5 Days to the Nations Triathlon - 2010

The nations triathlon is fast approaching – 5 days until race day.  Since this is my first Olympic distance race, i am not 100% sure how my body will react to the longer distance compared to the sprints i have done previously.

In preparation for the race, I put together some notes about how i think i might finish.  This is just my best estimate.  One of the big unknowns for me is how the bike leg will go.  All of the races I have done until now have been sprints, with a max of 700 athletes.  Each swim wave has been relatively small, and there is usually always a fair amount of traffic on the bike course.  The nations tri has something like 4,500 people – sure there are still wave starts (33 of them), with many age groups have multiple waves, but there is still going to be a lot of people out on the course at the same time.

So here’s my preview of how i think/hope the race will go

	Fast	Average	Slow	Actual
Swim – 1,500m	31:00	32:00	33:00	27:37
Bike – 40k/25mi	1:17	1:20	1:23	1:08:27
Run – 10k/6.2mi	54:00	57:00	1:00	46:39
Transitions (1&2)	4:00	4:00	4:00	5:30
Total	2:46	2:54	3:00	2:28:11

Given that i have not had the best year in terms of injury – i would be happy finishing anything less than 3 hrs.

The table above helps me to gauge what my fastest and slowest time should be, of course depending on a lot of factors, it helps me to work out a range of what is reasonable to expect.    What is interesting about this, is that 3:00 was the original goal i set for myself when i registered for the race in December 2009.  Today, even with the injuries, 3hrs seems easy enough.  After the race I’ll add a column for the actual race times to see how it compares.

Swim  (M40-44 - Wave 13 - 7:48am)

When I first started considering Triathlon – the limiting factor for me was 100% swimming.  Actually i had always wanted to complete a triathlon, but thought the swimming would be too hard.  I’ve worked hard on swimming this year, and i am now pretty comfortable with swimming the distance in the pool.  Note that i didn’t say fast.  Now that i found out that my local pool is yards and not meters, i had to manage my expectations a little too.  So what i though was 1,500 meters, was short (1,500m is around 1,640 yards).  The last time i did that distance (30min TT) i finished in 28:55 (details here).  Open water is going to be slower, especially with no walls to push off.  I am not doing flip turns yet so the advantage in the pool may not be huge, but at least in the pool i know that i am going straight.  I’d really like to break 30 mins, i think that might be possible if we could wear wetsuits.  Realistically, i will be happy with anything less than 32 minutes.  Since this is my first race longer than 750m, it will be interesting to see what i can do.

I’d really like to start the swim at a steady pace and not get caught up with trying to mix it up with the faster swimmers.  I did this on my last race and while i had a good time, i really pushed my HR limits (180+ hr).  Doing the same thing would be a problem with a race of double the distance.  I’d like to focus on technique and slow things down a little, if i can do that then i think i can still have a good time and have plenty of energy left for the bike/run.

It looks pretty likely that this will not be a wetsuit race.  I was really hoping for colder water so i could get a boost from my wetsuit.  Last week the water temperature was 85, today 80-81.  It is getting close to the 78 wetsuit cut-off.

Final note:  My age group is split across 3 swim waves.  I am in the first wave.  I wonder if they will mark us with the a/b/c wave too.  I am really competing for a time, not against anyone else, but i like to see what others in my group can do.  If i see someone ahead of me towards the end of the run, then I'll be trying to run them down – especially if i knew that they were in the same swim wave.

Bike

I’ve worked really hard over the last month – with very little prep on the bike for the entire year before that.  My recent rides have be averaging just over 19mph on for around 25miles mostly on rolling terrain with a few hills.  I used these training rides to come up with the time estimates above. 19.0mph would be 1:18.57.   The Nation’s course is supposed to be quite fast, but with all of the people, maintaining a good average might be a challenge.  I have never managed to top 20mph in any ride yet – that is one of my goals. I think it might be possible with a few more months of training under my belt.  Given how i have been training, i think something in the 1:17-1:20 time window is doable.  Anything less than 1:20 would be a great result.

Run

Running has been tough for me this year.  The only thing of note that I have done is complete a half marathon (1:53:55) in May.  Since then i have had another knee surgery and not completed much running at all.  2 weeks ago i did manage to complete a 10k training run – this felt really great!  I set a new PR by breaking 50minutes for the first time.  However a few days after that i was out on a slow jog and had some calf pain – a week later it is still there.  I am trying to massage every day and it is getting better, but i don’t think i am going to attempt to run until race day.

Ideally i would love to finish in around 55:00 or less – if i have a good day i could get closer to 50, but if the calf hurts it might take a lot longer.  My conservative goal is anything less than 1hr.  I’ve completed 3 sprint races, each in the high 26 minute range (26:41, 26:51, 26:34).  Doubling that time gets me to around 55, but i don’t know how my legs are going to feel.  At least this run is mostly flat.

Transition

This race is on a much larger scale than anything i have ever done before.  Looking at last year’s results – the transition times vary wildly.  the front of the pack (M40-44) were between 3-4 minutes combined for T1 & T2, whereas the average for a 2:50 finish were up to 6 minutes.  I am hoping to make up some time in transition – so i figured leaving 4 minutes combined should be enough.    I may update this after i see where my bike will be racked, and how large the transition area is.

I do plan on clipping my shoes in to the bike and doing a flying mount, and won’t be wearing any socks, so that should hopefully lay the foundation for a fast T1 and T2.  Last race my helmet and glasses were knocked off before i got to transition, so i may put them on the ground to be safe.  I have aero bars on the bike now, so that might make them more secure up high.

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So that’s it for my pre-race thoughts.  I am hoping that by posting this goal, it will provide a little more motivation to go and make it happen!

DC Rainmaker: September Garmin Forerunner 310XT Giveaway

DC Rainmaker: September Garmin Forerunner 310XT Giveaway

check out this contest from dcrainmaker - http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2010/09/september-garmin-forerunner-310xt.html.

I'd love to have one of these one day - will be a big upgrade from my Polar RS300x

Swim Time trials – hard vs easy

In the last few weeks, i started swimming with the local masters team – this has really helped me improve way faster than trying to do it all on my own.  I am getting faster at the shorter sets (50s, 100s, 200s etc) but i haven’t done any distance work for a few weeks.

last night i didn’t have a plan before jumping in to the water.  After a warm-up i was feeling ok and since I have the Nations Tri (Olympic distance) coming up in just under 3 weeks, i decided to do some longer time trials.

So my plan was at first to try 5 minutes continuous to see how we go.  I didn’t get lap splits for this, but the end result was :-

Time	Distance	Average Pace (per 100y/50y)
4:55	300yards	1:38.3 / 49.16

compared to recent efforts, that is really great. I don’t think i have ever averaged faster than 50s for 50yards (often around the 53 mark).  I was puffing by the end of the 5 minutes, but felt quite good. 

So the next time effort (after short break) was for 10 minutes – for this set my perceived effort was harder, but the average time was very similar.  at the end of 10 minutes, i was definitely feeling it.  I don’t think i could have held that pace for too much longer.

Time	Distance	Average Pace (per 100y/50y)
9:58	600yards	1:39.6 / 49.83

interesting – within 1 sec/100y of the 5min TT.  The problem is that this is not a pace i could keep up for a longer swim.  Since i am aiming for 1500m/1650y for the Nations Tri.

So my next set was a 30min TT, about the time i think i can complete course.  For this set i purposely took it easy, trying to be comfortable and efficient.  I finished strong, and could have kept going at that pace. 

Time	Distance	Average Pace (per 100y/50y)
30:17.6	1750yards	1:43.8 / 51.93

I think this is an interesting result.  what felt significantly easier, was actually only 4 seconds per 100 yards slower.  I think i can happily give up those 4 seconds for a comfortable swim, and have lots of energy left for the rest of the race.

splits @ 300 and 600yards (had the lap timer on for the 10 & 30 minute tt’s)

Distance	5min TT	10min TT	30min TT
300	4:55.0	4:59.4	5:09.8
600	-	9:58.0	10:27.2

my goal is to be able to keep the 10min speed for a full 30 mins, but that will take a lot of work and some better technique.  for the last 10 minutes I managed to increase speed, as i was feeling pretty good.  This is going to be the plan for my race – start at a good steady pace, and hopefully increase the pace during the 2nd half.  I'd much rather do this than start out too hard (which is easy to do in a race) and not have much left towards the end.  I also just looked at the tide charts – low tide on race day should be 6:30 – right about the start of the first wave.  so the first leg of the out&back swim will be downstream, and of course against the tide on the way back.

This session represents somewhat of a breakthrough for me – only a year ago i was averaging well over 2mins per 100yards, right around 2:20 – 2:25.

I looked at my training log, and the last 30minute time trial i did was only 8 days before.  I managed to beat my time by 18 seconds.  Working on technique with the masters team really is making a difference.  The last time i did a 30min TT was April 1st – with an average of 53.9/50y – 1:47.8/100y (1700y in 30:33.1), this is pretty good progress (50y extra distance and 16 seconds less time).

If you were thinking about joining a local masters program, my recommendation is that you definitely should.  These numbers are evidence that it does work.  I didn’t think i was good enough to join in with the Masters team, but they were really great.  I have already improved a lot in only 3 weeks. 

2010 Culpeper Triathlon Race Report

This is my 2nd year competing in the Culpeper Triathlon.  I’ve had a tough year for injuries this year, so really had not spent any quality time on the Bike, and had not completed any runs since the Marine Corps 1/2 Marathon.  I have been working hard on my swim, so my plan was to have a good swim, and they take it easy on the bike and run.

Swim
I started on the front line of my wave, off to the right hand side (shortest line to the first buoy).  Usually i hang back a little, since my swimming is not strong yet.  This time i went out quite hard, trying to draft a little from the faster swimmers who jumped out in front of me.  The water in the lake is dirty – so murky that you can barely see you hands in front of you, so seeing where anyone in front of you is almost impossible.  I hit the first buoy in decent shape, but was definitely puffing hard.  Since i was on the right at the start, and it was a left turn, i had to take it a little wide.  I think i took it out too hard, and felt my form going – i tried had to breath every 2nd stroke because it wasn’t taking it easy.
overall a good swim – 14:39, including walking to the transition mat.  My HR out of the water was 183.  I really gave it everything i had, and walked to recover on the way to the bike.  The time was 2:10 better than the same swim from last year.

T1
not much special here, other than the competitor next to me knocked off my helmet and glasses before i got there.  i think i lost 20 seconds finding my glasses.   For the 2nd time i had mounted my shoes to the bike (with elastic bands to keep them positioned) so T1 is really easy.  dump the swimming gear, on with glasses and helmet and go. 

1:57 – slower that i would have liked, but not too bad (2:14 last year) – pretty good considering the time lost to finding my glasses.  next time i may put the helmet on the ground, depending on how tightly spaced the bikes are on the rack

Bike
my goal was to keep a cadence average of 90 – i think i did well with this.  Since i had only had 1 road ride since October last year, i took it easy.  I still managed to get around in an ok time (57.12 compared to 56.09 last year), so that is pretty good.  I did managed to get a 2:00 drafting penalty.  I saw the motor bikes on the course, and i was trying hard not to be too close to those in front, but with so many bikes on the course this was difficult.  looks like i will have to try harder next time.

T2
1:14 – pretty decent, nothing much to report.  Took my feet out of the shoes on the last downhill before the short uphill into transition.  passed a lot of people right at the dismount line.  racked the bike and put my shoes on pretty quickly. 

Run
took it easy again, legs felt in pretty good shape after a somewhat easy ride.   Time was 26:41, pretty good considering i took it easy, and had almost no training.  run time from last year was 26:34.
Overall i was very happy – total time (minus the 2:00 penalty) was 1:41:34 – better than last years 1:42:09 even when taking the bike/run easy.  hopefully next year i’ll be injury free, and try to get to around 1:30.

The event is a good one, except for the murky water for the swim.  The bike course is challenging but not overly difficult.  the run is up/down hill, but also a good challenge.  I’ll be looking forward to this race again next year.