HyVee Olympic Distance Triathlon
Quick and dirty:
- 2:30 time felt pretty good, all things considered
- 4th in AG in the non-qualifying race (out of 71)
- Swim was very positive (12th in AG)
- Bike power was low, but speed worked out ok (21.1 mph, 8th in AG)
- Run was slower than I'd like, but appropriate for my fitness (just under 45 min, 3rd in AG)
Background
After this season's "double" of the Kansas HIM and the Grandma's marathon, which ended June 22, it took me about 4 weeks to get my legs back. Those were two great races, but doing them so close and the latter being a marathon meant that I had a solid month that I had to recover. By the time my legs were starting to come around, we had a heat wave, and then extensive travel to support the kids in some of their activities. The result was that I had 6-7 weeks of very light training (except swimming, which I kept up) followed by 2-3 weeks of irregular quality training. Ultimately, I decided that the best way to finish my season was to just go out and have fun and not worry about another "big" event. I decided just to keep up a general triathlon training sequence and "race my way into shape". I did a couple of sprint races with the kids, and then decided to do this race about two weeks before it was held. I went in with only the expectations of having a good time and hoping for a good swim and "the best" elsewhere. I had not done an Olympic distance race for three years!
The weather for the week or two before the race was very hot; many days were record highs. It became plain that there would be no wetsuits in the swim. I was prepared for that, though I had gotten a little tired of swimming at one point and kind of bummed that I couldn't "crutch swim" with the buoy, knowing I had this race coming.
Saturday, Cynthia and I spent the morning with the twins doing the Ironkids race. They both did very, very well. It was great. The only bummer was sitting around for a long time for awards in the heat, though Cynthia was kind enough to let me and Timothy go hide in the car for an hour between the race and the awards. After we were done, I did my check in duty, and we got home in the late afternoon.
I went to bed early Saturday night, because you always have to get up insanely early for HyVee.
Prerace
I woke up at 3:30 am and got out the door by 4:05. I got to the venue just before 5:00. In contrast to some other people, I didn't face any traffic problems. However, I arrived in the middle of a thunderstorm. I ran into Gary Eyles (a good soccer friend/coach who was volunteering) in the parking area, who told me that we were being told to stay in our cars. I stayed there until about 6:00 and headed over to transition. Given the delay, I wouldn't be racing until 9:00 or so. I was in one of the last groups of the last series of age groups, since I was in "the people's race", i.e., the non-qualifying HyVee race.
I have to say this about this race: there were more than enough porta-potties and more than enough volunteers. It was the best staffed race I've been at for a long time, and that includes full price Ironman races. Congrats to these guys.
Prep in transition was routine. I decided to trust my newfound confidence in using banded shoes and running barefoot like in a sprint. The area was quite crowded near me, so I put my helmet on the ground, not on the bike, but it was pretty easy to spot where my bike was, so I was happy with that.
About 7:15, it was time to go. I knew I still had a long wait, so I was bummed to be leaving my glasses behind, but at least I had my super-goggles. But no one wants to wear those for two hours straight....
Everyone walked around the "lake" to the swim start area. I watched the pro wave go off to make sure I understood the swim route. It wan't that complicated, but given my history of getting off course once in a while, I wanted to make sure. After that, I went out to the water and did some warm up. I felt pretty good, and was pleased with that.
Getting out of the water, I noticed that it was breezy. In fact, it was windy enough to be cold when wet, even though it was warming up rapidly. That turned out to be an indication of things to come.
We waited around so long for our turn that the pro race ended well before I was even getting all that close for my turn to go. At least the announcer guy kept us up to date! He did a nice job.
Swim
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/369065093
The swim start for the non qualifying race was a time trial in groups of three instead of pure waves. They said this was faster, and I have no reason to doubt them. They said it would keep the bike route less crowded. My bike experience was not crowded, but I'm not sure it would have been either way. Anyway, it was a bit of a different experience.
A few minutes before it was going to be my turn, the announcer guy pointed out someone who actually ran from the beach start into the water and noted that you could save a few seconds if you did that. When it was my turn, I was in the middle of the three. They said "go" and by the time I hit the timing start pad, I was already in the closest thing to full sprint I could get to. I never felt the presence of those other two guys again. I'm sure I only "saved" a few seconds by doing this, but it felt good and gave me a little boost. I probably looked a little silly in that I wasn't very elegant diving into the water from a full sprint...it was more like a belly flop, but I got going.
My swim felt solid. I didn't go crazy, but I kept a good effort going. Sighting was pretty easy with the crowd and relatively high sun. I was going about 12 right arm strokes between looks most of the time. (Yes, I counted.) Only once did I go notably crooked, but it didn't hurt me much because I caught it quickly. I was in full open water mode with my big arm swing recovery instead of pretty, high elbows, but I felt like I was catching and pulling well.
After the first 90 degree right turn of the swim, I noted that the water was a little choppy. It wasn't too bad, but I noticed, after reversing direction, the chop was obviously coming from the other direction...so it wasn't just my imagination. It made you wonder a little about the wind, but I didn't think much about it. I was really trying to focus. Losing my concentration is a weakness of mine on the swim; I sometimes let my mind wander too much, and this results in lower intensity or something else stupid (like getting off course?). I caught myself letting my legs sink a few times, but I think I did a pretty good job overall.
Am I the only one, though, who thinks these swims go on forever, even if I like swimming?
On the whole, I was more aware of passing people than I was of being passed; that was a good psychological factor, too. But I also knew that I should be competitive with the "waves" that were ahead of me...it wasn't like I was catching the 25 year old men.
I got out of the swim a few seconds behind a guy in my AG who made a better turn than me at the last buoy. That kind of annoyed me. But he was a "transition jogger" and I ran by. Small victories.
Transition was not entirely smooth. I was wearing a skin suit over my race kit whose zipper is designed to just come apart trivially once you start it. However, I had noticed it wasn't doing that very well the last couple times I wore it. This time, it failed. I got it partly unzipped and it was not jammed, but it just wouldn't unzip by the natural pulling motion. In frustration after messing with it almost all the way to my bike, I finally pulled hard and the suit tore as I pulled it off. Grrrrrrrrrr. But at least I got it off.
Bike
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/369065100
I ran my bike out and was pleased again to be running past people on the way out of T1. This is a small thing, but it validated my swim. My HR was down where it should be, not crazy high so I had to jog. This was another mental boost. I got on the bike smoothly and got moving. I put my shoes on one at a time as I've learned to do. (I know that sounds silly, but it was a key notion in me figuring this out...there's no rush!)
I felt good. I had good posture, and I felt like I was moving pretty well. But it just wasn't translating to power numbers I liked. I had hoped I'd be at least 190 W...maybe 200 W for stretches. That would be lower than my "in shape" numbers, but it wasn't happening consistently. My overall NP was only a ghastly 171 W. Nonetheless, I was slowly moving up through the field. I was passed by a few younger guys and one guy in my age group who looked like an überbiker, based on his body type and equipment. The wind was pretty obvious by now. There were enough turns that I never figured out what the predominant direction was. Instead, I focused on doing my next-best fast-strategy..which was just to get as small on my bike as I could.
There were lots of people around, and I was generally moving up, but I didn't have much of a sense of how the AG competition was going because I didn't see too many people. I think I passed a couple. It's an odd result of having a better swim this year that I don't sense my AG as much on the bike.
In the end, I am utterly mystified by how I biked 21.1 mph for 70 min with a 171 NP in moderately heavy wind, but I guess it just shows you that a good fit and being a little canny can rescue you from disaster.
One final thing I became aware of was that my 28 oz of fluid was not quite enough. It left me thirsty. I was aware that I should probably grab more water than I usually do at the beginning of the run. I figured it must be getting hot, but I'm pretty bad at figuring out the temperature while cycling.
Run
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/369065108
Coming into T2, I wasn't quite aware how low my bike power was, but I knew that I had gone relatively fast...not crazy super fast, but fast enough to be happy about it. So I remained in a good mood. Again, I ran through a reasonable number of people in T2. It's free speed, people. At the end of the race, your transition times count too!
Almost immediately out of T2 there was an aid station. I ended up taking 4 or 5 "cups" on that first stop without breaking stride and downing almost all of them. That was probably a good thing, even if it was a bit excessive. Because I was aware that I had been thirsty, which I interpreted also as a calorie issue, I committed to getting some Gatorade (or whatever it was) at basically every stop.
My run went smoothly, but it started getting harder and harder. The first couple miles were at 7:10 or so, where I probably should be going 7:00 or faster. And, instead of getting faster, I got slower. Miles 5 and 6 (especially) were pretty hard. I started feeling a blister on my left foot, which I knew wasn't going to get any better, but tried to ignore it. Not very successfully. I'm not especially proud of the mile that preceded the last half-mile stretch under the arches. It was a bad stretch mentally. I had been moving up through the crowd consistently on the run, and I should have been telling myself that I only had 1.5 miles left and I needed to scoop up as many as I could, but instead I was just satisfied to keep my relative pace in the face of discomfort. In retrospect, this was a combination of heat and fitness, but I still could have run that mile better. Mile 6 was 7:32. Ugh.
But, when I turned the corner under the arches, I got a second (or at least last) wind. My form picked up and I knew it was going to be all good. I even had a little sprint race for the last 100 m with a guy who turned out to be in my AG. I won. Oddly, though, no one finished within a minute of my time on either the fast or slow side...so all that sprinting for each of us was kind of meaningless for the result because of the TT start. But it's a race, ain't it. :-)
Post race, I figured out that I finished in 2:30 and felt pretty good. They had great ice baths and that was a huge plus. Unlike my last Hy Vee race, I'd recommend this experience to anyone. I still wish there was a way to avoid the super-early transition, but it's not a huge problem if they run the rest of the race this well. I was near the end of the race, and there was still plenty of water and plenty of people at the volunteer stands. I know that's not always the case.
Post Race
I took Monday off, and then went for an hour "generic reasonably hard ride" on Tuesday. Power was 197 W NP...26 W higher than the race! It was cooler, which may have contributed. Without the aero wheels and the laser focus on posture, my average speed was exactly the same — 21.1 mph. But it still makes me wonder what might have been.
A short brick run followed: mile 1 7:27, mile 2 6:25. Woulda coulda shoulda.
Ultimately, despite a bit of grousing, I'm very happy with this race. I did it knowing I was only modestly prepared, and I had a PR swim and decent enough results elsewhere. As usual, my run was my best leg compared to the AG, but the gap between run and swim dropped. I'm never going to be a great swimmer, but I'm pleased that I've improved a bit this last year or so. Amazing what a bit of good coaching and some consistent work will do. (Thanks Tim and Mike.) And a pair of magic goggles.
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