I’ll be arriving in Penticton on the Tues. evening before the race. If there are any (max.3) ST’ers that are doing the race for the first time and would like to drive the course, let me know. I’m driving out, so if you’re in town and not planning on renting… let me know.
Don’t drive the course. It will give you a false sense of security about the course. I have always told people that if you are not going to bike a course, then don’t drive it. Lots of rollers don’t even appear to exist in a car. It will take you almost 3 hours to drive this course. Better to relax and just plan to hold back totally until you get to Yellow Lakes.
Here is something to remember:
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If your lungs are working, you are going too hard
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If your legs are burning you are going too hard
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If your legs and lungs are burning together at any point on the bike, you just took 10 min off your run split.
If you notch it back whenever you get to 1 or 2, you don’t need to drive the course.
Can’t argue with your advice, I agree with everything you wrote. That said, the first time I did the race I was really curious about where Richter started, what the out and back was all about, same for Yellow Lake. After driving the course, I wasn’t as anxious about the bike leg. Not that I based any of my pacing on what I saw during the drive, but it was nice to finally see what these things were all about prior to race day. For me it was a ‘fear of the unknown’ type of thing.
If you are going to drive a course, drive it in reverse. Hills always seem steeper when you go downhill than uphill. I think this is because when you are going uphill, your own height makes the hill look more shallow, while when you go down, your own height (position of eyeballs relative to hill) makes it look steeper. This is especially the case on Yellow Lakes. If you drive up, it actually seems totally flat for most of it…until you look back out your rearview mirror and you can see that you are actually climbing.
That’s an interesting observation about optical illusion while driving. I remember driving back along the Yellow Lake portion of the course in reverse on the way back to Vancouver from Penticton after IMC one year and exclaiming out loud to my wife, “Wow, this looks so steep!”
I’ve done IMC three times, but I still plan on driving the course again this year in order to make a mental cue sheet about pacing, effort, and nutrition. For instance, imprinting on the mind how I want to feel at the Cawston out-and-back section, or how I need to assess digestion and calorie absorption on the way up to the Yellow Lake climb and really concentrate on refueling over the last 25 km., etc.
I’m also taking my bike in the car to practice the really fast downhill section after Twin Lakes. My training partner will probably gain two minutes on me in that portion alone based on his slick descending skills, and he wants to pre-ride that section.
…these are good reasons for driving a course, although if you have done it 3 times, why bother ? Practicing the descent may be worthwhile, but perhaps it is better to just take it easy on the descent, eat and drink and rest up for the run and gain back 15 min !
If I were going to the race alone I would probably skip it, but it’s my training partner’s first time at IMC and he wants to drive the course, so I plan to use it to make that mental cue sheet.
As for refueling on that descent, (said in that John McEnroe voice), you can’t be serious! I need both hands for that one. The flatter Twin Lakes sections are good for fueling up.