As a fun little aside from the focus on long-course triathlon training and racing, I did this local sprint triathlon on Sunday. I haven't done a sprint in several years and after spending all of that time training for long-course triathlon I know my body has evolved into an endurance athlete with mostly slowtwitch muscle fibers - certainly not what you need to be successful in the world of sprint and olympic-distance triathlon.
So this was definitely a "have fun", D-priority race for me. It was composed of a 700 meter swim, 14.5 mile bike and 4.5 mile run. My plan was to try to go balls-to-the-wall the entire way and just see what kind of top-end speed I have and to have fun doing it.
Race Goals
So this was definitely a "have fun", D-priority race for me. It was composed of a 700 meter swim, 14.5 mile bike and 4.5 mile run. My plan was to try to go balls-to-the-wall the entire way and just see what kind of top-end speed I have and to have fun doing it.
Race Goals
- Win my age group
- Overall time under 1:20:00 (the time that won my age group in 2009)
- Stretch goal: podium spot for the overall
- Won my age group
- Overall time: 1:18:36
- 5th overall
Goal was to go under 10:00 - no problem at all based on recent swim workouts. Had good water as there was very little wind on this small lake. I was in the 2nd wave (60 athletes per wave with 2' between each wave). Somehow I positioned myself up front and right in the middle of the group. I should have been on the outside to get a more direct line to the first turn and to avoid the chaos. I hammered it hard in the first 200 meters or so to try to get away from the beatings that take place in these sprint swims but I was unsuccessful. Additionally, I felt just plain AWFUL! My stroke felt like crap. My breathing was completely out of rhythm. I felt like I had no strength on the pulls - it was the worst I've felt during a swim in many years. I didn't wear a watch so I had no idea what my time was but I knew when I got out of the water that it was SLOW. At least it was done, but now I was worried about carrying that same crap result over to the bike and run.
T1 (1:05)
Threw the helmet on and took off. These sprints are so easy to get through transition quickly. I fumbled with my new cycling shoes for too long after I mounted the bike but eventually got them strapped and got to work.
The Bike - 14.5 miles (36:40)
Being in a pretty congested, high traffic area with a lot of stoplights and rough roads I was curious how the organizers would set up this bike course. I was pleasantly surprised. There were a lot of turns but that's what actually made this bike course fun - I love technical bike routes and had a good time carrying a ton of speed into the corners.
My aim was to ride as close to FTP (~300 watts) as possible. From the start, I just didn't have that gear in my legs. I tried and tried but had a really tough time getting there and holding it. Still I was passing people right and left, mostly folks from the first wave. I never got passed.
My time goal was to come in around or under 38:00 so I was happy with coming in over a minute under that. Here's my ride data:
Twin Lakes Tri Bike:
Duration: 37:49
Work: 545 kJ
TSS: 46.7 (intensity factor 0.861)
Norm Power: 252
VI: 1.05
Pw:HR: 0.17%
Distance: 14.376 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 570 240 watts
Heart Rate: 132 161 147 bpm
Cadence: 45 186 93 rpm
Speed: 5.2 32.4 22.9 mph
T2 (52 seconds)
Bike racked, helmet off, shoes on (sans socks), number belt on and out of transition - felt fast.
The Run - 4.5 miles (28:49)
My run plan was to start out around a 6:30/mile pace then bring it down 10 seconds at every mile. It took me a half mile or so to settle down and get a good cadence going. I found myself holding around 6:20 for most of the run fairly comfortably. By mile 3 I knew it would be a struggle to find another gear so I just hung on to whatever gas I had left. I did have a nice finishing kick in the final 1/2 mile, though.
I never got passed on the run either and I think I passed a few people at least. All in all, I was pleased with my effort on the run leg given the struggles I had with the swim and bike on the day.
My finish time was 1:18:36 which won my age group and placed me 5th overall (2 seconds ahead of 6th place).
Here's the run data:
Duration: 28:48
rTSS: 54.5 (1.023)
NGP: 6:17 (255.8 m/min)
Pa:HR: 1.05%
Distance: 4.508 mi
Elevation Gain: 549 ft
Elevation Loss: 566 ft
Grade: -0.1 % (-17 ft)
Min Max Avg
Heart Rate: 158 173 165 bpm
Cadence: 81 93 87 rpm
Speed: 4:36 11:14 6:21 min/mi
Altitude: 690 767 727 ft
My buddy and fellow Endurance Nation teammate Matt Ancona took 1st overall - he's just plain rocking these local races this year! And another friend, Mike Biarnesen, won the 50-55 age group - I'm very happy for him (and his wife Vicki for completing a solid race)!
While I hit my main goals I still have some penned up frustration about the race, especially my abysmal swim. But I'm moving on with an intense focus to work hard over the 11 weeks to prepare for Ironman. I can't let things like this get in the way of my big goal.
I have no more races on the calendar (save a 5K here or there as a test of my Vdot), it's all about getting the most out of every training session and paying attention to every detail to set me up for a successful Ironman Wisconsin on September 12th!!
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