Ironman Wisconsin : Official Thread

Who is in for WI this year?

Me!

I'm in. Trying to get back into workout mode now. Not too easy with winter. Brrrrr! One day it won't suck and the sun will stay out later than 5. Today is not that day though.

I am just dealing with a lot of rain. Not the norm for San Diego!

My wife and I are in. Will be our 3rd IM (Coeur d'Alene and Arizona). Will also be bringing a handful of people from our local multisport club. Doing a lot of trail running now, since I have a 50K trail race next month. I'm also adding in quite a bit of bike trainer time. Using Zwift for my bike trainer, I absolutely love it. I get much better quality workouts using it and I'm way ahead for this time of year than my usual. Virtually no swimming. I swam a mile last month without much trouble. Really looking forward to getting back into long distance this year, the last two have been filled with short course stuff. We are really excited about this race and has been on our radar for quite some time since my wife and her family are from Wisconsin.

Edited by mroger82 2017-01-16 5:55 PM

Excellent!!! It is going to be a fun race!

I have done triathlons for 4 years now and did 3 HIM last year. How many weeks/months should i train to be ready for IM Louisville this fall? Is 6 months about the right amount of time? Thanks, I am looking forward to racing my first IM at Louisville

Yes, typical training plans are 24 weeks for a full IM. Of course this may vary a little depending on your base level at the beginning, but this amount of time gives you a nice amount of build and recovery cycles. Good luck in your training.

Me.

I am gluton for punishment it seams...

Way to join the fun! :-) How is everyone doing with getting into training and building the base?

We've had a mild winter so I've been able to get outside for all my runs and even a nice ride last weekend. If only work would stop getting in the way.

This is my first Iron distance, pretty sure it was a moment of certifiable insanity that caused me to sign up for this. To say I am concerned about the bike course is an understatment.

Glad you have been able to get outside. We have been getting much more rain than normal, so I have been on the trainer more than I have in recent years. This will be my first time racing WI, so I don't know much about the course except from what I have heard from others.

Then you know as much as I do... theres hills, lots of them. Its pretty flat where I am so I forsee travelling to get some good training rides in. Hopefully between that and 'Trainerroad' I will be ready to actually run when I get off the bike.

I hear nothing but good things about the race though.

It's hilly. Stupidly hilly and what sucks is that there's dangerous turns at the bottom of the hills so you don't get to ride your down hills too much. The run has some steep parts for sure but for the most part, it's flat. It's not flat as a pancake but it's one of the easier marathon courses I've been on. In case you're interested, you can see the elevation profiles for when I did it on 2014:

Bike: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/587042294
Run: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/586331703

Yup...in...again. This will be number seven, all WI (are you required to leave BT after so many?). Live in Madison, so really hard not to...no travel costs.

Feel free to reply or DM me any questions.

With a base of four years, six months is plenty of time as long as you didn't do absolutely nothing all winter. With year-round maintenance training, 12-16 weeks is actually do-able to ramp up to a full.

Maintaining through the winter, running and riding often, skiing and riding outside when it isn't too icy or slushy.

Best way to train for the hills is to find a small valley where you can just ride from one hill down the valley, up the other one, and back again...seriously. If not, find a hill, highway overpass or headwind and ride up/into it for a minute and then turn around...repeat 10-20 times.

Most of the hills are pretty short (< 60 sec) and roll over (only a few feet over 10-15%).

Madison is only an 8 hour drive, so it would be a great opportunity for a long training weekend or training vacation week with the family. The Wisconsin economy thanks you in advance.

How's everyone's training going? Ran into a few snags myself. Got a slipped disk 2 months ago and recovering from that. It's about 100% at this point I think. Started back up on running....and developed shin splints again. Doh! Ramped up too quick! Did manage to get in a 3 hour bike last week. Goal is 4 hours this weekend. Figure I'll start running really slow at 4-5m/session and ramp up really really slow to prevent further injury. Spring is almost there though, very excited to do all my biking and running outside again!

Oh no! Sorry to learn of your injury. Glad you are doing better and are able to get back to training. I am racing IM Boulder in June (warm up race for WI - LOL), so my training volume has really picked up. I am lucky that I now live where I can ride outside all year. :-)

That's a good goal to have! I remember doing Vineman (my first full) and meeting up with a few BTers and they talked about all the lights and reflective clothing they had planned to bring to run in the dark. I was like "errr crap...I have none of those things." Definitely gave me motivation to finish before sunset :P

I'm IN! Glad to see there are some veteran Madison Ironman in the group. I survived IM Coeur d'Alene in 2012 and the info I got from this thread was very Valuable. Happy Training to everyone.

Training is starting to get real!