I just drove to Austria and back for skiing…it’s all good but for the nightmare that is Munich. 
@adriandlh Im sure you will be fine! My half iron last year ended in tears when I suffered from hypothermia half way through the bike ride thanks to awesome British weather! So Im lining up to a full IM and not sure what to expect!
Enjoy the trip to SA, PE is a lovely part of the country! 
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I feel a bit out of place here becuase my focus right now is on an Olympic in June but after that I will be training for a HIM in October but here is my update anyway. For my training I just finished up the Olympic Base MV and am in my second week of Build. I had a bit of a set back with a very minor running injury that cause me to miss about 3 run session. I believe that is resolved now that I have different shoes. The bright side of the injury is I got some extra biking in. As for the biking it is going great. This is my first season with TR and I am loving it. I am actually a little disapointed on the days I don’t have a bike session planned. I also got a PM about half way through Base and it was a game changer knowing my power on outside rides. As for swimming well I haven’t been. There is a honey-do project that is overdue and I have told myslef I won’t swim until it is done which will be in 2-3 weeks. I am not worried about it becuase swimming is my strongest dicipline. I know I could put in a decent 1500m off the couch and the 10ish weeks I will get to work on swimming should be enough to get me a respectable time.
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Not jealous! 
Good luck and enjoy the race!
On routing, if you’re going to avoid Munich as @joex advises, you may take a southerly route toward Innsbruck. The original ‘Cinderella’ castle – Schloss Neuschwanstein – is off that route. That’s something to see.
And if you’re into the Passion Play, Oberammergau is near there. (So is Werner von Braun’s former office, but that’s on the grounds of the NATO School at O’gau… the region was, er, a bit sympathetic to Hitler.)
Lastly, remember you’ll be driving on the other side of the road! 
And you’ll need to buy a highway vignette (pass) for Austria, which you can buy at the border or a convenience store or petrol station at or before the border. You can also order it online.
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thanks
@mountainrunner Cheers for the tips! We are stopping in Salzburg for a couple nights before heading down to Klagenfurt; Im adding Schloss Neuschwanstein to the itinerary right now! 
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Salzburg is nice but the nice part is small, generally just the old town. There’s probably a Sound of Music tour you could take while there. If you’re leaving really early for the drive, the Mozart 100 ultra (112km, 63km, 42km) is a really fun race https://www.mozart100.com/en/competitions/. It’s 15 June, so time to recover? 
For Kärnten, I did the race around 18 years ago, at the pre-race briefing they declared the lake water clean enough to drink. Hopefully, they can still make the assertion. If the swim still finishes down the canal, where crowds can cheer from the banks, make sure you enter the canal on the left side of any competitors and make sure you don’t allow them to shove you into the little rowboats moored on the left side of the canal. The exit was on the left side of the canal (confirm, of course).
When I did Austria, it was a mass swim start with an ‘aussie’ exit / reentry, and I was around 45th-50th overall in the swim and I had the ‘joy’ of a pro sitting on my feet, hitting my feet, a ‘favor’ I returned intentionally, as we swam at least half of the distance together… although I thought I lost him at the australian exit, but nope. We “fought” more, sometimes side by side. He breathed on his left with a clear mask and I breathed on my right with dark/mirrored goggles so I had a clear view of him eyeballing me. We entered the canal with him on my feet. I remember seeing a family of ducks on the right side swimming out of the canal. I didn’t know how much in the front I was, but I knew I was near the front and I thought, “Those ducks & ducklings are in for a surprise if they don’t start hauling…” The pro came along my right side and tried to push me into the boats… and, well, let’s say I’m glad I played water polo all those years. I got out of the water first. I’m figuring you won’t have the same experience at least due to the rolling start.
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I think I’m just going to draft off you the whole way in Zurich. hope you don’t mind. I’ll try to only hit your feet every third or fourth stroke
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Hey guys, can anyone confirm the elevation at I’M Wales? The official website shows two numbers of about 6500ft and 8000ft… looking forward I just want to be working on some long weekend rides at a race level of elevation… thanks 
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Sounds like quite an intimidating experience! The swim waves are now based off your predicted time, I’m not a fast swimmer, so hopefully my “washing machine” wont be to bad (probably be worse 
!) Ill definitely take the canal advice on board though, really good to know
The bike course has also been updated this year to be 1 big 180k loop, which I’m quite grateful about.
Thanks for the input, really appreciated!
I only know what the IM site says:
http://m.eu.ironman.com/~/media/ab442bee6a304d2284fa881b810ac3c8/ironman%20wales%20bike%201.pdf
8038ft altitude difference…which I take to mean ascent.
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Thanks Joey, if you click on the interactive map it shows a different elevation of 6700ft or so…
My Garmin gave 8159’ for IM Wales last year and, also last year, it reported 8156’ for the bike portion of Long Course Weekend Wales (identical bike course).
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Thanks for this, much appreciated
A half marathon coming up for me in a couple of weekends time and then it’ll be more of a focus back on the bike. Just got in from my last longish run of 90min.
I’m in Week 4 of Sweet Spot Base 2 Mid Volume and will probably do the taper week instead of Week 5 before the race. I’m not sure whether I’ll do the final week of the plan after the half or sack it off and move on.
I’m thinking of doing a little VO2 Max block to start a more bike focussed period next and the Olympic High Vol plan looks like it might fit the bill after an easier week following the race.
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I’m in HIM MV base week 5 and have my first anaerobic run intervals today. I’m kind of scared.
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If they’ve made a mistake it might be worth letting them know
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Er, a small correction: the long Course Weekend Wales bike course wasn’t exactly identical. The start was a parking lot down the hill from the IM transition lot (more than 3’ lower). But the numbers are close enough. And to be clear that’s ascent not elevation.
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