Peter's 2014 USAT Olympic Race Report
Peter's USAT 2014 Olympic Race Report
Short version:Had a great race!
Swim: 28:51
Bike: 1:03:36
Run: 40:11
Overall: 2:17:35 (91/183 in age group)
I signed up for this race for fun. It was only 5 weeks after IMCDA and I knew that I would finish MOP. My Sister lives in the area so that sealed the deal.
We arrived early Thursday morning after taking a red eye with our 2 year old. Not recommended! I got at most 3 hours of sleep. The first order of business was breakfast so we headed to the mad rooster cafe. This place was so good we ate there twice! Thursday we took very easy, checked into the race and did a little sight seeing. I slept 12 hours Thursday night. Friday I did some shakeout workouts and checked my bike in and all that jazz. Had a light chicken and pasta dinner and went to bed early.
Race day I had my usual applesauce with whey protein, a banana, and coffee. I went to the race early to make sure my bike and everything was ok. After transition closed I still had to wait 2 hours for my wave.
I went to Starbucks for coffee #2 and then I ran into fellow ENer Bruce Thompson and his friend. Together we watched the swim finish for a while. It was nice to observe people exiting the swim. The ramp was steep and slippery. We noticed you can take an extra 2 strokes once you get to the ramp that helps position you for a much faster exit. My wife arrived with our son at about T -45 minutes and she helped me get into my wetsuit and sent me on my way.
The water was the exact opposite of IMCDA, 71 degrees and completely calm. I did my warm up and then joined my wave at the start. It is an in water start so I had to tread water for a few minutes. I lined up to the side and toward the back.
I stuck with a group for about the first 400m and then I got dropped. The waves were spaced 10 minutes apart and I felt like I had the whole lake to myself! There was literally no one around me. I finished in 28:51 which for me was awesome. I am a terrible swimmer. This was the first race where I swam non stop and really felt comfortable. I ended up 164/183 in the swim. Ouch!
My T1 was really slow. I need Tri Shoes! I thought I was going quick and minimized unnecessary steps but I still ended up at 3:11, a full minute behind the leaders.
Once on the bike I started passing people. I had auto lap set at every 3 miles and tried to hit my power targets in those windows. I attempted to target 0.95 IF which was 228 watts but I fell a bit short of that with a NP of 222. I spun out at a few spots, there were some turns, and I got stuck behind clumps of people I couldn't pass. I should have targeted 1.0 IF. When I really push myself on 2x20 FTP intervals by heart rate gets up to the upper 170s. In this race the highest I saw was 171. My VI was a bit high at 1.03. I was really freaked out about the marshals, there were 14 and last year they issued 200 penalties! I spiked the watts a bit passing people which I attribute to the VI. However, I am really happy with my bike split if 1:03:36. I was was not expecting to go that quick! I was only 6 minutes slower on the bike than the winner in my AG. This makes me wonder what kind of split I could have in a HIM if I targeted a much higher IF ( > 0.85).
My T2 was again slow
The run was an out and back along Lake Michigan. I started off with a 6:28 mile and I was hoping to crank it up to 6:15-6:20 but the best I could muster was 6:24 for the next two miles. At this point it was really warming up and the last part of the race was slightly uphill and in direct sunlight. I was now in damage control mode. Each aid station was 2 cups of ice water over the head and a sip of Gatorade.
My slowest mile was #6 at 6:39. It was slightly uphill and I was dying. I ended up with a 6:29 average in 40:11 (11 friggin seconds!)
My nutrition for the race was a bottle of perform on the bike, a gel at mile 2 on the run and a handful of sips of Gatorade.
My finishing time was 2:17:35 which I am very happy with. This was almost a 30 minute PR! (Last Olympic was a year ago). My goal for the race was to finish in the top 50% of my age group which I barely did (91/183).
I am now even more determined to learn to swim because I gave up 10 minutes to the leader on the swim, but only 6 on the bike and 5 on the run. I left another 2 minutes on the table with transitions. I promise I am going to practice this for my next Olympic in October.
I highly recommend this race. It was organized, fast and fun. Amazing they can put on a race like this with over 3000 athletes. I liked the temporary tattoos for body marking, first time experiencing that. They gave out jackets instead of t shirts which was cool. It was also exciting to race with such a fast field.
Thanks for reading!
0
Comments
Relative to HIM and IM, yeah, the swim in the Oly is a big deal. Just for fun, I compared our swim and bike times in this race and CDA. Your were 3.75% slower than me in the swim at CDA, and 3.6% slower here. OTOH, bike was reversed - you were 11% faster in CDA, and 9% faster at this race. So, yeah, I think you probably could have gone harder on the bike … hard to do when you've drilled the IM pacing mindset for so long, however.
Regarding your VI of 1.03 … that was mine also. But when I threw out the first 2 and the last 2 minutes of the course, mine was 1.0. Go back to your file and see if that makes a difference. Those admin turns getting out of and into transition make a big difference on this short of a ride.
There were a LOT of refs on the course … I got a 2 minute penalty, for what I don't know, maybe I was riding too far to the left? It was hard to figure out the best place to ride when you've got (a) two whole lanes to work with and (b) the pavement was a lousy as it was on the bridge. Or maybe it was because I dropped my swim cap running to T1 - they had our bib numbers on them … littering!
Anyway, Olys are fun, aren't they? No nutrition to worry about, and the pacing is a bit easier to figure out. I'm gonna do a couple more the end of the month, 'cause Rich told me to "Get Faster".