Triathlon - 1400 feet of climbing in 14 mile...Difficult?

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Italianbucwheat
08-19-10, 11:57 AM
Considering doing a local Triathalon. To me the bike route looks brutal. 1400 feet in elevation over 14 miles. 1/2 mile in there is a 200ft. elevation gain over 1/2 a mile.

Does this seem brutal? The run is flat 5K and the swim is 1/2 mile in a small lake.

It would be my first Tri. I do bike lots...just did a Metric Century (moderatly hilly) and I do run lots( 5k races alot) and I can swim decent and for a long time. Do bricks 20 mile bike, 3.5 mile runs once a week. But this bike route seems killer.

Advice? I really want to pop my Tri cherry before the colder months to give me something to feed on during winter training. But...That bike route....ugghhhh.

http://maps.onemillionrevolutions.org/profile.jsp?segmentID=267001

cjbruin
08-19-10, 01:16 PM
Profiles can be pretty deceiving because they tend to exaggerate the rise in elevation vs the distance. Said another way, 200 ft of elevation uses the same number of inches as 2 miles of distance.

Certainly 200 ft over a half-mile is a bit of a grind (around 7.5%) and it looks like there might be a short 12% section thrown in (ouch). The 2nd "hill" however is less than a 2% grade which is really nothing.

Personally, I would not call it brutal, in fact I think it's a pretty easy bike course. Everyone's opinions will vary.

My advice...enter, have fun, finish, brag about being a triathlete!
CAJohn
08-19-10, 05:05 PM
Go try it out, or a similar route. I think you'll be surprised. You won't go as fast as you're used to, but it's very easily done.

For contrast, I have a daily commute of 4 miles and 1000 feet elevation gain (one way), with 400 of that happening in .62 miles. A 15 mile loop, where I live, covers about 2000 feet. It seemed very, very intimidating at first. It's easy now, although I still sweat buckets.

cleansheet
08-20-10, 12:50 PM
If you ride, this shouldn't be hard. It is probably more 'unusual' rather than 'hard.' For a sprint tri considering the participants that a sprint race usually draws. It will bite into the ride time and effect the legs a bit for the run, but shouldn't be much worse than most races.
eco
08-25-10, 10:08 AM
Holy turns batman.

I think you'll be more annoyed by all the turns than the "hills".
abqtj
08-31-10, 12:10 AM
Holy turns batman.

I think you'll be more annoyed by all the turns than the "hills".


agreed! I count over 60!