Sort of related. A friend of mine is doing the Deca, 10 Ironmans in 10 days. No doubt lots of interesting information to be gained for you crazy fools! Another mate is documenting it all via his channel, there is a video of each day and a few on the build up.
Great race report and results! Was this the A race of the year? Got any other races coming up where you’ll let loose with all the fitness?
IMLP in the bag. It was my first full. Only other tri experience was an oly last summer. I did 14:22 (swim 1:06, bike 6:58, run 5:45). Was my first time running more than 17 miles. Felt decent overall, save for major GI distress on the first few miles of the run.
For those curious, I closely followed the high volume IM TR plan for the bike. I did almost every single workout with only a handful of adjustments, which primarily included:
I followed the running suggestions closely until a hip labral tear in February messed it all up. Then I went my own route.
Swimming I did my own thing, but swimming is not really a weak area for me.
To my surprise, IMHV plan in TR has me doing 11 hours this week (3.5 hours of this is running). TR actually had a 1.25 hour tempo ride the day after the race. No idea what this is all about. I am taking the week off : )
This was a B+/A- race for me. Not a full on multi-week taper, but the calendar was structured such that it was at the end of a down week that I took really easy (easier than a normal recovery week). Next on the calendar is Kona. Lots of light training and active recovery this week and then full speed ahead starting this weekend.
Is this lad from Derbyshire?
Indeed he is.
Good afternoon. I will be doing my first IM, IM Wisconsin on Sept 11. Training is going well but I am in the dark about what I need to do/what happens/timeline when I arrive in Madison. I have family along and want to give them an idea on what things I have to do and when, before the actual race day.
If the race is Sunday, do I have the check in on Friday afternoon and what does that involve/how long does it take? Is transition set up/bike racking done on Saturday and for how long and is that when I have to leave the bike/run/and special needs bag?
And then race morning do I get to do another once over the bike setup in transition? Get to the site 90 mins before race start? Thanks in advance for educating the new guy.
Hi,
You will be getting an Athletes guide (via the IM website) approx. 30 days before the race that will explain a lot and will calm many of your fears
I haven’t done IM Wisconsin but the full IM’s generally follow this flow…
Some of the check in process has changed since C19, you will now be asked to schedule your check in an hour increment via Active. Registration blocks will likely be Thursday afternoon and all day Friday (no Saturday registration). Thursday afternoon’s will be snapped up right away. I would budget at least two/three hours for registration, hitting the merch tent, and experiencing the athletes village (checking out the vendors).
Bike drop off, check-in will be Saturday. At registration they will let you select a time slot to deliver your bike, but in my previous events they didn’t really hold anyone to the time. They will also have “mandatory” athlete meetings Thursday/Friday/Saturday and times will be announced in the athletes guide (usually last about 30 minutes or so with Q&A). Generally for Full IM’s they have a “clean” transition (no random stuff laying around), they will have a spot for your bike on the racks, a spot for bike gear bag and a spot for you run gear bag near the changing tents. Bike bags drop off goes pretty fast, there really isn’t much to it, I would budget about an hour at most.
Sunday Morning, generally you will bring your wetsuit/goggles and any other gear (bike computer, bottles, nutrition) you want on on your bike Sunday morning in your dry clothes bag, setup your bike with bottles, pump tires, add any nutrition and then change into your wetsuit and go drop off your dry clothes bag. I think 90 min is perfect, too early then you are standing around for a while in your own thoughts.
After the race the volunteers have gathered your bike bag (now swim stuff), run bag (now bike gear), and dry clothes bag and have knotted them together so you pick them all up at once, this will normally be near the bike racks.
Bike, run, and dry clothes bags are just for full Ironman races, yeah? The athlete guides for the 70.3s I’m doing don’t mention them and I’m not sure what to do with my stuff. Bring my own bag and then walk back to the car or hotel and leave it there?
Great quesiton - for 70.3
They will give you a bag at registration - its really for carrying your stuff
The 70.3’s I’ve been too are dirty transition, you lay all your stuff out under you bike. I have used the bag to carry my wetsuit/bottles and nutrition, but really those could go into any bag.
There is generally no change tents at a 70.3 - the transition is like traditional triathlons where you do everything at the bike rack
you will have a space near your bike - bring a backpack/duffle and you can stash your (dry clothes) stuff under the bike.
I did IM WI last year. I also lived in Madison for a couple of years prior.
What @Mike_M has already mentioned is pretty good advice and applies to pretty much every full.
I’m assuming you’re doing the 140.6? For IM WI this year, there is a 70.3 that is being run on Saturday, so just wanted to be clear since 70.3 schedules are slightly different than 140.6 schedules. Given that they’re doing the 70.3 on Saturday and the 140.6 on Sunday this year, things MAY be a touch different. At a minimum though, I’d plan on packet pickup Thurs or Friday, bike drop off on Saturday afternoon and then Race Sunday.
Regarding WI, you MUST make some time to hit up the Dane County Farmers Market on Saturday morning. Ian’s Pizza is another local spot I always hit up when in Madison.
If you have any IMWI specific questions, let me know and I’ll do my best to answer them. How old are your. Also, you mention family. Kids? How Old?
I’ve done it numerous ways for IM events.
For non-IM events, they’re typically small enough where you can set your bag along the edge of transition where it’s out of everyone’s way.
In any case, the bigger the race, the less stuff I like to bring w/ me just in case I have to keep it all under my bike.
Thank you!!! You just lowered my stress level several notches:). I really appreciate all of the details.
Thanks. Yes I’m doing the full and didn’t realize they were holding the half the same weekend. Thanks for the good Madison tips. I was actually out there for a family wedding in May and got to the Farmers market, the children’s museum and the zoo. My kids are 5 and 9 and we decided to not subject them to an IM spectator experience. They get to watch me in the shorter local Oly events. But I’ll have my mom, sister, several aunts and uncles to cheer me on. Really appreciate your thoughts.
worth adding: on Sunday am, they give you access to your bags.
It allows you to add food or drink that won’t stay cold/good overnight.
Lads from ofton are hard as nails
Sounds like we’re on similar trajectories. Though I’m using USAT Nationals as my B+/A- race before jumping into dedicated IM work for IMFL in early November. Out of curiosity, what kind of training have you been up to the last couple months? My coach has been having me do lower volume higher intensity leading into Nationals. And I have been getting noticeably faster especially on the run, but I’ve got that nagging voice in my head saying “You’re not doing 15+ hour weeks. You’re not preparing well enough.” I hired him to help me break out of my plateau but it’s so hard as a type A person not to think I know best. lol.
Not having kids changes things a lot. Here’s how my wife spectated with kids.
Swim: They watched from the top level of the Terrace (X1) and saw me run up the Helix from afar. They then moved to the foot-bridge that runs over the bikes and saw me run though transition (X2) to get my bike. Spectating on the Helix could be fun too (X3).
Bike: They drove out to an apple orchard that’s early on the loop portion of the bike course. Got some apple cider donuts, watched me go by once. Picked some apples (which were really good) and saw me go by a second time. They then drove back to the hotel downtown (Hyatt Place) and made it back in time to see me right before going up to T2. If your kids were coming with you, I’d say take them to the splash pad at Fireman’s Park in Verona, it’s right on the course. N+1 coffee shop is right there too with food, coffee and beer. W/o the kids, it’s still a bit of a party atmosphere there.
Run: They moved around a bit on the run course, but staying entirely in downtown/eastern portion of campus. There were lots of crowds on state street with lots of opportunities to pop into and out of restaurants for food or drinks. It’s a two loop course with some easy opportunities to see you twice each loop.
For spectating, the IM tracking app is must. That said, the splits are often at the wrong mileage (but sorta close). Cheering for the full day can be pretty exhausting (especially how my wife does it). Hopefully the elder members of your family will be able to get back to a hotel easily to take a break mid-day. It also helps if you’ve got an idea on where they’re going to be. About half of the time, I’d spot them before they spot me, so that helps. There are so few chances of seeing each other, that it’s a bummer when you miss one.
Post-race after showering and recovering a bit, we went to the Great Dane at Hilldale (local brew-pub). There were still big crowds around the downtown location, so we wanted to get out of there a bit.
I’ll start with I’m self-coached. I use TR for the bikes with some modification for long-rides and do the running and swimming on my own.
I’m in the 15+ hr weeks range and have been pretty much all year except for taper/recovery from two races or from getting Covid back in April. I’ve been following TR plan builder and AT (IM HV or HIM HV) for the weekday rides and modifying the long rides out to 100ish miles when I can and trying to add some progression into them, all while listening to my body. I’ll regularly use alternates for a longer ride at roughly the same WL or extend the workout and do extra time at 60-70% FTP.
Running has been more inconsistent, but trying to manage at least 30 mpw, nearly all easy. I’ve struggled due to work/family/sickness/races to have a real structured progression in miles or workouts. I have started adding in a track workout once a week where pace ranges from threshold down to 5k pace. My go-to track workout has been descending pace 400s where each rep is 1 sec faster than the previous and either adding reps or lowering the starting pace for the progression. I’m going to try to keep this up heading into the fall.
Haha. My wife and I bought line hopper passes for monday. Rode every coaster in the park the day after the race. I was motion sick until wednesday morning! Getting old…
