Stuck in the Big Ring: Olympic

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Racing Again. Gen. Smallwood Oly. Yeehah!

Every racer's favorite site.

Raced for the first time since September '07 today.

General Smallwood Oly distance Triathlon
(General Smallwood State Park, Marbury, MD, 70-80min drive)

Raced it hard and came though with no injuries, no knee pain during race. VERY happy about this. Secondary goals were a solid swim and a reasonably quick time overall. Pulled off a 2:24:15, second fastest ever for me at this distance, less than 1min off my PR.

Nice calm swim waters.
Start out of view to the left, swim in the near aspect to the right,
then turn left and head toward the far land along the buoy line.
Hang another left back to the start, then do that lap again.

1500m swim in an inlet of the Potomac ~40mins south of DC.

24.88mi bike on rolling hills

10K run on same

Summary

~296 athletes entered the Oly race, ~30 in men’s 35-39AG.

Up at 4:10, leave ~4:40, arrive at race ~5:50, got a primo parking spot in lot nearest finish and transition.
1 banana, .5 clif bar, coffee, ~90mins prerace
Sipped electrolyte, water, took 2 ecaps, prerace.
Warmups: 7-10min bike, same run, in water early for 2-3 mins swim, then out to wait for wave start.

Oomph short under voler tri shorts. Orca top (not for swim).
Tri shoe on left foot, road on right.

Hazy day turned clear and sunny, humid, hot, mid 80’s at start.

Swim - In water swim start, no wetsuits. Did not get any feet to draft. Did not go hard or sprint at start, sort of a strong steady. Wrestled with seaweed for few hundred yards at end of each of 2 laps, 2 goggle adjust stop moments, otherwise okay and felt good. ~30:30 time. Didn't feel knackered coming out of the water.

Lee from my small Tue/Thur swim group took 2nd in his AG as well. I managed to beat him out of the water by a few seconds. So what if he started in a wave 3mins behind me.

Looooong T1.

Bike - legs felt pretty good. Only a couple guys passed me. Took in entirety of my single bottle of water, 1 clifshot gel (tried a mocha, not tasty), ~80cals, Hed Jet up front, PT wheel no disc cover in back, aero helmet. Lower back aching, tight last half of ride.

T2 pretty quick. Came out at ~1:43:xx total time. Thought I had a shot at breaking 2:30. Didn't really try to do the math, just focused on the moment.

Run - legs not too bad, took water at each of 4 stations. Hot. Hilly. Expect the quads will be feeling the downhills over the next few days. Last mile was mostly downhill on shaded trail.

Special note - Shower tent/canopy set for races only yards after the finish was HUGE. Really great. Nice cold shady shower to stand under and lower the body temp. First ever for any race I've done.

Hot was the word of the day. Not quite as awful as the Blackwater Du in July 2007 in Columbia, MD, but damn hot and humid. Any finisher who was out on the course for 3, 4, 4.5 hrs has my sincere respect.

Total - 2:24:15.

2^nd in 35-39 AG. Love the small local races.

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Bike DATA for the trigeeks.

Bike leg, 1 bottle water, 1 clifshot gel (mocha- yuck) no stops. mid-hi 80's very little wind.

Entire ride (204 watts):
Duration: 1:07:27
Work: 823 kJ
TSS: 94.9 (intensity factor 0.919)
Norm Power: 211

VI: 1.04
Pw:HR: 2.9%
Pa:HR: -9.24%
Distance: 24.605 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 423 204 watts
Heart Rate: 137 173 158 bpm
Cadence: 41 114 89 rpm
Speed: 2.3 36 21.9 mph