Clear Lake International Triathlon - Olympic Course - Triathlon


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League City, Texas
United States
Outloud! Productions
85F / 29C
Sunny
Total Time = 2h 35m 45s
Overall Rank = 16/235
Age Group = M30-34
Age Group Rank = 2/28
Pre-race routine:

Ate two honey stinger waffles for breakfast. I was experimenting with eating less solid food and more basic carbs for breakfast after how my stomach felt halfway through the run at Vineman. Not sure it had anything to do with breakfast at Vineman, but I always have a problem "unloading" before a race as my normal time is usually around 8:00.

Got up and parked in the dark and had to set the bike up (can't drive with the rear disc cover on due to the rack). Got that all finished with only a few mosquito bites in the process.
Event warmup:

Not really any warm up. The water is disgusting, probably the grossest thing I have ever swam in, so I was not going to spend any more time than I needed to in there.
Swim
  • 31m 42s
  • 1500 meters
  • 02m 07s / 100 meters
Comments:

This was the nastiest water I have ever been in. It tasted like a combination of salt, fish and a turd with burnt hair. I tried as hard as I could to keep water out of my mouth but it didn't work so well. Luckily I managed to minimize the amount of water I drank. I imagine drinking that much sewer water would really set you up for a crappy race.
What would you do differently?:

Swim faster and let less poop water in my mouth.
Transition 1
  • 01m 27s
Comments:

Pretty solid T1 for me. This was the first time I tried the rubber band thing to keep my shoes level. Running out of T1 I got on the bike pretty quick (no flying mount). When I pushed down on the left shoe the rubber band on the right shoe snapped so that was no longer level. It didn't take any effort to get my foot on the top of the shoe and start pedaling though.
What would you do differently?:

Not break the rubber band before the race. When I was setting my bike up I broke one of the rubber bands and had no spares so I had to tie to together.
Bike
  • 1h 10m 57s
  • 28.58 miles
  • 24.44 mile/hr
Comments:

I was planning on holding 250-260W normalized power. I went a little above that due to some skirmishes on the bike. There were three guys in a straight up pace line that I blew by. About 5 minutes later they came by me, the guy in the back then proceeded to come over into the side of me (if I hadn't moved we would have exchanged paint). I told him to give me some room to which he promptly replied you should drop back 3 bike lengths. Which I retorted "I will when you make your pass within 15 seconds." The three of them passed me and then slowed down immediately. I was holding a constant power +/- 5W this whole time, so I knew they were drafting to pass me and then were not able to hold that power. It was super fucking annoying because then, so I wasn't cheating, was forced to drop back and wait to pass again. I went to pass the entire group of them again (at 255W, so it's not like they were even close to my speed). I passed all three of them within 15 seconds. At this point I was really watching my computer to make sure I wasn't being the one in the wrong. I will admit that maybe I was being petty, but at least I wasn't in the wrong. About 5 minutes after I passed the group they came up again (in a straight up TdF pace line, like 6-12" between wheels) and passed me. Then I told the asshole in back (the one that almost hit me) "Nice pace line you got going there." Of course there was no response.

The guy in the back of the pace line ended up winning his AG, and if I had been more of a dick I would have called him out on it. But I really didn't care that much once all was said and done. I don't understand why he rode like that in the first place though. He puled out a good time on the run, but maybe that was just because he was drafting the entire bike.

Either way, I ended up having a really good bike based on how I felt. There were tons of people on the course to pick off, so it is always kind of a mental booster to pass people even if they aren't in your AG or anything.
What would you do differently?:

Not get caught up in people cheating since it put a lot of spikes in my power profile and likely fatigued my legs a bit for the run.
Transition 2
  • 02m 7s
Comments:

Running with the bike went much better than the other times I have left my shoes clipped in. I lifted the bike up where needed to avoid my shoes smashing into the ground (a shoe fell out of my pedal at a different tri when that happened).

Got to my rack and decided to rack by the brake levers, which was a mistake, again. The aerobottle sits low enough that both brake levers can't hook the bar but I always try to make it straight for some OCD reason. I gave up on that after a few tries and just started getting my run stuff on. The fumbling with the bike probably cost me 15-20 seconds.

Got all my run gear on pretty quickly with the exception of one sock that went on kind of crooked and I had to straighten it out. Started heading out of T2 and noticed I forgot my garmin on the bike. I ran back to get it which probably cost me another 10-15 seconds. I might have been able to run a bit faster if I had left it on there though.

Overall I think I could shave 30-40 seconds off of this transition after a bit more practice.
Run
  • 49m 32s
  • 6.2 miles
  • 08m 02s  min/mile
Comments:

Felt ok on the run. I did a brick a week or two ago where I did 250W for an hour (on the trainer) followed by 7:30/mi for 3 miles. I felt really good on that brick so I figured I would be able to do similar today. Unfortunately I just couldn't get my legs turning over during the run. My Avg. HR was a little lower than I would have liked, so I probably could have stepped it up a bit to bring that up closer to my LTHR. Overall though I was only about 2 minutes shy of my open 10k, so not too bad.

I don't know if the spikes on the bike affected my run or if I mentally affected my run. It seems like the 8:30/mi pace is just a comfortable pace for me so it is easy to settle into it. I didn't feel bad at the end of the race so I definitely could have pushed more on the run, but I just can't figure out how to actually do that.
What would you do differently?:

Run faster obviously. Try to figure out how to make myself hurt enough that I am improving my time, but not hurt enough that I am going to blow up before the end.
Post race
Warm down:

Crossed the finished line and got a water bottle. Then I saw that they had ice baths and jumped in. First time getting in an ice bath after a race and it was super nice. My HR went from 160ish down to 110 in less than 2 minutes. And as I am typing this up the morning after, my legs are not very sore at all (although maybe that is because I sandbagged the run?).

What limited your ability to perform faster:

I lost a decent amount of time on the swim (coming in dead MOP) but then also gave up some time on the run. I should have been able to hold at least 8:00/mi.

Also, I need to start racking my bike by the seat so avoid the aerobottle issue (or change aerobottles).

Event comments:

Awards was terrible. They announced that they were going to start awards when I was in the middle of packing up transition. I stopped what I was doing to go there thinking they were actually going to start. They kept delaying it by "10 minutes" until it was ultimately an hour and a half late. I didn't really care about the time, but I did care that when they finally got to M30-34 and I got my award, unbeknownst to me, they had already started tearing down transition. When I got back to transition there were a handful of bikes left with no fences up. Nothing of mine got stolen, but it is annoying to come back and see that the people who are supposed to be in charge of ensuring $10s of k's of bikes are safe are completely ignoring them.

Other than that, the race was really well run. Although I will reiterate, that marina is like swimming in a sewer.




Last updated: 2013-07-30 12:00 AM
Swimming
00:31:42 | 1500 meters | 02m 07s / 100meters
Age Group: 14/28
Overall: 0/235
Performance: Average
Suit: Tri Top/Bottoms
Course: Rectangle-ish.
Start type: Deep Water Plus: Waves
Water temp: 85F / 29C Current: Low
200M Perf. Average Remainder: Average
Breathing: Average Drafting: Below average
Waves: Good Navigation: Below average
Rounding: Good
T1
Time: 01:27
Performance: Good
Cap removal: Good Helmet on/
Suit off:
No
Wetsuit stuck? No Run with bike: Yes
Jump on bike: Yes
Getting up to speed: Good
Biking
01:10:57 | 28.58 miles | 24.44 mile/hr
Age Group: 3/28
Overall: 0/235
Performance: Good
Avg. HR 149 Avg. Power 257W Norm. Power 267W
Wind: Some
Course: Loop course around clear lake.
Road: Smooth Dry Cadence: 84
Turns: Good Cornering: Good
Gear changes: Average Hills: Good
Race pace: Hard Drinks: Just right
T2
Time: 02:07
Overall: Below average
Riding w/ feet on shoes Good
Jumping off bike Good
Running with bike Good
Racking bike Average
Shoe and helmet removal Average
Running
00:49:32 | 06.2 miles | 08m 02s  min/mile
Age Group: 3/28
Overall: 0/235
Performance: Average
Avg. HR 160 Avg. Cadence 88
Course: 3 loop course around the marina
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: Below average
Race evaluation [1-5] 3