Pleasant Prairie Triathlon - International Race - TriathlonOlympic

Run down, dive in, and start swimming. I was right next to Mark Beckwith ( a fast guy that I know ). I drafted off his shoulder for about 50M, then dropped back onto his feet. Was able to hang with him almost until the first turn buoy, then he gapped me a bit and I lost his feet. Looked around, and there was nobody else from our wave around.

So I was on my own at that point. Swam through a bunch of green caps. Noticed someone was on my feet, but nothing much to do, as a few zigs didn't shake him. Rather than spend energy trying to shake him, I just plugged away at the swim and finished it hard.

Not much. There were only a couple people from my wave who swam faster, so not too many draft targets. :)

A longer run up from the swim exit to T1 than last year. My HR is always sky high when I get out of the water, so I kinda jogged, rather than ran this.

Got to my rack, stepped out of wetsuit, helmet on, grabbed the bike and that was it. Hit start on the Garmin as I was running to the Bike Out exit.

Started out of transition pretty fast. Ran past someone stopped at the line clipping in, then jumped on the bike and went ZOOOOM! Great flying mount, and was up to speed with feet on top of the shoes until the exit of the RecPlex street onto 165.

Run a bit faster up from the water. I was a little confused as to where to go to bike out, so lost a few seconds there before I got it figured out.

Bike was okay. I started out okay, but on the first climb ( well, not really a climb, but it was up an overpass ) I knew my legs weren't there. I hit 300 watts and the burn started. Uh oh!

Just kept plugging away, hoping the legs would come around. Was able to pick off a few people from the wave ahead of me ( they had a 3 minute head start ) in the first 5 miles or so. After that, I didn't see too many people on the first lap. I pushed it hard when I could, and kept it rolling as best I could when I couldn't.

Drank a big sip of Infinit at about 15' into the bike. Burped some of it right back up. That was fun. Waited until about 30' in and got down about 1/4 of the bottle. That stayed down much better.

Was back onto the start of the loop and was riding through the sprinters and later oly waves. Not as many people as there were last year, so didn't get as much draft effect off of people as I rode past.

Only a few people that didn't understand the concept of "ride to the right" that I had to remind of the rules. These were without exception, all guys, who thought they were "fast". They all had very intense expressions on their faces. That's all great, and I applaud everyone who gets out and does a triathlon, but leave the testosterone at home.

I offered up as much encouragement as I could as I went past "nice job", "good ride", "keep it up". And I thanked all of the police and volunteers that I could. What you pay out, gets returned, and that gave *me* a boost, and kept me pushing hard even if my legs didn't want to ride hard.

Hmmm... taper? Not run 19 miles 2 days before the race? :)

I rode the best I could on the day, and that's all I can ask for.

Good T2. Came in pretty much alone, so no congestion coming into transition.

Pulled my feet out as I turned into the RecPlex. Flying dismount, coasting with both feet out and standing on the left pedal. Hit the ground running. Made a slight wrong turn as I entered and started to go down the wrong aisle. Immediately corrected, but that bobbled a few seconds away.

Got to my spot, racked the bike. Helmet off and on the towel.

Pulled on the socks, and the shoes. Grabbed my visor and race belt and jammed them in my mouth. Unclipped the 310 from the bike stem and took off for the run.

Put the visor on first, then the 310, then the race belt.

Know what rack/aisle I'm in. :)

Get the quick release for the 310, so I can pull it off and put it in my pocket as I'm coming into T2.

Go sockless for Oly distance.

Started pretty well. Had a guy right on my heels out of T2, not sure if he was a sprint racer or not. He fell back after about 400 meters, as he couldn't keep the pace going. I fell into a good rhythm, and let my legs come around.

As I turned onto 165, I saw Holly, and asked her "How far back is he?" ( referring to Schmize. She told me he wasn't off the bike yet! I was a bit shocked at this, but figured that maybe I'd had a better bike than I thought, or he got a mechanical, or something. I'd expected him to be pretty close.

Well, it turns out that Holly is a BIG FIBBER!!! ;) I hit the first turn around, and about 100 meters behind me was Schmize! Hah! I wasn't exactly slacking off on the run at that point, but now it was game on. My legs were feeling okay, so I cranked it back up a bit for miles 2 and 3.

Last year, he passed me on the swim, I passed him back on the bike, and then he beat me out of T2 onto the run and tore it up. This year, I was determined to make it tough. I had held him off on the swim, and on the bike, and through the first couple miles of the run!

It was getting hot, but there were a decent number of aid stations, and I would grab one water to drink and another to dump over my head. That worked, but it was still getting pretty toasty.

About mile 4, I heard footsteps marking pace behind me. I didn't look back, but I had a feeling I knew who it was. I asked "Scott, is that you?" Sure enough, it was Schmize. :)

He passed me as we came through some slower runners, and I pushed it a bit to try and sit on his shoulder. Did that for a bit, then put on a burst of speed to re-pass him. I knew I couldn't go slowly, I had to go to the hurt locker to do it. I wasn't quite sure how far we had left to go, and I miscalculated. I thought we had about a mile left, but it turns out it was closer to 2. Ooops! :) Ah well, it was fun while it lasted.

Lauren Jensen was just behind both of us. I slowed a bit as I stopped at the final turnaround/water stop to get water, as I was seriously getting pretty hot. Scott repassed me again when I did that. He made his move and I couldn't cover it. Shortly after that, Lauren Jensen passed me. I was able to mark her though, hanging about 5 meters behind.

Somewhere, I found the energy to push it back up, as I realized that Scott was no longer pulling away. I made it hurt and picked the pace back up in the closing mile. With about 1/4 mile to go, I closed to within 10" of Schmize. I had no more gears though, as my legs were feeling the effects of the hard week of running. He ended up crossing just ahead of me, but I was hot on his heels. Another .5 miles and I might have been able to reel him back. We're definitely a lot closer on our run fitness this year, though he's still got a bit of an edge there.

In the process of chasing Schmize, I repassed a few people who had passed me early on in the run. So it was definitely worth the effort to chase.

 

Lap Data 

Lap	Time	Distance	Pace/Speed	AHR	MHR 

1	06m 48s	0.94 miles	07m 14s /mile	155	159 

2	07m 09s	1.00 miles	07m 09s /mile	156	158 

3	06m 52s	0.98 miles	07m 01s /mile	158	161 

4	07m 09s	1.00 miles	07m 09s /mile	158	160 

5	07m 26s	1.00 miles	07m 26s /mile	158	166 

6	06m 58s	1.00 miles	06m 58s /mile	162	169 

7	00m 47s	0.12 miles	06m 47s /mile	166	168 

Same as the bike. Taper and not run 19 miles 2 days out from the race. :)

Still, despite not having my top-end to push at redline, I showed that I've got a solid crusing speed going in my middle gears.

After a hard bike effort, on tired legs, and in the heat and sun, I'll take a 43:30 10k. I think my standalone 10k PR is only a minute faster than this!

Grabbed a water and a gatorade. Walked around a bit to flush out the legs.


C race, so no taper. Did a 19 mile run 2 days before the race. That didn't really help. But the A race is IMWI, not this one.

Having Scott chasing/to chase really pushed both of us, so that's not a limiter, but something that pushed us both faster.


This is a great race. The venue is nice, streets are closed and there are always lots of volunteers. My only, only gripe is the post-race food. This is the only thing I think that could be improved on. Bagel pieces and bananas were it.

Okay, I lied, there are two. The bike course has changed a few times, and the current one is at bit over a mile short. I realize that they can't make roads up that don't exist, but there's got to be something to get this a little bit closer to the full Oly distance.

I look forward to this race, as it's pretty close by, and it's a very well run/organized event. I will definitely come back to do this race again, despite my 2 suggestions to improve it. They really are minor quibbles in comparison to everything else that is done right at this race. They really put a some great race that is a lot of fun.