Loveland Lake to Lake - TriathlonOlympic


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Loveland, Colorado
United States
USA Triathlon
Sunny
Total Time = 2h 46m 17s
Overall Rank = 131/541
Age Group = M3034
Age Group Rank = 26/62
Pre-race routine:

Woke up a few minutes late at ~3:40 due to miscommunication/tiff with the wife.

Breakfast: English muffin with two eggs, cheese, espresso. Water

Packed up the transition bag and filled my bottles. Headed out to meet Scott at the PnR at 4:15. Arrived at the high school just early enough to get a great parking spot between the school and transition area. Registered, then hit the transition area for setup. Got a great spot just a row back from the bike in/out on the main isle.
Event warmup:

Running about 15min with 3 pickups to race pace. Then bike about 10min with a few pickups. Grabbed the wetsuit and followed the crowd down to the lake. By the time I got the wetsuit on I only had time for a quick out-and-back in the lake.
Swim
  • 27m 35s
  • 1640 yards
  • 01m 41s / 100 yards
Comments:

Started on the outside and found myself on the inside after the first few hundred yards. No issues with that as I was sighting off of those on my outside. From about 100yds to 400yds felt awful – from not warming up enough. Pushed through it and found my rhythm by the first buoy and had no issues with pace/feel after that. In fact, I could have kept going, which is a clear indicator that I should have pushed the pace a bit more. According to my garmin, I was out of the water in 25:48.

The course had orange and yellow buoys (with the yellows being situated a bit outside of the orange lines). I thought yellows were to use for sighting while we only had to go around the orange, but everyone was keeping all the buoys on their left so I just followed.

Grabbed some feet throughout this swim but nothing consistent. Got my goggles knocked off just as I made my final turn (got shouldered). No issues at all with that, just turned on my back and resealed them).

In previous races I had been feeling some tightness in my upper arms and shoulders in this wetsuit. I had pulled my sleeves well up on my forearms and didn’t have any discomfort.
What would you do differently?:

Definitely warm up better so the first quarter of the race doesn’t make me feel like I’m going to blow up in my wetsuit.
Push the pace.
Focus harder to grab some feet.
Transition 1
  • 01m 48s
Comments:

Long run from the lake to T1. Garmin says 0.25mi. And my total T1 was 4m5s, taking me 2m15s to make the quarter mile run. Small steps, high cadence. Didn’t push it at all and was pretty much going with the flow.
What would you do differently?:

Not much. Could have shaved a few seconds off the run to T1 and the changing in T1, but this was fairly smooth.
Bike
  • 1h 27m 38s
  • 30 miles
  • 20.54 mile/hr
Comments:

Target was no more than 5bpm under LT. Was in high z4 for the first half, but after the hills could never get my HR back up (legs were screaming – even before the hills) – average steady z3 for the second half. This is consistent with my HIM race last year where my body said ‘no mas’ to maintaining my target effort.

Had about 24oz of g-ade during the ride and grabbed a few oz’s of water at the second aid station (~mile 20).

I got passed by A LOT of racers on the bike (mainly from the second wave). This was discouraging, but my target pace was NLT 20mph and wanted to race my race.

Took the downhills pretty hard – maxed at 42.1mph in aero position on the first big downhill. I had repositioned the cages on my xlab the night before (positioning the bottles more upright). As I was starting this downhill I shifted way back in the saddle and something nudged me – I about fell off my bike, then realized it was my bottles and not someone bumping me.

Oh yeah. Cadence not working again. I changed the battery out before this race hoping that would solve the issue. This seems only to work about 75% of the time – not acceptable. I’ll have to send it back. I’m getting tired of this.
What would you do differently?:

Maybe more water. Not sure why it was a struggle the second half to keep my hr up – more conditioning I guess.
Transition 2
  • 01m 53s
Comments:

Could have been faster. Had taken my speed laces off for this race and had a bit of trouble tightening these laces and tying, but I wasn’t in a big hurry to get out on the run course because I knew it was going to be a struggle.
Run
  • 47m 22s
  • 6.21 miles
  • 07m 38s  min/mile
Comments:

I was targeting 7min/mi, planning to build into this. The first half I was close to this but couldn’t sustain the pace. As awful as my legs felt, my stomach and GI took precedence. I hit water at each aid station (g-ade at the second). This I believe was the most painful run I’ve ever experienced (even more so than my marathons I’ve run). Not sure why exactly but I’ll be happy not to experience this again. I couldn’t wait to be done with this run.

Although it felt like I completely bombed the run I only missed my realistic target time by 3 min (which I guess is a lot over a 10k).
What would you do differently?:

Not sure what I could have done. Maybe if I focused more mentally I could have pushed the pace a bit more, or maybe took a walk break. My HR never came close to z5 – which is where I wanted to build to for the last few miles. I think the damage had been done before getting to the run.
Post race
Warm down:

a lot of water and resting in the shade. moving very slowly and was pretty much useless the rest of the day. Had to make an emergency pit stop at the walmart restroom on the way out of town (Finch sceen from American Pie)

What limited your ability to perform faster:

something. I'm confident that I have the ability to ride/run faster. I'm looking forward to figuring it all out......

My very realistic goal for this race was to break 2h 45m. I wasn’t far off and I know I can do it once I am able to sustain a high z4 bike effort for an entire race and figure out how to make sure I can race the run discipline.

Event comments:

Great race! Well-run. Strong competitors. Great, challenging course and awesome post-race food/venue.




Last updated: 2007-05-29 12:00 AM
Swimming
00:27:35 | 1640 yards | 01m 41s / 100yards
Age Group: 0/62
Overall: 125/541
Performance: Average
First swim using the garmin (also tried out Auto Multisport mode). My swim lines are a little erratic, but nothing too extreme. I don’t believe the HR data - shows a steady increase from 149 to 163 (I think its about 15bpm low), but I don’t know why. I wore the garmin on my wrist and didn’t have any issues. I know some people put it under their cap but I didn’t have time to get it situated.
Suit: 19 pipeline full
Course: One loop. Basically two left turns with the longest leg being the final.
Start type: Wade Plus: Waves
Water temp: 0F / 0C Current: Low
200M Perf. Good Remainder: Average
Breathing: Good Drafting: Below average
Waves: Navigation: Average
Rounding: Average
T1
Time: 01:48
Performance: Average
Cap removal: Good Helmet on/
Suit off:
No
Wetsuit stuck? No Run with bike: Yes
Jump on bike: No
Getting up to speed:
Biking
01:27:38 | 30 miles | 20.54 mile/hr
Age Group: 0/62
Overall: 167/541
Performance: Average
HR 164ave. 182max.
Wind: Little
Course: One 30mi loop up to Horsetooth Res and back. Essentially climbing the first half (5000ft to 5800ft), descending the second half. A few nasty rollers.
Road: Smooth Dry Cadence:
Turns: Good Cornering: Good
Gear changes: Good Hills: Good
Race pace: Hard Drinks: Not enough
T2
Time: 01:53
Overall: Below average
Riding w/ feet on shoes
Jumping off bike
Running with bike Average
Racking bike Average
Shoe and helmet removal Below average
Running
00:47:22 | 06.21 miles | 07m 38s  min/mile
Age Group: 0/62
Overall: 141/541
Performance: Bad
169 ave. 176max.
Course: Out and back. Very flat.
Keeping cool Below average Drinking Not enough
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Average
Mental exertion [1-5] 4
Physical exertion [1-5] 5
Good race? No
Evaluation
Course challenge Too hard
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Good
Race evaluation [1-5] 5