Ironman - UK or Nice?
AndyM
Posts: 7
in General Chat
Hi everyone. I'm looking at doing a full Ironman next year. I had backed away from Nice having been there this summer and seen the mountains that form the bike element - with 1500m of climbing.
So I thought UK was the 'softer' option but the website says there is 2200m of climbs in their bike element, plus the run is undulating as opposed to the flat Nice rin course.
Can anyone give me the lowdown on how the two compare?
Thanks
So I thought UK was the 'softer' option but the website says there is 2200m of climbs in their bike element, plus the run is undulating as opposed to the flat Nice rin course.
Can anyone give me the lowdown on how the two compare?
Thanks
0
Comments
france is likely to be hotter and its also earlier in the year so more training needed when weather not so good
I did IMUK last year and enjoyed it. Good experience and the climbs both bike and run are pretty much long and gradual with one or two exceptions. I'm considering signing up to Nice this year for a different challenge.
Although no Ironman is easy I was looking to ease myself in gently(!), I thought Nice would be the harder bike but reading UK website now I am not so sure
why pay all those travell costs etc etc when theres one on your doorstep thats bloody hard enough... and its not a dragster strip of a coarse like austria etc... you will know youve done it!!!!
Yeah a few of us had a thread going for IMUK last year which was a great support and a bit of a laugh, I don't think any of us were taking it too seriously although one of the lads, Tim I think, got close to 10.30. I did 12.09 myself which I was delighted with, but I think there's at least half an hour if not more to take off that. As a first timer my main focus was to finish and I was training and competing with that foremost in mind. This year i think I'll give it a bit more of a lash.
Sounds like your getting plenty of off season training, which is good. my own motivation has gone through the floor a bit. I thought registering would kick start a bit of training frenzy - but no joy!
No idea what to expect from the IM so any insights would be really good, I come from a swimming backgorund and can do a mile in under 20 mins reasonably comfortably and have a 3.08 marathon pb but almost zero cycling experience, 6 hours on tri-bars makes me very nervous.
Still can't wait, doing, weymouth half, london olympic as warm ups so hopefully all will go swimmingly on the day...
Different venues but same event so anything you learn along your journey please post here as keen to get as much learning as I can and share this painful journey!
Next dilemma is whether or not to flex the credit card a little further and go for some gucci wheels, thinking probably Zipps, then next question is tubs or clinchers, never ends. On the other hand could just stop smoking cigarettes every time I drink too much and probably save myself the money, another new years resolution to add to the list....
I must say: excellent choice of bike.
For your other dillemas, I suppose your last sentence shows what you need to choose; looks like you already have the answer yourself. Quit smoking and keep the drinking occasional will shave time off for sure!!
Any good advice for specific sessions for the IMUK course?
How did you do the knee tendon? Sounds sore, hope the recovery is going well.
Regarding the IMUK course I suppose the bike course is where you can do some specific training. There are no particularly steep climbs, but there are some long moderate ones which you really feel the third time round. I found in training that as you get up to the 50 60 mile mark on long training spins it was obviously good to incorporate some steep climbs as you go, but also there are some steep climbs close to my house that I tried to get in at the end of a long spin to build endurance. The only thing with that is that long climbs can have a heavy load on the tendons that run down the sides of the knees (can't remember the name of them). It seems that you don't really feel it on the bike but it hurts on the run. So you're going to have to be wary of that especially with your current problem. The advice in 220 is to make sure that your bike set up, particularly cleat / pedal / foot alignment is spot on. Also make sure that your not letting the knees buckle in as you climb -especially when tired.
The run as you've probably heard is along a dual carriageway for about 15 miles out and back - twice. I've read in forums people complaining about this being boring etc. but I have to say I find any really long run boring and the camraderie between competitors on race day will definitely keep you going. The run like the cycle has long ups and downs but nothing really steep.
I see that there's a thread about doing a marathon before the IM but I wouldn't recommend it. My longest training run was about 20 miles, with some good hills. I did do a half IM in the June before though, to test some new gear and as a long training session. I think that was worthwhile to do, as long as it's kept at training pace not race pace.
I don't know if any of this helps, I'm sure there are guys and gals out there with far more experience of the IMUK course than I have.
Patrick
I did my knee during a 10k boxing day run, with a 1k to go I had a shor at my PB so started to push very hard and did a 300-400m sprint finish, my hamstring did not thank me and missed my PB by 25secs anyway - doh!
Thanks for the bike course insights, really useful. I am still mostly logging up time on the turbo as my bike endurance is prob my key limiter, just doing 2-3hr steady spins, hamstring is not helping at the moment, but will probably stick with that until end of Feb then move onto some outdoor riding. I live in London so it's never great round here, but richmond park is a great rolling/hilly 8 mile reasonably car free circuit so will stop logging up so miles of that.
Are you entering IMUK again this year - anyone else doing it? Keen to hear from anyone in the race or any other IM's to share training gains and pains.
Happy New Year all...