General Smallwood Sprint Triathlon - Triathlon

Oy! The OWS...

Headed into this I had done a bunch of practice 1000 yard TTs in in the pool and I was consistently holding low 1:40s 100 pacing, so I thought with my usual sighting issues I'd come in maybe 14 minutes. Knowing I was going to run/walk the run I figured I'd burn some matches in the swim.

Only problem was that I totally forgot how to swim in open water.

I jumped in and just panicked - not like I was going to drown or anything just I felt REALLY uncomfortable in the water. I started swimming and started hyperventilating (which I do a little in OWS anyway and am used to it, but this was bad). I settled myself down mentally and did some Tarzan swimming and backstroke just to calm down.

Eventually I got myself under control but my cadence was too fast, like I was rushing to finish. By the time we got to the turnaround I was starting to do a little better and my pacing improved. The final half back to the dock was much better other than me veering of course a bit (also as usual), but I definitely did not enjoy that swim AT ALL.

Got to the boat ramp, stood up, immediately both my hamstrings cramped a little so I had to stand a second before crossing the timing mat.

63/157 overall, so 60th percentile on the swim which isn't horrible I suppose.

Practice OWS. That's' it. There's no reason for me to swimming slower than 2:00/100 at any distance, with or without a wetsuit.

Weird transition as you had to run uphill almost a 1/4 mile to transition and I had no idea how to mange that properly in bare feet and a wetsuit. I had trouble getting the suit off my ankles, especially the one with the timing chip.

I was like 140th out of 158 so that sucks, but I was kind of dilly-dallying anyway.

Quicken the pace a little. This is a weird transition so I'm not worried about it.

The bike...thank goodness. I've been mainly a cyclist for the last 6-7 years because of my back issues so in theory it should be my strength. I'd been fiddling around with a TT bike (a Planet X Stealth) but I haven't quite gotten the fit right so about a month ago I decided to just put the clip-ons on the Ridley roadie and get it as aero as possible.

I put a wheel cover on my Flo 30 rear wheel but it didn't work (cover rubbed against the cassette) so had to bail on the aero wheel setup. After all the technology problems I've been having the last few weeks at this point I'm just happy the bike is working.

Meandered out of transition (no running flying mount for me...I'm not that coordinated) and got going. Slight downhill to start and I started passing people already. Then we hit the first big climb out of the park and I had already decided this would be a place to burn some matches so I held over 300w most of the way up minus the quick descent in the middle.

The course then becomes just rolling and by that I mean never flat so it was tough to find a rhythm but I settled into aero on the flat-ish parts, tucking in the drops on the descents and a mix of the hoods and standing on the harder climbs.

The course splits the Oly and Sprint riders so once that happened it got a little lonely out there but the farmland was pretty. Eventually we join back with the Oly riders and the course became much more crowded.

I played leapfrog with a couple or riders who had no idea how to "stay right, pass left" even after me yelling "passing on your left" they refused to move so I got more direct: "stop blocking" Finally I just got ahead of them and pushed hard and dropped them with a couple of miles to go.

Final 2 miles was fairly downhill so I made up some time and also got my HR down, then was almost crashed into by another rider trying to loosen their shoes while riding and clearly didn't know how to do it right as he was weaving all over the road. Got around him and kept pushing through the slight uphill to transition.

I kept my HR in the high tempo / low threshold range which was per plan, though my wattage output was a little low. Very solid bike segment considering the heat and my lack of outdoor riding fitness. I probably didn't take in enough fluid either, but I'm bad at that on the bike anyway.

I passed a ton of people on the bike and was only passed by people who looked like they really knew what they were doing on bike. :-)

Avg power: 191 nPower: 214 IF: 0.83 VI: 1.14 (yikes!) avg HR: 129

I might have pushed a little harder but I was a bit conservative because I didn't know the course at all and didn't want to be hammering along and then get to a big or steep hill with my HR way up. Other than that well executed.

Typical mediocre T2 for me, had trouble getting my shoes on so I need to figure out a better lacing strategy.

T-6th / 10 in my AG, ~ 110/157 OA so not terrible

I should be able to shave off a minute here with better shoe management and a sense of urgency.

As noted in the background, I haven't run much the past 7+ years, like maybe 1000 miles total so going into this I wasn't expecting much and just wanted to jog through it and walk a little bit, hoping for my back to hold out.

It was in the 80s by now so this was going to be a hot one.

The Plan was to jog the uphills, run a little quicker on the flats, and walk the steeper downhills to minimize the pounding. Try to break 30 minutes. Well, easier said than done on this course. It was a mix of road, grass, gravel, wooden decking with uphills, downhills, even a little sidehills with basically nothing flat. Not exactly an optimal course for 200 pound me.

Anyway, jogged out of T2 for first 1/4 mile or so feeling a little stiff but decent. Then we had to climb the same hill we did on the bike so I wound up walking a bunch of that. Got to mile one at like 11:44 (GAP 10:36) and dumped some ice water on my head. The second mile was about flat overall but up/down and some of the more technical terrain along a fire road and some really old roads through some abandoned farmhouses. Mile two split was 11:26 (GAP 10:17).

Now we start going downhill, which would have been great but some of it was pretty steep and I was leary about letting it loose, so continued my old man shuffle. Got to mile 3 (10:45, GAP 10:19) and then we have the same uphill run from the swim exit, so I pushed a little harder to the finish. No sprint in me.

Avg HR: 132 (as planned)

I don't think there was much more I could do on this course. Even at the peak of my "triathlon powers" this course wasn't a match for my skillset.

Grabbed a ice towel and some water...walked around to find The Wife and then she brought me an orange-flavored shaved ice. What a great sherpa!!

Walked around and stretched a bit, packed up the car, grabbed some snacks and headed out for the 90-minute plus drive home in DC traffic.

I was really out of it the rest of the day and beat down the next. Two days later as I'm typing this I'm still sore from the downhill running which I haven't really done in years.


Three main things (OK, maybe four):

OWS training: I have to get my pool fitness to translate outdoors

Running: maybe do some??

Transitions: have a sense of urgency and plan better

Race Selection: not sure if this was the best course to match my body type, nor my fitness level

All of these are fixable. :-)


Overall, a great re-entry to the triathlon racing scene. I could've picked a better course for me, but overall I can't complain about finishing one for the first time in eight years. I'm also at a point now where my AG starts to get easier so if I'm able to improve a bit I'll be hoping to compete for AG podiums in these races. I easily left 15 minutes on the table out there today.

My back held out great the whole race and even the next couple of days it was more my legs, etc. that were hurting. I feel like I've been in a car accident. :-)

Going forward I have to continue to manage my body and figure out the right amount of run training so I can get some speed back without overcooking myself like I did back in 2014.

Kinetic put on a great race as usual...decent SWAG, good food spread afterwards (which I'm usually not ready to eat yet, but it looked good!). Volunteers were everywhere and really helpful, especially with the heat It hit 98 degrees later in the day.