Anyone have thoughts aboutt his race, the Ultramanx organization? Is the swim 2 uninterupted loops or is there a out and bcak in between loops? How hilly is the bike? Wetsuits? Discs? Any ideas, thoughts, insight, etc?
Go Lance - “HOw you like them f***ing apples” - what a great stage - tomorrow will be awesome.
Discussed previously–see thread below.
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=80268;search_string=ultramax;#80268
The KC venue is a new course, so don’t really know first hand about the course, but here is what the RD said:
From the RD for Ultramax.
Swim Course - The swim started from a gentle sloping sand beach with plenty of room to spread out and warm up. The swim course is set just east of the Smithville Lake Dam and the dam is semi-protected by a large cove finger to the east. These features helped a great deal with any turbulence the lake was getting from wind and boat traffic. The high Dam to the west helps when the wind is coming from that direction. The water temperature at this point in the year was about 74 degrees. I was a bit warm in my full Aquaman suit. The sleeveless suit swimmers thought it was perfect. Several swam with no wetsuits. Course sighting should be easy with the large landmarks that exist in the area. We swam a couple thousand yards doing multiple laps. They did allow us to swim outside the marked area, at our own risk of course. That was especially nice. We used the no wake buoys as sighting markers. They have shower and bathroom facilities at the start and finish area.
Bike Course - A group of about 30 of us rode the course on Saturday. A small group rode both laps of the 112 Ultramax course. We did have a stiff south wind and that was nice going out. The first 7 miles of the course is gentle rolling, no significant climbing. This allowed for a nice gentle warm up for the legs. Mile 10-15 presented some tougher inclines, but they were never steep enough to warrant standing and many of us rode most of them staying in the aero position. Staying in the big rings for most of the hills. The pavement is in nice shape, but there was a section of about 5-6 miles with those pesky seams in the road every 30 yards or so. They were more of a nuisance than anything. You got used to them quickly. During the second lap we seemed to notice them more. Other than that section, the road is in outstanding condition the entire way.
Most of the people in our group rode primarily in big rings for approximately 95% of the ride. The hills in the middle section are longer and more gradual in nature. A few points along the course offered some great views of the lake. There were no steep hills to be found on the entire course. Mile 15-20 was back to more gently rolling stuff as we headed into Plattsburg, we were still going north with that nice tailwind on some very nice pavement. Mile 22-28 on Highway 33 gave us some of the best biking roads we have ridden on anywhere. The road was smooth as glass, virtually no traffic and very very fast. Very slight rollers to near flat… This was perfect for high cadence big gear riding. This section of the course is where you can really improve that bike overall average. Going north with the tailwind was even better.
The return trip presented us with stronger winds. The course does have a few legs that travel east to west and north to south, this feature gave us a great chance to avoid the direct headwind for long periods of time. I suspect that will be the same on race day. Even into the headwind we did not see our average suffer much. The return trip on the out-and-back course allowed us to meet and great our fellow training partners. That is the beauty of the out-and-back course design. Everyone really liked this feature. We returned back to the swim start area, reloaded our bottles, and we were off to complete a second lap of the same course. Most of the athletes in our group rode one lap or portions of the second lap. Two of us decided to complete the entire 112 mile course, our ride time was 5 hours 25 minutes. That time included several times of slow riding as we tried to keep the group together and socialize a bit on the first lap. The main point is that this course should present some very fast bike splits. Especially if you can keep strong momentums on the rolling sections. The overall ride experience was outstanding. The people were friendly and they are getting used to seeing lots of bikes in the area.
Run Course - Let me start this leg out by saying we started the run at 10:30 am on Sunday. It was very sunny and almost 90 degrees. Very very hot and humid! We planned to run one lap of the Ultramax course. (13.1 miles) The run course is significantly flatter than the bike. There are basically 3 long gradual climbs. There are a few shorter hills on the out-and-back sections of the main course. The drop down into the campground area presented the most challenging area for most of us. It seems Smithville Lake will have it’s own energy lab. It is a drop down to the campground area and then a fairly long climb out back up to the Dam road. The best part of this section is that the dam road runs parallel and above this campground road. As you’re running, you can see for at least a mile in every direction. You can see runners on both the upper and lower roads. That was very cool, and the wind was a bit cooler running across the mile long Dam. Yes, the run was hot, but open enough to offer good wind. There is virtually no shade along the entire run course. You will need to prepare for this aspect. We could still have a hot day September 25th. The out-and-back design gives outstanding visibility to the race and all the racers out there with you. I think I enjoyed that part the most.
I hope this brief review will give you some ideas on how to train for the course. Many people have been asking me to compare the Kansas City venue to the Lake of the Ozarks. Personally, I have done training in both locations and I think Smithville will give us new course records. The bike has a lot less climbing elevation and is very fast in many sections. The run is much much flatter overall and it is nicely broken down into good mental segments… But you will need to remember, no shade on the run… NONE