Buffalo Triathlon - TriathlonSprint


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Buffalo, Minnesota
United States
75F / 24C
Sunny
Total Time = 1h 28m 30s
Overall Rank = 361/590
Age Group = F 30-39
Age Group Rank = 51/98
Pre-race routine:

We arrived in town the night before and went to listen to Chris Legh speak at the packet pickup session. That was pretty cool. We then made the critical error of going out to dinner and eating WAY too much. Ugh. Not smart...at all.

Anyway, race morning got up and had toast with pb, 1 boiled egg, and a sports shake. (This was a new prerace meal for me and it seemed to work well.) We only had to drive about two miles to the site, and arrived plenty early enough to get an ok spot on the racks and get bodymarked. I was having issues with my aerobars, so I spent some time with the guy from Erik's Bike Shop trying to get that fixed, and then met up with the BT crew before the race. Great group!
Event warmup:

After the prerace meeting, I put on the wetsuit and got in the water. I wanted to get a longer than normal warm up in since I usually don't do much at all. I probably swam about 500 yards or so, with some being sprints, so that was pretty good.
Swim
  • 06m 57s
  • 440 yards
  • 01m 35s / 100 yards
Comments:

I was pretty happy with this swim. This is a personal best OWS pace for me. I tried to sprint out from shore to get away from the crowd, but that was nearly impossible because there were so many people in the water. I have to say that I prefer single gender waves, but oh well.
What would you do differently?:

Nothing really. I never felt like I got into a good groove on the swim (and certainly didn't draft) because it was a short course with a lot of people on it (waves of 50 spaced 2 minutes apart), but I'm not sure what I could have done to help that.
Transition 1
  • 03m 5s
Comments:

Like last year, it's a pretty long uphill jog from the beach to the T area. I had some trouble getting my wetsuit off of one leg, but not terrible.
What would you do differently?:

Practice getting that wetsuit off in a hurry. It often gets caught on my timing chip, so I have to practice yanking it off hard enough to clear the chip.
Bike
  • 46m 52s
  • 12 miles
  • 15.36 mile/hr
Comments:

I was afraid I would lose time on the bike compared to last year, and I was right. I haven't spent a ton of time on the bike in training, for one thing, and also, last year I rode a hybrid which is geared lower and better for hills. I wasn't too much slower than last year, but this is where the difference was in my overall time being about a minute slower than last year's. Also, there was a pretty good headwind for the last couple miles which didn't help either.

Cool though--I was in the last mile of the bike course and got passed by Chris Legh like I wasn't even moving. He was flying!

(As an aside, both this year and last, my bike computer had the course at closer to 13 miles than 12, and two other racers in the T areas were saying the same thing, but the official course distance is 12 miles, so I'm using that. UPDATE: After reading all the other reports from this race, it seems to pretty much be the consensus that the bike course is actually almost 13 miles, so it's not just whiny me. :) )
What would you do differently?:

I MUST find more hills to train on, and then I just need to ride more!
Transition 2
  • 01m 39s
Comments:

Fairly straight forward transition. No real issues.
What would you do differently?:

Still need to get speed laces. I actually bought them the other day, but didn't want to use them for the first time in a race. Next time!
Run
  • 30m
  • 3 miles
  • 10m  min/mile
Comments:

I was hoping to get around 10 minute miles, and ended up with exactly that. About 5 seconds slower than last year's run, but the fairly strong wind off the lake more than accounts for that, I think. It got passed by Natascha Badmann in the first half mile of the run. Very cool to have pros on the course.

The best part of this whole run is that I didn't feel the IT band one bit. Not one bit! Woo hoo!
What would you do differently?:

Keep working on the evolution running stuff. I think it's helping, albeit slowly
Post race
Warm down:

The usual nothing. I really should stretch, but I never do. I'm always just dying to find some water.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Bike training

Event comments:

This is a fun, well run, challenging race. I'm disappointed that I added time and dropped in rank compared to last year, but that just means I'll have to go back next year and do better! :) So nice to see all the BTers!




Last updated: 2006-01-30 12:00 AM
Swimming
00:06:57 | 440 yards | 01m 35s / 100yards
Age Group: 10/98
Overall: 91/590
Performance: Good
Suit: Pro Motion sleeveless
Course: (I don't know what the water temp was; I'm guessing. I thought it was perfect though.) Out from shore, turn left at the buoy, then parallel to the shore for a while, turn at the second yellow duck, and then back in to shore.
Start type: Wade Plus: Waves
Water temp: 72F / 22C Current: Medium
200M Perf. Good Remainder: Good
Breathing: Average Drafting: Below average
Waves: Average Navigation: Good
Rounding: Average
T1
Time: 03:05
Performance: Average
Cap removal: Average Helmet on/
Suit off:
No
Wetsuit stuck? Yes Run with bike: Yes
Jump on bike: No
Getting up to speed: Average
Biking
00:46:52 | 12 miles | 15.36 mile/hr
Age Group: 52/98
Overall: 377/590
Performance:
Wind: Some
Course: Big loop around Lake Buffalo. Fairly hilly course, at least by my standard. :)
Road: Smooth Dry Cadence:
Turns: Average Cornering: Average
Gear changes: Average Hills: Average
Race pace: Hard Drinks: Too much
T2
Time: 01:39
Overall: Average
Riding w/ feet on shoes
Jumping off bike
Running with bike Average
Racking bike Average
Shoe and helmet removal Average
Running
00:30:00 | 03 miles | 10m  min/mile
Age Group: 64/98
Overall: 439/590
Performance: Good
Course: Pretty flat out and back course along the lake.
Keeping cool Average Drinking Just right
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: Good
Race evaluation [1-5] 5