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Compare Milton Course To Guelph OLY
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 2011-06-06 8:27 AM |
Veteran  190  |  Subject: Compare Milton Course To Guelph OLYI raced the Milton Tri yesterday and I was blown away by how tough the course was. I knew the bike would be a challenge but I was surprised at how hilly the run was on the way out. Anyway I'm doing the Guelph OLY in a couple of weeks and I'm a little worried about it now. I've done the Sprint there before so I'm familiar with half of the course. Can anyone who has done both the Milton Sprint and the Guelph OLY compare the two courses for me? (I'm really hoping to hear that Guelph is less hilly than Milton!!!) |
| 2011-06-06 9:17 AM in reply to: #3534404 |
Veteran 143 Waterloo, Ontario | Subject: RE: Compare Milton Course To Guelph OLY I haven't done the Olympic course, but I did the 30km bike at Guelph Lake II last year, which is the exact same course, but a bit shorter. The 5-6 extra kilometers that get you to the 15km turnaround are the same kind of gradual rolling hills that you see in the sprint. I assume the terrain doesn't change too much more for the 5km after that. Another thing to note: the Belwood bike course is also pretty close geographically (it's just 2 roads over from the end of the Olympic course), and is also just gradual rolling hills. Neither the sprint course or the Belwood course are anything like the climb-climb-climb of Milton. According to me eyeballing the topographical map, Milton is like this: Total vertical distance: 120m (start at 230m, peak at 350m) Biggest continuous climb: 60m (6th line hill)
According to the route profile for GL: Total vertical distance: 70m Biggest continuous climb: Looks to be about 35m @ 15km Edited by AHare 2011-06-06 9:18 AM |
| 2011-06-06 10:38 AM in reply to: #3534404 |
Member 44 Toronto, ON | Subject: RE: Compare Milton Course To Guelph OLY I did both races last year (Guelph was my first Oly). Subjectively Milton felt hillier for sure. Guelph had a few hills. Most of them are quick rollers, although there was one section I remember where you run down a gravel path and back, but really it's not too bad. Actually I took the elevation charts from both races and overlaid them and WOWOWOW, I didn't realize how much hillier Milton actually was. Sorry for the messiness of them, my program didn't let me overlay them and scale them to each other, so I had to hack it up in Photoshop. But the red is Milton and the blue is Guelph. Insane! (elevation.gif) Attachments ---------------- elevation.gif (36KB - 20 downloads) |
| 2011-06-06 11:07 AM in reply to: #3534404 |
Veteran 190 | Subject: RE: Compare Milton Course To Guelph OLY Wow! It felt like I was running up a mountain yesterday! That is exactly the kind of info I was looking for! Thanks - makes me feel better about the OLY! |
| 2011-06-06 11:11 AM in reply to: #3534404 |
Master 1681  Rural Ontario | Subject: RE: Compare Milton Course To Guelph OLY Milton is one of the tougher bike courses in our local Trisport & Multisport-Canada series. Milton is right on the Niagara escartment so so elevation changes are to be expected. The Niagara (Grimsby) race also has a memorable hill, though the rest of the course is quite flat. I always found Guelph to be a moderate difficulty course (I've only done sprint there). There are rollers but you can get over most without having to drop to easiest gear. IMHO, the other tough bike course is Cobourg Sprint/Olympic. |
| 2011-06-06 12:56 PM in reply to: #3534404 |
Veteran 190 | Subject: RE: Compare Milton Course To Guelph OLY It was really the run that hurt me more, probably because I wasn't expecting it. I was mentally prepared for the bike (I did it a week before the race). There was no way to have a run through before hand on the run course though. People kept talking about the first hill right out of transition but much worse for me was running up the hills on Appleby and then the big hill inside Hilton Falls (I walked up and down that one). I know I just need to train on more hills but I've been working through some IT Band issues and hills were out for about 6 weeks this spring. |
| 2011-06-06 1:22 PM in reply to: #3534404 |
Member 44 Toronto, ON | Subject: RE: Compare Milton Course To Guelph OLY Your experience sounds just like mine last year. I ended up having to walk a lot more than I wanted to because of IT band problems. I didn't realize that you're nearly climbing all the way up the escarpment in the run too! (combined.gif) Attachments ---------------- combined.gif (18KB - 14 downloads) |
| 2011-06-08 3:04 PM in reply to: #3534404 |
| Regular 99 Guelph, ON | Subject: RE: Compare Milton Course To Guelph OLY I've done Milton 8 times Guelph 6 times, and I train on both regularly: without question Milton is a tougher course. It is not close. The first 3km of the Milton run makes me suffer as much as I have suffered in any race short of IM. Because of the distance you have to attack the run, but it hurts something fierce! Nasty little course, but probably my favorite. GL oly is (obviously) longer and has a few hills on both the bike and run but never the sharp grades of Milton, and the total ascent is far less. GL is a still challenging race though especially with the massive fields of late. If you can handle Milton, you can handle an OLY. |
| 2011-06-09 7:53 AM in reply to: #3534404 |
Elite 3779 Ontario | Subject: RE: Compare Milton Course To Guelph OLY I agree with what others ahve said - Milton is a much tougher course. Both the first half of the bike and run are essentially uphill, and the grades for some of that climb puts some hurt into you. With Guelph the bike course isn't tough, but be prepared for the little ups and downs that you're running on the conservation road. I'm hoping to get out and do the course this weekend, but I'm only racing the Sprint this year. |
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