It looks like I'm going to have the opportunity to pre-ride the bike courses of my two key races this year - IM 70.3 Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz I'll be able to pre-ride twice (once next weekend, and again in late June, race is in Sept), and Santa Rosa at least once (in early June, race is late July). I'm looking for some tips on pre-riding the courses.
1) Which bike? My instinct was to ride on my road bike (at least for the first pre-ride), so I could look around more in the upright position, or should I ride the TT bike? Both bikes have same gearing.
2) Which wheels? Especially if TT bike, would you use this as an opportunity to test race wheel depth on the course (even though race day conditions could be different), or build confidence on the course running shallower wheels?
3) What speed/power? Should I do a full course race-pace rehearsal (I worry about how that will fit into my overall training plan), just insert a few race pace intervals on key sections of course and treat the rest like a more typical weekend endurance ride?
4) How much of course to ride? Would you ride the whole course, or just the main sections outside of town? I'm leaning to the latter, just seems logistically easier.
I normally drive the course the day before race and it helps a lot, I figure actually riding the course will make a huge difference, but would welcome feedback there also (i.e., is this worth the hassle, burning some spousal approval units, etc.)
1) Which bike? My instinct was to ride on my road bike (at least for the first pre-ride), so I could look around more in the upright position, or should I ride the TT bike? Both bikes have same gearing.
2) Which wheels? Especially if TT bike, would you use this as an opportunity to test race wheel depth on the course (even though race day conditions could be different), or build confidence on the course running shallower wheels?
3) What speed/power? Should I do a full course race-pace rehearsal (I worry about how that will fit into my overall training plan), just insert a few race pace intervals on key sections of course and treat the rest like a more typical weekend endurance ride?
4) How much of course to ride? Would you ride the whole course, or just the main sections outside of town? I'm leaning to the latter, just seems logistically easier.
I normally drive the course the day before race and it helps a lot, I figure actually riding the course will make a huge difference, but would welcome feedback there also (i.e., is this worth the hassle, burning some spousal approval units, etc.)