Hammonton Sprint Race Report

Hammonton Sprint Triathlon
Race Report #5: May 23rd, 2009


Background

I returned to Hammonton for the 4th time in my race career on a 4 race AG win streak but suffering no illusions about my fitness level. I had been somewhat lucky to grab four victories but this week I was up against my old pal Mickey Syrop who is quite an accomplished and experienced triathlete. We have raced many times together and over the last few years I have been getting the better of our competitions. Last year I was able to beat Mick by 2:10, which is about 3.4%. I’ve estimated that I’m about 5-7% slower this year with my lower key focus on training so I thought it would be close. Historically at Hammonton, I’ve won my AG both times I raced as an individual and also won in a relay (the only one I’ve ever done) with Judy, nine days after I separated my shoulder in 2005.

The swim is in a small murky pond and generally is fairly close to the advertised quarter mile. The bike I’ve repeatedly measured as 12.7+ miles is a straightforward out and back (with seven turns) and a couple of shortish hills. It usually has a head wind on the way back and for some reason has never been a particularly fast course. The run used to be on trails but now is an out and back mostly on pavement, although the first 400 yards are so are on a dirt path in the park where the race is held. I’ve not measured it but I believe it to be short of 5k—probably just 3 miles.

Race morning was beautiful—cool and clear and it didn’t seem like the wind was going to be much of a factor. I got up early and found myself the first to arrive and racked my bike in a prime spot in the newly positioned transition area (more on that latter). During warm-ups I felt very tired and sluggish. I hadn’t felt that great since returning from Australia earlier in the week and I was wondering if perhaps all of my recent travel had finally caught up with me. I got reacquainted with the NJ gang and soon we were all ready for the 7:45 am start.

The Swim

Once again us old farts went off in the last wave. I had 11 guys in my AG and in total 254 triathletes would start (there were also 52 duathletes). These numbers were comparable to last year (238 total and 12 in my AG).

I started way to the right, off the buoy line as I am generally of a wimpy orientation these days on my swim. Mick was to my left and as we started he readily swam away from me. I thought I did a pretty good job tactically throughout the swim and reached the turn buoy clean enough. I was constantly aware of the high-end “cap” on my swim fitness and I was on guard against going too anaerobic, even for this short distance. Last year, I had out swum Mickey (for the only time in my career) by 5 seconds and I knew this year was going to be different. I was hoping to limit the damage to 20-30 seconds.

I exited the water in 7:23 versus a time of 7:10 last year. I can’t report on my HR as I left my monitor home (not on my “A” game I guess). Competitively, I was 24 seconds behind Mick and a lackluster 5th out of 11 in my AG (versus 2nd last year) and 55th OA (78.7%-tile) vs. 36th LY (85.3 5-tile). Obviously, a significant fall-off from last year but really about what I expected coming into the race. The standings after the swim:

1. Grout --------
2. Syrop + 0:40
3. Kovar + 0:56
4. Stedman + 1:00
5. Christofferson + 1:04

Transition One

As I mentioned above, the transition area was moved further away from the swim exit this year due to construction. As a result I knew that T1s where going to be slower and that the bike was going to be a bit shorter. I estimate the additional run involved with this new set-up to be about 500 feet or so or about a tenth of a mile. As a consequence (at least in part) my T1 was 2:16 this year vs. 1:39 last year. This was 45th OA (vs. 35th LY) and it was second only to Mick in our AG (same as LY).

Mick has excellent transitions and last year I was somewhat pleased to only lose 21 seconds to Mick. This year I lost 25 seconds and rather than being just 16 seconds behind Mick, I was now 49 seconds behind. As I was doing my thing in T1 I saw Mick leave transition and glanced at my watch. As I left T1 I glanced again and correctly concluded that I was about 45 seconds behind him. I knew I had my work cut out for me. Here is where we stood after T1:

1. Syrop --------
2. Grout + 0:16
3. Christofferson + 0:46
4. Stedman + 1:39

The Bike

The bike is like my “Hail-Mary” play in football. Invariably, if I am to win my AG in a tri I need to both make up a swim deficit and build a big enough cushion to hold off stronger runners. In fact, of my 21 AG wins, I have always posted the fastest bike split. I knew this as I started trying to erase the Mickster’s lead. Last year I was 3:33 faster than Mick and that was more than sufficient to wrap up the win for me. I figured that Mick could be as much as 2 minutes faster than me this year on the run so I worked out that I had to put 2:45-3:00 on him on the bike this year to have a decent chance to win. This works out to 14-15 seconds per mile, so I knew I probably needed to catch Mick by mile 3 or so.

I quickly put it into the hurt zone—I don’t know what my HR was but I was pushing it. My speed seemed pretty good but every time I looked at my SRM I was seeing numbers in the 200-240 range, not the 230-270 watts I would have expected. This did not seem right but every time I pushed my wattage up into the anticipated range my legs revolted. I began to think something was a bit off on this day.

As I approached mile 3 I saw no sign of Mick and I hit the average switch on my SRM and saw just 215 watts and 77 rpm. Early in a race these averages tend to be a little understated due to the time one spends getting mounted and up to speed. Over time and distance that effect is minimized (and I can correct for it for the purposes of these reports) but I definitely knew I was in a great deal of trouble. Soon, I could tell we were approaching the blueberry factory where the turnaround is and I still hadn’t caught Mick. Finally I did, just short of 6 miles and to add insult to injury, several seconds latter Mick came back on me to pass with a big smile on his face—he knew I was in trouble as well. My ego kicked in and I surged ahead and managed to open up about a 5 second lead at the turnaround. Given I had averaged about 7 second faster miles than Mick at this point, I projected about a 45 second lead after the bike. This combined with Mick’s faster transition skills led to the inevitable conclusion that I was cooked.

I felt very sluggish—no zip in my legs. I could not generate the leg speed to spin at my target 85 rpm in the correct gearing and my wattage remained mired just below 220 watts. I frankly considered sitting up and just soft-pedaling in because I knew I was having a very bad ride. I rejected this notion as I felt I owned it to Mickey to give it my very best shot.

I kept trying to push it all the way back—in fact I’d rate my level of effort as a fair bit stronger on the way home—but my low power output would not change. At one point, around 10 miles I passed another guy in our AG and I was momentarily stunned—“wow I’m having an incredibly bad day and may not even finish in the top 3”. However, I correctly surmised that he was a duathlete and I choose to ignore him.

The wind, what little there was, must have been a crosswind. As a result, the bike was much faster this year and combined with a measured distance of 12.6 miles (vs. 12.7 miles) most competitors registered faster bike splits. For example, this year Mick achieved a 34:06 split versus a 35:35 last year. I also was faster, though only by 7 seconds, as I finished the bike with a split of 31:55. This works out to a respectable 23.7 mph (over 12.6 measured miles) and represents a course record for me but the power data shows how misleading speed is as an indicator of performance from year to year (due to changes in conditions and the course). Last year I averaged 254 watts (and wasn’t happy about it) and this year I barely managed 220 watts. My cadence was just 79 rpm.

This power information is worth analyzing a bit. My three races this year (not counting the off-road tri) had the following power outputs:

Smithfield: 253 watts over 9.9 miles
Bumpass: 241 watts over 12.5 miles
Devilman: 244 watts over 21.2 miles

Even with my current fitness level I should have been able to average 245-250 watts today. This 25-30 watt shortfall means I rode with 11-14% less power output than I was capable of. This means my average speed was from 5.5 to 6.6 % slower and my bike time was some where between 1:45 and 2:05 slower than it should have been. These are huge numbers, especially when considered from the competitive context.

As it turned out I was able to put 2:07 on Mickey in this bike leg (vs. 3:33 LY and 3:52-4:22 as calculated above). Thus I entered T2 with just a 1:18 lead (vs. a more comfortable 3:03-3:23) and given the current state of my run, that wasn’t good enough. Compared to the field, last year I was 9th OA (96.6 %-tile) and this year I slipped to 15th (94.5 %-tile…. the 9th place guy this year was 1:06 faster than me). More significantly, I did not have the fastest bike split in my AG. A fellow named Steve Meddaugh easily out split me as he put 49 seconds into me on the bike.

This was without question, my poorest bike split of my triathlon career. I am hopeful that it is not indicative of my new fitness levels but rather represents an off day, probably as a result of my trip to Australia and the jet lag. Time will tell. In any event, here is how we stood after the bike:

1. Christofferson ---------
2. Syrop + 1:18
3. Meddaugh + 1:55
4. Grout + 2:49

Transition Two

I thought I did a pretty decent job in T2 clocking 1:05, vs. 1:09 last year (though it’s hard to compare the two years). I was 40th OA vs. 75th last year and was 2nd to Mick by 6 seconds (versus 12 LY). As I ran out onto the course I glanced back into transition and I could see Mick storming in—I new it was very likely I would be caught. Meddaugh, by the way did a horrible job in transition losing 37 seconds in T1 to Mick. This combined with the 1:30 he lost in T2 effectively threw the race away for him. He easily would have beaten both Mick and I with halfway decent transitions. Here is where we stood after T2:

1. Christofferson --------
2. Syrop + 1:12
3. Meddaugh + 2:26

The Run

The run was more of the same. My legs were completely fried. I tried to push it on the off chance Mick was having a bad run. I hit the turn and saw I was about 30 seconds or so ahead of him—not good enough. Little than either Mick or I know, Meddaugh was gaining on us both. With about a mile to go the inevitable happened and Mick assumed his rightful place in the lead. I backed off a bit now as I knew I wasn’t coming back and I assumed 2nd was mine. Shortly there after Meddaugh steamed past me although I didn’t know it at the time.

I pushed through to the end and ended up with a 22:22 run split. This compares to the 21:15 I did last year and equates to a 7:27/mile average—yuck! I was 6th in the AG (vs. 2nd LY) and 94th OA vs. 60th. I ended up losing to Mick by 47 seconds and to Meddaugh by 23 seconds. My unlikely short-course winning streak was over at eight races.

I finished at 1:04:59, which is only 1:42 slower than 2008 (and almost 4 minutes faster than 2004), which on the surface doesn’t seem that bad. I was in 34th place versus 21st LY. However, the above narrative tells the real story. It’s clear I have a lot of fitness to regain and I’ll need to bounce back to more normal standards in my race next week!