White Lake Spring Sprint Triathlon - Triathlon


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Elizabethtown, North Carolina
United States
Set Up Events
52F / 11C
Sunny
Total Time = 1h 15m 2s
Overall Rank = 14/269
Age Group = 40-44
Age Group Rank = 5/19
Pre-race routine:

Woke up at 4AM, made coffee, and was out the door. The drive to WL is about an hour and forty minutes of rural roads.

Arrived, picked up packet, and started to get ready. I had trouble inflating my rear tire due to an aero jacket, but I finally managed to get the pump onto the valve.

Set up T1 and met Jason, LT, and a bunch of others buds. I saw Steve and Alan on the sidelines, helping and cheering ppl on.
Event warmup:

Arrived a little later than I would have liked, so just spent time getting ready. Ideally, I would have liked to have gone for a 1 or 2 mile run before the start of the swim.
Swim
  • 16m 48s
  • 750 meters
  • 02m 14s / 100 meters
Comments:

Water felt chilly, but it was warmer than the outside temps...by alot. I was hanging out with Jason and headed over to the swim with him. As we got there, a guy that had never done a tri asked a few questions and I tried to answer them as best I could

We watched the "Open" wave take off, then proceeded to get into the water. Brr!

When the horn went off, we took off. I could feel the wetsuit tugging on my arms, shoulders, and neck and knew this would be the last time I'd wear it. Halfway through the swim, it felt as though I was in a wet paper bag and my arms and shoulders were tired from the constriction of the suit.

I have to admit that swim training leading up to this event wasn't all that great. I was in the pool less than once a week.

Finished up, thinking I was at a worst case scenario of 15 mins and did a double take when I saw I was closer to 17. WTF? Wow, what a disaster.
What would you do differently?:

Not wear that wetsuit and get in the pool more!
Transition 1
  • 02m 4s
Comments:

Blazed into T1, but my arms were tired. I had trouble reaching the strap to unzip my suit and decided to just take it off as I got closer to T1.

This was a pretty poor T1 for me.
Bike
  • 36m 47s
  • 14.25 miles
  • 23.24 mile/hr
Comments:

Jumped on my bike, velcroed shoes, and took off hard. I didn't see Jason's bike in T1, so I assumed that he was way ahead, due to my poor swim. I was going to go hard to chase him down.

I put my head down, started to hammer, and started to catch up to other cyclists. The goal was to not let up until I saw Jason. I never saw him. I know he's been racing CX this offseason, so I figured he had a really strong bike and was far ahead.

No one passed me during the first loop, and I started the second loop and increased effort a little. I also got a little lower, shrugged more, and tried to get more aero. I was pushing it hard and was in the danger zone. One minute seemed like one hour, but I kept going, trying to catch, or even get a glimpse, of Jason.

Finally came into the finish, dismounted, and ran into Transition. I glanced around, saw a few bikes, to include a P2 (Jason's?) and racked bike.

Overall, a very good ride for me. No one passed me, but that could just have been a byproduct of a crappy swim. The second loop was faster and required less watts, which I'll attribute to the fact that I consciously made an effort to get more aero. The difference is quite startling. 213w for the first loop vs. 201w for the second loop, with the second loop being faster.
What would you do differently?:

Focus on aero right away.
Transition 2
  • 01m 29s
Comments:

I got into T2 and my feet were frozen and my legs quivering. I actually had trouble putting my running shoes on b/c of those factors. I could not slide my feet into my shoes, so had to really work to get them on. I wondered how my run would feel if I was having this much trouble getting shoes on.
What would you do differently?:

I never got around to putting speed laces on my shoes. That might of helped.
Run
  • 17m 56s
  • 3.1 miles
  • 05m 47s  min/mile
Comments:

Time to catch Jason!

I came out of transition running hard. I was tired, my legs felt wobbly, my feet were two ice blocks, but I wanted to catch Jason. I expected to run low to mid 18 minutes and I knew it was going to be uncomfortable.

I went through the first mile, looked at my Garmin, and picked it up a little more. I kept looking out for Jason up ahead and could not see him. Man, he's WAY ahead! I then saw some guys starting to run the other way and kept an eye out. My plan was to see how many seconds he was in front of me, and then surge to make that time up.

I got to the turn around and never saw him. What? I kept running hard, thinking I might of missed him, and then saw him at my two mile mark. He high fived me and I shouted encouragement to him.

THe pace was hard and uncomfortable, but I thought I had a chance to catch others in my AG. I passed a guy here or there, then saw the finish and ran as hard as I could and finished.
What would you do differently?:

Good run for me.
Post race
Warm down:

Walked around a bit, waited for a few buds to finish, then hung out. We checked rankings and I was a bit disappointed to see that I was 14th OA and 5th in my AG. Man, this new AG is tough!

I didn't know it until later in the day, but I had a first! Fastest run of the day! That was exciting. All that run training paid off this past winter. :)

What limited your ability to perform faster:

THE SWIM!

Event comments:

Good race. Lots of fun. Sprints always hurt, though. :)




Last updated: 2015-05-08 12:00 AM
Swimming
00:16:48 | 750 meters | 02m 14s / 100meters
Age Group: 8/19
Overall: 47/269
Performance: Below average
Suit: XTerra Vortex
Course: Rectangle shaped swim, leaving the long dock in front of the cabins and ending at another dock about 200m away.
Start type: Wade Plus: Waves
Water temp: 66F / 19C Current: Low
200M Perf. Average Remainder: Bad
Breathing: Average Drafting: Below average
Waves: Navigation: Good
Rounding: Average
T1
Time: 02:04
Performance: Average
Cap removal: Good Helmet on/
Suit off:
Wetsuit stuck? No Run with bike: Yes
Jump on bike: Yes
Getting up to speed: Good
Biking
00:36:47 | 14.25 miles | 23.24 mile/hr
Age Group: 3/19
Overall: 11/269
Performance: Good
HR - min hr:148 | avg hr:155 | max hr:163 - - Power - avg:206 | max: 662 - - Lap 1 - 8:18 213w | Lap 2 - 8:03 201w
Wind: Some
Course: Two 7 mile loops around the lake. Flat and fast. Some of the roads had recently been repaved. Smooth as ice.
Road: Smooth Dry Cadence: 84
Turns: Average Cornering: Average
Gear changes: Good Hills:
Race pace: Hard Drinks: Just right
T2
Time: 01:29
Overall: Average
Riding w/ feet on shoes Good
Jumping off bike Good
Running with bike Good
Racking bike Good
Shoe and helmet removal Bad
Running
00:17:56 | 03.1 miles | 05m 47s  min/mile
Age Group: 1/19
Overall: 1/269
Performance: Good
1 - 5:50min/mi 172hr | 2 - 5:47 183hr | 5:41 182hr
Course: Out and back along shoulder of the road.
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Good
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