2026 IRONMAN Wisconsin - Jennie Hansen

Read This First

This is a guide, not a script. It is not meant to be memorized.

After 28 IRONMAN finishes, you do not need another manual explaining how to solve an IRONMAN. You already know how to read a race, make adjustments, and work through whatever the day presents.

This plan is intentionally focused on the few things that matter for this course and this version of you.

Race Purpose

This is a B race on the road to Kona, but the objective is still to put together a strong and complete race.

I know you can race well. You have proven that throughout this year.

Last year’s Kona is old information. Since then, you have strung together a stable series of strong races because you have done the work—occasionally more of it than your coach might have preferred...

You are an executional savant. That does not mean every moment of every race is perfect. It means that across a full race day, you consistently find your way to a very high percentage of what was available.

You are a known quantity. I trust your instincts because you have earned that trust.

Tomorrow is about racing, not grading the race while you are still in it.

The 30,000-Foot Approach

Swim cleanly.
Ride from feel.
Let power and HR identify the edges.
Stay responsible for carbohydrate intake.
Give yourself permission to sacrifice watts whenever clean handling requires it.
Arrive at T2 able to use the run you have rebuilt.
If you reach the final 10K intact, empty the tank.

You do not need to prove your fitness on the swim or bike. You need to deliver it to the run.

Strategy at a Glance

Swim

Calm, honest, and sustainable. Establish the day without adding unnecessary cost.

Bike

Perceived exertion leads. Power and HR provide guardrails. Ride the terrain smoothly and preserve access to the marathon.

Run

Settle into the effort you know. Allow the race to build. If the body remains intact, race progressively and use everything that is left.

Your Control System

Perceived exertion is primary.

Power, pace, and HR are supporting information. They can identify when the cost may be too high or when there may be room to use more. They do not manufacture the effort.

If feel and metrics agree, continue.
If the effort feels right but a number is lower than expected, do not force the number.
If the effort feels right but power or HR is unusually high, respect the warning.
If the effort feels too hard despite normal numbers, trust the effort.
If you feel strong late and every system remains intact, use what remains.

A number can prompt a check. It does not automatically require a correction.

Key Guardrails

Bike

145–165 W

Steady riding

Toward 170 W only when you feel exceptionally good and the cost remains clearly appropriate
Sustained climbing: 175–190 W
Briefly 195–200 W only when the grade or gearing requires it
Expected HR: generally the mid-130s through low 140s

The entire steady-riding range represents good execution. The top of the range is not the real target.

Run

7:45–8:10/mi

Main reference on runnable terrain

Expected early and middle HR: generally the low-to-mid 140s
Perceived exertion remains primary

Terrain, turns, aid stations, footing, and conditions will move pace outside the range. Let them.

Swim

Lake Monona is a two-lap swim with a rolling start and the possibility of renewed congestion around the second-lap junction.

There is no need to make the swim more complicated than it is.

Establish your rhythm, manage the traffic, and swim an honest IRONMAN effort. If contact or congestion interrupts that rhythm, return to it without trying to recover anything.

A 65-to-70-minute swim is consistent with the day you are capable of producing, but the clock is not the job. Exit composed and ready to ride.

Bike — 30,000-Foot Approach

The bike is not a test of whether you can still produce a particular number. It is the bridge to the marathon.

Lake Placid is the relevant evidence. You rode 5:45 and followed it with a 3:26 run. That bike did exactly what a good IRONMAN bike should do: it delivered you to a strong marathon.

Tomorrow, race the effort you know.

On steady terrain, power will likely settle between 145 and 165 W. If you feel exceptionally good, you may move toward 170 W when the terrain supports it. That is permission, not expectation.

HR will likely live predominantly in the mid-130s through low 140s. Use a sustained departure from that familiar relationship as information, not as a verdict.

No single number determines whether the bike is going well.

Official 2026 IRONMAN Wisconsin bike profile: 112 miles with 5,584 feet of gain.

Rust-Shaking Protocol

The opening miles are not a referendum on your readiness.

The exit from Monona Terrace, John Nolen Drive, the paths, and the route through the Alliant Energy Center require attention. There is no useful power target through that section.

Once you reach safe, steady riding:

Settle your breathing and establish your natural cadence.
Begin the planned intake.
Allow power to come into the range rather than pulling it there.
If the legs feel dull, use familiar, low-cost cadence changes to wake them up without turning them into surges or fitness tests.
Reassess only after you have established rhythm.

The purpose is to shake off the swim, transition, and taper—not to prove fitness.

A little early flatness is allowed. It does not mean you are carrying too much fatigue or that the race is headed in the wrong direction.

Unusually high HR, disproportionate breathlessness, pain, or persistent abnormal effort are not rust. Those deserve respect. Everything else gets time.

Bike Course Execution

Outbound Connector and Early Rural Miles

Let the race come to you.

Fresh legs and race energy can make the opening feel inexpensive. Stay with the familiar IRONMAN effort and establish the day.

Power will generally sit within 145–165 W, often toward the lower or middle portion while everything settles.

Get the intake moving once the course gives you a safe opportunity. There is no need to create urgency around anything else.

Rural Rollers and Route 92

Let speed change while effort remains steady.

Shift before cadence and muscular tension become unnecessarily expensive. The goal is not flat power across variable terrain. The goal is repeatable cost.

Use 145–165 W as the steady-riding reference. Move toward 170 W only when you feel exceptionally good and the effort remains clearly appropriate.

Feed during the sections that give you room to do it. The technical sections do not need to become fueling sections.

Witte, Garfoot, Descents, and Turns

Give yourself complete permission to trade watts for clean handling.

There is no power requirement through descents, turns, traffic, or any section where attention belongs somewhere other than the computer.

Do not repair the average afterward. Resume your normal effort and continue racing.

Old Sauk Pass, Timber Lane, and Midtown

Shift early and keep the climbing muscularly manageable.

Sustained climbing: 175–190 W
Brief movement toward 195–200 W is available when the grade or gearing requires it
The higher numbers are allowances, not objectives
Return to the normal effort as soon as the terrain permits

The cost of Wisconsin comes from the accumulation of climbs, torque, accelerations, handling interruptions, and missed feeding opportunities—not from one isolated number.

Ride through the crest without adding a finishing surge. Let the speed return naturally.

The crowds can lift you. They do not need to change the effort.

End of Loop One

Loop one does not need a verdict.

Notice the relationship between effort, power, HR, legs, intake, temperature, and attention. Then keep racing.

A good first loop gives you permission to repeat good execution. It does not create an obligation to ride the second loop faster.

Loop Two

The course repeats. The cost does not reset.

Continue to let perceived exertion lead. If the body remains stable and the effort feels right, keep working within the range.

Normal changes in power or HR do not require judgment. They require context.

The correct second loop is the one that delivers the run to T2.

Cool Weather and Carbohydrate Responsibility

The current forecast suggests a cool race with light wind and a chance of an afternoon shower.

Cooler conditions may reduce thirst. They do not reduce carbohydrate responsibility.

Maintain the planned drinking schedule. If carbohydrate is not coming through fluid, it needs to come through the practiced gel source.

Lower thirst cannot quietly become lower carbohydrate intake.

Return to Madison and T2

The return connector and ramp remain part of the bike.

Keep the intake moving where appropriate. Do not chase average power or turn the final miles into a bike finish.

Arrive at T2 with:

Functional legs
Stable energy and GI function
Manageable body temperature
Clear thinking
Confidence in the run you are about to use

Run — 30,000-Foot Approach

“Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools.”

The run has always been deeply connected to how you see yourself as an athlete.

Over the past ten months, you have rebuilt it piece by piece. You have rebuilt the durability that allows you to keep using your speed across an IRONMAN marathon.

Lake Placid showed that the rebuild is real.

Tomorrow is about arriving at T2 able to put that run on display.

The official profile shows one 13.1-mile lap of the two-lap marathon. The guide labels 759 feet of gain but does not clarify whether that figure applies to one lap or the full race.

Run Course Execution

Opening Miles

Give the run time to settle.

The opening effort should feel controlled and sustainable. Let breathing, stride, and cadence organize themselves after the bike.

Use 7:45–8:10 per mile as a reference on runnable terrain, with the opening miles naturally leaning toward the controlled portion of the range. The entire range is successful execution.

HR will likely begin in the low-to-mid 140s. Let it provide context without dictating the race.

You are establishing the marathon, not proving it.

Campus, Camp Randall, and the Lakeshore Path

The turns, tunnels, bridges, paths, and short terrain changes will move pace around. Let them.

Settle into the familiar work. Maintain posture, cadence, intake, and attention.

Do not evaluate the race after every mile. You do not need a continuous verdict. You need a sequence of good decisions.

Let the course and the field move around you. Your job remains unchanged.

Halfway

Halfway is a point to take stock, not an automatic acceleration point.

If mechanics, breathing, HR, GI function, intake, and attention remain stable, continue building the race gradually.

There is no need for a dramatic change. Holding the same pace as the race becomes harder is already an increase in effort.

Second Lap

This is where your durability becomes increasingly relevant.

Continue racing by feel. Let pace and HR confirm what you already understand.

If the body remains intact, allow the effort to become progressively more assertive. That may mean holding pace as the cost rises. It may mean moving through aid stations more decisively. It may mean beginning to race the athletes around you.

There is no obligation to create a dramatic negative split. Race what the day allows.

Final 10K — Full Permission

If you reach the final 10K with stable mechanics, manageable breathing, a functioning GI system, clear thinking, and the ability to increase effort without losing control, you have full permission.

You do not need to protect Kona.

You do not need to protect the pace range.

You do not need to save anything for after the finish line.

Empty the tank.

Quick-Reference Race Card

You are ready.
You have proven it all year.
Race by feel; let the numbers confirm.
Do not grade the race while you are racing it.
Swim calm and honest.
Bike steady: 145–165 W
Toward 170 W only when everything supports it.
Sustained climbs: 175–190 W
Briefly 195–200 W only when necessary.
Clean handling always outranks watts.
Cool weather does not cancel carbohydrate intake.
Everything before T2 protects the run.
Run reference: 7:45–8:10/mi
The entire range is good execution.
Halfway: take stock and keep building.
Final 10K intact: race what remains.
Empty the tank.