algemarin SV3sathlon: Course, Elevation & Route Profile

Course & Elevation

The swim is in the heated 50 metre outdoor pool of the Freibad Traisa: 550 metres is eleven lengths, started lane by lane in waves (the first individual wave at 9 am, then every 15 minutes until noon, with the relays going at 8:45). Wetsuits are banned; this is pool swimming with turns rather than an open-water start.

The bike course covers 20 kilometres almost entirely on hard-packed forest roads through the Mühltal woods. It is classified as rolling but has no real mountains: 205 metres of climbing, 10.7 per kilometre, no steep sections, but only 26 per cent of it level; it is going gently up or down virtually all the time. The middle section is ridden twice, so the 700 metre climb at 4.3 per cent comes round at kilometre 3.9 and again at 11.4. The decisive detail is the forestry authority's condition: a 30 km/h limit applies across the whole course.

The run is a single five-kilometre lap, likewise on hard-packed forest tracks, past the Traisaer Hüttchen and the Klippsteineiche, with one water station on the way. Here too only 21 per cent is level, with 60 metres of climbing spread evenly around the loop. The finish is inside the lido grounds. After a race held entirely in the woods, it ends where it began. This 43rd edition is staged by the triathlon section of SV 1911 Traisa; you can enter as an individual, as a three-person team with times added together, or as a relay.

Pacing Strategy

Eleven lengths in a pool can be paced exactly, and that is what you should do: a fixed time per 50 metres rather than a feeling. Because the start is lane by lane in waves, you are racing the clock rather than the field anyway: a surge over the first two lengths gains nothing and costs you the opening kilometres on the bike.

What decides the race is how you handle the speed limit. On a forest course capped at 30 km/h there are no fast descents on which to gain time: the only lever left is how little speed you lose on the gently rising sections, and those make up almost 39 per cent of the route. Ride at high cadence and constant output instead of pressing on the rises and freewheeling afterwards.

The main trap is the surface. Hard-packed forest roads roll more slowly than asphalt, and the organiser has good reason to advise against pure road bikes. On narrow tyres at high pressure, every loose section costs traction and control. Choose your equipment and pressures deliberately beforehand. The run afterwards is only seemingly harmless: five kilometres with 60 metres of climbing and just 21 per cent level ground mean a constant gentle rise and fall with no settled rhythm. Run to effort rather than to kilometre splits.

Training plan for algemarin SV3sathlon: 12-week build

The SV3sathlon takes roughly 75 to 105 minutes depending on your level. The demand is sustained but capped intensity: neither the bike nor the run has climbs that push you briefly above threshold, and thanks to the speed limit there are no descents on which speed arrives by itself either.

What decides it is therefore something unusual: not peak power but steady output at moderate speed on a surface with high rolling resistance. Athletes who know their race pace only from asphalt find no reference on forest roads capped at 30 km/h, because the familiar speeds simply never occur.

The training emphasis accordingly belongs on rides on gravel and forest tracks with 2 to 3 times 12 to 15 minutes just under threshold, done on the same tyres and pressures you will race. Watch your cadence and traction on the gently rising sections rather than the speed readout.

Add a weekly brick run of 15 to 20 minutes on forest ground and pool sessions with turn practice: 550 metres in a 50 metre pool is eleven lengths and ten turns, and this race needs no open-water work at all. And because the waves run until noon, it is worth planning breakfast and your warm-up around your own (possibly late) start time.