Pacific Crest Olympic Triathlon Race Report

I have been dealing with a running injury and thought the swim and bike would be ok, with a struggle of a run, but it never followed that script…

 

Swim

The swim is at Wickiup Reservoir, about 15 miles from Sunriver. Water was a chilly 64 degrees. I took the bus to the start which was a nice comfortable coach. Arrived at T1 at about 8:15am for my start wave at 9:15am. My bike was dropped off on Saturday and was all still fine on Sunday morning.  

I felt good and quite confident and relaxed at the start but the first lap was rough going. I struggled with my swimming in the choppiness of the group and felt short of breath for much of it. I abandoned bi-lateral breathing after about 200m, I just couldn’t get enough of a breath.  I think due to the cold water and the elevation. I also swam over a mile according to the Garmin vs the 0.9 mile I was supposed to. I followed a group heading for the swim exit instead of the group going round for lap 2, I also swam wide on a few buoys to stay in quieter water.

Time 35:59 pace ~2:15/100m based on how far I actually swam.

My pace is not actually too bad since I usually do about 2:10 in the pool. It is a bit disappointing as I had hoped for better than that because of the wetsuit. But the conditions and the fact that this was my first open-water tri in about 10 months made it challenging.

http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/531428468

I had been drinking Cytomax pre-race. It seems to leave a film in my throat that I have to try and clear affecting my breathing. I will stick to water pre swim in future.

T1

Took my time and it went quite fast. Some issues were I missed putting my towel in the my bag and had to re-rack the bike to fix that, I also forgot to put my bike in a small gear and never undid the velcro on my shoes. Minor things. I did wear too many clothes in the morning and my bag ended up very full with morning clothes and my swim stuff. Also, I should have brought another bag for my morning clothes to keep them dry and separate from my swim stuff in the bag.

Bike & T2

Went out a bit too hard on the bike (trying to hold 95% FTP for 1.5 hours is not realistic). I started out trying to hold around 190W, but it was hilly and I was up in the 220’s quite a bit. As the ride progressed it became difficult to hold 190W, I kept dropping my target until by the end I was targeting 170W. But while I had gone out too hard and my power was a bit uneven, I was quite pleased. 

The road was very rough for 25 of the 28 miles. I was feeling it but it wasn’t terrible. Then disaster right at the end. 0.5 miles from the end of the bike a huge “hiss” sound as I rounded the corner off the main road to the school/business park approaching T2. At first I thought one of my CO2 cartridges had exploded. Then I realized it was my rear tire. Unbelievable! When I got off the bike to find myself crippled from the butt down. I could not walk or move my legs or bend over for about 8 minutes. It seems the pressure from the bike seat and the pounding from the rough road had affected the nerves at the top of my legs. I never noticed it until I got off the bike. Then it was really painful to move. I have never been closer to a DNF. The guy in the van asked me twice if I wanted to quit and I said no twice. It is weird because I had ridden much longer rides recently and have been using this saddle and bike fit for months. It could be the tri-suit which I have used for similar length rides though not as hard or on such rough roads for so long.

The course is longer than the stated 28 miles, coming in at almost 29 by GPS. I ended up with an IF of 0.86. I am not sure how my results are messed up by the fact I stopped and then walked very slowly to T2. Probably I should have targeted 0.85 - 0.9 (~175W) from the start of this race since it is a tough Oly bike course - long, elevation, hilly and rough road.

If I hadn’t flatted I think my time would have been about 1:43.

http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/531428470

TSS -139.2

Eventually I could walk and made it to T2. Had the slowest transition ever and started walking out of T2. In a strange way it was nice to be not caring about time and just doing it :-)

Run

I slowly progressed from shuffling/walking to running quite well by the finish. I met my son on his bike around mile 3 and he helped quite a bit by riding with me and encouraging me. (Not sure if I was breaking the “No outside assistance” rule here in hindsight).

Every mile was quicker than the previous one. It is a really nice run course around Sunriver. A few very little hills for sure, and with my back of leg/butt issues I felt the uphills, but the downs were nice.

Tough day, but pleased I was able to hang in there and finish. Not sure I want to ride that bike course again though. Would like to know how the roads are on the HIM course as most of the roads around the area seemed like great cycling roads except the one we were on.

Results - http://www.racecenter.com/results/2014/res_co14.htm

Final thoughts

I am going to change a lot of things as a result of this race. 

• New tires (not Specialized S-works Turbo - I have had a lot of flats with these tires) Any recommendations?
• Get bike fit checked.
• Ride more in my tri-suit to see if that is the issue.
• Investigate a new saddle.
• Change insoles in bike shoes to suit my flat foot better. I think the arch support in the bike shoes may be exacerbating my foot issue. Probably going to try Superfeet, I was fitted for them at the expo. Anyone got any experience with them?
• Enter another Olympic race prior to my Lake Stevens 70.3.