A weekend of riding in Madison, WI or Steelhead Half?
(Yes, I’ve been to Madison and ridden on the Moo course, but never the full 112 and I’ve been beaten up pretty bad by the hills. Having hit some local hills hard all summer, I’m thinking the Madison trip would be better mentally, but Steelhead might be a better test physically).
Chime in Slowtwitch…
Racing makes you stronger, you should absolutely tear yourself apart at Steelhead especially if you are M 40-44. See ya in September.
Iron Buckeye,
I did Moo last year and there was 7 of us that packed into a van with all our gear…very tight fit and drove up to Madison and got 2 hotel rooms pretty close to the bike course. We rode about 60+ on the first night there, 112 the next day, 100+ the third day and then about a 2 hour run on sunday, packed up and headed home.
Was the best thing I could have done. I am a flatlander here in northern Indiana and the day of the race last year of course my swim was terrible, just terrible but I knew that was coming. Got on the bike and never had any problems all day. Matter fact it was an easy 112 for me. After the 2nd loop degree of difficult climb, I put the hammer down and flew back to T2, changed and had no problems in the run.
Great day and I believe that hard weekend 1 month out made a big difference come race day.
Good Luck at Moo and hope for no day like last year but then again…that was perfect conditions for me.
Skip the race and go ride the course. Getting familiar with the bike course is a very good idea ™. Better to make your mistakes on it during training than the day of the race :).
Don’t forget to do a transition run when you are done riding the course…
I did Steelhead and Moo last year. Tom Z does a great job and Steelhead is a good race for IM prep, but you can’t ride the Moo course too often. Go ride the full 112 mile course including the helix in and out of the parking garage. Come race day in September you will be very happy with the confidence gained by knowing what is coming. After you ride back in to Menona Terrace, lace up the running shoes and do the first few miles of the run course, too.
I hope you have better weather than we did last year.
Tough call. Normally, I would say do the race, as I am an advocate of more racing - it’s the best training. Many triathletes, particularly those focusing on an IM, don’t race enough. However, the IMWisco, bike course is a beast and it’s one IM bike course that is worth spending a good amount of time on. Knowing this course could save huge amounts of time both on the bike and then on the run, because hopefully you will have paced your self well by knowing the bike course.
Stay home - every a$$ clown in the world will be riding in Madison on the weekends. If you “NEED” to go up there go mid-week.
Saturday - ride 120 miles (6-6.5 hrs) and run 1 hr Saturday with a 2 mile swim (open water if possible - otherwise swim 1/2 a mile then pull a mile and swim 1/2 a mile). Eat right and get some sleep.
Sunday 3 hr aerobic run practicing with Pepsi around 2:15 into the run…with a 2 hr bike afterwards…eat right, stretch and sleep
My Ironman folks don’t race 6 weeks out from Ironman as they are too damn tired in weeks 1-3 and then weeks 4-6 they are tapering.
No question…big miles in Madison
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Wow- near unanimous opinions from the denizens of Slowtwitch. Who woulda thought?
With apologies to Tom Ziebart, Steelhead is going to wait until next year. Thanks everyone.