North East Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic


View Member's Race Log View other race reports
North East, Maryland
United States
CGI Racing
75F / 24C
Sunny
Total Time = 2h 36m 30s
Overall Rank = 76/286
Age Group = M35-39
Age Group Rank = 9/32
Pre-race routine:

Got up at 5. Dressed, packed up the car and left the bed and breakfast around 5:20 or so. Mir stayed in bed and slept in, which is what I wanted her to do since we didn't get back from our kick azz dinner until almost midnight and had quite a bit to drink .....
Event warmup:

Set up my transition (very sparse in an olympic distance race), learned that it was not going to be a wetsuit legal swim and met with a co-worker whose boyfriend was doing his first race in the sprint category. Talked with him and tried to calm his nerves a little.
Swim
  • 38m 1s
  • 1640 yards
  • 02m 19s / 100 yards
Comments:

The swim was definitely long. My last olympic was 30:00 (with a wetsuit) and even including the 300 yards or so that you ran from the water to the first timing mat it still seemed about 2 or 300 yards long. Pretty crappy swim for me as I never really got into a good rhythm and had some drifting. I don't know what it is, but my stroke seems to go to sh-t when I'm in an OWS situation. Need to work on that .....
What would you do differently?:

More OWS practice. Push myself harder as I never really felt winded. I was pretty upset by my time and effort with the swim and it put me in the wrong mood for the rest of the race. Mentally thinking "How the hell can I make up 15 minutes on the bike and run to place??? It ain't gonna happen."
Transition 1
  • 00m 52s
Comments:

The timing mat was right before you got into the transition area so it was easy to go fast. All I had to do was drop off the speedsuit, put my helmet and glasses on and run out. Cut and dry, simple transition.
What would you do differently?:

Not much. Maybe get out of the transition area faster. It did take me too long once on the bike to get into my shoes, but that time counts in the bike leg, not in the transition. This was the fastest T1 I've ever had. 3rd in AG and 31st overall (only 3 seconds off of fastest in AG).
Bike
  • 1h 11m 28s
  • 23.2 miles
  • 19.48 mile/hr
Comments:

Grrrrrrr. Took to long to get into my shoes. Still miffed about the swim, but happy about my transition. Got into the groove finally and took off. I knew this was a rolling course but I had not previewed it so I didn't know exactly what to expect. I was just hoping that there was nothing too brutal since I was using my 11-21 cassette on the disc. But I survived Columbia with that without any real issues, so not too much to worry about.

All the way up to the turnaround I was flying, easily 3 - 5 mph faster than everyone I passed. Legs didn't feel quite all the way there which is probably a product of reduced training and still not completely recovered from IMLP. Oh, and the late night with awesome food and 9 different wine samples with all the courses probably didn't help .... ;-P

Not long after the turn around I heard the dreaded hiss hiss on each tire revolution. DOH!!! Front tire flat ...... Pulled over, and just took my sweet time changing it over. Took a little bit of effort to get the tire off the rim since I glue the whole thing and don't leave a small portion unglued like some do (blame it on the mechanic and road racer in me). and I didn't pre-stretch the new tire, so that took some effort to get on. Oh well. Never got out of sorts and just moved calmly but slowly. Probably lost somewhere in the range of 7 minutes here. Ouch .....

Back on the bike, back up to speed and start the real rolling section. Caught a bunch of people that passed me while I was changing the flat. I was seriously puzzy-footing through the corners and descents though because rolling an unglued tubular is not a fun thing and I didn't want to crash. It wouldn't have been a big deal but this was a pretty technical course from that perspective and I was being overly cautious. I'm sure that cost me a minute or two as well.

Pretty uneventful ride otherwise. I was so far out of the faster crowd that no one even came close to passing me the whole time (not that many ever would to begin with). I also think that the course was longer than the advertised 23.2. My cyclometer said 24 and the time I got even subtracting out the flat based on my speeds seems to hint at that as well.
What would you do differently?:

Not flat, and if I did, change the damn thing faster. Mentally I was done after the flat and it was just get through to the finish. But gearing was not an issue and I climbed well.
Transition 2
  • 01m 9s
Comments:

Another decent transition. but I had trouble getting the left shoe on. The heel tab folded in, so I had to quickly kneel down to fix it. Threw me off for a few seconds. I yelled to my co-worker and her friend that I flatted .....
What would you do differently?:

Get the shoe on faster. Focus more. Still 10th for AG, but only 105th overall for T2. Should have been like a :40 one though .....
Run
  • 45m
  • 6.21 miles
  • 07m 15s  min/mile
Comments:

Not much to say here. Legs were a little tight and my breathing took a bit to get under control. First mile was a quick 6:36 but it was more flat on that portion and the rest was rolling, so the pace went up. I did back it off a little after that first mile.

Steadily picked off people one at a time. Realized that I actually was in decent position overall as most of the people I was passing were pretty fit and the people on the return portion were moving well. So focused a bit more on having a solid run. Only two people passed me, both after the turn around. One was in a younger AG, one was older.

Coming into the finish there was no one near me, so no real desire to press it. Just glad the race was over.
What would you do differently?:

I had a pretty decent run considering my fitness level. Probably could not have gone much faster on that day. Happily the Zoot shoes were not a problem at all and no blisters from them this time. Ran sockless. Just had the issue in T2 putting the left one on.
Post race
Warm down:

Sat down, shook my head and drank a water bottle. Talked with my co-worker and her boyfriend and congratulated him on his result. Called Mir, packed my stuff, checked my results and took off. Amazingly got top 10 in the AG, but it was not a very big or deep field compared to what I'm used to racing in (much larger events).

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Recovery from LP, mentally not there, flat tire.

Event comments:

Good race, even with the longish swim. Well run, lots of motivated volunteers and nice challenging course. I'd do it again. (As an aside, I initially was only going to do the sprint ..... which I probably would have won based on the times ... oh well, shoulda coulda woulda).




Last updated: 2008-08-06 12:00 AM
Swimming
00:38:01 | 1640 yards | 02m 19s / 100yards
Age Group: 19/32
Overall: 173/286
Performance: Bad
No HRM.
Suit: Desoto Liftfoil Speedsuit
Course: Modified rectangle with different start and finish.
Start type: Deep Water Plus: Waves
Water temp: 79F / 26C Current: Low
200M Perf. Average Remainder: Below average
Breathing: Good Drafting: Average
Waves: Average Navigation: Average
Rounding: Below average
T1
Time: 00:52
Performance: Good
Cap removal: Good Helmet on/
Suit off:
Yes
Wetsuit stuck? No Run with bike: Yes
Jump on bike: No
Getting up to speed: Average
Biking
01:11:28 | 23.2 miles | 19.48 mile/hr
Age Group: 13/32
Overall: 82/286
Performance: Below average
No HRM.
Wind: Little
Course: Short out and back, then a loop through rolling terrain.
Road: Rough Dry Cadence: 95
Turns: Average Cornering: Below average
Gear changes: Good Hills: Good
Race pace: Comfortable Drinks: Just right
T2
Time: 01:09
Overall: Below average
Riding w/ feet on shoes Good
Jumping off bike Good
Running with bike Good
Racking bike Good
Shoe and helmet removal Below average
Running
00:45:00 | 06.21 miles | 07m 15s  min/mile
Age Group: 3/32
Overall: 52/286
Performance: Good
No HRM.
Course: Rolling out and back.
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Below average
Mental exertion [1-5] 2
Physical exertion [1-5] 3
Good race? Ok
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Good
Race evaluation [1-5] 4