Amulya's California International Tri race report
A quick race report for my first Olympic race for the season. This is a local race and my goals for the race was
- A PR for my olympic distance (I knew this was going to happen
) - Try and finish under 2:30:00
Going into the race I kind of knew that I may not do that great on the bike because I’ve been traveling every week for the past 3 months. I didn’t expect to beat my bike split of 1:07:30 as I did on the Aquabike race in April.
I started the race morning with an apple sauce breakfast at 5:00am. Rolled my legs and did some stretching after that and headed straight to the race. Got everything setup and was in the water at 6:40am for a 6:56am deep water start. Water temperature was 75F which may have been a little warm for wetsuit.
The swim portion of the race was uneventful. I started to feel some cramping in my stomach towards the end of the swim but then it felt okay after I burped. My swim time was about what I had expected with a time of 29:47 (1:43 pace). My swim pace is 1:40 so I was kinda content with the time there. My swim split is the only thing with has been consistent for the past few years.
T1 was also mostly uneventfully and my legs were cramping a bit while I was trying to take off my wetsuit. My T1 was 2:30:00. I still don’t know how some folks can do this under 1:30. Something that I need to pay attention for my next race.
The bike started off well. My nutrition on the bike was Gatorade endurance and I took an additional Powergel mid way on the bike. My goal was to keep my average watts to between 215 to 220 (My FTP is 225). I couldn’t keep up with this across all the splits but the numbers are below. There were a few sections on the bike that felt like I was spinning out since I didn’t have enough gears. I changed the cassette on my bike to a 12-36 to train for my Ironman Lake Tahoe race. I guess I could have waited for that cassette change until I finished with this one.
| Splits | Time | Avg Speed | Avg HR | Avg Bike Cadence | Normalized Power® (NP® |
Avg Power |
| 1 | 14:07 | 21.2 | 164 | 78 | 212 | 204 |
| 2 | 15:53 | 18.9 | 166 | 85 | 231 | 225 |
| 3 | 12:41 | 23.7 | 159 | 85 | 198 | 195 |
| 4 | 13:19 | 22.5 | 156 | 81 | 209 | 204 |
| 5 | 13:45 | 21.8 | 155 | 81 | 215 | 198 |
I was hoping to come under 1:07:00 for the bike leg but came in at 1:10:08. It is what it is. I did my best at the time and I don’t know what else I could have done.
T2 was pretty smooth with a time of 1:28. I guess there is room for improvement here again. I see people doing this in 45 seconds.
The run section started off with my legs feeling too tight. They were just not moving. I also felt a slight cramp in my stomach with in the first 5 minutes and was worried about GI issues and I slowed down. I ran the first 3 miles between 9:00 - 9:25 pace. By then I knew that I could not meet my goal of finishing the race under 2:30:00. I don’t know if I could run any faster because my legs were just too tight. I had just water in a couple of aid stations. After mile 3 my legs felt a tiny bit better and felt like there was more flexibility. I took another Powergel and I increased my pace a bit. I finished off the run with a time of 54:36 which was very disappointing to me. My weekend long runs are faster than this pace.B
But overall I was still happy because it was a PR for me. I beat my previous Olympic distance time by 5 minutes.
Below is the links to Garmin Connect
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/817617276
Below are links to Training Peaks
Swim - http://tpks.ws/8D5nE
Bike - http://tpks.ws/R51D
Run - http://tpks.ws/JqV5
Comments
1. On the bike, were you coasting a lot down the hills? I ask this because your NP:AP ratio (aka VI) looks pretty high. You say you were spinning out but split #3 looks like a downhill i.e. you were going at high speed on lower power...but your cadence is about the same as everywhere else. Were you really spinning out with cadence 110+ in a 12t cog? If not, consider "flattening the course" and riding as constant power as you can.
2. You seem surprised at how fast people do transitions. Do you rehearse your transitions? If not, just one session the weekend before a race yields MASSIVE benefits. I set my bike up in front of my house, get all dressed up in my race gear, set up my "transition spot" just as I would in a race, then run around the block 3 times to get warmed up. Then I start at the end of the street, running up to the spot at least 200 yards to simulate the "run through transition", do my transition, get on the bike, ride around the block, then come back and "transition" to the run. I do this 3x before my first race of the season. I have my kids time me with a stopwatch...you could even do an iphone video. It is unreal how much improvement you get from the first to the third practice.
3. For the run, to be honest I don't have a ton of advice other than to train hard. One thing that helps in transition from bike to run when you feel tight is to shorten your stride and increase your cadence. But looking at the link you posted your cadence already started in the 84-85 range so that is pretty high already. Biking one of your intervals above your FTP isn't exactly great, but on the other hand it shouldn't kill your run completely in an Olympic distance race. I don't know what your VDOT is but I'd observe that with a 1:07-1:10 bike split your run is probably really quite weak at 9:00/mi pace. Check the results but in most races I'd guess a 1:10 bike puts you around people running 8:00 or faster. So this might just be a case of needing to strengthen your run fitness.
Good luck at IM Tahoe!!
Answering your questions
1. The course was a out and back course, mainly flat with a with an gradual climb towards the turnaround point and slight downhill on the way back. I was not coasting but I was finding it hard to keep up my watts on the downhill. I think I could not spin faster than 95 - 100 RPM and hence could not keep up power.
2. I will take your advice on practicing transition. It is something that I have never done before but will have to make it a priority as well.
3. On the run, My current vDOT is 44 (From a half marathon at the end of the OutSeason). I've been training with this vDOT since the end of the out season. I've run 10 miles at a pace much faster than what I ran during this race. A big thing that was bothering me on the run was a slight stomach cramp and I think that freaked me out. May be I need to re-look at Nutrition.
Thanks again for all your feedback.