Orillia Triathlon - Triathlon


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Orillia, Ontario
Canada
World Endurance Canada
19C / 66F
Overcast
Total Time = 1h 45m 10s
Overall Rank = 23/365
Age Group = 40-44
Age Group Rank = 4/36
Pre-race routine:

No need to get up at the crack of dawn for this race as I get to stay at the in-laws and just ride my bike 3min down the road to get to the race start. I did bundle up though as the temp was only 13C – it’s the middle of August!!! But the cooler weather favors me, so I wasn’t going to complain. At least it wasn’t throwing down buckets of rain like it had the day before during the kids Tri. Couple of slices of toast, pump up the tires, and I’m out the door.
Event warmup:

I already had my race packet from the day before and just needed to get body marked and pick up my chip. Got the transition area setup pretty quickly and then took the bike out for just under 15min to get in a warm-up and get the legs moving. Figured I had time to get in a swim as well, but as usual I took forever to get the wetsuit on – everyone else makes it look so easy but I’ve been doing this a while now and it still takes me forever. Got down to the water and found the family and had time to get in about 5min in the water. All set to go, and I watched the first 2 waves head out.
Swim
  • 15m 11s
  • 750 meters
  • 02m 01s / 100 meters
Comments:

I lined up in the second row of swimmers and picked the spot I wanted to head for. I bought a new pair of mirror goggles that I planned to swim in as this swim starts directly into the sun – but this turned out to be a non-issue since there was fog on the water and we could hardly see the last set of buoys, luckily I’d brought a pair of clear goggles. The announcer told us 90sec to go and for some reason I caught myself looking at the ankles of the guys in front of me and staring at their timing chips. Timing Chip – OMG!!!, it’s in my helmet from when I put on my wetsuit. I tore off the beach and raced for transition, grabbed the strap, ran back to the beach and put on the strap just as they announced 10sec to go. That got the HR going a little quicker than I’d expected.

When the horn sounded, I got a good jump on the group and found myself in reasonably clear water for about the first 30sec, but then got swallowed up as everybody came together, and I felt like I was the sardine in the middle of the can. This actually wasn’t a bad thing as I was having trouble finding the buoys and having swimmers on both sides helped point me in the general direction of where I needed to go. I was surprised how fast we came up on the tail group of the previous wave, but realized as we got further from the beach that the water was a little choppy, and this was causing issues for some people. Finally got my bearings right and hit the buoys just the way I wanted to. Once we made the turn for home I had to breast stroke a couple of times because I was having trouble again sighting the buoys and the group had really thinned out, and I wasn’t relying on those around me.

This swim was in no way fast, but considering I came out of the water 8th AG, and within about 30sec of most of the other guys at the top of my AG I look at this as one of my more successful swims.

What would you do differently?:

Don’t leave the timing chip behind…
Transition 1
  • 01m 10s
Comments:

This wasn’t fast, but it wasn’t slow, just average. Keep getting the wetsuit stuck on the ankles and need to look at getting some different spray to help slide the suit off better. Grabbed clear glasses for the ride, and off I went.
What would you do differently?:

Get faster...
Bike
  • 58m 11s
  • 33 kms
  • 34.03 km/hr
Comments:

The goal was to aim for between 92-95% of FTP on this ride and since you have to climb a hill straight out of transition, getting the power up quickly was not an issue. Got into aero reasonably quickly and tried to mark a guy from my AG that was a few meters ahead of me, but he got away too quickly. Found myself moving well, putting out a good power number, and passing a lot of people from the earlier waves. The ride was pretty uneventful for the most part, and while I was managing to pass a good number of people I wasn’t finding anyone in my AG. Of course I had to screw something up, and in this case it was my Garmin. I like to get lap intervals every 5km, but forgot to set it up before the ride. No problem, I’ll just hit the lap button every 10min instead – oops, that just set of the Multisport mode and now it thinks I’m in transition. So I messed around with the Garmin to reset it for just bike, and then got myself refocused.

Somewhere around 2/3 of the ride power started to drop off. The legs felt like they were still pushing, but looking at the ride file afterwards, HR also dropped off a fair bit – so the effort I thought I was putting out wasn’t matching the power or HR numbers I should have been at. With about 3km to go I got passed for the first time by a guy in the 50-54AG, and he was moving along, and I wasn’t able to keep him in sight. This was the only guy to come past me during the ride, so I took that as a positive sign.

All in all this was a good ride, but I have a habit of starting to think about the run a little early and then a tendency to back off the power level on the bike as a result (also went out quite hard which may have impacted me a bit). My AG position off the bike was good, but I needed to be about 2min quicker to stick with the faster guys in the AG on this day. Need to focus on the bike this winter.

What would you do differently?:

Force myself to push a little bit harder in the back half of the course and use those power numbers as a whip to make sure I stay more honest.
Transition 2
  • 01m
Comments:

I practiced where my spot was before the race start and counted the number of racks – and still lost my spot. Stood around for about 15sec trying to figure where the heck my stuff was. Once I actually got racked I saw that there were only 2 bikes on the rack I figured I was in a good position, but also knew that guys could have been on overflow racks.
What would you do differently?:

Don't get lost on the way to your spot.
Run
  • 29m 41s
  • 7 kms
  • 04m 14s  min/km
Comments:

Ran out of transition and took a quick look at my wrist, and realized the Garmin was still on the bike – crap. I don’t like to run by RPE, I want to know my pace, because I have a habit of going too hard, or in many cases, too easy. Just under a km into the run I could hear footsteps behind me and as the guy came up to me I asked what pace he was running. He didn’t have his watch either, but figured he was running a 3:50/km pace and since he was 19, and I was not capable of that pace, I wished him luck. About 1km later another guy caught up to me, and was kind enough to share that he was running about a 4:10/km pace, so I stuck with him. At that point I figured I must have been running much slower than intended, but keeping up with this guy wasn’t completely easy, and it worked to my advantage as I had someone to pace off, and I just hoped he would hold this pace. We passed some folks from earlier waves, but again, no-one in my AG.

With about 1.5km to go I pulled up next to my pacer and asked what AG he was in (he had on calf sleeves) and since he was in 35-39, I said “Good – at least we don’t have to race to the end”. At that point I picked up the pace and he fell off pretty quickly, which I took as a sign that I likely should have been pushing my own pace a little harder earlier on. Finished with no-one else really around and the family cheers to bring me through the finishing chute.

What would you do differently?:

Should have pushed harder – I’ve run faster on this course before, and the fitness is at a level at the moment where this should have been doable. I think I held back a little too much and a little too long on the run this time.
Post race
Warm down:

They were handing out non-alcoholic beer at the finish, and I must admit it tasted pretty good. Stretched out, talked to family and checked the results, and was happy to see I would stick around for AG awards.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Deep down fear of making myself suffer more!

Event comments:

First Try a Tri was at this course, and I've raced it every year since. I'll be back again next year.




Last updated: 2014-05-06 12:00 AM
Swimming
00:15:11 | 750 meters | 02m 01s / 100meters
Age Group: 8/36
Overall: 50/365
Performance: Good
Suit: Zoot
Course: Prett straight forward rectangle
Start type: Run Plus: Waves
Water temp: 74F / 23C Current: Low
200M Perf. Average Remainder: Average
Breathing: Good Drafting: Below average
Waves: Good Navigation: Below average
Rounding: Good
T1
Time: 01:10
Performance: Average
Cap removal: Average Helmet on/
Suit off:
Yes
Wetsuit stuck? Yes Run with bike: Yes
Jump on bike: No
Getting up to speed: Average
Biking
00:58:11 | 33 kms | 34.03 km/hr
Age Group: 5/36
Overall: 24/365
Performance: Good
Wind: Some
Course: Rolling course with some little hills, some fast decline sections, plus some flats - lots of variation, and some good and some bad road surfaces.
Road: Rough Dry Cadence:
Turns: Good Cornering: Good
Gear changes: Good Hills: Average
Race pace: Hard Drinks: Just right
T2
Time: 01:00
Overall: Average
Riding w/ feet on shoes Good
Jumping off bike Good
Running with bike Good
Racking bike Bad
Shoe and helmet removal Average
Running
00:29:41 | 07 kms | 04m 14s  min/km
Age Group: 4/36
Overall: 33/365
Performance: Average
No Garmin = no data
Course: Out and back on a fairly flat course with minor elevation changes.
Keeping cool Good 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: Average
Race evaluation [1-5] 4