The Pointy End is Getting Faster – IM MOO Data

Matt Samojeden

The Pointy End is Getting Faster – IM MOO Data

One of the common comments at the post IMLOU team gathering was how fast the front of the Age Groups are getting. I looked at my age at LOU and saw some amazing speed increases over the years. I have been in spreadsheet withddrawl this week, so I thought I would take a quick look for the IM MOO team that will be racing next weekend.

 

Best of execution to all!

 

The charts below are for the IM MOO races 2002 – 2010.  What you see is that there is overall time improvements across all age groups. The time improvement gets significantly greater as one gets older. The over 50 AGs have made some huge gains. 

 

Note that these results are the averages of the top 3 finishers in each AG group and their respective swim bike run times.  So this is not a view of the best swim times or the best bike times…. This is the pointy end of each Age group.

 

Improvements were seen in swim, bike and run times. Note that spikes in some years are temperature related.  A second pass at this will be to normalize the Bike and run results for temperatures. Also a % base view would be interesting. 

 

Below is the Heat Index for the run using a 4 hr time bock fro 2-6 as a proxy for run temps.

 

Row Labels	Average of Schoen Heat Index F
WI 2002	62
WI 2003	83
WI 2004	81
WI 2005	85
WI 2006	53
WI 2007	68
WI 2008	67
WI 2010	73

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I someone wants the spreadsheet with all the data PM me with your email and I will send it is 10Meg

 

Matt

Mens Charts

Women's Charts

 

 

Paul Hough

Well Matt, it doesn't even pay to get age up anymore! Still, I'm going to race my ass off next year when I move into the M55-59, then take a breather in 2013.

Matt Samojeden

Paul, I share the same pained view. I aged up this year, went faster and placeed worse! There was a post in ST on this topic and one of the fast older dudes commented that most are retired or semi retired and have the time to put in the added hours and to get the sleep to recover. He said I don’t know how one could hold down a job and compete with him and some of the other fast dudes.

I will just keep working on getting faster and racing smarter and the results will be what they are.

Paul Hough

They are exactly right and I'll give you two examples. One is Nace Mullen, USAT All-American out of Philadelphia. He built up a business, sold it, and is a full-time triathlete...typically comes to the Tampa Bay area for spring training. Nace aged up to 55-59 this year. Fortunately, he's much better at OLYs than IM. Another is Steve Brookner out of Miami...I think he qualified for Kona with you at IMLOU last year. Steve is a retired lawyer (my age at 54), who turned personal trainer/spin instructor. Very hard to compete with these guys! They travel all over and have time to sleep too. But I'm not giving up either!

jburbatt

Matt- Thanks for doing the women's data too!!! Overall not as crazy fast as the men's, but definitely getting faster in the last couple of years.

trigirl1203

@Matt-Thanks for adding women's data. While still no where near that, its a nice thing to keep in mind for the future