The course is fairly uneventful until the last part of the stick (Whalen Road). This thing is hilly and goes on forever. There is actually one really big hill around mile 10 that nobody ever talks about.
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Practice Swims: the course won’t be setup until Saturday afternoon but you’ll be able to swim in the lake before race day. Just start from the ski jump, swim along the swim course (shore is on your right) for a bit flip it and come back. The Swim Start: Ironman Wisconsin has one of the more sane mass swim starts. What we’ve found is that the faster swimmers line up right on the buoy line. Everyone else tries to get far away from these people, lining up closer to shore, and actually leaving the center of the start line relatively uncrowded. We recommend starting near the ski jump. The Course: the Wisconsin swim is a one loop affair. As such, the third leg of the swim, after the second turn, is very, very long so be prepared. The Temps: the water has been warm-ish the last few years but we can still pretty much guarantee the swim will be wetsuit legal.
Stay on the gas on the downhill and do your thing on the gradually downhill terrain into Verona to the top of Valley Road, where we consider the bike loop to officially start as you enter that classic Ironman Wisconsin farming country.
Internally on the team, we only place our athletes in the last 12 to 14 weeks of our internal 20 week full distance training plan. The schedule above lets us keep their volume as low as we can for as long as we can, so we can keep the intensity up and make them much faster athletes. More importantly, this split season approach keeps their heads out of a space where they are training “for” Ironman Wisconsin. Instead, their heads are only in that space for about 12 weeks, helping them conserve mental energy and Spousal Approval Units (SAUs) across the season, to be applied closer to the race.
We’ve found race reports to be extremely effective tools to teach our athletes how to race: TeamEN post their race reports, as well as their race and race rehearsal plans, in our forums for peer review from their comrades. The result is a very rich, team-wide knowledge base of race execution tips and a culture of athletes helping athletes learn now to race better.
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Will you have cooperative weather and hours of daylight available for training, especially in the last 8-10wks of your work up? Examined under these criteria, Ironman Wisconsin is a good race, timing-wise for nearly everyone in the US . More importantly, the date of the race facilitates the split-season approach we use with our team. Endurance Nation athletes racing Ironman Wisconsin will likely schedule their season like this:
Athletes start in Lake Monoma (rolling start) in downtown Madison, and the spectators are what make this leg of the race memorable. The Monona Terrace —a multi-level waterside structure—gives spectators a bird's-eye view of the swim course. The course is one counter-clockwise loop, so athletes will see and hear thousands of cheering supporters along their right shoulder as the cannon goes off.
IRONMAN Wisconsin—the name alone doesn't conjure up images of howling winds across barren lava fields or iconic open water swims amongst sea turtles. It's pretty under the radar as far as triathlons go, yet surprisingly sneaky (and surprisingly tough). Sure, all iron-distance triathlons are hard and present their own unique challenges to the participants, but IRONMAN Wisconsin has tons of charm and unique characteristics that truly make for a memorable race experience.
There is actually one really big hill around mile 10 that nobody ever talks about. I was in granny gear and going about 6 mph (so was everyone else). Coming off the back side, I came close to 40 mph, and I was the slow poke of the bunch. This is all pretty standard for this course. This course is never flat, and there is always a whiff of manure in the air…
Garfoot was next and that is mostly downhill, but with sharp curves, which makes it a little more nerve rattling. The first hill has a very sharp right hand turn and a lot of signs warning you to slow down. Despite this, an ambulance is parked at this intersection every year for this event. They even stack up hay bails to try to break the fall of the stupid and reckless. I rode my brakes down that hill and could barely get my bike under 15 mph (again, I could not imagine riding this course safely in the rain).
Ironman Wisconsin is known for a very tough bike leg. My Garmin recorded over 5000 feet elevation gain. Some Ironmans are a lot worse, but Wisconsin is the most technical. You are constantly gearing, braking, and turning. You are constantly making decisions.