First Ironman- Louisville Edit: Training for the hills

Triathlon Forum
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I never thought I’d be interested in competing in a full IM but I pulled the trigger today and signed up for Louisville. It seemed like a great option as I live in Nashville and work in Louisville frequently.

I know this information isn’t terribly interesting but I’d love to hear any insights from anyone else that has participated in this event.

Also, if there is anyone in the Franklin, TN area that wants to pull me along for some long fast rides, I’d love to meet up. I’m really trying to amp up my cycling this year.

Cheers

Edit:

It looks like a lot of people mention the rolling hills on this course. What kind of climbs are we talking about? Cycling is my weakest discipline although I have really made it a focus. Any type of hill repeats I could be doing? I live in Franklin, TN and I have the opportunity to hit hills on every ride.

Thanks,

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I haven’t raced it by on of my athletes had a great day last year there.

Current aided “short” swim, with a rolling start. Usually WSL in October. I think you can almost float on your back and paddle lightly and make the swim time cutoff.

Hilly bike course that rewards strong cyclists that ride with discipline (ride evenly, check their ego at the door and use their gears). I’ve ridden some top AG bike splits before and nearly gotten passed going up steep hills in 70.3’s and IM’s. It’s ridiculous. Learn to be confident handling your bike on descents. It’s free speed and I think often safer than riding your brakes in fear all the way down. You bike is less stable under braking.

Run is very flat, awesome finish area, but it can be humid there even in October. Pace smart, be patient, know you abilities and trust your training.

Enjoy the journey and the training. Focus on bike fitness, and that doesn’t mean lots of long rides. It means lots of hard rides, as many recovery rides in between that you have time for and a few long rides.

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I haven’t raced it by on of my athletes had a great day last year there.

Current aided “short” swim, with a rolling start. Usually WSL in October. I think you can almost float on your back and paddle lightly and make the swim time cutoff.

Hilly bike course that rewards strong cyclists that ride with discipline (ride evenly, check their ego at the door and use their gears). I’ve ridden some top AG bike splits before and nearly gotten passed going up steep hills in 70.3’s and IM’s. It’s ridiculous. Learn to be confident handling your bike on descents. It’s free speed and I think often safer than riding your brakes in fear all the way down. You bike is less stable under braking.

Run is very flat, awesome finish area, but it can be humid there even in October. Pace smart, be patient, know you abilities and trust your training.

Enjoy the journey and the training. Focus on bike fitness, and that doesn’t mean lots of long rides. It means lots of hard rides, as many recovery rides in between that you have time for and a few long rides.

I’ve done it 3x, but all my races were in the August heat. I agree with pretty much everything Motoguy says. Although I will say the current can be variable. It was definitely stronger during one of my three attempts. Also, unless they changed the swim start you swim up stream (mostly in a protected channel) before you turn and have the current at your back. That upstream part can feel long.

Ride is exactly as described. Nothing super steep but the entire course is up and down. You have to ride this course smart. Steady consistent power will win the day. The never-ending body blows of the rollers can take a toll.

Run is dead flat, not shaded, but well supported (with crowds). Not many dead spots on course

Best Finish Line of any Ironman I have done by far (compared to Placid, Chattanooga, Couer D’Alene, and Texas)

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Current aided “short” swim, with a rolling start. Usually WSL in October. I think you can almost float on your back and paddle lightly and make the swim time cutoff.

I had always heard this as well. We went and spectated for a friend that was doing it this past fall and counted at least 8-10 people that had no chance making the cut. I know there is a brief up current swim, but the down current looked fairly quick from the debris I saw floating by.

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Slightly exaggerated. Chattanooga is significantly current aided as the times reflect that… IMKY isn’t nearly as much. You will swim a couple minutes faster than your fitness at IMKY, but not as easily as posted above.

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It will be my first IM as well. I don’t have much to add about the course as the others have covered what I’ve been told, but I did want to mention that there is a relatively active Facebook group that will probably get more active as we get closer. 139 days to go!

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It will be my first IM as well. I don’t have much to add about the course as the others have covered what I’ve been told, but I did want to mention that there is a relatively active Facebook group that will probably get more active as we get closer. 139 days to go!

My wife is signing up for Louisville today. Her first IM. She did her first 70.3 in April and has officially “caught the bug”.

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I am racing at Louisville as well! It will be my third IM. (2x IMWI)

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Slightly exaggerated. Chattanooga is significantly current aided as the times reflect that… IMKY isn’t nearly as much. You will swim a couple minutes faster than your fitness at IMKY, but not as easily as posted above.

I looked again. Looks like last year, the first time for a October race, the release from the dam wasn’t too strong and it was only 4-5 minutes faster looking at my athlete’s time. Not 8-10 minutes like Choo. Still significant. Probably 300-400M short effectively.

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I think what everyone said is pretty spot on. Last year I did IM Lou as my first and it was a great race.

Swim: Wasnt that fast. Really no current but overall a good swim.

Bike: I wasnt ready for the big hills on the out and back but overall the course was pretty good. Some strong headwind towards the end if I remember correctly.

Run: Super flat. Loved it. Great atmosphere.

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Slightly exaggerated. Chattanooga is significantly current aided as the times reflect that… IMKY isn’t nearly as much. You will swim a couple minutes faster than your fitness at IMKY, but not as easily as posted above.

Current from year to year is variable. It will depend on rain in the days leading up to the race. You can look at the swim times from 2014 IM Louisville to see that it can have a significant current.

ETA: As a 2x IM Louisville finisher, I agree with lots of the information in this thread about the bike, run & the finish line.

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I did it last year, it’s a good race and the city really seems to embrace it.

Others have covered most things, I’ll just add that the swim start is about a mile walk from transition, and it’s a TT start. The line starts forming early. I hit transition when it opened, was over in the swim line at 5:55am, and was ~800 people back. 7:30am start, and I was in the water by 7:41am. I think everybody was in by 8:15am but am not sure.

I’m not sure how good a swimmer (or biker) you are, but mention all of this only b/c it plays a role on the bike. You really want to get to the out-and-back on 1694 as early as possible, to avoid as much congestion (and shaky bike handlers) there as possible. It gets very sketchy there.

Good luck.