During my warmup on the bike before the race I felt a bit flat. On my Saturday morning ride I felt great, but it is not unusual for me to feel a little lethargic the morning of a race, so I didn't worry too much.
The swim is my weakest leg and I've been putting in a lot of work to improve it this season. I did a bay swim on Thursday night in my old 2XU C1 wetsuit (saving my good one for the race). This would be the first race in my new Rocket Science wetsuit and even during the warmup swim I immediately noticed it felt better and faster than my old suit. The swim leg for this race was only 500m, but I did it so easy it felt even shorter. Exiting onto the sand I felt no fatigue whatsoever and was worried this meant I hadn't tried hard enough and would have a slow swim time (not unusual for me).
Every season I forget to bring something to the first race. This year it was Hair Conditioner. I apply this to the outside legs of the wetsuit - it stays on for the swim and then allows the wetsuit to easily slide over itself when you take it off in transition. Even though I remembered to bring paw paw cream, I forgot to apply it to my knees and ankles - again to help the suit slip off. So it is no surprise that I had a lot of trouble getting it off in transition. It doesn't help that it is only the second time I have ever worn this suit, so I am far from practiced with the nuances. Comparing my transition time to the last time I did this race - 21 seconds slower (and 30 seconds slower to some of my competitors). Transitions used to be my best leg, today it was my worst (proven my the rankings in the results).
Usually the bike leg in a Sprint Triathlon is 20km. For some reason the Mordialloc Triathlon always has a 16km bike. Although 4km less is not much, psychologically it feels like a short bike ride and with conditions on the day being perfect (slightly warm with very little wind), I decided to hammer it on the bike. I wanted to catch other members of my new Triathlon Club, many of whom were in my wave start, a lot of whom would have had faster swim and transition times. After going flat out for the first lap and only reeling in one Tri Club member, my plan didn't seem to be working very well and I was worried I was using too much energy (need to save something for the run). So I eased off a little on the second lap. With one kilometre on the bike to go, I passed my main target (Ray), unfortunately much later than I would have hoped. As I approached the last corner just before the dismount line there was a lot of congestion including a young rider just in front of me. I backed off to keep out of trouble and Ray snuck back passed me on the inside of the corner. Not only did he take the lead, but also managed to clear most of the congestion before heading into the narrow transition lane with me helplessly watching stuck behind numerous, much slower competitors. My aim for the last 6 or 7 years has been to average over 40kph for a triathlon bike leg - today I did that with a 40.1kph average (very happy). In fact my bike split was the fastest in my Age Group and 8th fastest for all Age Groupers in the race (the elites are allowed to draft on the bike, so I have ignored their times).
Another slow transition. This time due to my feet still being frozen and also using a new pair of runners in a race for the first time. I obviously need to start practising my transitions again.
Initially on the run I felt OK, but not great. I was holding between 4m00s and 4m05s pace, but there was no real rhythm and I feared my pace would slowly drop throughout the run - I suspected I was going to pay for my fast bike leg. There was another competitor in my age group about 10m in front and I concentrated on trying to keep pace with him. Then just before the 2km mark I suddenly started feeling good and my running started to flow. I immediately passed and then gapped the competitor I was following and continued feeling good until the 4km mark. Predictably the last kilometre did not feel as good, but promisingly my pace didn't really drop off, I just felt a lot worse. My run target for the race was to run sub 4 min kilometres, but when I checked my run split it was 20m19s. However when I looked more closely, the run leg was 5.1km, so my pace was 3m59s pace and Strava shows my 5km time as 19m55s (happy again).
Ironically, even though I was very happy with my run, for the first time ever my swim was ranked better than my run (in my age group, overall standings my run was ranked a little better). This highlights that I need to work on my run. Looking at the results, all the club members who beat me had much faster runs.
Ignoring my bad transitions, it was definitely one of my better races. I only managed 7th in my age group (out of 55), but being the last year in this age group (ie. oldest) it is not going to be a good season for results (I would have placed 3rd in the age group above).
Elaine also raced and did very well in all disciplines - ironically she had one of her best ever transitions. However due to a strong field in her age group, she only managed 4th place. But in overall standings her results were much improved over recent years, so she is on track for a great season.
Elaine also raced and did very well in all disciplines - ironically she had one of her best ever transitions. However due to a strong field in her age group, she only managed 4th place. But in overall standings her results were much improved over recent years, so she is on track for a great season.
No comments:
Post a Comment