This story starts with the weather. This seems like the right place to start because of the impact the weather had on the race. To describe the weather as "unpleasant" would do it a disservice. It was nasty. This was not May weather. On the drive in, the flags looked like they came back from the cleaners with extra-starch. Temps around 5 at the start line, winds over 30km/h, "feels like" temps around freezing. More than a few people bagged the race before the start, or planned on just doing the first run, and part of the bike. Me, I paid for a full race, so that's what I'm doing.
I was in the third wave off, at 11:06. I tried to set a decent pace, keeping in range of the front of the field. Since the first 2k of 4 were with the wind, it was easy roll off 3:40 and 4:05. Then it was back into the wind. Things slowed down considerably at this point, hitting the next marker at 4:22. The effort was solid, not killing myself. It felt like I was in a decent position, probably top 15-20 (turns out I was 21st, so my counting sucked). I went through transition at a decent pace. I need to work on these, since I'm giving away time. Then off on the bike.
The bike course was the opposite of the run, where the first half was all into the wind, and the second half was tailwind. Speed was unimportant here, just effort and passing people. Again, I kept the hammer down, passing a large number of the earlier starters. I didn't notice too many racers from my age group pass me, which I took as a good sign. I had a bike issue, where my chain was slipping in the 19-23 cogs. This made me fight the climbs a bit more than I'd prefer, grinding up in a 39x17 at 60-70 rpm, instead of cruising up at 90 rpm. I don't think those efforts caught up to me on the second run; they were infrequent, and I kept my HR under control as much as possible. Once we hit the turn around, it was big ring the rest of the way home. My heart rate dropped by 20 bpm, and my speed was 40+ km/h for the whole stretch. That's fun. Back through transition, and off for one more trip on the run.
My focus was a quick turnover, and try to pull back a few runners. I accomplished both, but couldn't bring back anybody from my AG. I can't complain about my pace. The wind was still pretty stiff, and that killed any fast running in the second half. I was closing some gaps, but couldn't quite make it. I tried to finish with a good sprint, but the chute was on unlevel terrain, and my legs were too tired to go fast with my ankles rolling around. Hit the line, and headed for inside to warm up and wait for results. After waiting, this is what I saw:
1:20:57, 74/511 overall, 15/59 AG (Sportstats AG results)
My thoughts: I was top 15. That puts me in the points, just barely. As I'm about the 25th percentile, I would be considered back of FOP, or front of MOP. Since I was point-getter, I'll call it BFOP. Better to be the slowest fast guy than the fastest slow guy. (Also an improvement from my DFL last year.) I can't complain about my run or bike times. They don't look like much, but given the conditions, no one was going fast. My only disappointment is my T2 time. Looking at the results, I could have been 12th if I was even 40 seconds faster through transition. And I could have been, except my hands were so cold after the bike I couldn't get my helmet off. It was a struggle to open the clasp. At one point, I was trying to pull it off without undoing the buckle. Then I couldn't get my left shoe on, because I couldn't grip it hard enough to pull. Lost a bunch of seconds, and obviously a few places. That will become part of Saturdays or Sundays for the next few weeks, improving my transition times. But if that's the only thing that went wrong, my day wasn't too bad.
Two races, an AG podium and a spot in the points. So far we're off to a good start.
Subaru OTS Series points: 5, Season Total: 5
Nice work getting into the points! Not only were you in the upper quartile, you were in the upper quartile of a field that had already self selected to leave only the more dedicated/weather-resistant racers.
ReplyDeleteTransition was the one thing I hated most about triathlon. I absolutely loathed it. I want to go out and play hard at the sport of my choice... not dink around trying to change gear mid way through going hard.
Too bad about the weather. It was so nasty here that I voluntarily chose to stay indoors with Coach Troy so I don't envy you racing.
I was thinking the same thing about the self-selection before the race. It wasn't the super-fit who wre putting their bikes back in their cars.
ReplyDeleteTransition is the "fourth discipline". I know I could be a little faster, but I would have been good yesterday if I had any dexterity in my fingers. If I could have come out within sight of the 12-14th guys, I think I could have run some down. But that's racing, so I'll have to get them in the future. The swim/bike will be interesting in two weeks.