Oslo Triathlon - Sprint - TriathlonSprint


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Oslo, Oslo
NO
19C / 66F
Overcast
Total Time = 1h 31m 49s
Overall Rank = 132/449
Age Group = 45-59
Age Group Rank = 13/36
Pre-race routine:

Bike check and T1/2 setup. Checked out the expo. Walked around a little and stretched. Recon'd the Swim start & finish, plus entrance/exits for bike and run. Compared to my first triathlon, which 80 total participants, this race was "huge" with 450 racers. Was very impressed with RO, the volunteers, police support, etc.
Event warmup:

Did some swimming-sprecific stretches and and arm swings. Was able to get in the water and swim a little before our start group, which was good. The water was a bit cold and I liked that I could get used to it before the start.
Swim
  • 20m 44s
  • 809 meters
  • 02m 34s / 100 meters
Comments:

Well, I'm not winning any race with that time...BUT I did swim faster/smoother on this race than I did on the last one. The start was a bit chaotic, but I took a tip from here that said to hold off to one side, and that worked very well. I was back of MOP or top of BOP (depending on one's perspective) out of the water. I got swam over multiple times, and didn't freak out. I swam over a couple of people. And lots of hitting of the feet; my feet and me hitting others. All while remaining relatively calm. Just gonna have to get faster over the winter...
What would you do differently?:

Continue to train swimming; going to try and increase my pool workouts to 3 this winter (we will see...). Getting more comfortable in open water, and now I've done a "big" race and didn't drown my confidence going forward is much improved...just need to take advantage of that.
Transition 1
  • 02m 14s
Comments:

Longish run-in from the water. 200m or so. I didn't account for that!

Transition was unbelievably packed. My only real gripe for the race. My "layout" was forced to be on the other side of where my handlebars/helmet/glasses were and where I would run out...

So, overall, a pretty OK T1, considering the challenges.

Side note - the RO had a Neutral Zone" out of T1 headed to bike course. It passed the main parking lot, a school, and heavy foot-traffic area. Everyone was given up to 90 secs for this zone, in order to get folks to go slow (<17km/hr). It worked pretty well, and I think it helped to avoid some potentially bad juju...
What would you do differently?:

Not sure. I was okay for the T1, the jog up hurt a bit, and the crampedness in the transition area are hard to do much about.

I do need to get smoother on wetsuit removal. The cramped area made this even more frustrating.
Bike
  • 43m 38s
  • 23.9 kms
  • 32.86 km/hr
Comments:

I had a good bike :) My best leg of the race, by far! I felt fast, passed quite a few peeps (which makes me ride faster ofc), etc. The course was very well policed by both volunteers and police! There was only one traffice jam that was a little dicey to get through with some cars and a bus backed up and I had to ride down center line of the road to pass them with oncoming traffic.

I made one key mistake on the bike. I had sports drink in my bottle (about 600ml / 15 oz). AND I drank almost all of it. This would come to haunt me on the run. I usually only do long-distance stuff, and am used to sipping on a sports drink over the course of a long race. A sprint I am not used to. Bit lesson learned here...

I had one little "incident" with a fast guy. I was passing a group and had another group to pass just about about 5-10m ahead, and I was going faster than them. But not nearly as fast as the "fast guy". Anyway, I was quite afraid of getting a drafting penalty so I held out to the left between the two groups. At the time, I did not know about the fast guy...he was none too please with me. Said a few things, made bell ringing sound, and as he rode passed me, he flicke his hand to right in a rather dismissive kind of way! :) I took it that way at the time. Afterwards, unemotionally I can say that he was just haulin' butt and didn't need me sitting in front of him. No harm no foul...He may not feel that way tho!
What would you do differently?:

For a sprint next time, I will have only some water in my bottle and about half of what I had. 10 oz or less.

Continue to ride. I felt really good on the ride. Right at my limit, breathing hard, etc. But in a good way :)
Transition 2
  • 01m 16s
Comments:

T2 was ok. A bit long. Actually got cut off by a dude with cross-bike, only for him to jog slower than me to his line...frustrating.
What would you do differently?:

practice
Run
  • 25m 36s
  • 5.12 kms
  • 05m  min/km
Comments:

Oh that cramp! I'm 99% sure I got it because of the sports drink on the bike. Too much fluids, and too much sugar/electrolytes for a sprint race. The cramp hit me at 200m into the woods...and stayed the rest of the run. I trained to run 4:30/km pace for this race. Had it "in the bag" so to speak. Target was 22:30 (which would have put me Top 5 for my AG for the run btw). BUT I couldn't do it. I held 5:10-5:15 pace for about 3.5 km and was in agony. Then started to slowly kick it up a bit, and km 4 was a 4:59 and my last km was a 4:36, but it wasn't enough. Simply put, the run sucked. But like I said, I learned a big lesson on this one!
What would you do differently?:

See bike leg. Don't get too full of fluids before the run. period.

I will run this one faster next time...
Post race
Warm down:

Stretched. Ate some fruit. Drank a chocolate milk. Rode back to my brother-in-law's house about 5km from the race site. Thankful it was downhill the whole way home.

I was truly surprised how tired/exhaused I was after a sprint. Not nearly as sore as I was after my oly, but much more exhausted feeling. Recovery beers and pizza that evening tasted so good!!!

What limited your ability to perform faster:

I swim slow. So I need to fix that!

That cramp on the run stopped me from getting a top 10 in my AG. If I could swim, and didn't cramp, I think I would have been 6-7 mins faster; good for around 7th place in my AG.

Event comments:

This is Norway's oldest triathlon, and you can see that that experience has not been lost. SK Rye, the RO, did a heck of a job, and I would recommend this race to anyone who's in Norway in August!!! Very well organized race, with lots of volunteers! The transition area is TOO SMALL, and so transitions were a chore, but that would honestly be my only gripe. Nice little expo with good deals, and plenty of post-race fruit and drinks. The tech t-shirt and finisher's medal were nice too.




Last updated: 2017-07-24 12:00 AM
Swimming
00:20:44 | 809 meters | 02m 34s / 100meters
Age Group: 21/36
Overall: 253/449
Performance: Average
143 bmp avg / 151 bpm max Pretty calm pulse through the whole swim. Didn't even spike when I was swam over :)
Suit: Zoot 3.0
Course: Straight out 360m turn right 50m and right againg and back 360ish. Overall course was longer than 750m and I swam a little over 800m...but I did some really impressive zig-zagging so I earned those extra meters :)
Start type: Run Plus: Waves
Water temp: 17C / 63F Current: Low
200M Perf. Average Remainder: Average
Breathing: Below average Drafting: Average
Waves: Average Navigation: Below average
Rounding: Below average
T1
Time: 02:14
Performance: Average
Cap removal: Average Helmet on/
Suit off:
No
Wetsuit stuck? Yes Run with bike: Yes
Jump on bike: No
Getting up to speed: Good
Biking
00:43:38 | 23.9 kms | 32.86 km/hr
Age Group: 13/36
Overall: 132/449
Performance: Good
157 bpm avg / 164 bpm max Pegged my HR at threshhold pretty much the whole way. That's how I felt anyway...
Wind: Some
Course: Out-n-back with the turnaround near another lake. It was hilly! UP and DOWN the whole way. Very little flat areas.
Road: Smooth Dry Cadence: 80
Turns: Good Cornering: Good
Gear changes: Good Hills: Good
Race pace: Hard Drinks: Too much
T2
Time: 01:16
Overall: Average
Riding w/ feet on shoes
Jumping off bike Average
Running with bike Average
Racking bike Average
Shoe and helmet removal Good
Running
00:25:36 | 05.12 kms | 05m  min/km
Age Group: 15/36
Overall: 132/449
Performance: Bad
155 bpm avg / 168 bpm max I got a huge Cramp in my left side 200m into the run. This would come to suck the whle way
Course: Bumpy trail course around the lake we swam in. Beautiful, well marked, course that was quite hilly for a lake run.
Keeping cool Average Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Good
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: Good
Race evaluation [1-5] 5