Thanks Dev! I'd love to see Cody & Lionel as a spectator rather than as 'SOUL CRUSHING' competitors as I have in the past at MSC events. Hoping for a great day with good conditions for all to have a safe day!

I'll be sure to take a shit ton of photos. Now it's finding out who's going to watch my dog for the day haha

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"Train so you have no regrets @ the finish line"

Just confirmed that the 140.6 is rolling start. Kind of bummed out that I will miss it as I am racing in Austria the same weekend! Next year for sure!

With a rolling swim start do you think it is beneficial to self seed yourself with slower swimmers so that you have more cyclists to slingshot past on the bike course?

With all the up and downs, I'd think you'd want fewer people to have to pass. Especially on the downhill around a corner, or on areas of poor surface.

I was looking forward to the mass start, and feel due to the lower participant numbers and the overall difficulty of the course it would have been a good one to keep as a mass start. Changes the race dynamics for sure. At the very least they should have a mass start at the beginning where the strong swimmers and folks competing vs. completing are encouraged to start, and let everyone else cross the mats when they feel comfortable. Maybe this is how it works, I've only ever done mass and loved it!

I'd like to know that also.

There are probably quite a few people on the fence, like me, who are waiting to do the half before deciding if they are tough enough to race the full. I've gone 9:34 at Tremblant and 9:38 at Kona and the idea of the full scares the crap out of me. However, it will be tough for everyone, and with 50 Kona slots and say 1200 people actually racing it will be statistically a good spot to try and qualify for the big show. I'm not counting any chickens, as I have a six month old at home and really just want to have fun out swimming, biking and running.

Ken

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"the trick is to keep losing weight until your friends and family ask you if you've been sick. then you know you're within 10 pounds. if they start whispering to each other, wondering if you've got cancer or aids, you're within 5. when they actually do an intervention, you're at race weight." - Slowman

Ken,

Im in the same boat. Did Muskoka 70.3 in 2013 - 4:40:39 somehow managed 2nd in 30-34. Have a 9mo old at home now, been getting about 6-9 hours a week training.

I emailed the race and they said "you still have time to wait a bit to register", IM policy does not allow them to release how many people are currently registered. He did say that on July 16th the updated bib list will be out. I think if its still open then, Ill stalk everyone in the 30-34 group and make a decision!

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"It's nice to be great, but far greater to be nice"

I'm glad you're not in my age group as 4:40 is cooking on that course. :)

35-39 for me.

I can already feel how hard it will be to go up and down and then up and down and then up and down for 180km on race day. I think the run will be what puts me over the edge. If the run is "fair" then I'll probably be in.

I am very glad that the deadline is after the 70.3 so I can really see what I am going to get into...twice.

Ken

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"the trick is to keep losing weight until your friends and family ask you if you've been sick. then you know you're within 10 pounds. if they start whispering to each other, wondering if you've got cancer or aids, you're within 5. when they actually do an intervention, you're at race weight." - Slowman

I agree. Seed yourself where you should be. At Texas 140.6 I seeded myself at the back of the 65-70 and swam exactly 70 min (no wetsuit). I was immediately swimming with people of my speed and it was maxed relax. I could literally tune out immediately and get into the rythm that it takes 1 mile to get into during a mass start clusterf&*k crowded start.

I've done a 9:23 with a 1:11 swim so I know your theory, the problem is that people are going so much slower that the benefit is minimal. also you may end up swimming slower if you have to go around dudes in the water

2013 was the most competitive I've seen as everyone was going for worlds spots in MT. A few years back I got 2nd in M30-34 by just squeaking under 4:55!

My latest count from the recent participant list has it at 1200ish, I would think registration will stay open until mid august.

Dev (or anyone) how do you know where to seed yourself in a rolling start, are there markers, or do you just ask people around you?

LP 2013 and Texas 2015 they have volunteers with signs in 10 min buckets. Once you get in line, you ask people around you how fast they intend go and slot yourself in.

Does rolling start mean it's also a 'beach' Start?

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"It's nice to be great, but far greater to be nice"

Rolling starts are on land as you time only starts when you cross the timing wire and you get into the water.

Dev-

How does this course compare to Mooseman? Its sounds like more up and downs but no real big climbs like Mooseman?

This course looks like its going to come down to with patience on the bike. No big power spikes....just ride steady as you can with the hills. Age groups will be won by how you pace that bike. I can imagine too many will over bike the hills and blow up on the run.

OK I can comment on this as I did Mooseman 3x. I did St. Croix, Mooseman and Muskoka all in 2012 and the splits on the bike for all three was close to identical around 2:50 and all within a watt of average power between them (I did them all around 207 AP), but achieved in very different ways given how different the courses are. As Cody said, it's a saw tooth bike course while means patience is required. Lately I have been playing around with my application of power on hilly courses because I feel that I go faster when I jack up my power over 100% FTP at the top of hills that have a downhill after them where I go are zero watts. If I were to do Muskoka again, I would likely apply that strategy for climbs that have a downhill right afterwards. I would do this for the half IM, but not the full though. The full is too long to spike power even with downhill recovery. As a low weight moderately decent watts per kilo rider, I feel this is a better application of my power in half IM. Applying power on downhills where my Cda is not good is a waste of my power resources.

Interesting...thanks for sharing. I'm a larger athlete 183lbs so I'm not sure what approach to take. I think I should coast on the downhills since I'm a larger athlete and gain speed pretty well. This way I conserve some of my power. Maybe climb just above my overall projected AP for the climbs.

Hey,
Come up the 404 to the new Woodbine exit and follow 12 to 11.
Traffic in rush hour will be from between Steels and 16th. Then your cruising.
Easy as pie.
Hope to see you there.
Ns

I did a recon mission yesterday of the course starting in Baysville, I ended up missing the S.Portage turn of Brunel so ended up in Huntsville and reconnecting on Hwy 60. Needless to say, what was I thinking making this my first full!! As everyone has stated patience is definitely needed.
I don't have the luxury yet to ride with power so my strategy was to spin up the climbs and keep cadence at around 90rpm on the decents all with a target HR of 150.
During the climbs I was maxing out at 150/155 and recovering with a steady 90/100 rpm at 140bpm on the decents. I was trying to get into a rhythm using the decents with some reaching up to 60km/h but could not keep my momentum for the full climb on 2/3's of the course which was very frustrating!
Therefore starting Monday I am eating super clean and trying to shed 10/12lbs before August 30th.
Goodluck to all!!
I am open to any other bike strategies you may have for me.

I've been looking into this as my only choice for a full this year. How's this course compared to Wisconsin?

I have never done Wisconsin, but it seems like some of my friends who have done Wisconsin and IMLP found Wisconsin similar or marginally harder than LP. I suspect that Muskoka will be substantially more difficult in some ways (on the bike), but the run should be easier than LP. It still does not answer your question on Wisconsin though. I think that it ends up being slightly more difficult. I say you sign up and then report back with the proper comparison. That's the nice thing about this forum in that we have so many folks as a resource to share experiences.

Well, are we going to see a smackdown with Sanders or did your coach ban you from racing this coming weekend? I guess I should be getting a disk cover as a bare minimum!!!

In terms of this weekend are there road closures? I haven't see any communication?