into the race (I asked for and received a broadside with a pail of cold water from an energetic kid during the run)

Hope to make it back again next year.

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RedSerotto, great job. Even a 9:30 Ironman stud like Stefan Kusurelis had a really tough go in the heat. I think the bike took more out of everyone then we gave it credit for. Last year was a perfect day weather wise :slight_smile:

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Dev, I’m glad that even with the penalty you are still in front of me. It would be a nasty way to beat you. Two corrections though: p2k 2000 model and 9:42 at the last IM. (But no spacers)
The race was very well organized as always. Something must have been in the water, it seemed really fast this year. But these minutes got taken away on the run. I had my slowest half running time ever. Still don’t know why. I usually have only little problems in the heat. Well, 3 more months to figure this one out.
Hope to see everybody again next year. And perhaps I meet my german countryman this time?

Stefan

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wenn ich das geahnt haette - da waere uns schon ne strategie eingefallen um den unfreundlichen norweger abzuschuetteln …
naechstesmal :wink:

dev - why didn’t you tell me who i was riding with?

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dev - why didn’t you tell me who i was riding with?

…same here. I guess he was too busy or scared between the germans and norwegians. :o)

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wenn ich das geahnt haette - da waere uns schon ne strategie eingefallen um den unfreundlichen norweger abzuschuetteln …
naechstesmal :wink:

dev - why didn’t you tell me who i was riding with?

Unfriendly Norwegian? Hmmm…some Norsk moonshine always seems to loosen them up a little. When you’re paying $20 for a pint of beer you’d be unfriendly as well. :slight_smile:

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now that you say it - there was something about that guy that reminded me of another norwegian-canadian guy … i think the name startet with a T and ended with revor or something similar :wink:

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Look guys…Indians are not supposed to be bikers. We play cricket. That is about it. I am way out of my league and in the wrong sport trying to ride with Uberbikers from Deutchland. I am honoured and intimidated to be riding with the Prussian Rocket and the Bavarian Bullet (Stefan, is that the part of Germany you are from) ?

All kidding aside, it should be fun with Trev, Sebo and Kus are up this September for the Ottawa Half Ironman…remember…first man to T2 wins on Sep 4th.

Dev

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All kidding aside, it should be fun with Trev, Sebo and Kus are up this September for the Ottawa Half Ironman…remember…first man to T2 wins on Sep 4th.

Dev
Two years ago I ran a 1:26 with a broken collar bone. It will be first man to T3 bud! Your’re not going to rope a dope me into playing Sebastian’s game! :slight_smile:

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Where is T3 ? I have heard of T2 and a finish line. Is T3 the Elephant and Castle Pub ?