Best In The West Sprint Triathlon 2014 Race Report - David Pettigrew
This was a B race for me. I did Lake Stevens 70.3 as my A race on 8/17 and was on week 2 of the Intermediate Bike Focus plan. My taper was simply taking Friday off.
Pre-race
Setup a very minimal transition of bike shoes & towel on right of bike and running shoes, visor and belt on left. Helmet and glasses on the aerobats. One gel taped to bike. Aero-bottle and rear bottle filled with Cytomax. Met fellow EN'er Jackie Moore before the race :-)
Wore full wetsuit, water temp ~68degs.
I was in the water before 8 as I thought we began after the Half-Iron start. Such is the confused state of mind when I am taking care of two kids who are volunteering and also racing while trying to prepare myself for racing. It worked out good I was in the water for a couple of warmup sessions and was really ready for the start.
Swim
The course in 500m in a counter-clockwise 3 sides of rectangle course. I took on not being afraid to mix it up after Lake Stevens 70.3. So, I started at very inside, strangely most people were in the middle so it was quiet (there were only 103 in the male wave). I swam straight as I could for all the buoys, taking no prisoners. But I had almost no contact though there was some close swimming, especially on the turns.
I felt good and tried counting strokes and focusing on my Relax, Rhythm and Reach mantra. I also tried to keep a high left elbow as I have a tendency to drop it. I also wanted to do a good job sighting and keeping on course. For the first two legs I was spot on, but seemed to get off to the right again on the last leg back to the swim exit. I lost a few seconds here that probably cost me a sub-10 minute swim split.
Swim Split: 10:03.03 (3:24 slower than the winner)
T1
Run of about 200m from swim exit to bike. I had slowed my swimming a bit towards the end to allow my heart rate to come down a bit. As a result I felt able to jog steadily to my bike and get a decent transition done.
T1 split: 1:22.09 (20 seconds slower than the winner)
Bike
The bike course is 12 miles mostly rolling hills with one slightly challenging hill about half way on each of the out and back legs.
I had no power meter data, so had to go by feel. I attempted to get into my “diesel” mode at a sustainable hard effort that felt like my Zone 4 training workout (~200W).
Passed a few people on the way out, but felt my legs weakening at the turn around. I decided I would count people coming back the other way to get a feel for my position. I got to about 10 and then a 15 bike peleton came by and after that there were a few more and I stopped counting… The competitor in me was looking out people from my local club. I sipped from my aero-bottle as my mouth dried up and ate my gel about 10-15 minutes in when I felt I needed to recharge.
After the turnaround I got passed by 3 or 4 people who slowly pulled away. One of whom was Bill from my local club, Ugh! I kept 3 bike lengths from him for a few minutes until one of the bigger hills and I let him go and focused on keeping it steady. I knew I wouldn’t be too far behind come T2 and thought I would catch him on the run. After the last bigger hill I turned on my motor for the last couple of miles and was pulling some of the people who passed me back in.
Bike Split: 37:27.08 (Avg. speed 19.2256 mph) (8:45 slower than the winner)
T2
I made an awesome pass at the dismount as I did a “flying” dismount. My kids were there cheering, so I was glad I never screwed it up and went down in a mess of skin, gravel, blood and embarrassment. I lost a few seconds mounting my bike as it fell off and I had to mess about with the aero-bottle to get it on the rack properly. I should have just turned it and racked on the rear as I had it setup for T1.
T2 Split: 0:59.04 (20 seconds slower than the winner)
Run
Exiting out of T1 we run down the grass, over a bridge and along a trail to a hill up to the road. I just tried to get into a comfortable “fast” pace. The hill to the road was tough, but when I got to the top I saw Bill about 50m ahead. It looked like he was running well, but I was slowly catching. I wasn’t feeling myself opening up though… I know the first 1k or so can be like that, so I just hung in with what I had. This is a hilly 5k. I had ran it before so I knew the course and what to expect. About 1.5k in I made the pass on Bill and pushed on so he wouldn’t try and hang with me. I was feeling better now and began passing people up. Just before the turn around I passed Joe Gulaskey, an incredibly fit 70 year old. I asked how it did it at his age and he said it is all about not overdoing it and looking after your body. Pretty great advice. The exact turn around was a bit unclear and there should have been someone there. I went to the second sign, but I have a feeling some people probably turned at the first saving 100m or so…
At this point I could see how far back Bill was - not far. I wasn’t really too concerned, I just wanted to have my best race possible. I was feeling better as the race went on. I felt like I picked the pace up quite a bit after the turn.
Approaching the finish I saw someone up ahead but they were just too far ahead so I eased off and allowed myself to fully enjoy the finishing stretch. As it turns out, that was the guy who got 3rd in my AG… I would have had to have really hurt myself to catch him, and it wasn’t that kind of race for me.
Run Split: 23:49.05 (Pace 7:39m/ml) (3:14 behind winner)
Overall 1:13:43.01 (Winner was 57:35 !!)
4/11 in AG (the overall winner was in my AG!)
35/197 overall
33/103 Male
So I made the top third of the men. I haven’t done much short course for a while but this is definitely better than I used to place. My friend Suzanne took second place female and beat me by 9 seconds. Looking for revenge at the Beaver Fever...
Lessons Learned
As I already new (bike focus) I lose a lot of time versus my competition on the bike. Looking forward to more gains during the BF plan and November OS.
Didn’t need the bottle on the rear for this distance.
Need to keep working on sighting and keeping on course in the swim.
Results
http://onlineraceresults.com/race/view_race.php?race_id=42357#racetop
|
343 |
David |
Pettigrew |
45 |
M |
M45-49 |
35 |
4/11 |
33 |
10:03.03 |
1:22.09 |
37:27.08 |
0:59.04 |
23:49.05 |
1:13:43.01 |
Comments
Great report! Sounds like a god day. But you didn't mention the best part-BEER.