Ironman St. George Training Weekend!

If you are planning on doing Ironman St. George in May 2010 then read on...............

Thursday 11/14/09, I left Vegas and drove to St. George Utah for the weekend. I am signed up to do Ironman St. George in May of next year. I am already thinking about how my training will be planned out for this race. When I saw they were having a weekend training camp, I couldn't pass it up. I arrived in the evening and met everyone that will be at the weekend camp. I am was not so excited to ride the course in the cold weather. I am a true wimp when it comes to cold weather. I would rather go for a 4 hour run then ride the course on Saturday. I do want to see the course so I will have to just buddle up! It will be so beneficial to ride on the course prior to racing it. I plan to come up here several times to ride this course before the actual event. It will be a huge advantage in this race. If anyone is interested in riding in Utah over the next 6 months then make sure you email me (trainwithcyndee@yahoo.com). I am sure I will need people willing to ride the course with me. I have several clients that will be doing the race so I assume they will want to ride it as well.

Lets talk about the bike course! Seriously, it has got to be one of the hardest Ironman courses or close to one of the hardest! There are three really big climbs and a lot of really small rolling hills. It will be critical on this course to pace yourself on the climbs and not blow up. You will have two loops and have to complete the hard hills two times. Training on hills will be very important for this course. Some people were debating on road or tri bike but the overall consensus was a tri bike. The coach leading the camp suggested if you have back issues then it might be a good idea to consider a road bike. For most people a tri bike will be best for this course. That way you can take advantage of the downhills in a good aero position. The camp was lead by coaches from Endurance Corner. The main coach was Gordon Byrn. He was super knowledgeable about training and had great advice for this course. I would highly recommend other camps that he offers if you are looking to step up your training to the next level. The link to their website is www.endurancecorner.com.

So lets talk about the run. Did I say to pace yourself on the bike? Yes you better, not only because this is an Ironman and you should anyway but you will need everything you can save in your legs for this very hilly run course. There are lots of hills! The up and down are going to kill your legs and there is two loops. There is no question this run course is very hard.

Overall the weekend was valuable. It is the first time I will be able to train on a Ironman course before racing it. The most important thing for me on this course will be to hold back on the bike on the hills. I have the tendency to push hard to get up the hills but that will not be wise on this course given the fact that the run course is so hard.

I met a lot of really nice people at the camp. As I said before the coaches were all super knowledgeable and had great advice for this course specifically. I met a lady named Julie who has an awesome website called www.idropboys.com. I got a riding kit from her and she also has shirts on her website. It is very cool! I will be wearing it next time I ride so all you boys watch out!

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