If you’ve done it, in hindsight were you able to justify the expense to fly out to an ironman site just to ride the bike route beforehand (and maybe drive the run route or run part of it) in lieu of one of the peak workout weekends at home a few weeks beforehand, just to get the lay of the land? or is that being overly obsessive?
Thanks for responses.
Are you going to LP?
…and for the record no I have not flown out to a race to ride the course.
My local friends at LP complain about the number of people doing this. What’s new right but from what I understand there are much better routes in the area.
And please don’t have friends ride it on race day.
I’m flying to CdA a full week before the race, and I’ll have ridden the entire course by the race. I don’t think it’s really necessary to make two trips to the site, but it’s not overly obsessive. I just couldn’t justify that cost.
I’d say, fly to the race a week early. Ride the course either monday or tuesday, or ride the course in two days if 112 in a day is too much for your taper week.
no, tempe in november which i understand is loops and relatively flat. i’m thinking it may be overkill, but a coach i once worked with used this analogy of taking a bucket of water to the start line, and the object is to keep any of the water from sloshing out before you hit the start. (hi scott!) i’m wondering of the psychology of doing the course, bike and run, just to get the unknown factor out of the way, is worth the time and expense.
wonder if you can swim in town lake at times other than races?
Can’t help you there never done AZ. If money was no issue I don’t think it would hurt anything unless you had a crappy ride it might work on you mentally. If you are prone to that kind of stuff. If money is an issue I would probably do as some one else said…get there early ride bits of it. If it is as flat as they say no big deal flat is flat.
For Tempe, I totally wouldn’t bother. It’s flat with NO technical stuff and not the nicest place to ride outside of the race.
If you find 112 miles of flat road anywhere, same deal. That part, though, I think is important.
Riding consistently in the same position for such a long time is definitely different from riding on rolling terrain.
If you did decide to go, my advice would be to do it well in advance of your big weeks. Flying around with your bike is tiring and stressful. Big weeks are likely hard enough already without adding this 
heck no, drive it in a car a day or two before.
I went to Louisville about 6 weeks out last year and put a great weekend of training in. I found a really nice aquatic center which helped. I rode most of the bike course on saturday sans the part getting construction, and ran 1 loop of the run course sunday. I live about 8 hrs from there so I drove down on a friday. Wind conditions on race day were identical to when I pre rode it which was very nice. I found it very valuable. I had previewed LP when I did it in 05 because I was there for a full week before the race so rode it in segments during the week. I did not preview IMOO when I did it and wished I had. I think it’s valuable just from the standpoint of minimizing suprises on race day. Proper prior planning prevents piss poor performance. The 6 P’s.
If your in reference to LP it makes for a fun weekend to preview. You can swim the swim course every day of the summer as it always set up for rowing. The bike course is rider friendly, but there is a ton of bike traffic on it during weekends close to the race. The run is pretty run friendly as well. It’s just a matter of if it’s financially worth doing. I would not go out of my way if I had to fly, but it’s worth it if your within driving distance to make it an easy long weekend.
I’ve done 12 IMs and have never ridden a course prior … I’ve driven parts of them to get a feel, but thats all. I think its just an oc thing from my point of view … do the training miles and you’ll be just fine. I live in Phoenix and I never ride the IM course except on race day. It is very flat, but you will see that it climbs upward going out and down coming back … noticeably. The biggest issue for IM Arizona is what the weather will be on race day. Have a great race!
Dave
I always that the more times I’ve done any course, the shorter it seems mentally when you do it again. If you see what I mean.
CdA can be done pretty easily the week of the race. As it is a 2 loop course, you only need to ride it once (56 miles) to see it all, and it could easily be divided into 3 parts: the 15 mile out and back section along the lake, the 10 miles up to Hayden (up and back = 20 miles), and the 20 miles of hills and rollers along Hayden Lake and Rimrock. I think my race week will include just a quick tour of the upper section as the rest of the course is pretty flat and easy.
Personally, if you can well afford to do so in terms of both time and money, I’d say go for it. It can’t hurt to have actual experience riding and running the course. Notwithstanding that, the course is definitely not a preferred bike route, and is not particularly scenic or enjoyable. As a local, I would never choose these roads to ride, unless I was preparing for the Ironman. Most of the course consists of arterial streets that are busy and not the best suited for riding, and then there’s the Beeline Highway, which has a broad, well-littered shoulder with many cars whizzing by at 70 MPH. But, when I was preparing for IM AZ 2005, I was out there with many others to get a feel for the actual course (they wound up changing what was initially expected to be the course). I had never seen a cyclist riding on the Beeline prior to that time.
Of course, I do highly encourage people to come here to AZ, but you’ll probably be better off coming soon rather than the thick of the heat when you’ll be training for IM AZ NOV. You cannot swim in Tempe Town Lake unless there is a swim or triathlon event going on (which are numerous - www.getsetaz.com ), but there is a 2.4-mile open water swim event on April 6th - www.dcbadventures.com - that is designed for IM AZ entrants. That might be a great time for you to visit, do the swim, ride the course, etc…
I don’t get the bucket/water thing. Personally, unless I was out to win the thing or trying to qualify I wouldnt bother paying $$ and as mentioned the stress of flying with bike which sucks…if I did have a ton of $$ and time then I would travel to an area that had fantasict cycling.
Also, riding 112 miles by yourself on flat roads wont get rid of the ‘unknown factor’…thats everything that comes during the race. (riding afters swimming, in a race/stress situation,etc) I remember your name as your handle, I just cant get past that! so I remember that you are doing it ‘to finish’ and is so, then the extra trip is not worth the time and effort and money, in my opnion.
AZ bike is a loop course, so you could pre-ride the entire course without putting in 112 miles.
I always just drive the course the day before- go get my bib, then go drive the bike course- that way you know what the hills look like towards the top, etc. sometimes ill get on my bike just to see how steep the hills actually feel…but no real advantage to riding it vs driving it i think. On hilly courses though there is a HUGE advantage to knowing what the “top” of a hill looks like, and what sections of the descent you can really hammer on.
Anyone who races ironman france without driving the course ahead of time, if they finish without having shot off a swtichbaack at 30 mph, should be taken back up in a van and thrown off the swtichback to teach them a lesson.
If it’s not too big a financial burden, then sure, why not? I fly to Kona three weeks prior to race day and do my last 112 on the course. Both times it’s been my hardest workout and my best mental preparation/confidence booster prior to race day.
But it helps that interisland airfare is cheap, I doubt I would spend big $ to do it. I certainly feel like it helped me in my first and second IM races.
RR
If you can afford it, yes. I rode the IMWI course a couple of times beforehand and it saved my ass on race day. The experience drove me to go find a MUCH harder training route than I had been using and I would have been toast if I hadn’t done that.
I was within an 8 hour drive. So, I left home friday at noon (took half day of vacation). Arrived Friday night. Rode the course on Sat. Ran one loop of the run course Sunday morning. Drove home and got back sunday night. Definietly worth it - at least for Wisconsin.
I think that’s part of the deal for the multisport training camps that go on the month or so before the race.
Alternatively, you can just drive it and bike the MARATHON course.
For IMFL I did a HIM on the same course earlier in the year.
For IMLP I did the multisports camp on the course.
For IMAZ I am going to ride it for the first time on raceday.
If you are not much of a descender and it is IMLP it would be worth it, but for IMFL and IMAZ which are non-technical I don’t think it is worth the money.
Would it be worth spending a weekend to pre-ride IM Canada? I drove the course last year before signing up but didn’t have a chance to ride it then. I guess riding it would help me decide if I need different gearing. It would be a day’s drive each way to get there for me. Maybe the two days of driving would count towards quality time with the spousal unit?