Rev3 Quassy - Half Rev - Triathlon


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Middlebury, Connecticut
United States
Revolution 3
72F / 22C
Sunny
 		Total Time = 6h 02m 58s
Overall Rank = 323/745
Age Group = 50-54M
Age Group Rank = 23/58
Pre-race routine:

challenging start to this race...forgot ice for my drinks on the run, forgot my premixed feed bottle and didn't eat a full breakfast 3 hrs prior, like I usually do...stomach felt full and bloated from drinking and 'staying hydrated' early on and that was foreshadowing for sure

was able to get up/shower/eat a little something and drive there on time-but with no support from the fam-as there were some last minute changes-such is life
(neither of my kids could/wanted to go and DW was at DS1's soccer game)

so I felt a bit stressed and didn't have my support group, which may have affected me a bit
Event warmup:

swam for only about 3 minutes-much less than normal, but this was not going to be a normal race

It was about 55 degrees around the start of the race. 61 Degrees on the bike and 72 degrees on the run.

66 degree water only felt a tiny bit cool to me
Swim
  • 39h 12m
  • 2112 yards
  • 1h 51m 22s / 100 yards
Comments:

(Ironic that this was my finishing rank also...)

Swam pretty well by myself, but I need to learn to trust other fast feet (and find them) or do it myself. Should have noted what color cap was in front of me, as when I came upon any of the yellow men, they must be really slow to let me catch them.

All ladies were behind me in the waves, so I could gauge how speedy they were based on where on the course the fast-women fish passed me.
And I couldn't stay on any of their feet...although I did try once.

Fairly happy with this result, especially as I did VERY little swimming in training-but did a few OWS in the past week, which helped my confidence in the water a lot

Did well to not freak out-the swim is my most challenging part of the tri, and it was my best today

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/511951895
What would you do differently?:

not follow the directionless dude in my AG
stay with the pack in the middle and use the group current-even if not right on any feet
stay relaxed, rather than continue to swim on the periphery on my own
Transition 1
  • 03m 27s
Comments:

Well, I tried to put on my left arm tatoo in T1, as it usually comes totally off when removing the wetsuit. I tried but didn't even get it done, so I just left it there, and added 30s to my time

Still moved up in transition-passed 2 people in my AG and 16 people overall

At least this year, I knew which way the bike and run entrance/exits were-HA!

Grrrrrrr-I can do better than that
What would you do differently?:

Not put on the stupid tattoo
Bike
  • 3h 13m 13s
  • 56 miles
  • 17.39 mile/hr
Comments:

My 5 mile splits:
16:33/18:02/18:20/14:26
16:39/22:29/18:44/15:14
16:20/16:04/16:49/5:04(?6mi)
I did mess up the splits a bit as I was using 'Multisport' for the first time in a race, and I had to remember to hit the lap button only once
(and remember to put the thing on and off the bike)

AP=184 (no power last year)
NP=197
VI=1.07 UG
IF=0.84
AV HR=140 (last year was 130)
based on estimated new CP/FTP of 235 by last minute 20min test-which is usually an overestimate until the 5 min test brings it down a bit, so 225 is reasonable...

my goal was AP of 190 and NP of 205, so not too terrible on the power numbers, and wanted my HR to be 138-140, so not so far off either

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/511951903
What would you do differently?:

I just don't know yet...I think my pacing was reasonable as I could have run well, if my stomach didn't act up. Didn't feel that I 'overbiked' it and was very disappointed with the actual time as I thought I would be closer to 3:00-3:05.

Power goal seemed ok, time not so ok. Gonna think on this a while...could have been a lot of little things.

I will spin a much higher cadence next time and will put the 11/28 on if I do this again.
Inflate my tires appropriately.
Work on spinning efficiently and staying aero, but back spasms were unforeseen and a totally new problem
Transition 2
  • 01m 45s
Comments:

this was going really well, until I tried again to put that stupid tattoo on
It cost me about 20 seconds

got passed by one in my AG and passed 9 people overall, so it wasn't as bad as I thought it was
What would you do differently?:

you know what I'm gong to say...'No tattoo!'
Run
  • 2h 05m 20s
  • 13.1 miles
  • 09m 34s  min/mile
Comments:

my stomach hurt so bad that I almost stopped-decided to do something never done-find a rest stop; the first 2 port-a-potties were taken, so I just kept on jogging, slower each mile, until the relief finally came at the end of the K Swiss mile with an open BR, making mile 5 = 11:30 pace-woo hoo!

2.5 minutes added for 'nonrunning activites'

the peak in my HR at the very end of the race-last few minutes, showed that I sprinted the last bit of energy out of me

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/511951908
What would you do differently?:

get this GI distress/nutrition thing figured out
(or not do LC triathlon any more-this sh*t hurts...)

train more-yeah, that

Post race
Warm down:

Ice cold towel helps a lot, otherwise I sat and got stiff.
Felt a bit queasy and took some time before going over for a hot dog. Food was not as good, even though it was the same stuff.

I looked around for Dave and Chris...and the other BT clan, but didn't see anyone...so I bought myself a beer and then went home to shower and get cleaned up.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

so many things...

Event comments:

the Rev 3 did another stellar job at being there for athlete's. I must say I was surprised by the number of bike mechanicals I saw out on the course-LOTS of flats, more than the last 2 years I did this.

I counted the DNF list from the website and there were almost 100 people with DNF. A few DNS and a rare DQ.

I love the challenge of this race and the hills of the bike and run are what make it great. I was happy with how I pressed until I had very little left. Spiked my heart rate sprinting past the guy in my AG who I went back and forth for hours-both on the bike and the run.

Lots to improve on-still...no surprise there.

No pros this year, so I think the field was a bit smaller too.


Profile Album


Last updated: 2014-02-08 12:00 AM
Swimming
39:12:00 | 2112 yards | 1h 51m 22s / 100yards
Age Group: 23/58
Overall: 323/745
Performance: Average
I did remember to wear the tinted goggles and put a drop of baby shapoo on the inside of the goggles, rinsing only lightly and never got any fog on them swam the first lap in 12:17/second in 12:40 all on my own in a nice relaxed swim cadence and sighting reasonably well (and much faster than last year) ...then I made the first of many bad decisions on the day--the final segment was over 14 minutes I tried to follow someone who had the same color cap as me on that final leg. BAD bad choice, he was slow and kept veering off course and briefly stopping. I felt very relaxed and thought that this was good as I was saving energy, but my guesstimates of time showed that I was really slow, based on the 0.1mile buoy markers. So, I'd try to go past him and he'd speed up! Great. Wasted energy and silly. I did remember to swim until you can touch the ground as the water is somewhat clear at the finish and you can see down 5 feet but can't stand up until 5 or 6 feet from the shore
Suit: full helix
Course: Inverted trangle-out from beach and 3 white buoys (each 0.1miles) followed by a red buoy(total of 0.4mi) Each leg of the triangle is 0.4miles x 3 legs=1.2miles Finish on the beach to the right of the start, under the Muscle Milk Arch On the second leg, the sunny one, remember to swim right at the sun and look at the row of Kayaks on the right-there will be a bunch out there in a line keeping the crowds from going too far to the right as that is the more critical side, and look up to the general location of the groups of swimmers ahead Coming back, I will hug the white buoys next time.
Start type: Run Plus: Waves
Water temp: 66F / 19C Current: Low
200M Perf. Average Remainder: Average
Breathing: Average Drafting: Bad
Waves: Navigation: Good
Rounding: Average
T1
Time: 03:27
Performance: Bad
Cap removal: Average Helmet on/
Suit off: 		No
Wetsuit stuck? Yes Run with bike: Yes
Jump on bike: No
Getting up to speed: Below average
Biking
03:13:13 | 56 miles | 17.39 mile/hr
Age Group: 21/58
Overall: 293/745
Performance: Average
I like the palindromic time :) I do not like the many errors I made biking today. 1)left my 'feed bottle' with 600 calories (practiced many times previously) and had to change to an all gel system of nutrition which did not work well for me 2)got awful back cramps for much of the bike-I mean it went on for hours-and I was not aero very much (next time limit driving the several days prior to a race) due to back spasms and cramping 3)could not hold pace too well at the end and had a monstrously bad VI 4)later realized that I never inflated my tires-checked post race and they were both a bit low front23=96/back25=86 plan was for both to be 105psi I was happy with the HR goal and it was higher than last year when I just 'survived' the 1/2IM, having done the OLY the day before. Spinning easy really does save energy for the later part of the bike and run segments. I should put more emphasis on a higher cadence. I do better closer to 90 than 80 in training, so I should have noted it was drifting from mid 80's to 80 at the end. Also surprised by the fact that every 5 mile split had a peak speed of >35mph. Lots of brief downhills are interspersed in there...more than I thought, but never enough to get your breath back before another uphill starts. I wasted a lot of energy trying to get up to speed quickly and saw my max power was consistently (like in every 5 mile block) much higher than I'd like. Last year, my time was almost the same 3:15, and I had done the oly the day before and just spun every hill, with my av HR 130 (10 beats lower than this year) so spinning is the key for me, not power. Unless the underinflated tires had more to do with it. The only other difference was that I used an 11/25 cassette, rather than my 11/28.
Wind: Little
Course: Lollipop course with rolling hills and several longer sections of big hills-never flat, always hilly and in the end it always seems like there were more ups than downs Not too technical or demanding-except the need to pay attention on a few downhills, but the troops were out at the intersections for us...and I tried to thank every one of the police officers and volunteers at every single intersection another key is to remember that there are lots of hills lasting 1-2 miles in the back half, along with the early steep hill at mile 7, and the 7 mile trek from 23 to 31. spin, spin, spin
Road: Rough Dry Cadence: 80
Turns: Average Cornering: Average
Gear changes: Average Hills: Average
Race pace: Comfortable Drinks: Too much
T2
Time: 01:45
Overall: Bad
Riding w/ feet on shoes
Jumping off bike Good
Running with bike Good
Racking bike Good
Shoe and helmet removal Good
Running
02:05:20 | 13.1 miles | 09m 34s  min/mile
Age Group: 24/58
Overall: 317/745
Performance: Bad
held HR close to 138 average for the back half, starting around 135-right on goal GI situation cost 2.5 minutes accordng to Garmin-first time that's ever happened
Course: loop with 2 out/back sections to see your competition beating you Hill at mile 1.75 is only 1/4mile the long K swiss mile-from 3.5-4.5 is a stair step up with about 5 stories of dirt road (I always walked for 10 breaths during the steepest part of each of these) the last 1/2 mile at mile 12 is torture due to it's location-seeing the overpass isn't enough-you have to make it all the way to the top-then pick up and go as hard as you can, as it's over just a few minutes later
Keeping cool Below average Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Below average
Mental exertion [1-5] 4
Physical exertion [1-5] 4
Good race? Ok
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