14th Annual Long Island Gold Coast Triathlon & Relay - TriathlonSprint


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Port Washington, New York
United States
70F / 21C
Sunny
Total Time = 1h 36m
Overall Rank = 475/734
Age Group = Males 30-34
Age Group Rank = 68/85
Pre-race routine:

Woke up, took my warmup shower, stretched a little bit, drank some Gu20 and ate a hot dog roll with peanut butter and jam. Loaded all of my stuff into the car and arrived there around 6:15.

By 7:15, I had set up my transition, eaten a Powerbar, used the bathroom inside the building (thus bypassing a line for the port-a-potties that I heard could take almost 20 minutes) and was thinking about getting my wetsuit on.
Event warmup:

Swam a quick 25-50 meter warmup and missed my neoprene cap or, at least, a second cap. I'm definitely a sissy when it comes to even relatively cold water!
Swim
  • 17m 53s
  • 800 yards
  • 02m 14s / 100 yards
Comments:

After my last race, I made a point of staying in the back and then heading out wide of the main pack until the first buoy to stay out of the scrum. I wanted to try and control my heart rate as well as get into a good rhythm. It definitely worked and I picked up steam as the race went on, though it did backfire on the last leg when I went careening off course a bit. I probably swam an extra 100 yards by doing all this but it was well worth it after the near panic attack my first open water experience gave me.
What would you do differently?:

Swim more and learn how to sight more naturally. I realized how weak my upper body is compared to the good swimmers in my tri-class so I need to swim much more to improve. I also REALLY disrupt my stroke when I sight and it kills any momentum that I might happen to be carrying.
Transition 1
  • 02m 52s
Comments:

I took my everloving sweet time and once again was amused at how much water stays in my suit until I take it off. The pavement around my area was soaked.
What would you do differently?:

Jog, display a little urgency and keep moving instead of using the time to catch my breath a little. That's what the bike should be for! ;)
Bike
  • 39m 35s
  • 12.2 miles
  • 18.49 mile/hr
Comments:

I found my legs pretty quickly on the bike and tried to put them to use. I figured I might as well play to my strengths and do as much as I could on the bike.

The second lap was kind of frustrating because the later waves were coming out onto the bike course and it got very congested in many places, particularly the turns. Some poor woman even lost her pedal on the first turnaround and the resulting backup nearly caught 4-5 of us (it was a cicus act avoiding the tire of the guy in front of me as two lanes became one partial lane in the turnaround).

The hills were very gradual, for the most part, and I did a fairly decent job of passing people until the last long gradual hill where most of them caught and passed me back (like 5-7 of them...grrr!).
What would you do differently?:

Lose weight, get more time in the saddle and get more fitness! Other than a little too much effort at times, this was as good as it could get for me currently.
Transition 2
  • 02m 15s
Comments:

Since I had to dump my speedlaces, you'd think I would remember to tie my shoes but I didn't. Then I had a little witty reparte with my wife who was yelling at me that I was slower than molasses. Yes, she was right but I couldn't tell her that!
What would you do differently?:

Get more efficient in moving in and out of transition. By simply jogging, I could take quite a bit of time off both of my transitions.
Run
  • 33m 44s
  • 3.01 miles
  • 11m 13s  min/mile
Comments:

I just didn't have it. In the past, when I feel awful, I can do 3 minute runs to 1 minute walks and come in a hair under 10 minute miles. I didn't even have that today. The vast majority of reason for this was because I haven't run much lately and the minority of it was the cold I had this week.
What would you do differently?:

MORE RUN TRAINING AND FITNESS!
Post race
Warm down:

Waddled around with my wife and saw what sort of samples they were handing out. I can never eat at this point so I didn't even bother to check out the post-race spread but I did hear there were bagels.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

My lack of training. Now that my knee is starting to feel better, I need to get at it.

Event comments:

For the number of people at this race, it is fairly well run and newbie friendly. The road is rough and can get crowded in later waves and it isn't the most scenic race but they make the best of what they have to work with.

I doubt any of them will see this but kudos to the TriLatino race team, who were out in full force, to both run and volunteer at the race. Their enthusiasm defintely added to the race and brought a smile to many of our faces.




Last updated: 2010-03-04 12:00 AM
Swimming
00:17:53 | 800 yards | 02m 14s / 100yards
Age Group: 43/85
Overall: 321/734
Performance: Average
Suit: Xterra Vortex 3
Course: A pretty simple out from the beach, right at the first buoy to a second buoy and then right again back to the beach. It was actually nice because there always seemed to be something to the left that I could use to sight with, even in the middle section when we passed by some sort of wooden structure in the water. I believe the time also include a 100 meter run from the water to transition. After jogging the beach portion, I got lazy and walked the last 50 yards on pavement.
Start type: Wade Plus: Waves
Water temp: 64F / 18C Current: Low
200M Perf. Average Remainder: Good
Breathing: Average Drafting: Bad
Waves: Navigation: Below average
Rounding: Good
T1
Time: 02:52
Performance: Average
Cap removal: Good Helmet on/
Suit off:
Yes
Wetsuit stuck? Yes Run with bike: No
Jump on bike: No
Getting up to speed:
Biking
00:39:35 | 12.2 miles | 18.49 mile/hr
Age Group: 50/85
Overall: 292/734
Performance: Good
Wind: Some
Course: How to describe two loops on a 4 lane road with two side trips into industrial park cul de sacs? I guess that will do!
Road: Rough Dry Cadence:
Turns: Below average Cornering: Below average
Gear changes: Good Hills: Average
Race pace: Hard Drinks: Not enough
T2
Time: 02:15
Overall: Below average
Riding w/ feet on shoes Bad
Jumping off bike Bad
Running with bike Bad
Racking bike Average
Shoe and helmet removal Good
Running
00:33:44 | 03.01 miles | 11m 13s  min/mile
Age Group: 79/85
Overall: 659/734
Performance: Below average
Course: I couldn't describe it if I had to. A series of switchbacks in the parking lot, a very short trail portion and then run on the pavement by the water with a hilly detour through part of the park, and back to the "boardwalk" at the end. They made use of just about every sqaure inch of the park for the run and, other than two sandy parts, it was fine.
Keeping cool Average Drinking Not enough
Post race
Weight change: %
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:
Race evaluation [1-5] 3