Two out of Three Ain't Bad - The Niagara Sprint Triathlon Race Report

I may usually use song or album titles for my race reports, but I never would have expected to pull out a Meatloaf track. But it applies better than any other for today, so there we go.

There had been many predictions of some awful weather for the day, and some good thunder blew through overnight, but race morning wasn't too bad. It was definitely humid, and the sun was playing hide-and-seek, but for the most part it seemed like it was going to be a nice day. I had lots of time to set up my transition, and got a solid swim warm-up. Lake Ontario felt cooler than the advertised 70 degrees, but it wasn't that bad once I was moving. Being in the third wave, I watched the first two groups head off, found a spot in the second row inside for the deep-water start, and waited for the gun at 9:06.

Swim:
I actually had a plan for the start: go pretty hard to the first or second buoy, and whoever I was around at that point, draft off them the rest of the way. And it worked, kind of. I was able to slot in and get a good ride for awhile, but once we caught the slower swimmers from the previous waves, I lost him. Picking through the slower folks was a bit tricky, I tried not to throw them off too much (I know what it's like to be barely hanging on), but I ended up bumping a few breaststrokers. One gave me a good ankle pull in retaliation, but I tried to shrug that off and carry on. On the backstretch I was swimming solo, and focused again on good form. It was along here that I had the realization that I wasn't finishing my stroke in the earlier part of the race. With the wetsuit on, I short-arm the pull. That's something to work on next time, being good right from the start. My goggles stayed clear all the way through and sighting was easy, so I was able to pop right up at the finish, and saw 13:2X on my watch as I hit land. Then it's up a quick hill to transition.

T1:
I had a bit of a problem finding my zipper cord on my wetsuit, as it flipped over my shoulder to the front at some point in the exit. Then I got glasses, race number and shoes, but once again my helmet had shrunk I hadn't checked pre-race. There goes 10-15 seconds. But adjustments are made, and it was time to hit the road.

Bike:
The ride starts on the flats of Lake Street, before turning away from the lake up the escarpment. I wanted to start quick, but at the same time it would be nice to get my heart rate down before the big climb. Starting quick won out, I passed a bunch of folks, then the road went up. Way up. The climb was really in three steep parts, with a couple of false flats between. I was surprised that it was so organized going up, with a long chain of riders all pinned on the right hand side. A few people were walking the bikes up, so you knew it was tough. I guess they didn't realize there was a moving walkway closer to the middle of the road. (At least, that's how it seemed for me considering how quickly I was passing everyone.) Being a flyweight with about a decade's experience in the saddle helps on rides like this. Also having enough humility to pack a dinner plate for a rear cog (25T FTW!) makes ascents much more pleasant. Once over the crest, it was rolling flats for about 15km. I continued to crush dreams along here, steadily making my way through the group. I was sipping at my Gatorade every few minutes, feeling really good as I wasn't even pushing that hard. The way down Park Road wasn't great, as I'm a nervous descender, especially on wet roads. I probably could have saved 5 seconds or so letting it all out, but at what cost? Then it was time to turn back for Nelles Beach, undo the shoes and get ready to move.

T2:
Nothing special happened here. I made the change, grabbed a hat, almost forgot to pull my shoes tight, and set my sights up the road.

Run:
Last year on this course I had a good run, sub-29, averaging 4:09/km. I figured with my legs better than last year, 4:00-:05/km was a more than reasonable goal. I felt pretty good to start, and hit the first marker at 3:58. Right on schedule. The next two were 4:12 and 4:12. That's a bit behind pace, but maybe I can come back from that. And when I asked the body to come back, it said No. It was right around here that the wheels pretty much came off. My breathing had turned ragged, mentally I couldn't focus on form or anything positive, just on how much it hurt and when it was going to be over. The next two kilometres were 4:21 and 4:21, and I was slowing down. I wanted to re-gather my energy and attack the last 2km, but a 4:41 shows that that didn't happen. And I basically walked it in at 4:49, just not able to respond when I was finally passed by an AG competitor. It was a pretty sad state of affairs.

Final results:
Swim: 13:46 (1:58/100m), 11/44 AG
T1: 1:34
Bike: 43:52 (34.2 km/h), 3/44 AG
T2: 0:55
Run: 30:30 (4:22/km), 6/44 AG
Total: 1:30:34, 37/400 overall, 6/44 AG

OTS Points: 50, Series Points: 172.5
OSS Points: 75, Series Points: 3330

And so, to recap, swim good, bike good, run not so good. On the same course, my swim time was almost two minutes faster than last year. That's a very encouraging sign. And it wasn't just that the course was faster this year, since the guy in the equivalent place was almost the same time. It should also be noted that the swim pace above is off. Sports Stats seems to think the swim was 700m, but it was actually 750m, giving me a 1:50/100m average. Much better. The bike continues to be a strength. I may not have fast wheels or a fancy carbon frame, but the engine is more important, and I that I have.

But what happened on the run? Looking at the result, I was still sixth in my age-group, so I didn't suck that much, or more specifically, everyone sucked as much as me. Let's look at some factors. The weather hit me pretty good. I never seem to run well in heat and humidity. I love rain and ugly weather, but hot and humid kills me. I'm sure that got a number of folks, but those guys in the top five didn't seem bothered by it.

Because of a nagging injury, I hadn't done any fast running in almost three weeks. Not that my legs would have fully deconditioned by that point, but I wasn't as sharp as I could have been. The injury wasn't bugging me at all. My legs didn't have any points of soreness, I just couldn't get anything out of them. They were like dead wood. And on a related note, I hadn't slept really well for about three nights before. I didn't feel overtired, but something may have been there.

One of the bigger factors, as I learned after the race, was nutrition. I thought I was on top of it on the bike, but when I was packing I noticed that my aerodrink was still almost half-full. The sipping I was doing during the bike leg wasn't enough. I needed the fluids and calories. I needed to gulp instead of sip. That was much of the damage right there.

And the biggest issue of all was getting into my own head. With the successes I've had so far, I need to fight harder when things get ugly. Too much defeatist talk in my cranium when it's not going my way. If I had marshaled my energy and fought through the last couple of kilometres, I would have at least held 5th. (To be honest, even if I ran my goal pace, 5th was the best I could have gotten today. I'm second-tier right now.)

So that was my day. Lessons learned, and as disappointed as I am on one hand, I still have to be pretty happy. I moved up seven places from last year, and knocked out another big bike ride. I can't say I'm happy that humidity slows me down so much, when my last big race for the year is in Florida, but I'll work on that. Now I can rest up for a bit, and work an adjusted schedule into the last two triathlons of the year.