Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Guelph Lake Olympic Triathlon

Stats:

Time: 2:41:04
Age Group: 16/39 Overall: 122/349

Swim 1500 m:
Time: 29:28 AG: 12/39 O: 127/349 pace: 1:58 min/100m

T1: 2:38

Bike 43.5 km:
Time: 1:15:54 AG: 8/39 O: 79/349 AVG speed: 34.4 km/h

T2: 2:50

Run 10 km:
Time: 50:15 AG: 24/39 O: 171/349

Short summary

I have enjoyed this event. My goal set last year was to finish in the first half in all parts. This was accomplished. I can't complain to much Smile I am planning to place in 1/3 in the future. My swim improved even compared to last week Smile My bike time is good but I can see room for improvement. My running was not bad, but competition is strong and it will be very difficult to improve my position.
Both my transition times are veeeeery long Evil or Very Mad This is not acceptable anymore and I have to start practicing now Exclamation


Highlights

swim.
Last week swim at Binbrook wasn't to good. I needed more practice. I arrived at Guleph Conservation area one day before the event to practice open water swimming. My practice was kind of funny in a way but also reviling. I practiced for 10-15 minutes only. Here is visual of my swim. (pink - plan, purple - execution)

In my first attempt I started near one buoy (red point on the sketch) heading towards buoy not marked on this sketch ended near another buoy in different direction. I did few more moves and did my second long part - this one was almost regular circle Razz Large thunder clouds moved over the area at this time and I decided to finish my swimming session. Almost made it to the car before heavy storm fully developed. I knew what I have to do during the race.

I went to sleep shortly before 10 p.m. I didn't get much sleep. Car traffic was heavy as campers were returning from the city or driving to washrooms/showers until midnight, very noisy, lovely pair of neighbours/"marathoners" finished their activities before one o'clock and rain started. It was raining for most of the night. Around 5 a.m. I woke up/emerged from my tent, ate pre-race cereal and drove 6 km to buy coffee at Tim Horton's. It wasn't raining anymore, but dark clouds were hanging on the horizon. We were expecting that it will rain during the bike ride. I had all my gear ready for any weather.



It was mass start with racers seeded according to predicted swim finish time. I started first of 2 loop course. It was crowded like never before in my swims, It wasn't difficult to keep right direction with such crowd, although my first loop was chaotic, I was checking two often directions and couldn't get into the right tempo. After the short run across the beach I changed my swimming tactic. I was drifting of swimmer in front of me for 50-80 meters then after direction check, I was passing that swimmer sprinting to another one in front. It wasn't as fluent as it sounds, but it worked fine and I had very good second loop. I had very good pace and followed straight line. My total pace 1:58 min/100m would improve much more if the distance was longer.



bike
The dark thunder cloud vanished. It was still cloudy but it wasn't raining Smile



Last week in Binbrook my average speed on 27 km course was 33.3 km/h. This time on much hiller 43.5 km course it was 34.4 km/h. This time I was passed by a number of people. For the first time I have seen advantage of tri-bike/possition especially on flat, windy parts of the course. Those bikes/riders were cutting it's way through the air nicely. Time to upgrade my road bike. I already bought pedals and shoes last week Smile I didn't have courage to use my new gear in the race yet Embarassed



run
Near the end of the bike ride clouds moved away and it was sunny and hot during the run.


My pace during 6.5 km run in Binbrook was 5:18. This time on 10 km course it was 5:02 min/km. I am a little disappointed, my goal was to run at least marathon pace (4:58 ), but even in such case I still would be behind the racer in front of me in my age group.



transitions
The racer in front of me in my age group was total 2:46 in transition area, shorter than my bike/run transition (2:50). By simply cutting 2 minutes of my total transition time (5:28 ) to still above average 3:28 I would gain two spots in my age group and more than 10 overall. I have already dropped food basin and shoe horn from my gear list Exclamation What else should go Wink I had 2 bags of gear at Binbrook, reduced to one only this time Exclamation. ..There is slow progress...Practice. practice...




Results
More pictures
....

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