Matt Aaronson - Pleasant Prairie Olympic 2015
A quick race report for a race that I really just dropped
into at the last minute. I did the Pleasant Prairie Triathlon as my first-ever
triathlon back in 2010 and have did it again in 2011 and 2012 (with my dad). It
is a "local race" but with a decent-sized field drawing from the
Chicago/Madison/Milwaukee areas. This year the Olympic-distance event had 534
finishers according to the results.
I didn't intend to do this race as disappearing for races
places quite a burden on my family in general. However, they asked "what
do you want for Father's Day" so I couldn't help but ask!! I signed up about
a week out from race-day so to say I didn't train for this particular event is
an understatement. That said, I've had a good 6-weeks of bike workouts and in particular
weekend long rides, and I went into the race well-tapered since I was traveling
on business in Europe this week and unable to work out for the most part.
My goals for this race were:
1. Get a baseline as to my fitness…after a winter of
injuries and my first year in recent memory without winter
"outseason" workout consistency, I wanted to know if the past ~6
weeks of swimming and biking have put me in a decent spot prior to starting any
serious training this summer
2. Go moderately hard but not so hard as to incur a recovery
cost that would derail training. My IMWI training plan starts tomorrow so I was
literally aiming for zero recovery from this race. Practically speaking this
meant swim easy, bike hard and run moderately-hard.
3. See how I fare in my new age group now that I have
"aged up" to 40
4. Have fun!! I don't have ANY races on the calendar this
year other than IMWI so this was an opportunity to have some fun for sure
The short story is that I met all of my goals. Other than a DI2
failure that left me with a 52/14 single-speed for half the race, I managed a
good race (and great bike split) that resulted in 2nd place of 52 M4044 and 9th
of 534 overall. The guy who beat me in M4044 finished about a minute ahead of
me and swam 7 minutes faster than me. I basically crushed my AG on the bike and
also had the fastest AG run by over a minute. So that was a good success. I
felt great on the bike and at a 0.94 IF probably had my best-ever power in an
Olympic-distance race. My bike split was 3rd overall out of 534 people. On the
run I had my HR in the 160's or low 170's until the very end and still managed
a 40:17 run split. I ran the last part at sub-6:00 pace with gas in the tank
after the race so if I ignored #2 above and let loose and crushed myself I probably
could have run a mid or low 39' split. The swim was a couple of minutes slower
than some of my other 1500m open water races but not a bad starting point for
the next 12 week of IMWI training.
So overall a very successful race. A few more details below
for the technically-inclined, plus Garmin links:
Swim (https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/811258773)
- Chip time 30:24 for 1500m open water swim (Garmin recorded
distance 1599m)
- Swim rank 77/534 OA and 13/52 M4044
- No taper for the swim as I did a 3000 yd workout on Wednesday
(incl a 1000 yd TT that was 15:50) and a 1600 yd taper swim on Friday night
- Felt good in the water and took it pretty easy, i.e. a
moderate effort and not a hard effort. Tried to focus on form and sighting every
10-15 strokes. Started off well but got a bit off course after the first turn
buoy.
T1: 1:11 (12/534 OA)
- Uneventful…not sure how I could have gone faster other
than running fast instead of jogging
Bike (https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/811254513)
- Chip time 1:05:45 for bike recorded as 27.0 mi (supposed
to be 40km but course was long); avg speed 24.8 mph
- Bike rank 3/534 OA and 1/52 M4044. The next-fastest bike
split in the division was 4:14 slower
- Came out of T1 and spent the first ~1m getting settled,
into my shoes, etc. Then targeted 235-240 watts lap pace with an auto-lap every
4 miles. Shifting was problematic with skipping gears and missed shifts due to
a new (untested) cassette and RD clearly out of trim. My goal of getting
tighter spacing for the race by using an 11-23 instead of an 11-25 was a waste…
- The DI2 shifting failed after ~18km leaving the bike in
52/14 gearing for over half the race. As a result, cadence went from
rock-steady to wildly-fluctuating as I spun-out down hills and was out of the
saddle grinding up hills. See below splits for an illustration.
- However, despite the equipment issues the ride was solid
and overall NP/IF of 238/0.94 and VI 1.01 tell a good story
- 4 mile splits:
1. NP 237 (IF 0.94), VI 1.00, HR avg 155, cad avg 89, 24.0 mph
2. NP 242 (IF 0.95), VI 1.00, HR avg 156, cad avg 89, 24.7 mph
3. NP 238 (IF 0.94), VI 1.00, HR avg 156, cad avg 89, 26.7 mph
4. NP 239 (IF 0.94), VI 1.01, HR avg 153, cad avg 88, 26.9 mph
– DI2 failure was ~three-quarters into this lap
5. NP 227 (IF 0.90), VI 1.01, HR avg 150, cad avg 89, 26.2 mph
– lots of spinning out downhill
6. NP 248 (IF 0.98), VI 1.01, HR avg 154, cad avg 79, 22.9 mph
– cadence LOW, grinding uphill
7. NP 238 (IF 0.94), VI 1.02, HR avg 152, cad avg 81, 23.8 mph
– high VI, up and downhill, LOW cadence
- I will say that I lucked out getting stuck in the 14t cog.
I think perhaps the 15t cog might have been a bit better since I was really out
of the saddle grinding a lot at the end…you can see the low power in split #5
because I spun out at 116rpm but the flip side was IF 0.98 in split #6 grinding
at a 65 cadence up hills. I'm just lucky it wasn't 12t or 11t where I got
stuck!!!
T2: Slow at 1:28 (68/534 OA). Had a bit of trouble racking
my bike. Sat down to put on socks and brush off my feet. Need to practice this
one for sure.
Run (https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/811258787)
- Chip time 40:17 for 10k run (official pace 6:28/mi
although course appears to have been 0.08 mi short compared with Garmin)
- Run rank 9/534 OA and 1/52 M4044
- The whole run was in mid-70's temps but direct sun made it
feel hotter
- Came out of T2 and settled into a decent pace. My first
glance at the watch showed 7:30 pace but that quickly came down as I settled
into running. Cadence was surprisingly high in the high 180's and I was not
pushing hard but rather letting myself glide along.
- The strategy was to take it easy on the run so as not to
incur recovery cost for the race. HR was very low given the pace but I decided
not to push harder unless I saw guys in my AG (there were none around me for
basically all of the run).
- After ~2.5 mi there was a ~3mi out-and-back along an
unshaded gravel path – very hot and not terribly pleasant.
- Pace remained pretty consistent for the whole run. When
getting close to the finish I saw HR was still pretty low so I sped up at the
end. Finished feeling really good and with a decent amount still in the tank
- HR chart shows the story. I really could have elevated my
HR by pushing right out of the gate but I didn't. In an open half-marathon I'll
run the whole thing in the high 170's and in this race I didn't get past the low
170s until the very end.
- No regrets on the pacing…I feel great this evening and plan
to hit all my workouts this week
- Mile splits:
1. 6:32 pace, avg cad 186, avg HR 157, max HR 160
2. 6:32 pace, avg cad 186, avg HR 161, max HR 163
3. 6:43 pace, avg cad 187, avg HR 163, max HR 167
4. 6:41 pace, avg cad 186, avg HR 166, max HR 170
5. 6:34 pace, avg cad 187, avg HR 171, max HR 174
6. 6:29 pace, avg cad 185, avg HR 174, max HR 177
Stub 0.2 mi: 5:55 pace, avg cad 185, avg HR 177, max HR 179
Comments
Congrats , Enjoy your journey to IMWI , can't wait to see the far on top of that fast !
So, you decided to race with a handicap, eh? Having a little pity on all the other mortals...
Sounds like a great way to kick off the serious IM training. All your goals were met, and you've got a boost of confidence just when you need it.
Great race, Matt! Truly a dominating performance on the bike and the run. .94 for over an hour and super steady -no wonder why you had the 3rd fastest bike split despite the mechanical issues. Might as well get those bugs out of the way now rather than at IMWI. Overall a very well executed race!