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not even close
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Only if you live in death valley
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In a slight way, altitude is a factor. I think partly because Lake Placid sits at about 2000 feet (I might be wrong), it is chilly in the mornings. The last two years it was about 45-degrees race morning. The first hour on the bike was very cold.
Cold sounds awesome - I’m a Brit now living in the sweltering humidity of Missouri’s summer - the colder the better!!!
Altitude - no. Attitude - entirely.
Altitude is not a factor unless you make a wrong turn on the bike and end up going off the ski jump tower! 
“Attitude entirely” - explain?
absolutely! I recommend riding with at least one oxygen tank. Esp. if you’re in the M30-34 AG.
“Attitude entirely” - explain?
I’m guessing because both the run and bike courses are pretty difficult. I’ve had one person tell me if the run course is the most challenging marathon course he’s ever run, even without the swim and bike before it.
Depending on your training level and your race goal, Placid can be a challenging course. Proper pacing or lack of it can make break your race - the hills on the bike can be dealt with if you take advantage of the “flats” and false flats between them. The two big hills on the run are more noticeable on the back end of the loop and it’s easy to max out on the one coming into downtown as you’ll be sucked along by the crowd enthusiasm. It’s a real Tour de France atmosphere along the course in town.
Good Luck.
At 2000 ft you lose a few percentage in barometrics pressure, so theoretically yes. But it is likely in the noise given that day to day swings can go from 99 to 103 (ie 4% swing in barometric pressure).
L.P. is around:1800’ You max out around: 2200’ Up around the Jacket Rabbit Inn You generally don’t see significant performance reduction until approx. 1000m (3200’).
“Attitude entirely” - explain?
Tongue-in-cheek, mostly.
I have done lots of hilly tri courses including IMC and LP. But, in my opinion, LP is the most unfair in a technical sense of any course I have done. My reasoning is that while there are several significant climbs per each loop, the only real downhill recovery is during the Keene descent. The climb out of Jay is followed by two downhill sections. The second is abrubtly broken off by the turn onto the Haselton loop. The Wilmington gap has a lot of climbing followed by a short downhill with a sharp left. You are then riding through town. More climbing again until the Keene descent. On the second loop, there is very little recovery time before T2 after finishing the Wilmington gap.
So, attitude is very important. I think ones’ training needs to make those climbs look and feel smaller than they are. I also think one has to think accurately about pacing and and potential bike split times. I wouldn’t spend any time on the question of altitude effects, though.
Man this site rocks - you guys are awesome.
I totally buy into the mindset of training on big hills to make LP look not so bad - the problem is I have no way of knowing how bad/big the lake placid hills really are - I’m crap at recognizing what a 4, 5, 6 ,7 8 % grade hill is - its really hard for me to get a handle on comparing using this type of terminology - google earth has significant limitations (which maybe the operator - but anyhow)
I have a great 62 mile loop that we are training on here in SW Mo, that I think is a monster hilly track, at least a lot of the last 30 miles are (to me) - but no clue if these hills even come close to LP
Any ideas on how I get a meaningful feeling for the LP hills - visiting the course is out unfortunately.
Got any 12-15 mile continuous climbs out that way? Nothing out-of-saddle-like, just long long long monotonous uphill creeps? That’ll probably get you close to it.
No amount of training can mask the fact that the placement of those hills takes away any chance of ‘momentum’ going into T2 though.
Not at all-were you thinking of ATT?
crap - 12-15 mile climbs - are you serious - We have some blow your legs up, out of the saddle, lungs bursting, I want to puke climbs - but no go cycling up hill for 15 miles - holly crap - 15 miles up hill? wow - that’s going to be a trip!!
1400 ft of gain in 15 or so miles isn’t THAT bad…100 ft per mile. It’s just long and a tad bit demoralizing watching your avg speed plummet.
Have fun. 
I totally buy into the mindset of training on big hills to make LP look not so bad - the problem is I have no way of knowing how bad/big the lake placid hills really are - I’m crap at recognizing what a 4, 5, 6 ,7 8 % grade hill is - its really hard for me to get a handle on comparing using this type of terminology
This is the other sneaky part of the LP bike course. The hardest climb, for me at least, is the one about 6-7 miles from the start. However, it doesn’t look like you are going up much of a hill at all! Instead of traversing up the side of a traditional mountain, the road is going straight up the hill with open agriculture fields on both sides matching the road slope. The fields are very flat and eliminate any perspective of a slope. I couldn’t fathom why I was crawling along in the 42-27 at 8 mph on my first practice ride. It took a while before I figured it out.
You need to ride hills, or rather hilly routes, that string multiple climbs together and beats the crap out of your legs. Get real good at staying in the saddle while climbing. Instead of worrying about individual gradients, I would key in on the fact that LP has something like 8,000 feet of climbing total. Work on getting to that number in your long rides.
Have fun.