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 Swim
Comments: Swim is the second event. When I entered the pool building my HR was still in the 150's. During the Splash N Dash events my average swim HR was 154, so I knew getting into the water already in the 150's probably wasn't going to be a good way to start. I quickly decided that recovering while in the water was probably better than standing on the deck for 2-3 minutes, so I just dove in. Tried to swim the crawl but as I figured my HR was too high and I could not breathe effectively. So I ended up doing a gentle breast-stroke for about the first 25m. After that I started feeling better and got into my regular stroke. For some reason about 300m in I ran short of breath again and had to pause for about 5 seconds. Time comparison (includes part of T1 and T2): 2005: 13:14 2006: 10:34 2007: 9:43 What would you do differently?: Keep up the swim training. Start doing the drills specified in the workouts (e.g. pull, kick,...) Practice starting the swim with an elevated HR.  Transition 1
Comments: T1 is Bike-to-Swim. I decided to take a "minimalist" approach to T1 this time around. Since the only thing I needed to retrieve in T1 is my goggles, I decided to save some time by avoiding digging in my bag and just carried my goggles with me in my tri-suit pocket during the bike. Approaching T1 I unclipped my right foot and swung my right leg over the bike while standing on my left pedal (still clipped in), while braking. Hopped off right at the dismount line and jogged over to the rack. Helmet, beanie, glasses off, shoes & socks off, and I was quickly jogging across the parking lot to the pool. Walked about the last 50m trying to get my HR down. Pulled my goggles out of my pocket on the way. What would you do differently?: Learn the shoeless dismount. Learn to ride a short course like this without socks.  Bike
Comments: This was probably my best triathlon bike leg ever. I was able to keep my HR up near LT on all of the uphills and cruise while recovering a little bit on the downhills. Can't believe I averaged nearly 19mph on this course! All the bike training this summer has really paid off. I'm definitely riding this course about 1 gear higher than I have in the past. Tried to spin easy a little bit coming down the last flat stretch towards T1, but couldn't hold myself back and just kept hammering.' I took about 1/2 of a water bottle with me on the bike - just enough to take 1 mouthful out near the turnaround point. Time Comparison (includes part of T1: 2005: 42:13 2006: 42:54 2007: 40:34 Transition 2
Comments: T2 is swim-run. Jogged out of the aquatic center into T2 - took me about 10 seconds to locate my stuff. Didn't bother with sunglasses for this run. Put on socks and shoes without needing to dry my feet (learned this at the Splash N Dash), grabbed the hat and race belt and I was outta there. What would you do differently?: Learn to run without socks.  Run
Comments: My strategy here was to stay in high Z3 for the first mile or so, then hold the HR up near LT as long as I could. Got that internal pain so typical of hard short efforts so I knew I was pushing hard. Gave a few shouts out to people on the bike and going the other way on this out&back run course. Took a cup of water at every water station for some reason, but I usually just rinse&spit and maybe swallow a little bit of the water. My time for this run was exactly equal to my open 5k time from July 4 and about the same as my August 8 Splash N Dash time, and the AVG HR gives me confidence that I went as hard as I could. This has to be the first time ever that my run split was in the top half of the field. Time Comparison (includes part of T2): 2005: 34:21 2006: 31:41 2007: 28:53 Post race
Warm down: Lesson learned about sprint-race nutrition: I don't need much. What limited your ability to perform faster: I think this performance was my fastest possible time given my current level of fitness. Race execution went flawlessly and I hit my HR goals on the bike and run. My best race to date. Event comments: Overall it's a good race. Having the swim in between the bike and the run makes the swim harder (starting with high HR), but makes the run easier (legs get to loosen up in the pool). Overall the organization is good and the traffic control was better this year than last. I still think they take too long getting the results posted (both on raceday and on the web), but that's a minor flaw. I also wish they would time T1 and T2, but given that they do the timing manually I understand. Last updated: 2007-03-08 12:00 AM
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United States
Los Alamos County Recreation Division
70F / 21C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 106/363
Age Group = M 35-39
Age Group Rank = 8/25
Race Summary: This was my best race ever!
Order of events is Bike 20k -> Pool Swim 400m -> Run 5k
Bike (Includes part of T1):
Goal: 40:00 - 43:00
Official: 40:34
Swim (includes part of T1 and T2):
Goal: 8:30 - 9:15
Actual: 9:43 (forgot how long it is from the T1 exit into the pool)
Run (incl most of T2):
Goal: 28:30 - 30:00
Actual: 28:53
Total:
Goal: 1:17 - 1:23
Actual: 1:19:11
Note: I kept actual splits on my watch (since the official time does not break out T1 and T2), but use official splits for the comparisons.
Breakfast had water, coffee, a banana, and 1 or 2 clif bars.
Rode my bike the 2.5 miles from home to the transition area in the morning twilight.
Ate 3 Clif shot bloks w/caffeine about 20 minutes before my wave was to start. This was the extent of my planned nutrition for the race, which worked out fine.
I took about 1/3 of a water bottle with me on the bike, of which I consumed about 4 oz, and took a couple of sips of water from the stations on the run. This also worked out perfectly.