Shelbyville Chiropractic Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic


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Shelbyville, Kentucky
United States
Headfirst Performance
80F / 27C
Sunny
Total Time = 2h 08m 47s
Overall Rank = 1/130
Age Group = M35-39
Age Group Rank = 1/13
Pre-race routine:

Stayed Friday night at Ramada in Shelbyville, driving into Louisville for dinner (pasta with shrimp and chicken). Kids were cute and loved the whole trip, esp. staying in the hotel. In bed ~10:30 pm.

Up at 5:15 am. Breakfast was a chocolate chip cookie, banana, water, coffee, and green tea. Took care of business and then drove to race site a bit before 7 am. Began setting up transition around 7:30 and the nerves started. Spent some time talking to a nice guy next to me in transition (Mike B). That helped me calm down.

Event warmup:

Nothing other than jump in the water to practice swimming with my wetsuit for about 2 minutes. That water was cold!
Swim
  • 26m 31s
  • 1640 yards
  • 01m 37s / 100 yards
Comments:

This was my first OWS in 18 years, and my second swim in my new wetsuit (first wetsuit swim was two days prior for 30 minutes in a pool, mostly without the pullover on).

Experienced different levels of panic during this swim. Water felt very cold (heard people saying it was under 70F, but no idea what actual temp was). I'll never complain about the pool feeling cold again!

Felt fine at the very beginning of this. Stayed out of people's way so I didn't get run over. Once I started trying to swim seriously, I realized that my arms felt dead and constricted by my wetsuit. Thought I might have to drop out at this point, as there was no way I was going to be able to swim the whole 1.5k feeling like this. Fortunately, when I tried breaststroking I felt much calmer, so I did this for most of the first half of the swim. I'm guessing lots of other people were struggling too, since I didn't get passed by more than one or two people while swimming like this.

After I got around the red turn-around buoy I decided to try swimming freestyle again, and felt a little better. Kept at it and was able to hold freestyle most of the way back. For some reason, it seemed to take much longer to get back in than it did going out, even though I did breast on the way out and free heading back. Probably because I was calmer at this point and able to think coherently.

What would you do differently?:

Practice OWS and learn how to swim in my wetsuit!! In retrospect, I was too confident about my swimming going into this. I learned pool=/=OWS the hard way.

I do give myself a little bit of credit though for sticking with it and calming down enough to at least have a decent swim for the return leg.
Transition 1
  • 01m 10s
Comments:

Hadn't done a T1 in 18 years, and hadn't practiced it, so this was a learning experience.

Tried running to my bike when I came out of the water, but my legs were having no part of that, so I had to walk. The wetsuit strippers asked me if I needed help with my suit, and I declined. As I went by, I tried to unzip my wetsuit and realized that I couldn't get my arms back there to do it! (I had no problem with this pre-race!) So, I "ran" back to the strippers to ask for help with the zipper and then "ran" to my T1 spot. During this run, I realized that I was really light-headed from the swim. Hadn't planned on that.

At my bike, I was able to get the wetsuit top off, no problem. Then I ripped my bottoms down to my feet and was about to start stepping on them to get my feet out. At that point I noticed that my wetsuit had a liner that looked a lot like the liner of my tri-shorts. Thought to myself "never noticed that before." Then, I realized that I had managed to rip my shorts down with my wetsuit! (Thankfully, I realized this before I started stepping out of the wetsuit legs!) Not sure if anybody saw that or not. If they did, I'm sure they had a good laugh!

Once I got my shorts back up I quickly got the rest of the wetsuit off and proceeded to put on my bike shoes. Had to sit to do this because I was so dizzy. Got up, put on helmet and sunglasses, ran out of T1 with my bike.
What would you do differently?:

Not take my shorts off!

Should also try the flying mount/dismount someday.
Bike
  • 1h 03m 10s
  • 24.85 miles
  • 23.60 mile/hr
Comments:

Felt pretty bad for the first couple miles, I think because I was still cold from the swim.

Once warmed up, I felt really solid. Never felt like I was hammering, just a solid effort. Passed lots of people on the first half of the course, then didn't see anyone on the second half of the ride.

Finally started feeling tired legs during the last 3-4 miles. Coming into transition I could see the beginning of the run course, and I saw that there were at least three people in front of me. I figured there were more people in front of them that I couldn't see.
What would you do differently?:

Nutrition. I had bonked on a bike ride leading up to this race, so I made the mistake of adding extra calories to my drink for the race. The mix tasted good pre-race, but when I tried drinking it out on the course it made me feel nauseous and caused some nasty burping. So, I basically ate/drank nothing on the ride.

Other than nutrition, I was very happy with this ride. Prior to the race, I had only logged 33 hours on the bike in 2009.
Transition 2
  • 00m 42s
Comments:

No problems here.
What would you do differently?:

Someday I should try the flying mount/dismount.
Run
  • 37m 13s
  • 6.21 miles
  • 05m 59s  min/mile
Comments:

This is the part of the race I was most concerned about going in. Due to a hip stress fracture and a bad disc in my back, I'd run a total of 6 hours so far this year. I fully expected that I'd need a couple walk breaks during the 10k.

Coming into T2 I had seen three people out on the run in front of me, and I assumed that there were more than that. Coming into T2 I thought "boy, they don't look like they're running too fast, maybe I can catch them." Then I got off my bike and tried running and my legs felt like lead! Just wanted to stop, but kept turning 'em over. Noticed that I was gaining on the three in front of me, which helped keep me going when I wanted to stop and rest.

Caught the first two in front of me within the first two miles and noticed I was still making up time on the remaining person that I could see. Finally caught him around mile 3 (learned after the race that he was doing the duathlon, not the tri). Shortly after that we hit some killer hills, and this was the worst point in the race for me. Felt a bit nauseous and would have stopped to rest had I not had someone close behind me.

Once I got through those hills I started thinking maybe I was leading the race. Then I saw a group of about three people that I thought were out in front of me. After a couple minutes I realized they were actually on an earlier part of the course. Around that same time, I saw how large my lead was on the remaining folks behind me and then I finally realized that I was probably going to win the race! What?!?! That was all the motivation I needed to run the remainder without stopping. Sweet!

Had two swallows of water on the run from the aid stations.

What would you do differently?:

Nothing. I realized going in to this that my days of 33 min 10ks in a tri were long gone. I had run a total of 6 hours in 2009, and would have been happy to hold 6:30 per mile in the race. When I saw that I had run 6:00/mile I was shocked.
Post race
Warm down:

Walked around talking to wife and kids and other contestants. Post race mingling with other athletes was always my favorite part of triathlon. Having a family with me made that even better.


What limited your ability to perform faster:

Limited bike and run volumes going into race - 33h bike, 6h run.

Event comments:

Perfect day, lots of nice people. Great race directors, and lots of awesome volunteers all over the course. As a former Eagle Scout, it was cool to see the Boy Scouts out there helping direct the race.

One other thing that surprised me were the large number of geeked out bikes in the transition area. Couldn't believe the number of people with tri-spokes, disks, 404s, 808s, etc. Some very sweet looking bikes. Maybe someday...



Profile Album


Last updated: 2009-04-28 12:00 AM
Swimming
00:26:31 | 1640 yards | 01m 37s / 100yards
Age Group: 1/13
Overall: 14/130
Performance: Below average
Suit: de Soto pullover + speed tube
Course: Out and back, staying on the left side of the buoys. Into the sun going out.
Start type: Deep Water Plus: Shot
Water temp: 69F / 21C Current:
200M Perf. Bad Remainder: Below average
Breathing: Below average Drafting: Bad
Waves: Navigation: Average
Rounding: Average
T1
Time: 01:10
Performance: Below average
Cap removal: Below average Helmet on/
Suit off:
No
Wetsuit stuck? No Run with bike: Yes
Jump on bike: No
Getting up to speed: Average
Biking
01:03:10 | 24.85 miles | 23.60 mile/hr
Age Group: 1/13
Overall: 1/130
Performance: Good
Wind: Some
Course: Country roads with rolling hills. Back home in WI we would call this a hilly course. By central KY standards, the course was typical, and I doubt anyone around here would call it hilly. Few rough spots in the road, but overall a very nice course. Well marked.
Road: Smooth Dry Cadence:
Turns: Good Cornering: Good
Gear changes: Good Hills: Good
Race pace: Comfortable Drinks: Not enough
T2
Time: 00:42
Overall: Good
Riding w/ feet on shoes
Jumping off bike
Running with bike Good
Racking bike Good
Shoe and helmet removal Good
Running
00:37:13 | 06.21 miles | 05m 59s  min/mile
Age Group: 1/13
Overall: 2/130
Performance: Good
Course: Course was definitely not flat (though a native KY'er might think it was?). There were some steep hills around mile 4 that really put the hurt into me.
Keeping cool Average Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %na
Overall: Average
Mental exertion [1-5] 3
Physical exertion [1-5] 4
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Good
Race evaluation [1-5] 5