Racergirl

Congrats on Gator Terra!

I think for Oak Mountain you need to be confident in your riding (since it is a bit technical) and have good legs on the bike. There is very little recovery on that bike course so bike fitness will pay dividends on the run.

For the run, focusing on hills is important. There is very little flat on the Pelham course and the toughest part is actually the downhills. There are a number of steep downhills that can cause cramping and fatigue that will slow you down a lot on the way up. Practicing running fast down and uphill will be important.

For a four week block I would plan to build two weeks, take a break then build some short speed and intensity in the 10 days leading up to Alabama. No fitness is gained in that time but you can still build a bit of speed. From 10 days to two months out I would work on good mountain bike speed (there is one climb that took about 10 minutes for me, the rest of that course is mostly rolling so you need to be strong on the flats). Workouts of 3-5 minutes of race pace with about 1 minute of rest to simulate threshold riding efforts will be super beneficial. Then running after these kinds of bike workouts with some solid hills will prepare you for the trek straight uphill after a race pace effort on the bike.

I think the TYR suit is great so I would go with that one.

See ya there.