Lake Terramuggus Sprint Tri #3 Race Report
| | Time | Distance | Pace | AG Place | % | Overall Place | % |
| M30-39 | |||||||
| # Entries | 41 | 202 | |||||
| Swim | 10:45 | 666 yards | 1:37/100yd | 17 | 42% | 42 | 21% |
| T1 | 1:31 | ||||||
| Bike | 30:43 | 10.7 miles | 20.9 mph | 14 | 34% | 39 | 19% |
| T2 | 1:09 | ||||||
| Run | 25:53 | 3.1 miles | 8:29/mile | 29 | 71% | 99 | 49% |
| Total | 1:10:02 | 22 | 54% | 56 | 28% |
*Official Timing is Swim+T1, Bike, T2+Run. The time, distance, pace was calculated off my Garmin.
Read more...Patriot Half Ironman Race Report
Saturday, June 23, 2012
On June 16th I raced at the Patriot Half Ironman in East Freetown, MA. This was my one and only half ironman for the year as the second half of the year was going to require a lighter training load. This race was well recommended online – and from everything I saw throughout the day, rightfully so. It also was driving distance from my parent’s house and therefore was a much cheaper option than an Ironman branded race that required staying at a hotel. It is a good size race with about 650-700 people, including relays.
The weather for the day was a big factor, in a mostly positive way. The temperature was ideal with temperatures starting out in the low 60’s but only peaking in the high 60’s. This was particularly ideal for the run. However, it was quite breezy which made the swim very choppy and caused some nervous sections on the bike where I was getting blown across the road.
The race sets up the racks by your tri club, so upon arriving I met some fellow HEAT members setting up which was a welcome distraction.
I have put in a lot of swim hours this year and it had not paid off with especially good results. Here my modest goal was to get inside 40 minutes for the 1.2 mile swim. My previous best was 41:37 in a nonwetsuit swim at Rhode Island last year.
As usual, I started up front but on the outside. That’s me looking back on the far right.
It was a fairly slow journey out. The waves were coming onshore, as you see in the picture below, and the chop was worse the further out you got. The waves also were very random in timing and direction so it was tough to get into a rhythm. It was probably the roughest water I have swum in during a race. There was minimal contact though and I focused on just keeping a steady pace out to the turn.
At the half way point I checked the watch and saw I was behind my time target. I pressed on and started to notice that I was coming by the buoys much faster on the way in. With 2 buoys to go I quickly checked the watch again and saw I actually was going to have a chance at sub 40. I picked up the pace a little as I really did not want to settle for another poor swim.
Approaching shore:
I was out of the water in 38:47. This put me 215 overall and 15 in my age group. I was really happy I made up the time in the second half of the swim and started hustling through transition.
The air was chilly, so I did a quick towel off and had arm warmers ready to go on the handlebars that I put on after I got moving. It wasn’t a particularly fast transition – but I picked up 20 spots overall and 2 in my age group. So I started the bike in 195 overall and 13 in my age group.
Transition had a long run through the grass to get to the mount line.
I took it pretty easy in the first five miles as I settled into my pace and brought the heart rate down from the swim. My target was to back off a little on the bike and try to get a solid run split. Although it was fairly breezy, most of the course was sheltered with heavy tree cover. The exception was the northern end of the course which had a very exposed road that ran along a causeway between two lakes. The bike course is also generally in excellent condition with good pavement. There were plenty of people to pace off of which usually helps me meter my effort and ride a consistent pace. There was one rider in particular who I went back and forth with several times.
At the end of lap 1, coming by transition:
I took a look at my pace coming through lap 1 and noticed I was very close to averaging 20 mph so decided to try to keep holding that pace as it did not seem too aggressive. I also noted the end of the run course while on the bike as the last 2 miles of the run shared the same road as the last 2 miles of each bike lap. I noted an immediate hill on this stretch, followed by a long flat to downhill section before a final brief hill into the finish area.
My dad was able to cut through some back roads and see me twice per lap, once at the transition area and once about halfway through the lap.
My nutrition on the bike was pretty dialed. I used a concentrated mix on the downtube of Carbo Pro and a between the bars bottle of water which I exchanged once on course.
Coming into the end of the bike I was just a tick under 20 mph and I got ready for the run, which meant ditching my arm warmers.
Although my time was pretty good for the bike, my results were not strong relative to the field. I think the cool conditions and flat roads led to many fast bike splits. 2:50 was only good enough for a midfield result in the age group and top 30% overall. Unusually, I actually lost ground on the bike starting in 13th in my AG and finishing in 16th. Overall I made up just 10 spots from 195 to 185.
I did have my usual fairly quick T2 as I ran thru while many were walking. I improved 9 spots overall but none in my AG.
Exiting onto the run course.
I was immediately looking for a bathroom but not seeing any, ducked into the woods in the first mile. I lost about 30 seconds there but got that out of the way. I was getting passed by a lot of people in the opening miles and was struggling to find my running legs.
Mentally I tried to focus on maintaining 10 min/miles and told myself I had to at least keep running until 5km. There were frequent aid stations and I alternated water only with water/heed. The cool weather was ideal for running and overheating was not a possibility.
I started to get my legs under me and kept resetting a goal to make it to before I allowed any walking. At 5km I pushed it to 10km, then to mile 8, then mile 10, then the main road. It really seemed to work and in the end I ran the whole way with the exception of those two hills on the bike course.
Also of huge help was my dad who was able to bike out onto the course and offer encouragement. I was expecting to see him at mile 6. I really wanted to be running when he caught up with me. I didn’t end up seeing him until mile 8. He then leapfrogged forward. It was a great carrot to push towards and keep running. This was also a fairly flat section and I was able to increase the speed a bit. I also connected with a group of runners moving more or less the same speed around halfway. We would constantly be passing and repassing each other but it was more motivation to keep moving. I took it real easy on every uphill and tried to cruise the many flat sections.
As the race went on it became apparent that my goal of going better than 5:50 was in the bag, and barring a meltdown or a lot of walking that 5:40 was on the table. But I was at my limit running as my legs did not have the needed training in them. My IT band was getting super tight in the last 2 miles but I wanted the fast time so I just kept pushing.
Turning onto the main road I knew it was close for 5:40 but I wanted to keep under control so finally walked a brief section just before mile 11. Once over the top of the hill I knew I needed to keep under 10 min/miles to make it. Once on the last hill at 12.5 miles I knew it was really close but I had to walk that hill. Over the top I gave it everything for the last 0.6 miles. It was tricky because the last section was on grass and I was worried about tripping over a tree root.
Turning the corner and seeing the clock, I knew I had made the 5:40 with time to spare.
After one last pass it was time to hit the line.
My run was really surprising. It was my best half marathon time ever. My splits for each mile (moving time):
9:04, 9:09, 9:40, 9:45, 9:56, 10:03, 9:39, 9:35, 9:35, 9:38, 9:58, 9:40, 9:09, 8:46
I started a bit fast in the first 2 miles and then really muddled through the next 4. Once I hit mile 7 I really got into a nice groove until the last 2 hills – then it was survival on the hills and desperate running on the flats.
I lost only 37 spots overall and 3 in my age group on the run. I think this is an indication that many people over biked and blew up on the run. I also noticed that I went just a bit easier on the bike and the run (based on HR) then my 3 previous HIM’s. This seemed to allow me to run more and resulted in a faster time.
This was a great race that I look forward to doing again.
| | Time | Distance | Pace | AG Place | % | Overall Place | % |
| M30-34 | |||||||
| # Entries | 35 | 611 | |||||
| Swim | 38:47 | 1.2 miles | 1:50/100yd | 15 | 42% | 215 | 35% |
| T1 | 2:21 | 14 | 40% | 173 | 28% | ||
| Bike | 2:50:39 | 56 miles | 19.69 mph | 18 | 51% | 186 | 30% |
| T2 | 1:59 | 6 | 17% | 53 | 9% | ||
| Run | 2:05:09 | 13.1 miles | 9:33/mile | 27 | 77% | 312 | 51% |
| Total | 5:38:52 | 19 | 54% | 211 | 35% |
Cedar Lake Sprint Tri #2 Race Report
Friday, June 8, 2012
One week after Lake T it was time for another sprint triathlon to sharpen up for the following week’s big half ironman. The goal here was to race a bit harder than the week before.
Unfortunately I forgot to charge my Garmin so I was flying completely blind. I also went to the race sans support crew so no pictures other than what I could pull from the race’s Facebook site. That also means a brief race report.
This race is pretty short, about a 350-400 yard swim followed by a 9 mile bike and a 5k run. The weather was on and off rain showers during the day creating some wet roads. While it did not rain during the race it did immediately afterwards. The bike course was extremely technical with a lot of 90 corners, wet patches, and a fairly good size downhill into a 180 degree turn which meant a big uphill.
Here are some shots of the swim start. It was a nice small field of about 70 racers. I started on the far right.
I felt like I swam really hard the whole was knowing it was a very short swim. I did wear a wetsuit as the water was cold enough. I came out of the water about 1/3 of the way through the field. The transition area is very small and had a pretty fast transition.
I then started on the bike and tried to make up some time on the faster swimmers. After a couple of early passes I was in no mans land riding by myself. Approaching the turnaround I started counting riders on the other side of the road. I counted myself in 10th overall. That only motivated me more to push hard up the hill and try to catch more riders. That didn’t happen but no one caught me from behind either so I was starting the run in 10th.
Shot approaching T2:
After another fast transition I set off on the run course right behind 2 other runners. This is where I was most worried about the lack of Garmin as I don’t have a great sense of my run pace without it. The runners in front of me quickly left me behind and my target became keeping people behind me. I felt like I had a much faster run than the prior week, probably mostly because of the flatter course. The only hill is right before the turnaround and I stayed steady up that with the idea being to work the downhill and try to push for the finish. In the last mile I had a few people approaching from behind but I was able to hold them off. For this point in the year it was a pretty good run.
Approaching the finish:
I was happy with the race and it felt like a better effort than the week before. And I was certainly happy with the top 25% overall finish especially in a run heavy race.
| | Time | Distance | Pace | AG Place | % | Overall Place | % |
| # Entries | 10 | 69 | |||||
| Swim+T1 | 7:51 | 400 yards | ~1:34/100yd | 6 | 60% | 23 | 33% |
| Bike | 28:24 | 9 miles | ~19.16 mph | 2 | 20% | 10 | 14% |
| T2+Run | 25:13 | 3.1 miles | 8:13/mile | 7 | 70% | 39 | 57% |
| Total | 1:01:28 | 4 | 40% | 17 | 25% |
Lake Terramuggus Sprint Tri #1 Race Report
Friday, June 1, 2012
On May 31st, I raced at an after work sprint triathlon series in Marlboro. The goal for this race was just to get a tri under the belt before the Patriot Half on June 16th. I was not planning on racing all out, but to focus on a solid brick workout and some transition practice.
The race is advertised as a 500 yard swim, 12 mile bike, 3 mile run. While I was getting ready I happened to be standing near the lifeguards who were playing with the buoys and they decided to set a 800 yard course. This was fine with me, as it let me get in a longer swim.
After getting in a few minutes of warmup swimming, it was time to gather for the race. After a bunch of announcements there was very suddenly the command to “GO”. I wasn’t ready and as you can see below had to quickly setup and start the watch. Took me a few seconds but I wanted the data. As you can see people were in various states of readiness – facing the wrong way, putting goggles on, etc – so I don’t think I was the only one caught off guard by the quick start.
As usual I started a bit wide and swam in towards the buoys. This kept me out of the chaos and it only adds minimal distance. I am in the orange cap:
I had a pretty good swim and tried to focus on finding some feet to practice some drafting. On the way in I finally found someone to draft a little. Below I am on the right in the orange cap and you can just barely make out the kicking in front of me. You can also see the rubber ducky sighting buoys they used.
Hitting the shore:
Out of the water heading for transition. This race only had splits for swim+T1, bike and T2+run. They had my swim+T1 at 15:50, I broke that down as 13:17 swim and 2:33 transition. The race was big enough to run 2 waves, so I was pretty midpack with my swim both AG and OA.
Out of transition was a longish run along the lake to the road.
Once on the bike, it is two loops of around 5 miles. You start with a quick downhill section then it is up a 5% grade for about half a mile. The course is then rolling for 1.5 miles before a long downhill to a gradual 180 corner. It is then about a mile along the lake to complete the lap. My HR was sky high coming out of transition and all the way to the top of the hill. After recovering on the descent, I went to work on the headwind along the lake portion of the course.
Coming by on Lap 1:
The second lap was very consistent with lap 1. In fact, according to my lap splits on Strava I was within 1 second of the same time on each lap. In the end I averaged just under 20 mph, but improved with a top 1/3 AG and top 1/4 OA split.
Nearing the end on Lap 2:
After a pretty quick transition, there is a short trail section out to the main road. Right away something felt very strange in my right shoe. I tried to keep running but it felt very strange. I stopped, took off the shoe and my old shoe laces were in the shoe! Took those out and carried on. Once onto the road it is right up a 6% hill to the half mile mark. I really plodded up the hill trying to find my running legs. It was then down a steep hill and onto a false flat. I was still struggling to get up to speed, and then was hit with another hill. I really was unprepared for such a hilly run course; I thought it would be pretty flat circling a lake. Finally we hit another downhill and then it turned much flatter. I finally got into a better groove but I was not running at maximum speed as per my race plan. We turned the corner onto the road along the lake and I was getting a bit faster all the way to the line, but my split ended up right around 25 minutes which was terribly slow in my AG and about a midfield split OA.
Just before the finish:
Final splits:
| | Time | Distance | Pace | AG Place | % | Overall Place | % |
| # Entries | 37 | 170 | |||||
| Swim+T1 | 15:50 | 800 yards | 1:40/100yd | 22 | 59% | 66 | 39% |
| Bike | 33:18 | 10.75 miles | 19.9 mph | 14 | 38% | 41 | 24% |
| T2+Run | 44:39 | 3.1 miles | 8:16/mile | 26 | 70% | 84 | 49% |
| Total | 1:43:07 | 22 | 59% | 63 | 38% |
Overall this is a great race, especially considering the cheap entry fee and that it is during the week. I am hoping to race here again during the summer.
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