This race report brought to you by, me.
I woke up this past Sunday morning to perfect race conditions — 20 degrees C, and not a cloud in the sky.
Slept… nnnnn..ok considering the lack of AC in the building, and the six of us who were crammed in the same room at the youth hostel. By 6:20, I had eaten and by 7:15 was out the door, picking up my race number and getting settled in the tiny slots they give us age-groupers to hold our bikes etc.
I warmed up fine and jetted over towards the swim start. On my way, I stopped at the toilets for a final pre-racer, and for some reason, there were a few bone-heads who got stuck in there… long story short — by the time I got to the start, and was just putting on my goggles, the gun went off. Needless to say, I wasn’t quite ready to jump in the water… but hey.
SWIM
I wasn’t gonna break any swim speed records so I jumped in and swam up the inside avoiding the blender of slow swimmers. The race had us go 500m straight out, then around a second buoy 35m away, and then straight back in again. Then we swam close to the shoreline for abt 320m and this a final 100 or so into the transition area. My first 500 was good, the second 500 was not as goo, simply because the sun was right in our eyes, and, along with foggy goggles, made for a fair bit of zig-zagging in the open water, despite my open-swim practicing these past three weeks!
I kept a solid rhythm throughout the entire distance and climbed out of the water having expended the minimum amount of energy possible over the 1.5km swim.
Note: I went into this race looking to test myself and see how efficiently I could race. This is my first Olympic distance race since 2001.
OK, I was really slow on the swim, but considering I haven’t been in the pool but maybe once a week, I was happy –hr average around 160; out of the water in 26:48.
BIKE
After a mediocre transition, I tried to get my legs on the bike, which unfortunately took a good 10km. Here are my bike splits -
0-5km in 8:10
6-10km in 7:59
11-15km in 7:36
16-20km in 9:10 (hill!)
21-25km in 7:12
26-40km in 21:50
total bike time — 1:01:59 (according to my watch)
*A brief note — i got swept up by a massive pack of 12-15 riders (each with a bike costing 6 months my salary) as I finished going up the steepest hill in the race around km 22 - and got sucked in with them.*
I did make a big effort to stick outside of the major drafting zone, but there is only so much one can do to get out of the zone without crossing over to the other side of the road. Consequently, I tried to stay among the front few riders and helped pull a good bit moving out to the middle of the lane. It definitely was a help to my legs come the run. The bike course was for the most part flat and definitely the type of course to PR on.
RUN
I had a great transition onto the run and trotted out onto the course, making sure I didn’t go out too fast, and also nervously wondering how my legs would react to my new nutrition plan and bike setup. I moved along at a OK pace, trying to get my breathing under control, which was, as usual, going crazy, huffing and puffing like an overheated dog. (I personify my breathing, because it feels almost like another person inside of me)
Now, for a mystery - can you help solve it?
My half-marathon race heart rate is between 166 and 172. — That’s for 21km of running.
My 10km race heart rate should be between 178 and 185.
My 10km run heart rate at Zug started at 161… moved its way up to 165 by the 5th km and only on the final 2km did I get my heart rate up to 170. Any ideas why? I don’t mind hurting on the run… just tell me how.
On the third and then especially on the fourth kms, I had big-time stomach cramping. I don’t know what it was. I will have to talk with some veteran racers. I drank 1 litre of Isostar and had 2 Goos on the bike, all with no problems at all. Perceived exertion during the bike was less and with an average heart rate of 155-160, perhaps it did make a difference. At any rate, my stomach was so tight on the fourth km that I had to stop and walk for about 10 seconds. I tried beating my stomach with my fists, yelling, burping (couldn’t). Anyhow. it hurt - lots! After km 4, we turned around and went back “down” towards the lake again. At this point, my mind turned its focus on the raw rubbing feeling of huge blisters being formed on the insides of both my feet. Consequently, I tried to run on the outsides of my feet to avoid a hug blood fest and a possible DNF if it got bad!
As my times below show, km 4 is where I had my stomach cramps and then as I got over the trauma of the start, I felt better as the race went on.
4:13
4:02
3:56
4:18
3:49
4:01
4:01
4:06
3:47
3:45
Swim - 26:48
T1 - 1:49 (28:37)
Bike - 1:01:59 (1:30:36)
T2 - 0:46 (1:31:23)
Run - 39:58
—————————
Total time: 2:11:21
(Placed 106 out of 286 men) (6 women had better times.. I blame it all on the swim!!)
Again - this race was really a testing ground - where do I stand — and what am I capable of??! Some brief thoughts -
1. Swimming: Although I did swim a horrible time of 26:48, I am sure with 3-4 good swim practices a week I could easily make my way down to into the 23s. (Down from the 24s where I was back in 2001) If I really went for it and swam the required 30km a week of a committed triathlete, I bet in a few years I could be down in the low 20s.
2. Transitions: My T1 stinks because I am generally very out of breath after the swimming, and I have trouble getting the wetsuit off. Answer — get some of that slippery gel stuff on my legs for easy exits.
3. Bike: Wes Hobson in his book “Swim, Bike, Run” recommends upping your kicking cadence the last minute or two of your swim to get blood circulating in your legs again before the bike. It was clear that I had absolutely nothing the first fifteen minutes on the bike. I couldn’t stay with any of the guys who passed me. I will have to try out this “Wes remedy” more frequently.
4. Run: From the looks of things heart rate wise, I can easily run 37’s for the 10km, and possibly quicker depending on the running I do from now through next season. One of the big areas I need to understand better is how to get breathing under control, and get into my rhythm early on. After that, its just being gutsy enough to push through pain (like cramps, blisters lactic acid etc… I am definitely going to test out some recommended insoles from a local sports store)
Goals for Zug 2008 —
swim - 24:00
bike - 1:00:00
run - 37:00
total time - 2:03:00 (a top 40 placement compared with this year’s times)
doable? yes.
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