Autumn Colors

I've never raced it, but I've been out there plenty.  The roads are hilly.  I'm not sure of the exact race course, I'll check it out and check back in.  You don't have real long climbs, but they are fairly steep.

The water should be nice, but again, I don't know the swim course.

Let me look at the routes and I'll comment again.

Are you local to the area?

Oh yeah, welcome!  MI BT is active and friendly. 

That is a nice bike ride.  Its the full loop from Herron Beach out to the back of the park and back.  Scenic, rolling the whole time, and it can be fast if you carry your speed from each descent into the next climb.  They aren't very long climbs, so you can cook through there.  Also, there are some nice sweep curves that are fun.  Most likely, the turn around may require some care.  I remember coming into that parking lot with a lot of speed and getting a little squirrely.

The run is a nice mtb/run trail.  I haven't been on the full loop this year, but ran a couple miles of it.  Its nice.  Not too tight, IIRC.  

Herron Beach could be set up lots of ways for the swim.  Most likely, there may be a band of weeds just outside the bouyed swim area, just before the water goes deep.  It wasn't real heavy plants, last time I was out there.  Just light, grassy stuff.

Good Luck this weekend. 

Great, thanks for your reply - and especially for the relatively detailed info.

And yes, I am local.  My wife and I live in Royal Oak and started racing last year.  We mostly do sprints, but try to get in as many races as possible:  11 this year for her (18 total) and 8 this year for me (13 total).  

This would probably deserve it's own thread, but any suggestions for swimming in the off season?  We are hoping to get in with a local masters swim team, but are finding it difficult to find any groups close by.

Although I've never swam with them, the FAST group is quite popular.   Our club tried a quasi-master group, but it didn't work out.

Dang!  You two do a lot of races.  Do you race with a club or on your own? 

Welcome to the forum!  I swim with a masters group at Lifetime Fitness in Troy.  It would be good for off season training and meets on Mondays and Wednesday evenings. 

Great - thanks for the info.  I also found online that Berkley High School appears to have open swim Mon and Wed 6-9 and Saturday 9-12...  I think the same cost too.

Yea I have been planning for months on this one......Then the wife's side of the family screwed my plans.  They are all at my house this weekend.  I said I would go by myslef and no one would even miss me.

IT's one of those married comprimise things.

Joe