Coeur d'Alene Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic


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Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
United States
AA Sports Limited
70F / 21C
Precipitation
Total Time = 2h 19m 16s
Overall Rank = 31/669
Age Group = M 35-39
Age Group Rank = 8/61
Pre-race routine:

Stayed out fairly late at some friends the night before and didn't get to bed until after 11pm. Up at 3am, jumped into the hot shower and tried to wake up.
Ate a PB & honey sandwich and a banana on my way to Cd'A. Got my bike into transition at about 4:45am, got the first slot on my rack, then went over and got bodymarked at 5am.
Had 1/2 a Clif bar and a gel prior to the swim start.
Event warmup:

Took my bike for a short spin to make sure everything was in order. Then did a slow jog w/ Stan & his buddy Todd.
Pulled on the wetsuit at about 20 minutes prior to race start and got a good 10-15 minute warm up in the water.
While I was doing my swim warmup it started to pour rain, so I knew the bike course was going to be ugly.
Swim
  • 25m 36s
  • 1640 yards
  • 01m 34s / 100 yards
Comments:

Started out fairly easy until I got into a groove. Had a couple people swimming off course that cut me off, but nothing too bad. Couldn't find any feet to draft off of. Rounding the 1st turn buoy was great. Last year I was slower and in a much larger group rounding buoy's. This year was far easier in that regard. Never found any feet to draft the whole swim. Believe me I was looking! Rounded the last turn bouy and set a hard pace til my hands hit bottom. Stood up and took off hard up the stairs and into T1.
What would you do differently?:

PR by 3 minutes over last year! Let's see if I can do that again in '09!

I was 103 out of 815 total swimmers including teams.
Transition 1
  • 01m 9s
Comments:

I've got to keep working on getting my feet into my shoes when I jump onto the bike. I'm still pretty bad at it.

What would you do differently?:

My T1 time was one of the fastest of the day.

Nothing.
Bike
  • 1h 08m 8s
  • 24.85 miles
  • 21.88 mile/hr
Comments:

This is one of the most difficult Oly bike courses you'll find anywhere. Tons of climbing, followed by serious rolling hills. Two different turnarounds and lots of technical cornering. On top of it all the course was very wet.
Shortly after the start you make several tight corners going out of Cd'A and I nearly wrecked about 3 times. Found out later several people did wreck in those corners.
Made it out to Lake Drive and played cat & mouse w/ two guys on tri bikes. They both pulled away from me on the first big climb.
As soon as I started climbing I knew I wasn't feeling it. My legs felt like stumps. Cycling is usually my strongest event by far, but today I struggled.
Did o.k. on the long climb up Yellowstone Trail and just kept the hammer down as hard as I could through the rest of the ride.
I did see several crashes in the wet conditions and had to be very cautious in the corners and descents. I was watching my clock and wasn't happy when I came into T2.
Found out later that even the pro's had "poor" bike splits compared to last year.
What would you do differently?:

Not really sure. Sleep more?

Ended up 36 out of 804 total cyclists including teams/duathletes.

Set my new fastest max speed today......hit 50.8 mph.
Transition 2
  • 01m 2s
Comments:

T2 was very muddy and slippery, but all in all it went well.

I took the time to put socks on this time, which I've never done before. Lost a few seconds, but kept the blisters away.
What would you do differently?:

Nothing.
Run
  • 43m 20s
  • 6.21 miles
  • 06m 59s  min/mile
Comments:

Came out of T2 feeling good. Pushed fairly hard the first mile without going overboard and was pleased to feel like my lack of legs on the bike had showed up for the run. 1st mile split was 6:52. I decided to try to hang on to that pace through the first 4 miles and see what I had left at the end. Mile 2 split was 6:48, 3 was 6:47 and 4 was 6:54. I was happy to see the consistency and felt good and picked it up another notch for the last two miles. There were no more mile markers, which I thought was odd.
Not sure if markers were off a bit or what, but my final split didn't jive w/ my splits on my watch.
There was one guy up ahead of me by about 200 yds coming into the last 1/2 mile and he became my rabbit to chase. Turned out he wasn't much of a rabbit cause it only took me about 1/4 mile to pass him. Unfortunately, he wasn't in my AG. Came through the finish line feeling strong, yet tired. I don't feel like I left a lot behind today and that's a good feeling to have at the end.
What would you do differently?:

Nothing.

Ended up 68 out of 796 runners including teams/duathletes.
Post race
Warm down:

Walked over and congratulated a buddy of mine who beat me by 4 minutes. He's 26 yrs old, 6'8" tall and getting married this week. He ran a sub 40 10k at the end and is a looonnnngggg fast swimmer!
Ate some watermelon and drank some water and walked back up the course a bit and watched for Stan.

Stan ripped off a PR as well and picked up a 2nd place AG award in the process. Would've been 1st if he hadn't got the snot kicked out of him during the swim!

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Rain on the bike course was one equation, lack of sleep another. Other than maybe trying to follow a training plan and start doing some focused workouts, I think it went pretty well.

My time was a PR over last year and last year the bike course was shortened due to road construction by about 4 minutes.

Event comments:

Excellent race, well organized and USAT sanctioned as of 2008. Come prepared to climb hills on the bike!




Last updated: 2008-04-10 12:00 AM
Swimming
00:25:36 | 1640 yards | 01m 34s / 100yards
Age Group: 9/61
Overall: 103/669
Performance: Good
Suit: Xterra Vortex Pro 2
Course: Clockwise triangle.
Start type: Wade Plus: Waves
Water temp: 69F / 21C Current: Medium
200M Perf. Average Remainder: Average
Breathing: Good Drafting: Bad
Waves: Navigation: Good
Rounding: Good
T1
Time: 01:09
Performance: Good
Cap removal: Good Helmet on/
Suit off:
No
Wetsuit stuck? No Run with bike: Yes
Jump on bike: Yes
Getting up to speed: Below average
Biking
01:08:08 | 24.85 miles | 21.88 mile/hr
Age Group: 8/61
Overall: 36/669
Performance: Below average
Wind: Some with gusts
Course: Out & back.
Road: Smooth Wet Cadence:
Turns: Below average Cornering: Below average
Gear changes: Average Hills: Below average
Race pace: Hard Drinks: Just right
T2
Time: 01:02
Overall: Good
Riding w/ feet on shoes Good
Jumping off bike Good
Running with bike Good
Racking bike Good
Shoe and helmet removal Average
Running
00:43:20 | 06.21 miles | 06m 59s  min/mile
Age Group: 10/61
Overall: 68/669
Performance: Good
Course: Out & back. Mostly flat.
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Average
Mental exertion [1-5] 3
Physical exertion [1-5] 3
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: Average
Race evaluation [1-5] 5