Tri Peachtree City Sprint - TriathlonSprint


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Peachtree City, Georgia
United States
Tri Peachtree City
85F / 29C
Overcast
Total Time = 1h 15m 55s
Overall Rank = 58/750
Age Group = 35-39
Age Group Rank = 13/67
Pre-race routine:

Did not have the typical pre-race breakfast of oatmeal + banana due to staying at the host hotel across the street ... but didn't matter. My roommate (friend from my Sunday School class that got me into the sport in the first place) snored like a frieght train - despite launching various hotel items across the room throughout the night.

Had dinner the night before with my peeps from the North Atlanta Multi-Sport Club. It is so nice to go into a race knowing a bunch of people on the course.
Event warmup:

Swam about 100 yds and then milled around while talking to friends from Team-in-Training, Coeur d'Alene peeps and the Club.
Swim
  • 11m 48s
  • 528 yards
  • 02m 14s / 100 yards
Comments:

The swim left something to be desired. While the focusing on going slow + breathing the first 100 yds went well, I let my HR spike at the typical bottleneck at the first turn buoy ... which was more like bar room fight than anything else.

While not out of control and I could have swam through it, R was high enough that I felt it in my chest. So I flipped over to sweet spot to get my HR down as I did not want to cook myself on the swim.

What would you do differently?:

I concentrated on going slow through the swim, reminding myself that the difference for me between 1:45/100 vs. 2:00/100 was not great in time savings, but cost a lot in energy expended. Looking back, I did too good of a job at slacking off.
Transition 1
  • 02m 3s
Comments:

Felt a little disorientated coming off the swim, which probably contributed to the dismal time posted ... need to soak my tri-shorts in gasoline ...
What would you do differently?:

Strike a match.
Bike
  • 36m 28s
  • 12 miles
  • 19.74 mile/hr
Comments:

Bike was great ... quickly got into my groove by following a friend from TNT who is also a strong cyclist (following more than three bike lengths, of course). We passed many on the course ... then he went into a 90* turn too hot and then performed one of the best recoveries on a bicycle I have seen by riding over a sloped curb, through the grass and then back onto a circular concrete driveway w/o missing a beat.

It was almost on par with the Armstrong's fabled recovery on the descent in TdF ... I would have splattered myself, creating a trench with my face through the grass only to be stopped by the concrete driveway.

Was only passed by one guy throughout the ride, a black guy built like Michael Johnson on a cool red Softride with a Renn disc wheel.
What would you do differently?:

While it was a relatively short course, I probably did not hydrate as well as I should have ... despite having the aerodrink in front of me. I did remember to take a Gu halfway through just to be sure that I did not crash during the run/after the race.

Transition 2
  • 01m 36s
Comments:

Not sure what the heck I did that took that much time ...
Run
  • 24m 2s
  • 3.11 miles
  • 07m 44s  min/mile
Comments:

Run went reasonably well for a prolonged red-line sprint ... funny how no matter the distance I always wonder 1/2 way through it whether the run course is EVER going to end.

Was passed by 2 people - one ridiculously fast guy in my AG who was probably in another zip code before I even reached the half way point and a 25 yr old girl (re-passed her at the 2.2 mi mark as she clearly blew up).

I walked the two water stops for a total of :10 seconds each in an effort to get my HR down ... to no avail. Despite the pain in my lungs and the body screaming to/tempting myself with the thoughts of stopping, I chugged on to the final stretch where I saw my TNT/CdA peeps cheering folks in ... gave enough of a boost to sprint the final 200 yds.
What would you do differently?:

Not sure that I could have dug deeper as 7:45/mi is a good pace for me ... so I would have to say prepare better. More hydration may have helped.

I did do a PB on the 5k, but this was only my second 5k as I have opted to train for 10k distances.
Post race
Warm down:

Sprinted so hard at the end that I wobbled myself to the chip strap lady and leaned on her heavily as she took that @#$%^ thing off. (The strap was too big and flapped during the warm up swim so I looped it around itself perpendicuarly ... and it rubbed the skin raw.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Lack of consistent training, lack of speed work, dearth of racing since Gulf Coast in May and lack of experience at this length.

One thing in particular that sticks out is that my transition times stink! I lost at least 1:30-2:30 in transition compared to some of my friends. I need to get better at this.

Sprint distances are fun ... but sprinting for 1:15 is much different than trying to pace yourself through an Oly or HIM. This is a completely different, red-lining animal - and fun!

Event comments:

One of the best run races I've been to ... there was a problem with the computer program + timing chip data that truncated the awards ceremenoy, but they handled it in stride. The volunteer support was absolutely incredible.

Couple of friends won hardware: 3rd fastest women's time + AG as well as top 10 AG, etc. Looking forward to doing this race again next year.




Last updated: 2006-08-28 12:00 AM
Swimming
00:11:48 | 528 yards | 02m 14s / 100yards
Age Group: 0/67
Overall: 0/750
Performance: Below average
Suit: none
Course: Clockwise rectangle in relatively shallow water.
Start type: Plus: Waves
Water temp: 0F / 0C Current:
200M Perf. Good Remainder: Below average
Breathing: Average Drafting: Below average
Waves: Navigation: Average
Rounding: Bad
T1
Time: 02:03
Performance: Good
Cap removal: Good Helmet on/
Suit off:
Wetsuit stuck? Run with bike: Yes
Jump on bike: Yes
Getting up to speed:
Biking
00:36:28 | 12 miles | 19.74 mile/hr
Age Group: 0/67
Overall: 0/750
Performance:
This is the first I had my HR monitor on and was surprised to see 160-173bpm throughout the entire course (out of a max of 189).
Wind:
Course: Out and back course through residential neighborhoods. There was some sand on the first 90* turn that proved to be a little sketchy, but other than that, the course was pretty good ... no real potholes to contend with or other road hazards. The course, however, was longer than 12 miles even. My Garmin had it at 16 miles with a pace of 21.1 mph (which is what it felt like), but think that has something to do with user error/difficulty tracking satellites through the tree cover. (My cyclocomputer is on the fritz, so cannot gauge from there.)
Road: Smooth Dry Cadence: 85
Turns: Average Cornering: Average
Gear changes: Good Hills: Average
Race pace: Hard Drinks: Not enough
T2
Time: 01:36
Overall: Below average
Riding w/ feet on shoes
Jumping off bike
Running with bike
Racking bike Good
Shoe and helmet removal Good
Running
00:24:02 | 03.11 miles | 07m 44s  min/mile
Age Group: 0/67
Overall: 0/750
Performance: Good
HR never went below 165 bpm and at points went up to the low 180's.
Course: Cart path along the lake and through residential neighborhoods ... Peachtree City has an awesome network of cart paths. Unfortunately these paths were not closed to traffic (everyone has a golf cart in PTC), so there were some bottlenecks on the path. Overall, the course was awesome in that path was 90%+ shaded by trees.
Keeping cool Good Drinking Not enough
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] 5