Pleasant Prairie Olympic Tri 2012 - Matt Aaronson
The Pleasant Prairie triathlon is a great Olympic-distance event in southern Wisconsin. In 2010 I did this event as my first-ever triathlon so it is an event I like to repeat every year. The race is also quite competitive…last year I finished in a time of 2:15:16 and it was only good for 7th place in my age group.
Last year this was almost an "A" race…I was about 6 or so weeks out of the OS and using this as a tune-up for Racine which was 4 weeks later. I tapered a bit for it. This year my goals were very different. My "A" race in Kansas was 3 weeks earlier and I'm in some downtime for a few weeks before really starting to train for Vegas. Racine this year will be a "B" race for me. Most importantly, Pleasant Prairie was the "A" race for my dad (and first triathlon for which he has undertaken a formal training program)..jpg)
So with that, I decided to use this race to experiment with a few new things. My overall objectives were, in order of priority:
1. Provide good support to my dad, who was going to be racing all-out
2. Press harder on the swim (effort-wise) than usual. Really try to "race" the swim to a greater extent than usual.
3. Speed up my transitions via:
(a) leaving my shoes clipped into the bike
(b) doing the bike and run without socks
(c) taping my sunglasses to the bike and putting them on while riding
4. Wear some racing shoes on the run, similar to what I'd wear in a 5k or 10k road race
5. wear earplugs on the bike…something suggested to me a long time ago by CES coach Mike Norman…the logic being that without the wind noise your perception is that you are not going as fast, so you'll press harder
The conditions were perfect with no wind and about 70 degrees (high 70's at most by the time of the run). Given no wind and several flats on my Zipp 808 front wheel, I elected to race with the Zipp 1080.
One other important bit of context is that due to construction the bike course was shortened to ~21 miles. Obviously this renders any comparisons with prior years impossible.
Overall I finished in 2:04:45, which was 30/~675 overall and 10/69 in my age group. The guy who was 11th was 3:03 behind me and the guy who was 9th was 0:48 ahead of me (with places 7 and 8 within 30 seconds of that). Places 6th and better were all materially ahead. Garmin links for each leg are below…love the 910xt open water mapping!
Overall takeaways (based on my objectives as listed above)
1. My dad won his AG, and hopefully he'll write his first-ever race report to give the details there. So overall this was very exciting. I ran with him for about a mile just before mile 3 and then again from just after mile 5 until the finish, so that was a lot of fun. I also got him to drop his run pace from a 10k average of about 10:00/mile to about 8:30/mile in the last half mile homestretch!!
2. Pressing hard on the swim yielded disappointing results:
- Swam 27:05 (1:48/100m) vs. 28:38 (1:55/100m) last year. Both years are with a wetsuit. But my (non-wetsuit) t-pace this year is a lot faster. Last year my t-pace was 1:53/100m and so essentially I swam within 2 seconds of my t-pace. This year my t-pace is 1:42/100m. So although on an RPE basis I pressed harder, I was actually further below my t-pace.
- I really started to overheat in my wetsuit…water temp was 77 degrees
- I paid for the hard swim HUGE TIME on the bike. My HR was jacked coming out of the water and I just couldn't get my power output up to where I wanted it to be when I started on the bike. Last year I biked an IF of 0.949 (NP 235) and averaged 23.7mph. This year I biked an NP of 0.858 (NP 218) and averaged 23.6mph. Considering in Kansas a couple of weeks ago I did a half ironman bike averaging only 2 watts lower this seems ridiculous. I honestly thought it was a power-meter calibration issue for a while, but inside I knew I just couldn't push the power. Overall it was a negative-split, power-wise – if I roughly chunk the race into thirds the IF for each was 0.836, 0.882, 0.857. I think this was a matter of really having difficulty getting settled in after a hard swim.
- Overall despite the t-pace improvements and the clear stroke efficiency improvements I've seen in the pool, my swim is still nowhere near the guys in my AG who I finish near in the standings. Of the guys who beat me yesterday, NONE had a slower swim time, and 7 of the 9 swam a full 5 minutes or more faster.
3. The transition experiments were generally positive with a couple of exceptions:
(a) Leaving the shoes clipped into the pedals was FAST. It makes running with the bike faster too. I think the speed loss getting feet into and out of the shoes the shoes was pretty minimal.
(b) Biking without socks was no problem at all. Running without socks (in brand new shoes) was a bit problematic. First off, getting my feet into the shoes without socks was a bit slow because they got stuck and didn't slide in very easily. Second, what I thought was a "stone in my shoe" during the run turned out to be a massive blister that developed. Serves me right for not doing training runs with these shoes and/or without socks. But overall my feet felt drier and more well ventilated in the K-Ruuz 1.5 shoes without socks. Next time I might try putting socks on in T2…I actually think the time to put on the socks will be offset by the time saved not getting damp feet stuck when getting the shoes on.
(c) Taping the sunglasses to the bike frame was FAST. I'll for sure do this in all my races going forward.
4. Wearing racing shoes was a great call. Last year I had a great 10k run split of 41:06, set a new VDOT and thought I'd never run a faster triathlon 10k. This year I had an EVEN BETTER run, with a split of 40:30…running almost to my current VDOT. It was a VERY negative split…mile paces were 6:48, 6:43, 6:40, 6:36, 6:27, 6:17 then the last quarter mile at 5:36. The heart rate chart in the Garmin link above tells the story pretty well. I could have hit the gas a little earlier for sure. The new shoes are crazy-light – lighter than the Addidas I use for running races – but still with some drop and support, so not "minimal". The lightness kept my cadent very high (avg 94spm), and overall felt great. Overall this run further confirms in my mind that I spent the whole race recovering from the swim effort.
5. Wearing ear plugs on the bike was not too useful. I don't think it added any value, and it just adds one more hassle factor (try to put on earplugs while riding 23mph wearing an aero-helmet…). Also I like interacting with others on the course a bit and the earplugs make that difficult. Overall I won't bother in the future.
So overall I accomplished all of my goals for the race although after such a disappointing bike it of course causes me to question / doubt my fitness, etc. The EN team support at the race was AWESOME with a ton of teammates showing up just to spectator and cheer us on. I also ran with Bruce Thompson for about a mile at the end of his race and that was a lot of fun.
Soon it will be time to re-focus on structured training and get ready for Vegas!.jpg)
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Comments
Your dad looks pretty dang fit!
Ear plugs on the bike sounds bizarre; I'm glad you give it a thumbs down, I won't have to try it.
In warm water like that, either a sleeveless wetsuit, or even the DeSoto Bib John (the bottom half of their two piece) is the way I go.
I don't get the 1 minute difference between elapsed time and moving time on the swim; 25:50 sounds more like what you should be able to do, so congrats on the results of that experiement - now you know how to swim in a race!
I did the leave the shoes clipped on the bike thing at my last race. Love it. Faster. And bonus time to stretch feet a little bit before running.
I have also had that mystery "rock" in my shoe -- I found out the newer model of my current trainers required socks.
Tell me more about this sunglasses taped on the bike strategy.
On a side note, I left my shoes clipped to the pedals coming off the bike at my race this weekend, didn't realize you're not supposed to do that
Matt - Glad to hear your "experiments" yielded some useful knowledge. You are becoming a very smart racer. Thanks for sharing your insights.
BTW, I raced yesterday without socks on the bike, but put them on for the run. I have ridden and race many times without socks on the bike. During set up in transition before the race, I just smear some Bodyglide on the underside of the shoe strap where it will touch the top of my foot when tightened, and I've never had any blister or chaffing problems. I do put socks on for the run to protect my feet from blisters and to give a little extra padding. It only takes about an extra 3-4 seconds in total for both feet (if you practice before the race) and I think it does make the shoes go on faster so it may only cost me a net 2-3 seconds. I think its worth it.
Also, thanks again for kicking me into a higher gear the last mile of my race. Wouldn't have made the podium without your inspiration.
@Al - that difference has to be a strange issue with the Garmin in open water swim mode. When I look at the paces it jumps around a ton and shows some speeds that I'd never be able to achieve. I think in open-water mode that watch really is only good when you step back and look at a swim in its entirety.
@Beth - not much to the sunglasses thing...I just taped one of the temples to my left aerobar with a piece of electrical tape (with the end folded over so I could un-tape them easily). Then once I got going on the bike I pulled off the tape and put on the glasses. Probably saves 5 or 10 seconds of putting them on in transition. In fact, maybe even more time considering that I used to put them on before putting on my helmet (since they were in the helmet), then take them off and put them back on OVER the helmet straps! Plus it's one less thing to worry about in transition...although one MORE thing to worry about setting up the bike in the morning.
@Doug and Matt W - I also had no idea that leaving shoes clipped in was not allowed at WTC races. Really?
@ Bruce - my next experiemnt will be to put socks on in T2. A agree that the "net" time adjusting for getting feet in the shoes is probably not all that much - my feet did get pretty stuck. One thing I do dislike about socks is that in hot races where you're pouring water and ice all over yourself you're feet are soaking wet at the end. I was hoping that without socks the shoes would ventilate and drain really well. But obviously if blisters after 8 miles were bad, imagine what it'd be like after 13.1 miles. Btw, it was fun running with you for sure...anytime you want to do a run on the lakefront let me know and we can meet up somewhere between Chicago and the north shore. And remember, if you can talk, you're not going flat out!!!!
Shoes must be placed inside the athlete’s swim-to-bike gear bag in transition and may NOT be attached to the pedals. Only professional athletes may attach shoes to the pedals. Shoes and shirt must be worn at all times.
Maybe it's because the IMs have the transition bags and usually have volunteers to give you your bike so they don't want that added responsibility of dealing with 4000 individual shoes of AGers.
Matt,
Great performance, great pics, great times. Cherish those all!
Thanks for posting and sharing.
Sincere congrats all the way around.
SS
The shoe rule definitely varies from race to race.
The general trend I see is if there are transition bags, then shoes have to go in the bag (i.e most Full IMs). No transition bags, then you can leave them clipped in (i.e. most 70.3s). However there are exceptions in both cases and races with different T1/T2 location also vary a lot.
In other words you have to read the athlete guide for the race you are doing. Of course almost every race i have done has had an some sort of an error in the athlete guide since they just copy the same one and change the logo, date, times, and maps ;-)