Welland Half Iron (Page 2)

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Great race venue, extremely well organized as usual, and had a great time! Thanks John!

this years welland half was my first him distance.  i found it to be pretty enjoyable for the most part, despite running out of gas near the end of the run. 

next up is muskoka 70.3....i'm fully aware that this course is much more challenging, but does anyone have any idea how much slower i should expect...20mins?  40mins?

Are you planning to go up and bike the course beforehand? I know it may not be possible but I recommend it - i did Muskoka in 2010 (and planned to in 2011 but sprained my ankle right before the race) and I found the going up and biking the route was a really good way to assess the course and my own fitness.

The thing about Muskoka is that it is long - the route is 94k - and it's not flat really at all - I just did Peterborough HIM which is short of 90k and Muskoka was long - but the difference was just shy of 40 mins on the bike.  Take that for what its worth since i have gained fitness but i wouldn't say the courses are at all equal - and as i understand it Peterborough is hillier than Welland ...  If they were equal length the difference might be 15-20 mins less.

Jen gave some really good advice.  A couple of other things to keep in mind.  The last 30km of the bike is the hardest part of the course.  Pace yourself poorly during the first 60km and the last part of the course will hurt you for the run.

For everything that is mentioned about the bike course, it's honestly not as hard as the run course.  This is where carnage ensues.  The first couple of km are up and down and kind of tough, but then it levels out for the next few km and you're thinking, this isn't so bad...then it goes up.  You run uphill quite a bit for the next few km, and then when you come back the other way on Fairy trail it really hurts the quads as you go up and down over and over again.

Whatever you run for a HM pace - add 6-7min for it.  This assumes you pace the bike correctly, otherwise you could add 20+min.  I've blown up on the run twice.  We'll see if third time is the charm.

I plan to race the Bracebrideg Oly and see how I do on that course 3 weeks before Muskoka.  The run is flat but the ride is fairly hilly, so it should be a good test for the legs.

Muskoka hasn't sold out for a few years.  So, you could leave it a while - but if you know you want to race, better safe than sorry.  Not sure about Welland but I don't suspect that it fills immediately either.