Some people say you just show up and race. Others say it’s a good idea to ride the course a couple of months beforehand…but how much of an advantage is it?
For me, I’m going to try to avenge my IMAZ DNF at IMCDA. I’ve got the time to get up there and ride the course, but is it really worth it? If I got up there a week before the race and rode some of the course, would that be just as good?
Any feedback is appreciated.
I’ve never done IM distance, but in my limited experience, riding any course prior to an event if you have never experienced it is hugely favorable. When I have ever rode a bike course a week prior to an event, it has always rewarded me with a good SMART bike effort during the race. For an IM, I’d image you’d either need to be there much earlier than a week out and catch most of the course or if it has too be a week out drive it an maybe ride selected parts that look like they may give you trouble.
Its not important. How many of your competitors do you think arrive in enough time to ride the course without blowing a taper? Make sure you drive it, and know what to expect and you will be fine. Do look head at the course profile and train for it. When you read about someone like “Marisol” flying to Arizona 20 times to train on the course, that is an extreme minority of athletes that have the means to do that and you shouldnt feel like that is the norm. Again, look at the profile and mimic your training after that. Good luck!
Not at all…I like it better when I dont even see the course before a race.
Personally I like riding the course before. It gives me better knowledge then just driving it in order to think about the ride and plan for it.
When i did IMOZ I went up a week early and did my last Sunday session on the course - it was great to see the turns, see the turn around etc.
I don’t think it’s absolutely necessary, but if it’s possible I think it’s a good idea.
Well, I haven’t dont IM yet, but I plan on riding the wisconsin course this summer before the race.
But I have pre-ridden bike race courses, and it has proven invaluable to me. I’m fairly tentative on downhills in a pack, and knowing what was coming next really helped to calm my nerves and allow me to stay with the pack. I think it’s a great idea, if you can swing it.
-Colin
Riding just about any course beforehand is valuable to me, and as a flatlander the value increases for courses that have more topography. I’m planning arriving in the Okanagan on Wednesday and riding selected portions - Richter and Yellow Lake - of IMC course then. This is just to get a feel for the nature of those climbs; I’ll go up each, then come back down. For IMLP last year I rode from the village down to Keene three days out, and even though I had done it before, it was still valuable for me to get the feel of those descents. I also rode the final climbs back into the village the morning before the race. I don’t think that either of these efforts compromised my taper, as my effort was quite relaxed. Driving a course is very useful, of course, and if all I could do was arrive a day or two an IM, I would leave it at that. But if I can arrange things so that I arrive several days out from a race, then I’ll do whatever riding is necessary to de-mystify the more problematic portions of a course.
I don’t think that it is important at all. It is nice to get out and ride a little bit of the course the week prior but there is not a big benefit to doing so. Sometimes not knowing what is coming up is better 
Steve,
I think riding the course before hand isn’t that big of a deal. Exceptions are if there are a ton of long climbs, then it might be nice to know how steep, when they fall etc. Bottom line is you need to know your IM effort level on the bike. If your way above that then it’s going to come back and bite you in the arse. Strong tailwinds - back off there, ride strong into the headwind. you make bigger gains there. Big climbs near the end, ride the beginning easier so you can climb and make back and then gain time. Lots of corners, i personally know you can go around a corner. Sweeping downhills, I told you the secret is to keep one eye closed b/c it’s only half as scary that way, outside foot down and jam the inside arm straight to countersteer.
So IMO knowing the course is less important than knowing how to ride smart. the IM is a long race, you have to ride smart for 112 miles in order to run well.
i trained on the placid course 3X last year before the race and thought it was a big advantage on race day. a course like that with so many hills, especially. on the other hand, on a course like imfl probably is little to no advantage. anyway, i think it’s worth it if you can ride the whole thing not just small parts of it. a week before may not give you that opportunity.
Don’t listen to all these posts about how riding the course ahead of time isn’t any advantage. That’s just crazy talk.
It is always better to know the course ahead of time. If you can get there early enough to ride the whole course, so much the better. If you can only get there early enough to check out the tougher sections, and the sections where, say, it might be easy to miss a turn, OK. Worst case is not knowing the course at all, except from the course description.
That said, I think most people just show up and ride. (Let’s not forget that a lot of them might know the course from previous years, too, though.)
I think it’s a huge advantage… All the races i have done well at, i knew the course really well. For example, the marathon here in town, and IMLP. I know for sure it gave me an advantage. And to clarify, I didn’t fly to Arizona just to ride the course but more to escape winter… just happened to be where the race was… But it helped me a ton, I think more mentally than anything. i felt very comfortable and knew my limits.
I think it is advantageous. If nothing else, it gives you the familiarity you need to have a psychological edge, sort of like a home court advantage. Will you go faster because of it? I don’t know. But you won’t be skittish because you don’t know the course.
That said, Riding the course on race day is very different than in practice. The roads may not be closed, portions of the course might not be accessible, and of course, there won’t be 2,000 people ranging from knucklehead to fighter pilot on the course with you.
I always try to drive the course ahead of time, but even that isn’t the same. I think that driving the course doesn’t really expose you to the details that make the course what it is when you are on the bike.
Anyway, I have this Oly near my house. I ride the bike course frequently because it is a nice, moderately hilly loop. I know the course like the back of my hand. Typically, I ride it faster alone in training than I do during the race, and I can’t tell you why. Maybe it’s because the course is open to traffic and way too crowded. Maybe it’s because I often blow up on the swim. Maybe it’s because I can’t go all out on the downhills because of all the club riders going four abreast across the road. Maybe it’s, well, you get the point.
So I think that familiarizing yourself with the course is a good idea, and an important part of your psychological preparation for the race.
From my experience in marathons, shorter running races and much shorter than IM triathlons, it is always a nice advantage to run or ride a course before a race. I ran the Philly marathon for the third time last year, and it really helped to know the course very well both for (1) preparing for the race and (2) pacing the actual race as I knew exactly what was coming and what various hills and deceptively rolling sections had done to me in prior years. I think you can do (1) without visiting a course if you can get good enough information somewhere else, but it’s a lot harder to do (2) without actually going there before.
Next question is how much of a priority it is to visit the course. Having raced the same course two times before was a really big help. Of course, it also really helped to have lost more than 20 pounds since the first time that I had run Philly, and it really helped to have started to do speedwork last two years, and it really, really helped to learn how not to pace a marathon from the three or four times that I have run marathons really badly.
I think that you don’t want to visit if it could mess up some of your important training because that is a lot more important. But, if you are really close to reaching an important goal for you in this race, then it’s probably worthwhile. But, I think that you want to do this months before, like right now, than waiting until the week before the race.
depends on the course.
checking the course at IMFL or not doesn’t matter.
Knowing the course at IMFr in Gerardmer (the old one) or the course in Embrun or the old Nice course is a big advantage
Riding the course is a huge advantage because it helps with visualization.
Visualization is a pretty powerful tool that most athletes use, sometimes maybe without knowing it.
If you’re able to ride the course before more than once, I would recomend that first you do an easy ride just to get to know the course, and then a second time where you do a “race simulation” ride or ride+run, where you have the oportunity to do some race pace work.