Elkhart Lake Triathlon - Olympic Distance - TriathlonOlympic


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Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin
United States
Elkhart Lake Multisports, Inc.
Sunny
Total Time = 3h 09m 24s
Overall Rank = 207/329
Age Group = 225+ Clydesdale
Age Group Rank = 3/3
Pre-race routine:

Drove up Friday afternoon once the kids were out of school (last day for them is a half day). Got to Sheboygan Falls which is where my parents live and it about 20-25 minutes away from the race. Dropped everyone off and headed out to Elkhart. Found TriDDS right away and also got to meet XH20skier. Got the packet, looked transition area over, drove the course and went home. Hung out with the fam, got to bed about 9:30. I have never slept well the night b4 a race and this was no different. Saw the clock at 10:30, 11:30, 2:30... Got up at 4:40 to get stuff ready and head out by 5:45.
Event warmup:

Got in the wetsuit and went down to swim a little. Especially with the water being cold I wanted to get a feel. Took that huge gasp of air as my face got into the 62? degree water. Then just chated with donkeys and others b4 the start.
Swim
  • 25m 17s
  • 1640 yards
  • 01m 32s / 100 yards
Comments:

Well, here is I suppose the glory part of the report. Our wave headed out and the water is fairly shallow for a while. Walked in and was behind a few in the wave. They made the first turn and angled it seemed more towards the buoys where I tried to take more of a direct route to the end buoy. I was totally in clear water already as the elites went out in a wave 3 minutes ahead of us so my wave was kind of off to my left while I stayed to the right but inside the boats. Nobody to draft off of so just tried to settle. Felt pretty comfortable and felt the pace was fairly good. I was sighting fairly well looking up about every 4 to 5 strokes. As I got about 70% of the way to the end buoy I kep thinking why haven't I seen any elites coming back the other way yet. I kind of lost track of where all the other Clydes were (blue caps) so I really didn't know what was going on. Then I finally come up to another swimmer and it turns out it was a white cap(elite wave) and I'm thinkin' holy crap! I just caught and elite! Turned the buoy and started back. Again, sighting fairly well. Got around the sprint buoy, made the left turn and needed to get the green buoy to my right. Came up on it and started thinking wow, my parents are here with my good friends from Green Bay (none of which have ever saw my race or even a tri race for that matter) so I better bring this in strong! Well idiot here takes the green buoy turn a bit sharp then and actually runs into it and tangles in the rope somewhat - doh! Then I swim up to the beach and stumble a bit but try to look good coming to the gate as my crew is right at the water line. I have them all high fives and was feeling good about the swim. Then the horrah begins. I looked down at my HRM and it says my HR is 192. 192!!!! What the??? I wasn't working that hard! I guess I was though. Actually standing on the beach b4 the swim I was already up in the 140s!!! So ends the best of times and what follows leads to the worst of times!
What would you do differently?:

I really thought I was pacing better but I blew the wad right here! I've done this before and that's what is the real frustration! Pleasant Prairie last year Iprobably went too slow so I have to find a happy medium since as you'll see, this swim start kind of blew up the day for me. I don't even know what to rate this swim as. I guess I'll give it a good but not smart.
Transition 1
  • 03m
Comments:

This transition is a long run to get to the other side and enter. Once I got to my bike it was good though. Sat down to take wetsuit off which worked well. I had everything laid out well so pretty happy with this.
What would you do differently?:

I guess I could run through it a bit more but obviously at this point I am trying to get HR down.
Bike
  • 1h 25m 23s
  • 24.85 miles
  • 17.46 mile/hr
Comments:

Felt really pretty decent all things considered for the first 5 miles or so. Got into aero and just spun easilly trying to get HR down. I got passed a bit at first but by nobody I really felt I couldn't stay with if I took it up a notch which I was trying not to do. Hit some of the hills b4 Road America and got up them OK. I was out of breath more than normal but again, probably can thank the swim for that. XH2Oskier and I were kind of riding together and then TriDDS caught up and passed us. Got into Road American and wasn't sure what to expect. It sucked! If you weren't climbing then you were turning. When you went downhill then you had to make turns right away at the bottom. As I was on my second and third loop it was getting very crowded with the sprinters in there and all the OLY people bunching up the course. I think it's miraculous actually that nobody (that I know of) gets seriously injured. I was very happy to be out of RA and headed back to transition. Even then there were some decent climbs to get up which I wasn't expecting (didn't drive that part).

One climb I made I was coming up on another biker and I had to do a double take. As I pass him, dudes got about 3 inches of hairy arse crack hanging out. Didn't need to see that at that point or any other point for that matter.

PeterAK past me around this point. He looked good and strong in his donkai gear!
What would you do differently?:

Being in the hole already from my swim this bike wasn't as good as I would have expected but this course was the toughest bike course I have done in a tri. Extremely technical which frankly took some of the fun out of it. I'll take lots of hills but all the turning and the crowded nature of the whole thing I just wasn't ready for. That took a lot out of me. I could have paced myself even better but all things considered I was still better than half the field which is an improvement for me.
Transition 2
  • 02m 39s
Comments:

I guess I was a little slow on this but I was walking my bike through transition and not running. Otherwise racking was fine, getting running shoes on was fine,etc..
What would you do differently?:

Move a bit faster
Run
  • 1h 13m 7s
  • 6.21 miles
  • 11m 46s  min/mile
Comments:

I knew as the run started I was on borrowed time. My nutrition plan was all messed up from the bike (it was hard to do much with all the turning, climbing, etc). I wanted to start easy and just get into it and for the first 1.5 miles I was fine but as I got to that subdivision climb I was in trouble. For the first time in a tri I started to walk. HR was up in the 170s to 180s and even by walking I couldn't get it down. I decided the energy needed to run up the hills was going to be worth spending for the time I was going to lose by walking. Even though at this point my pace was probably around 10 m/m which I would have been happy with but I just couldn't hold it. I was officially boking and there wasn't much I could do about it. I suffered through and felt some leg cramping coming on in the last mile but as I kept moving it didn't get too bad. Mentally I'm getting pretty frustrated now and I see my race slipping away which just is not a good feeling.

The last mile or so I was able to keep from walking although before that I was having a hard time even walking well. Turned the last corner and there's lots of people out and I see my clan which helped a lot so I sprinted the finish and tried to look strong. I was kind of delerious at this point so it's hard to remember details. I think my son ran in with me but in my mind I thought he was another racer so I was trying to sprint ahead of him. I'm such an idiot!
What would you do differently?:

Once I got to this point I don't think there was much I could do. I have trained pretty hard over the winter to try and improve my run but this race wouldn't show it at all. I chalk it up to a poorly managed race on my part which is disappointing.
Post race
Warm down:

I sat down as I crossed the finish line. After a few minutes a cop came up to me and I think she thought I was gonna pass out. I kept saying I was OK and I think I was but she was kind enough to stick around and make sure. I got up and walked for a which getting fluids in me. Despite my disappointment my family and friends seemed quite impressed that I finished and participated so it was fun talking to them and hanging out.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

See above about race management!

Great to be with all the donkeys. Fabulous showing by TriDDS - very impressed with his race! Congrats to maggyruth for becoming a triathlete! Hard luck of the day award goes to firstnet911 - that really rots! Never did see jmwebs so looking forward to reading his report. I didn't really run into travisvb24 or szbilicki much so looking forward to their reports too. Nice meeting tall_tri_dad!

Yes I did actually get hardware which I will never turn down but obviously when there are 3 in my category all you have to do is finish. I keep telling myself that I do deserve the award since no other fat 225+ up to 39 year olds dared to even tri!!

Event comments:

There are a lot of things I like about this race. Lake is gorgeous. Resort is awesome. I don't mind riding through Road America but 4X? It's dangerous I'm OK with hard but it's just a bit over the top in terms of being so different than what we can really train for.




Last updated: 2007-04-13 12:00 AM
Swimming
00:25:17 | 1640 yards | 01m 32s / 100yards
Age Group: 1/3
Overall: 40/329
Performance: Good
Avg 160 Finished the swim HR was up to 191
Suit: XTERRA Vector Pro 2 Full
Course: Quick little move to the right and then left for a long stretch to the OLY buoy. Thurn around towards beach and in.
Start type: Run Plus: Waves
Water temp: 0F / 0C Current:
200M Perf. Good Remainder: Good
Breathing: Average Drafting: Bad
Waves: Average Navigation: Good
Rounding: Average
T1
Time: 03:00
Performance: Average
Cap removal: Good Helmet on/
Suit off:
No
Wetsuit stuck? No Run with bike: No
Jump on bike: No
Getting up to speed: Bad
Biking
01:25:23 | 24.85 miles | 17.46 mile/hr
Age Group: 1/3
Overall: 149/329
Performance: Below average
avg 171
Wind: Some
Course: Fairly flat at the beginning moving into come steeper climbs. Then moves into Road America car racing course where we biked the service road around the race track 4.5 times. One large hill (which was actually kind of a switch back type layout) we had to do four times. Rest of the Road America course was curvy, crowded and frankly, dangerous.
Road: Smooth Dry Cadence: 85
Turns: Average Cornering: Average
Gear changes: Average Hills: Below average
Race pace: Hard Drinks: Not enough
T2
Time: 02:39
Overall: Average
Riding w/ feet on shoes
Jumping off bike
Running with bike
Racking bike Good
Shoe and helmet removal Good
Running
01:13:07 | 06.21 miles | 11m 46s  min/mile
Age Group: 3/3
Overall: 270/329
Performance: Bad
avg hr 174
Course: Fairly flat at the beginning but quickly moving into a gradual climb. Then a pretty big, long hill through the subdivision. Downhill out of it into another climb heading west. Last leg had a big climb or two as well.
Keeping cool Below average Drinking
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Bad
Mental exertion [1-5] 3
Physical exertion [1-5] 3
Good race? Ok
Evaluation
Course challenge Too hard
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? No
Post race activities: Average
Race evaluation [1-5] 3