Redman Full Distance Triathlon - Triathlon


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Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
United States
RedMan Triathlon
79F / 26C
Sunny
Total Time = 13h 39m 41s
Overall Rank = 85/158
Age Group = F2529
Age Group Rank = 2/7
Pre-race routine:

Drove up to OKC on Thurs afternoon and stayed with BFF and her husband on Thurs night. Slept in, then did a quick day-before-race session of 10-10-10 but skipped the run since my achilles bursitis was bothering me. Turned out to be all mental since I never felt it on race day. Fri night had my typical pre-race meal of chicken fried rice from PFChangs and turned in to the hotel early.

Slept OK - woke up a few times in the middle of the night worried I'd overslept the 3 alarms I set. Got about 7 to 7-7/12 hours sleep and woke up feeling fine.

Grande latte, 1-1/2 packets oatmeal, and a half scoop of protein powder for breakfast. 1/2 GU before swim start.
Event warmup:

Forgot my timing chip (who forgets their timing chip at an IM?) so had to run to get it. No swim warmup allowed, so guess that was good enough!
Swim
  • 1h 29m 6s
  • 4224 yards
  • 02m 07s / 100 yards
Comments:

Started in the back because the last few tris I have done have started with my chest tightening up in the cold water. Fortunately or unfortunately, the water was warm enough for this one that I simply penalized myself unnecessarily by starting in the back. I swam through the masses diagonally by making a beeline for the buoy line, which I then hugged rather perfectly for the rest of the swim.

Checked my watch at the start of the second loop - 42:45 which meant despite the slowdown at the beginning, I was well on my way to meeting my goal of 1:25ish.

Swam calm and tried to be as efficient as possible.

Got out of the water and looked at my watch, which read 1:28:xx. That's one hell of a positive split.
What would you do differently?:

After ruminating on this for the last week, I think it comes down directly to the low number of swims longer than 2500m during training. I simply didn't train my body to swim 3800m at the same pace as the first half. Even though I never felt like I was slowing down or struggling nor did I start off too fast, I simply didn't have the long-distance swim fitness needed to prevent my pace from slowing.

I did masters 2-3x/week (more like 2x/week until the last 6 weeks, then consistently 3x/week) this season, whereas last season I swam by myself. I really thought the drills and technique would help with overall speed this season, but I was only 2-1/2 minutes faster than CdA. Even more disappointingly, my 1.2 mile split was 42:45, which means my second lap was 46:21. That's a ridiculous positive split. I think I overestimated the benefit of lots of interval/drill training and frequency per week and underestimated the amount of 3500-4000m swims I should have been doing. In looking at my training log, I only did 3 3000m swims and only 1 4000m. While I still think masters has made me a better swimmer, you can't cheat the distance. This would be like only doing 75mile long rides and wondering why I got really tired at the end of the 112 miles on the bike.

I think my overall swimming has improved from last year, but you can't cheat distance in training.

Next year, I plan to still do masters and will try to get in 3x/week minimum, but 1 of those swims per week needs to be 3500+m for the last 6 weeks of the plan, maybe even longer. Shorter, harder, more frequent swims does not outweigh the importance of teaching the body to stay fresh til the very end by practicing the distance in training. I also plan to do more OWS, not because I am uncomfortable in the lake but because I think I subconsciously swim more slowly, so I'll need to work on that.
Transition 1
  • 05m 58s
Comments:

Pretty solid T1 for me. Full change. Didn't waste any time.
What would you do differently?:

Remember to reapply sunscreen to my face!
Bike
  • 6h 40m 44s
  • 112 miles
  • 16.77 mile/hr
Comments:

Overall, I performed about as my training indicated. Most training rides were done on similar terrain, with avg paces of 17-17.5, not including stops. I rode about a 17 including 1 longer-than-it-should-have-been stop.

While I'd like to pretend that I just had an off day, I didn't. This was about what I did in training. There is no "magical speed" on race day with the same equipment and conditions.

That being said, I performed in accordance with my training. Had no major issues. So I think that's the definition of a "good" ride, even if I wish it had been faster.
What would you do differently?:

Overall lack of fitness got me here. Due to work and life, I had a hard time making weeknight rides, so I did 90% of my weekday rides on the trainer. That's fine and dandy if I was nailing every session, but I wasn't. I hit every long ride but skipped the shorter ones when I had to. I had a decent base built up over the winter, but I didn't put in enough maintenance rides/hours to maintain/improve it.

Next year, I need to make the bike the focus. IMMT will be an unforgiving bike course if not properly trained, and I really need to work on hills. I think all the trainer time (without focus on hills) really hurt my hill climbing ability. That and the 8 extra lbs I was carrying on me on race day...

I also need to work on some sort of pacing. I do really well when riding with a slightly faster friend that can pace me, but I shy off going "too fast" when I'm feeling good for fear it will bring on a bonk later. I'm too cheap to buy a PM but I have a HRM that I just need to start using. Plan is to get tested in a month or so to find out my zones and then use those to train with next year (with a retest at the beginning of build if necessary).

I also need to do several 105-110 mi long rides rather than stopping at 95-100. The last 20 miles were tough mentally. It wasn't that my legs were tired so much as it was that I didn't want to be on my bike anymore.

Transition 2
  • 09m 2s
Comments:

Yeah, I have no idea what i was doing here. Having afternoon tea? There was no one in the changing tent except a super friendly volunteer, and I think I was so happy to be done with the bike that I just took it easy.

Also did a porta-potty stop here.
What would you do differently?:

Move with a purpose! In no world should your T2 be almost 2x as long as T1!!!
Run
  • 5h 14m 52s
  • 26.2 miles
  • 12m 01s  min/mile
Comments:

Once again, how crappy a runner I am shows in my AG rank.

Had an OK run but had some GI distress that made for several stops and affected my overall time.

Fought motivation issues. Smaller races means less people to run/talk with and it got kind of lonely out there. I simply was ready to be done (mentally) after the 2nd loop. A 4 loop run course is kind of cruel.
What would you do differently?:

This is the area I thought would improve significantly over last year, and it did, but not as much as I would have liked. That is due in part to achilles bursitis, which snuck up and hit me over the head with a 2x4 in early August. Fortunately, it healed pretty quickly but I missed 3 long runs and all the maintenance runs in between. And if I'm going to be honest, the maintenance runs even before the injury got skipped more often than they should have.

Pace-wise, I performed approximately as good as could be expected. My pace was hovering around a 10:45/mi before injury and was more like 11:00/mi after injury (and all that time off). I made 3 bathroom stops on the run, so if we approximate those at 45 seconds each (which is conservative - I think they took a little longer than that), my actual run pace for the marathon was 11:55/mi. I've read that it's generally considered a well-executed run if it is no more than 10% slower than a stand-alone marathon, this run was 8% slower than my 11:00/mi after injury best average pace and about 11% slower than my 10:45/mi before-injury best average pace. So, I'm going to consider this a good run and remember that trying to match my fresh-legs pace (although when are your legs ever fresh when IM training!??!) is not something I should be aiming for. That being said, if I can't run my "fresh-legs" pace during an IM marathon, I need to increase my speed in training so that a 10% slower pace would still be acceptable to me.

The biggest 2 things I can do to improve my running is to lose the 20# that would put me at the low-end of a healthy weight (but still a healthy weight) and improve my consistency. The first part can be achieved in the off-season with focus, and the second part should be cleared up with a shorter training plan that I can devote 100% to.
Post race
Warm down:

Waited for husband and friends who missed the finish again, then got stuff out of transition. Went out for dinner but wasn't all that hungry.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Training.

And maybe race execution. I felt pretty "ok" afterwards... not like I left everything I had out there. Maybe that's a good thing, but it seems like I should have felt worse afterwards.

Things to work on for IMMT (and racing in general):

30 weeks is too long for me to follow a plan. I start out incredibly motivated, bounce out of bed in the mornings, and follow everything to a T. Then sometime about 50-75% in, I start to lose steam. I'm going to try a 20 week plan for IMMT next year. The 12 weeks or so before the plan starts will still have the usual swim-bike-run but I'm not going to closely track mileage. Hopefully that will allow me to avoid the burnout.

Event comments:

Redman puts on a top notch race. Only issue I have is with the lack of lights during the run.






Last updated: 2012-12-21 12:00 AM
Swimming
01:29:06 | 4224 yards | 02m 07s / 100yards
Age Group: 3/7
Overall: 0/158
Performance: Average
Suit:
Course: Rectangular along shoreline
Start type: Wade Plus:
Water temp: 76F / 24C Current: Low
200M Perf. Good Remainder: Average
Breathing: Good Drafting: Average
Waves: Good Navigation: Good
Rounding: Good
T1
Time: 05:58
Performance: Good
Cap removal: Good Helmet on/
Suit off:
Yes
Wetsuit stuck? No Run with bike: Yes
Jump on bike: No
Getting up to speed: Good
Biking
06:40:44 | 112 miles | 16.77 mile/hr
Age Group: 2/7
Overall: 0/158
Performance: Good
Wind: Headwind
Course: 2 loops, somewhat of an out-and-back. No noticeable wind for the first loop, then had a slight tailwind/cross wind on the out and a headwind on the back.
Road: Rough Dry Cadence:
Turns: Good Cornering: Good
Gear changes: Good Hills: Below average
Race pace: Comfortable Drinks: Just right
T2
Time: 09:02
Overall: Bad
Riding w/ feet on shoes
Jumping off bike
Running with bike Good
Racking bike Good
Shoe and helmet removal
Running
05:14:52 | 26.2 miles | 12m 01s  min/mile
Age Group: 5/7
Overall: 0/158
Performance: Average
Course: Flat, flat, flat. 4 loops, minimal shade and almost NO lights after dark. Running in the dark by myself was not fun.
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall:
Mental exertion [1-5]
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: Average
Race evaluation [1-5] 5