Well, there's about 6000 feet of climbing at IMMT...soooo...... :)

Where abouts in MA? I lived in Amherst and from there there is really good riding that will be great for MT if you go north /west.

Leominster. It's not so much the total climbing but the type of climbing. Basically all of central mass is rollers left and right.

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I still lapped everyone on the couch!

Riding into a wind is fine too. Riding on a trainer is great as well. The low inertia of a trainer is like going uphill.

Bigger thing is being prepared to ride sitting up or at a lower cadence if needed. There's a few fairly steep climbs that will have even a rider pushing 4 w/kg down to almost 10mph. I'm racing IMMT as well. To me it looks like IMWI, but not so punchy, more rolling and longer sustained climbs. I think its marginally faster course overall from the data I've played with.

In the end, it can still be ridden smartly at 1.03 VI. Just like IMWI, Kona and other hilly.windy courses. Learn to shift your gears, and get strong on the bike and pace smart.

You can also use Bestbikesplit to make a file that you can use in Trainerroad to ride. I show 3 minutes around 90-95, 30 minutes at tempo, the rest zone 2 if paced perfectly.

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TrainingBible Coaching
http://www.trainingbible.com

MT is a fairly easy course to manage because for the most part, the incline is flat-like i.e. 1-2%. It's no different than pacing on a flat road except you'll be one or two cogs up or down on your cassette.

The end of the loop has some punchy clumbs, but it's fairly short. If you can add some rollers on your rides you'll be all set. This course is nothing like Wisconsin - you get to keep your momentum the whole time and you're not shifting or sitting upright to take corners every 30 seconds. This is a course to sit still in your aero podition for ling, ling periods of time.

In any case, don't overthink this one. If you are fit you will find this course technically easy and otherwise not that challenging. You get to ride on great, smooth roads which helps a lit too.

I also live in central mass and did IMMT last year, in general I would say the local terrain is great training. Below is something I sent to a friend who was asking me about the race.




check in early if you can, we checked in Thursday afternoon and walked right in. Friday and Saterday we saw long lines for check in.


On the bike course the first 46 miles has plenty of rolling hills but nothing you are going to have to spike your power to get over. A lot of the downhills go right into an uphill. If you can carry your speed and shift smoothly to your small ring you can use your momentum erase a lot of the elevation gain. The last 10 miles of the bike course (Chamin du Plais (sp?)) has some short steep hills. Even the strongest athletes are going to have to go over threshold to make it up some of them. But they are short and while it is mostly up out of town the terrain is still rolling.


The run course is out and back mostly on a paved rail trail. There are some small hills but mostly at the beginning/end. You will probably find it a bit crowded on your second loop. The trail is narrow and I have seen others complain that it was difficult to get around people walking but I didn't think this was a major problem.