Desert Triathlon
March 3, 2013
Pre Race
This was the first triathlon race for 2013 season and it had been quite awhile since my last race. I arrived early as usual and set up my transition area and then brought my bag over to the FC area so that I would not have too much clutter in transition – this was a nice perk to be able to get the bag out of the way. I had participated in this race in 2010 and I was expecting to see some improvements over those results, however, by comparison the race course was different for both the swim and the bike. In 2010 the swim course was shorter and my time was faster. The bike course was different in 2010 but overall it was the same terrain. In 2010 it was raining and very cold and so my time was slower in 2010. The run was the exact same course so that is my only direct comparison between the 2 races and I improved my run time by 3:23. My overall time was an improvement of 6:06.
Swim
Expected Time – :28:00
Actual time – :31:28
The swim seemed very crowded and there was a lot of pushing and kicking going on at the beginning. After about 200 yds things settled down and I was able to get decent pattern going. I felt very comfortable during the swim once the crowd separated. I did not push myself too hard because I know this is not a place where I am going to make up very much time. When I got down to the turnaround point I felt a little bit nauseous, but as I started to swim back to the finish the queasy feeling went away. Before the start I had decided that a good sighting point going back would be one of the mountains that surrounded the lake so I used that to guide me back. I found myself swimming in towards shore a couple of times so I got a little bit of extra swimming in but overall I stayed pretty straight. I got out of the water and looked at my swim time and I was not thrilled, but it was time to move on to the bike.
T1
Expected Time – 2:00
Actual Time – 2:26
This was my first race using the Garmin 910 and as I came into transition I pushed the lap key and I didn’t notice a buzz so I hit the button again and I thought that it showed Bike so now I was thinking I am in Bike mode before leaving transition. So I did not hit the lap key when I exited transition, but it turned out that I should have because I was still in transition mode. The 910 uses a symbol of a bike with an arrow instead of showing ‘T1’ like the 310. This confused me. I should have rehearsed a little bit but I thought that it would be the same as the 310. This threw off the rest of my data for the race, especially the run.
I really wanted to have fast transitions for this race and I decided to go sockless to save time. This doesn’t bother me for the bike but it did result in a blister for the run. I still need to get faster at transitions so I am going to incorporate flying starts next race.
Bike
Expected Time – 1:05:45 (22 mph)
Actual Time – 1:05:48
I knew that this course was flat and fast and I was going to be riding it in low threshold power range for the duration of the race. I was trying to stay at an average power of 218-220w for the first 10 miles of the race and if my legs felt good I was going to ride 220 to 225 for the second part of the race. Well my legs felt very good and after I completed the first loop at about 218-220 I was able to ride the second loop at 220-223. My HR seemed a little high in the beginning but then it settled down for the second half of the ride. After about 40 minutes of riding time I started trying to estimate my completion time – I was pretty sure that I could not get under 1 hour so I stuck to my plan and kept the power meter at 220 or higher for the second half of the ride. When I finished the bike leg my average power was 223 watts, I felt great and my legs felt very ready to run.
T2
Expected Time – 1:30
Actual time – 2:13
I came into T2 and I wanted to get a really fast transition time so I decided to continue to go sockless. I went to put on my shoes and I just could not get them to go on so I lost a little time struggling with them. The sockless decision definitely saved me time, but I ended up getting a blister so it probably was not a good idea for this distance of running. I was disappointed with this T2 time and I need to learn to put my shoes on faster.
Run
Expected Time – 55:35
Actual Time – 54:50
This is the only part of the course that was the same as 2010 so I have a direct comparison of my time from that race. The only difference was the conditions – it was raining in 2010. The rain didn’t really affect my run time from 2010 and this year it was kind of hot out on the run. I improved my time from 59:27 down to 54:50 and I felt great running – in 2010 I remember struggling with the run.
Now the problem with my 910 being in the wrong mode started to affect me as I had no pacing data to look at while running because my watch was in T2 mode. I tried going to another screen but there are no other screens for T2 mode so I ran by feel. As I started my first loop I came across a new FC athlete that I had not met (Dan) and I introduced myself and we ran together for most of the first loop. I asked him if he knew what pace we running and he said 8:55. I thought to myself that was too fast for me and I slowed up some. He made a stop at the restroom and I continued on. As I was completing the first loop Caroline passed me and then Manny passed me as they were both on their way to completing the race. As I started the second loop I came upon Aaron and we ran together for awhile. Then I ran into my wife who was starting her first loop of the run. I started to pick up the pace some after I got past the campground and started running on the lake shore. I got to the FC tent and there was plenty of cheering – the finish line was very close. I was very happy with this run because I felt good, stayed comfortable and ran a decent pace of 9:27.