Rev3 Knoxville - Half Rev : Official Thread

I thought the Knoxville bike was a little harder when factoring in that it's shorter (half vs full). Not sure that any particular hill is much harder, but they're a bit more concentrated. I thought it was more fun too. Knowing how to carry momentum makes a noticeable difference. Where did you get the 1600 from? MapMyRide? That is way off. I had ~3,100-3,200 ft.

The first and last 3 miles of the run are fairly flattish. They go up and down, but the grade isn't that much. Past the turn-around for the Oly course is where it changes. It's not so much the total elevation gain, but the steepness of the hills. This is not reflected well in race reports I've seen (not necessarily on this site, I joined after the race). They're kind of short, but can knock several minutes a mile off your pace and still require increased effort. I dropped from 7:30 flats to 10:30 on probably the worst one and it wasn't enough.

What year were you looking at times? Last year (2011) the swim course was long by 5 minutes. They actually acknowledged this later and I'm guessing that's why they wiped the swim times out. If the Muncie course was the same then as it is now under MDot, then it's noticeably faster then Knoxville. Muncie's bike seems to be one of the fastest in the series.

Ah, ok. They use mapmytri, which is basically mapmyride. This is a common thing with both map sites.  It is a 1 loop course.  The general appearance of the bike course is pretty much how it looks on that chart. It likely misses all the smaller scale ones, but over 56 miles they can add up considerably.

I get mixed reviews on the Muncie run course about how hilly it is, so it's hard to compare since I haven't actually done that one. The Knoxville course didn't feel like what it appears. I didn't notice a general trend of the hills like it shows, but the smaller ones were tough. They can really mess with a rhythm. I tried to force it too much and paid for it, so that may have been part of the problem.

If you can negotiate hills well (bike & run) then I think you can do it if your fitness is the same as for the PR, but it will likely be much closer than you think. It's possible conditions of the day could make you miss by a little.

I just signed up for the half today.  Figured it would be a good test of my winter trainer work.

I, like many, am a little apprehensive about the hilliness of the bike course.  Looking at the elevation maps it doesn't seem like it's going to be much worse than some of the routes I ride in training, but everyone says this one's a challenge.

Got an email today from Rev3 saying the transition was being moved from last year's location to accommodate more racers.  It's now going to be in the ground floor of the parking garage closest to the river...

Sounds fine to me; especially if it rains that day.

wbattelie, can you downhill well? Knoxville isn't very technical, but there is just enough that people who are nervous will slow down. I was flying past people as I'm fine on sweeping turns in aero at 35 or so. Something about the Knoxville route just slows things down in general. Go ahead and replicate the volume as best you can, as it's better than nothing. But it might be a few min slower than what you're used to. It was cooler and the air just seemed heavy last year too. The longer uphills really aren't bad as long as you use your head. That actually goes for a lot of the course. If you try to force it, you'll use up energy noticeably, and you'll want it for the run. I'm from Illinois and did just fine on the bike with a 2:39. It would have helped if I had gotten more than 100 miles outdoors before this race, and it was my first race of the season.

The sound of your terrain should help out a lot for the run. Nothing was that big, but at the far end (past the Oly turn-around) they get rather steep and there wasn't that much flat area.

BellaDad. Good luck, but this is a tougher than it seems course to PR on.

Good advice; thanks.

I typically try to climb seated, especially in a race just to make sure I don't blow up.  As far as the downhills go, i'm OK with carrying decent speed in aero.  At about 45mph+ I might start to get a little nervous though.

I have read through some of the race reports and it seems the common theme is that the course is "tough, but fair."  To me that means there hopefully aren't many braking areas on the downhill to rob us of our hard earned descent.

Pretty quiet in here!

Went for a 54 mile ride on Saturday with 2300 feet of climbing...  If the Rev3 site is correct at 1600 then I feel pretty good about the upcoming race.

(Elevation.JPG)

How did you come up with those elevation numbers? Garmin 800's & 500's tend to be more like 3,100 or so. Rev3 uses MapMytri (or Ride), which tends to way underestimate things.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/85923047

The elevation was from my 305.  I just plotted the same route on mapmyride and it cut the elevation gain from almost 2300 to 1330 feet of climbing.

So Rev3 has 1600 feet listed on the website (sourced from mapmyride) and the true elevation is over 3000...  should be a good day!

Don't know that i'm "experienced" but have done a few tri's.  My personal take on this is try to maintain the volume even if you need to back off the intensity.  Then do your planned taper.

I am continuing to build volume, especially on the bike, over the next week and a half.  I'll taper some the week before the race, but I typically don't go for a huge taper.  

FWIW, my legs are asking for a break too but i'm trying to ignore them.  If you don't feel like you're about to injure yourself you're probably fine to train through it.