Deuces Wild Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic


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Show Low, Arizona
United States
TriSportsRacing
80F / 27C
Sunny
Total Time = 2h 40m 37s
Overall Rank = 48/163
Age Group = 45-49
Age Group Rank = 7/26
Pre-race routine:

Slept like a baby the night before- and enjoyed the late (8am) start. Woke up at 5:40, Had coffee, a banana, energy bar and some energy drink. Well hydrated and topped off prior to the race. Not nervous in the least. I guess that comes with not really caring how you place, but only going out to have fun. It's just a morning of exercise- but this one's catered :)

Tied a florescent pink ribbon on the end of my bike rack. Laid out my goodies on orange towel. all set!
Event warmup:

Rode bike 4 miles from hotel to race start- that was a decent warmup. Then- got in the water for a few hundred yards. Water temp was in the mid 60's. Really nice. Perfect, in fact, if wet-suit clad.
Swim
  • 24m 13s
  • 1640 yards
  • 01m 29s / 100 yards
Comments:

The start was a mixmaster since there wasn't much room between the dock and the shore, so it was pretty crowded. Arms and legs everywhere- all seeming to be punching me. Things thinned out a bit after the 1st couple hundred yards and then I was on a constant search for someone to draft. Had mixed results with this, as by this point anyone I wanted to draft was way ahead of me. So, I caught some short rides and jumped from one person to the next as I climbed my way out of the mess. Once I saw the end in sight, I realized that I probably spent more energy searching for a draft than I did swimming, so I ignored others and headed towards the finish with 80% effort.

I watched the wetsuit strippers working the deuceman race prior, and noticed that some of the kids weren't very quick. So, I ran right by them to the adult strippers and whipped my suit off in a few seconds. Nice. Still, quite a steep little jog up a hill to the transition area.
What would you do differently?:

I've taken this tact where I let everyone else go first, as I don't want to be in the starting gate fray. However, I seem to be pulling out some good swims. 4th in age group and 21st overall out of 250ish. Perhaps I should expend some energy at the beginning to get out in front and grab onto the tail of a faster swimmer.
Transition 1
  • 03m 2s
Comments:

Uphill run out of the lake. I did this at a pretty slow jog to relax and this probably cost me 10 sec or so.

glasses, helmet, garmin watch, cliff blocks, socks, shoes, grab bike and run. I leave my bike gloves attached to my handle bars and put them on during the ride- which works just fine.
T1 seems to take a long time. I was 15th out of 26 in age group. not stellar.
The pink ribbon marking my bike rack really helped!
What would you do differently?:

I need to take a full minute off my transition. Not sure how. I guess I need to work on leaving my shoes in my pedals. The, there was the normal garmin 405 fiddling to get it to start as I left the gate. Failed miserably at that one, as I forgot to reset it from the morning warmup ride, and I was resetting it after the start.
Bike
  • 1h 20m 19s
  • 24.85 miles
  • 18.56 mile/hr
Comments:

This is become a pattern for me. My swim is better than my bike, so I get on the bike and people just pass me one after the other. I'm just amazed at the speed they go by me. But, I just hold my effort under threshold and keep on pedaling. There's plenty of opportunity to blow up on the ride and I kept it reigned in. Maybe too much?

I did fine with hydration and consumption. Went through almost 2 water bottles each filled with half XOOD, a full pack of cliff blocks, and one gel. So that was all good.
What would you do differently?:

1. Much more saddle time.
2. some aero equipment

Put sign on my ass: "Yeah, but I beat you on the swim." for the riders blowing by me.
Transition 2
  • 01m 40s
Comments:

I thought about pulling my feet out of the shoes at the transition point, but even though I had unclipped the main strap, my feet didn't come out quickly, so I snapped out of my cleats and ran with my cycling shoes on again- not the speediest. Bike on rack, helmet off, cycling shoes off, running shoes on, grab my race belt, almost forget to ditch the cycling gloves, and I was off.
What would you do differently?:

I think if I practice the order in which I remove helmet, gloves, put on sneakers and grab my race belt, it could go faster. I did fiddle with my Garmin some more at this transition as well. I'd be better off ignoring it.
Run
  • 51m 21s
  • 6.21 miles
  • 08m 16s  min/mile
Comments:

8:16 pace. Not stellar, but given the altitude, heat, trails and hills, I guess OK. I wasn't feeling too fresh after the bike ride. It was warm and sunny, so I stopped long enough at each water station to drink a little and pour water all over myself. That really worked well to keep me cool. Mostly a very pretty run on trails around the lake and through the campground. One long straight stretch on a rough gravely road. I passed quite a few runners along the way and was feeling reasonably good. Felt even better to pass a bunch of people who passed me earlier on the bike. No concern about making it, only how fast. Nothing was hurting, I was hydrated, fed and moving, just not quite as fast as I know I'm capable. But, had a smile on my face the whole way.

After the 5mi point I thought about picking up the pace, but I didn't have too much left in me to sustain any kind of attack. Plus at this point, there wasn't a soul in sight behind me or in front of me to go after. Then there's this nice little hill at 5.25 miles that takes some wind out of your sails. So, I held pace, then saved enough to look and feel strong the final 1/3 mile
What would you do differently?:

heck- I don't know. Maybe I shouldn't have done a sprint Tri 5 days earlier and a 10K run 3 days prior. My legs weren't ready for an 'A' level performance on this run.
Post race
Warm down:

Drank 4 cups of Fluid, which I liked better than Endurox.
it was an unusually warm day, so took a swim in the lake. Ahhhh- that felt refreshing.

The included mexican food lunch looked pretty horrible to me. I stuck with the fruit, peanut butter and bananas, and an energy bar. Hung around for a while and met some folks, waited for the results to be posted, awards ceremony, gathered my stuff and rode back to the hotel to chill for a couple hours before the evening festivities and raffle.

Evening dinner (not included) was spaghetti and meatballs, salad and garlic bread. Nothing special. They had marinara sauce for we veggies, but then there was no protein in the meal.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Lack of a real training plan, and still being fatigued from the previous 5 days.

Event comments:

This is a terrific Tri festival. Everything was beautifully executed and the scenery and courses were terrific. Given the altitude, terrain and climbs, this isn't the easiest Tri, but it's up there on the fun scale. Having 4 different Tri's in the weekend really makes it a 'happening'.

The raffle prizes were over the top incredible... even though I didn't win a damn thing and others went home with thousands of dollars worth of tri-booty. The technical t-shirt was pretty nice and in the schwag bag there was a nice little under-helmet beanie for cold weather rides. Oh, they ran out of finisher medals if you were in the bottom half- not sure why.

The Tucson tri club treated me to a great evening dinner at their campsite. Thanks Leo!


Profile Album


Last updated: 2010-06-02 12:00 AM
Swimming
00:24:13 | 1640 yards | 01m 29s / 100yards
Age Group: 4/26
Overall: 21/163
Performance: Good
Suit: Orca Sonar Fullsleeve
Course: Course? Was there a course? I just followed everyone else until I saw a buoy nearby, rounded it, and kept on following. The lake temp was perfect, water tasted clean, murky with visibility ~2-3ft. Minimal chop, no waves, nice for swimming.
Start type: Deep Water Plus: Shot
Water temp: 64F / 18C Current: Low
200M Perf. Remainder:
Breathing: Drafting: Average
Waves: Navigation:
Rounding:
T1
Time: 03:02
Performance: Below average
Cap removal: Good Helmet on/
Suit off:
Wetsuit stuck? No Run with bike: Yes
Jump on bike: No
Getting up to speed: Below average
Biking
01:20:19 | 24.85 miles | 18.56 mile/hr
Age Group: 11/26
Overall: 80/163
Performance: Average
Wind: Little
Course: Nice course. Plenty of up and down with some nice climbs and required a fair amount of shifting. It felt like a long way before I saw that 10mi sign, and then a minute or two before I realized I wasn't half way yet. At 134lbs, hill climbing is the only stretch where people didn't pass me. So, when I saw that long climb ahead and a steady stream of bikes going up it, I was smiling. Hah! those fancy TT bikes can't help you now! They had a H20 bottle exchange at the top of the hill, but I had enough with me. Also- I would be too cheap to give up one of my nice insulated $10 water bottles. The course was well marked and pretty- but not closed off to traffic. So, there were often cars whizzing by. When coming back into the Town of Show Low, down the main drag, there were cones set up to create a bike lane for us. nevertheless, right in front of me some old lady made a right turn through them and nailed a fellow rider with her SUV. He was getting up and checking himself over when I rode by- the police at the corner were summoned and right there in a minute.
Road: Smooth Dry Cadence:
Turns: Cornering:
Gear changes: Hills:
Race pace: Drinks:
T2
Time: 01:40
Overall: Average
Riding w/ feet on shoes
Jumping off bike
Running with bike Below average
Racking bike Average
Shoe and helmet removal Average
Running
00:51:21 | 06.21 miles | 08m 16s  min/mile
Age Group: 6/26
Overall: 26/163
Performance: Below average
Course: The 1st part of the course was on a dirt path around the lake- very pretty. Then onto some curving campground roads under the pines which was nice. Then we got sent down this long straight barren rocky dirt road which wasn't the best part, but it was an out and back so you got to see your friends along the way. Then there's a hill right at the end- so make sure you save a little.
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Good
Mental exertion [1-5]
Physical exertion [1-5]
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