Anyone doing Wimbleball?

Is anyone elso doing Wimbleball? Also, if you've done it before, any hints and tips?
Paul

Loads of us are!

My hints and tips, although others will have different opinions:
road bike with compact
My nutrition strategy was ... eat and drink every 15 mins on bike (piece of energy bar which I had already cut up but they provide halves of unwrapped Powerbar) for first lap and a half then have a gel during last half, I drank some GO which I had taken then went on to water as it all got a bit sickly, feed stations give bottles of Gatorade and water so no need to take any bottles other than your first. This year I plan to drink the Gatorade/water they have and just use my aerobottle which I will fill initially and then at every feed station (2 on bike course but 2 laps so 4 really), gel at each transition, mouthful of drink at every drink station on run (I alternated water and Pepsi), gel every 30 mins. There are also bits of banana at run feed stations but I passed (warm banana while running on a hot day not a good thought). I think they also provide Power Gels but I took the Go I am used to.
Training ... do some short sharp hill reps (lots do 5 x Jackdaw Hill, Mamhead) rather than long ones, go up and ride course a couple of times
I wasn't fast (partly due to health issues and partly because I'm not fast!) but I felt good all the way round so my nutrition was fine.
Anything specific you want to know?
Nik

Unless your a really experienced cyclist (and possibly even if you are!!) take care on the fast descent, you'll know the one if you've ridden the course already. Look at the race map if you haven't.

Attend the race briefing, they will warn you of this point of the bike course. I've done this race twice, every time I came to that point on the the lap there were always people digging themselves out of the hedge at the bottom! Despite the verbal and sign posted warnings! It has a sharp left hand bend at the bottom which it appears catches people out when they come down too fast leaving no time to break effectively.

Take the first lap steady, stay within yourself so you have something for the second lap (bike course). The run is pretty hard too, mostly cross country and if it's sunny like today really exposed (also exposed if raining, snowing, hailing, gale force winding...). Put (waterproof!!) sunblock on first thing, and put a cap in your transition bag in case the sun is beating down(especially if your male and maybe have a go faster haircut, or the more naturally enforced male equivilent).

This is a hard bike course, the vast majority are on the bike for a good 3-4 hours, most people I know - male and female - have compacts. The first time I did this race it was freezing cold and raining, I took the extra time to put on arm warmers, gloves and a cycle jersey in T1, I past many who stuck just with their tri suits to save the 2-3 extra minutes this took me, to say they were shivering and miserable was putting it mildly! At least I was just miserable! The second year was the polar opposite. Be prepared would be my advice here..... Watch the weather. Don't be worried about putting that extra peice of clothing in your transition bag, or putting it on the morning of the race, if you don't use it then the choice was there.

I'm sure there are many more things I could tell you! But like Nik says - is there anything your looking to find out? Or is it general bits and bobs?

Thanks, that's great. I don't think there was anything specific, just the general bits and bobs. I did go and cycle the course and the descent is just madness. When I did it there was loads of gravel in the middle of each carriageway meaning that you had to be very careful around the corners. My local bike shop tells me that they do sweep it before the race though.

I've got two bottle cages on my bike, but would I just be better off ditching one and just keep refilling with the bottles from the feed stations - or keep one for water and one for electrolyte solution? I was planning not to eat bars on the cycle, just gels, but maybe I need to rethink that. I definitely need to sort out my clothes too.

Nutrition is a very personal thing. I tend to just use gels too. It actually doesn't matter what method you use, but the most important thing is that you take on enough carbohydrate (I'm a geeky sports scientist so am sadly up to date with current literature and studies...) and this has shown to be maximally absorbed into your body using a glucose/fructose mix.

I met this guy last week:

http://www.askerjeukendrup.com/

He's a leading scientist in the area of endurance nutrition, as well as being a 19 time Ironman finisher to date - with times in the region on 10 hours. Believe me, having run
a whole batch of his tests relating to the carb intake subject on Haile Gebrselassie he really does know his stuff. He's also tested on Chrissie Wellington. But has also run many tests on both trained and untrained athletes - more like us normal humans!

Basically you want to be looking at getting as close to 90g per hour of carb on board. (Don't try to do all those body weight to carb ratio's that are about, most recent studies prove these to be out dated. Body weight is immaterial in modern thinking.) This can be in any combination of gels or drinks. A banana that is brown will do the job too, a nice tasty yellow one will sit in your gut as fibre waiting to find its way out..... (I won't explain further...). If you train with gels, and they work for you, stick to them. Why change what works for you so close to the day? Eating bars are no more beneficial unless they are extremely high in carbs. And are more likely to provide substance to sit in your stomach, as well as forcing your body to expel energy digesting them. Over the IM distance I did I took a a mouthful of a bar at each feedstation on the bike during the second half, but mainly because I was craving something of substance to chew. Over this bike course due to it being so up and down I just wanted to be able to do something quick - which gels are.

Although I look at science to guide my decisions, and Asker who has been there, done it, got the t-shirt from Kona several times, this is only my opinion I'm stating here....

Good Luck to all our Exeter Tri Club members who are doing Wimbleball this weekend! I shall be there cheering you all on (and looking forward to taking part in a few years time, hopefully!).

Enjoy!!

Karen xx

ME TO

Huge congratulations to all those finishers at UK Ironman 70.3 on Sunday - a fantastic achievement! Well done, everyone!

I had a great day cheering you all on, and look forward to being able to take part myself one day soon.

Kxx

Well done to everyone who competed in the 1/2 Ironman Sunday, If pos could someone put a race report together both Mike Griffin and I have photos

Many Thanks

Rob