Dominion's Sprint and Olympic Distance - OPEN !!! (Page 17)

Great race reports Tony and Randy.
Plus side for you Randy is that Winnipisake is sitting at 76-78 degrees, doubtful that it will be wetsuit legal. RDs do like it to be legal so maybe the office temp will be really close

I did my racecation event. It was a point to point event and probably a light harder than I anticipated. The bike course was first 6.5 miles with 1000 foot elevation change. Start was in two waves and I should have put an effort to being in first wave. Once on the trails people would stall out on hills or if things go technical while climbing. This sometimes would stop me in my tracks and I would have to jump off to walk too. A couple times people tried to restart without looking over their shoulder and this would screw you up to. Hit t1 and there were no assigned spots for your bike and I had trouble finding a space. Grrr. Swim went nice. Echo lake is in the mountains and at about 2000 foot elevation. From what I could find water temps on one website listed 50ish degrees. I guessed 55. Between the temps and the vibration of Mtn biking my arms were stiff. I got across the lake decent. This event didn't give transition times but I had the swim at about 14 minutes and change sometime after walking up the beach which I thought was good for the 0.5 mile distance. The hike really sucked. Had planned to alternate running and walking but it was too steep and to rocky in most sections. I ran maybe a handful of times but very short distances. Put a hard kick in heading into the shoot because it was the finish and I wanted the kids to see me finish hard and pass some people. My back was really tight afterwards but I managed to "foam" roll on a guardrail.

It was a tough race but fun. More fun in retrospect.
full report on BT
123 of 188. there was 50 plus relay teams

Sounds like an interesting race. I was surprised to hear what you said the water temperature was for that lake. Upon further review, it is not the Echo Lake I was thinking of. We took the kids up to North Conway last year and there is an Echo Lake in North Conway. Very nice lake, moderate water temperature. While we were there, we saw a couple guys swimming back and forth across the lake in swim caps and goggles. One of them was wearing a wetsuit and I assumed they were triathletes getting in some open water swimming. Curious, I pulled up a map and it looks like both Franconia and North Conway have an Echo Lake! Come on, NH, show some creativity! At least now I understand why the temperature was so different from what I experienced, it was a completely different lake.

I had a good race today at the Timberman Sprint in Lake Winnipesaukee near Gilford, NH. My overall time of 1:29:23 was good for 135/427 and 11/28 in my age group. In terms of ranking, that was my best race yet. I placed in the top 1/3 among all finishers, it's the first time I've finished in the top half of my age group at any distance, and I think it's the first time I've finished in the top half among male competitors. So I'd call that a pretty successful race! I'm not sure I'd call it my best race ever, but it was my best in terms of ranking.

My wife and kids came with me to this race, but we didn't really plan for the race very well. It was a 7 a.m. race time and we only had one car. I didn't want to have to try getting my kids up at 5 a.m. to go to the race. So I rode my bike the 6 miles from our hotel to the venue to let my wife and kids sleep later. I took it really easy with a very casual 13.5 mph average to get there. Who knows, maybe it actually helped me have a really good bike?

The swim was totally fubar and my time comes with an asterisk. The water level in the lake was so low that you could pretty much walk/run about 100 meters to the first buoy! I kinda jogged for a while, but as you got farther from shore the bottom got very rocky and I had to walk as gingerly as possible so I didn't destroy my feet. By the time I got to the first buoy, I was finally able to start swimming. My time was 8:41. I'm not sure I could have shaved more than a minute by not swimming the first 100, so maybe it would have been more like 9:41? Hard to tell, but I raced the same course as everyone else. My time was good for 180/427 and 12/28 AG.

T1 was uneventful and I headed out on the bike. I knew this was a hilly course. The good news was that while there was a very long stretch that seemed to climb endlessly (OK, about 2.35 miles) it was at a relatively moderate and consistent grade. It would have been worse if there were a couple really steep climbs. In fact, I found myself passing a lot of people on the hills. At times, I would clear a clump of 4 or 5 racers at once! I had estimated a time for myself of 53:00, but I came in with a nifty 51:23. My bike computer had the course at 15.4, but even at 15 miles it was an average of 17.5 mph. I was really happy with my bike and I finished 125/427 and 12/28.

T2 was also uneventful and went well overall. The run was somewhat like the bike in that there was a long stretch of uphill to the turn around, but it was a very moderate and relatively consistent grade. I felt a little tightness in my calves like they might cramp. I nursed them through the first 3/4 mile or so and they never did cramp. Not much exciting happened on the run, it was a fairly steady effort. I did get a stitch in the left side of my rib cage. It bothered my for about the last mile, but wasn't too bad. The run was supposed to be 3 miles, but I doubt it. My GPS measured it at 2.82. My time of 23:17 would seem to back that up. Still, at 2.82 miles, that gave me an average pace of 8:15/mile, which is a really good run for me. It gave me a ranking of 136/427 and 12/28.

Overall, a really solid race for me and I was really happy with my time. I've got about a month until my next race, but I think I'm just going to treat that one as a fun one and not one to be more competitive at. I've got my first half marathon only a few weeks after that and I have to really start focusing on my run a little more between now and then. So the bike training will probably suffer a little.

Great Job! Glad you had a good race. Was it wet suit legal or was it too warm? Beat all 3 of my splits from last year! You stick around for the half?
Check out how many long pond's or long lakes there are in NH. Probably the same in MA.

Nate

I had that thought, too, Chris. Although, I might want to have it be a little shorter next time. ;-) I've always only done a swim warm-up and nothing else. But if time allows, I'll try a bike warm-up again at my next race. I've got one left in mid-September, so I think I'll try it.

Nate, I'm not sure how close it was, but it was wetsuit legal. Water was comfortable, but cool enough to make it WS legal. I won't lie and say that I didn't stalk you in the results from last year to know what your time was. I thought it would be pretty close. I did better on the bike that I anticipated. I'm not sure if your run last year was as short as mine this year. Add in the walk/jog for the first 100m of the swim and I'm not sure if it was a fair fight. LOL

I wanted to watch some of the 70.3, but with the kids we decided to just pack up the car and head home. I'm considering going up there for a day trip next year and riding the 70.3 course. It's about a 2-hour drive, so it can be done in a day if I take a day off from work in the middle of the week.

Dude you crushed me fair and square! Pretty sure the course is pretty consistent. Didn'the have my gps watch last year so may have been short then too. Water was down about a foot. So probably not to different. I would say you beat me pretty squarely. Nice race! Maybe I can get back up there next year for a head to head

Ha, ha! Well, it would only be head-to-head if you were going to do the 70.3! I did the sprint this year so I could at least get a preview of some of the course. The bike course for the 70.3 covers essentially the entire sprint course. I think there is only a couple very minor differences. Likewise with the run course. It looks like the 70.3 run course covers the sprint course. So it was pretty good intel, even if it's only a fraction of the course.

But another year I think it would be awesome to go head-to-head on a course. It seems like you're up in NH just about every year and generally aren't more than a couple hours from me when you race.

Planning for a 70.3 next year. Not sure if it will be in NH or closer to home. We will likely continue to travel to NH every August. With the season starting so early here and things getting so hot there are three tri seasons in NC, spring, misery and fall. My training took a hit this year during misery. I was progressing in distance and speed and then bonked in the hot/vacation months and lost some endurance and speed. Water conditions are terrible at this weekends local tri due to heat and abnormal algae bloom. Any way I might need to do an early 70.3. Raleigh is in May but generally thought to be very hot, and surprisingly has more elevation change than Timberman. Ironman is releasing race dates and opening registration now. I guess we could all go and bake with Monty early next year

NP

Even here, it was a very hot summer. We had many more days in July with temps in the 90s that we've had in quite some time (that I can remember). We have had shorter periods where maybe it would be in the 90s for 5-7 days but the rest of the month was mid 80s. But it felt like at least half of the month of July was 90+. Since I tend to do a lot of my training runs and rides at lunch, it sucked trying to train in those temps with the sun beating down on me! I tried to train through it the best I could, but it wasn't easy.

So I know I've read countless articles that say that you shouldn't increase your weekly mileage by more than 10%. As my tri season is coming to a close, I have a couple of road races where I want to have a good performance (including my first half marathon). I am willing to sacrifice some of my cycling time in order to run train more. Do you think it is OK to increase my mileage by 20% or more if I am giving up some bike mileage? I know the bike isn't as hard on your joints as running, but it's still exercise for your legs. If I give up a 1 hour bike ride for a 50-60 minute run, is it OK if that increases my weekly mileage by more than 10%? I know, I don't run a ton. I probably only average 10-12 miles a week. So adding another 5+ miles is going to make my run total jump by over 40%. But it doesn't feel like it's going to be that big of a deal if I'm only doing one bike ride instead of two. My total time exercising each week will stay roughly the same or might even drop a little.

5 to 7 days??? I have to laugh at that!  I think we are working on 70 straight days of 90+ in Savannah. Broke the old record of 56. It should finally end this week!!!

http://savannahnow.com/blog/mary-landers/2016-08-29/90-degree-streak-could-end-today

Edited by Dominion 2016-08-30 11:48 AM

I've gone beyond the 10% rule myself many times. I think that if you are only running 10-12 miles per week then you could most likely add another 5 miles without too much of a problem. You're 10-12 miles is probably 3 to 4 runs per week? so adding one additional run should be fine for you. I think the 10% rule becomes more important the higher your mileage is to start with. For instance if you were running 50 miles per week, you wouldn't want to jump straight to 70. You would just add 10% each week or two until you worked up to 70. With your base, you will be fine increasing to 15 to 17 miles per week.

Edited by Dominion 2016-08-30 11:55 AM

That's kinda what I was thinking, too. I only do a couple runs a week, maybe 3 on a rare occasion. Time to train is hard to find. A typical week for me would probably be 2 runs, 2 bike rides, and one day at the pool. I throw in a brick or two each month, but the run is typically only 1-1.5 miles. I've done 2 races each month, so I've also given up a little training time by taking a day or two off before my races and then needing a day or two of recovery time afterwards. I was thinking very recently how I'm surprised that I've been able to maintain my speed (or what counts as speed for me) despite running so little. Anyway, I agree with what you're saying, I think I can safely add an extra 4-5 miles to my total without any negative effects especially if I'm giving up a little cycling. I haven't decided to do that yet, but I'm leaning that way just for the next month or so until I have my half marathon.

I know, we aren't nearly as hot as you guys down there, but that's hot for us. Not sure what your humidity level is down there, but it seemed like we had a lot of days of 60%+. I'm guessing you guys would think it was cold in weather where I'd still be wearing shorts! I did so many training runs over the winter in temperatures below freezing. How about you?! ;-) It's all a matter of perspective. I actually didn't mind the cold temps until it got down below about 25. I sure wouldn't want to swim in that weather! LOL Biking is a different story, I don't like to ride the bike in anything under 50 and would prefer not to be below 55. But if I was desperately wanting to ride, I'd do it in 50 degree temps if I had to.