Sunset Sprint Race Report

Sunset Sprint Triathlon
Race Report #10: 7/18/09


Background

Tenth race of the season and my second shot at this 18-year old Jersey Classic. This sprint is comprised of a half-mile swim, 16-mile bike and 5k run. The other time I did this race was in 2005, shortly after my bike accident/separated shoulder—I thought it would be a reasonable indicator of my fitness as I was in pretty decent shape in 2005.

I thought that my main competitor would be John Krick. I had finished ahead of John at Parvin a few weeks ago. However, with the longer swim, I calculated that I was likely to finish around 16 seconds behind him for this race. I knew it would be close and probably a fun, competitive race.

The weather was relatively nice for the middle of July in New Jersey with a race start temp of 72 degrees. The water was 82 degrees so it was a no-wetsuit swim.

The Swim

I chatted with John and some of the other guys in my AG before the race. I learned that John was a varsity swimmer in college so I knew I would be facing a big deficit after the swim today. Based on Parvin, I calculated that I should exit the water 1:52 behind John. However, since this is a non-wetsuit swim (and Parvin wasn’t), John’s advantage, as a stronger swimmer, would likely be greater than the calculation indicates. I guessed I would be down by 2:30 after the swim.

We were in the last wave and I started to the right, away from the buoy line on this out-and-back swim course. I got off to a good start and avoided any hand-to-hand conflicts. I was focused on controlling my HR given this was a no-wetsuit swim and as a consequence I started pretty conservatively. I felt pretty good throughout the swim and began to pick up the pace a bit as we headed back towards the shore. I could tell I was in the top half of the pack but I could see the leaders were quite a bit ahead of me.

I exited the water in 16:12 with an average HR of 153bpm which is a typical swim average for me. My initial reaction to this time was quite positive. I knew in 2005 that my time was 18:46 (bad shoulder) so as I ran up the hill to transition I felt pretty good about my performance. I looked at our AG’s rack and did not see Krick—no surprise there—but I did see quite a few guys from my AG, so this put a bit of doubt in my mind. As it turned out, I was 56th OA (out of 170) in the swim, 67.6 %-tile, and 6th (out of 10) in my AG. The bad news, which I wouldn’t know until after the race, was that Krick had out swum me by 3:07! I was in a deep hole. Here is where we stood after the swim:

1. Krick --------
2. Strauss + 1:18
3. Kozialia + 1:19
4. Clinger + 2:28
5. Berland + 2:51
6. Christofferson + 3:07

Transition One

I felt like I flew through transition and I was able to pass 3 guys in my AG who beat me in the swim. My total transition time was 1:26 and my average HR crept up to 162 bpm. At Parvin, I had picked up over a minute on Krick in T1 but he told me he was using a wetsuit for the first time at that race and had trouble getting out of it. I knew my advantage would be less at this race. As it turns out, I had the second fastest transition time in our AG and picked up 17 seconds on Krick. Here is where we stood as we started the bike:

1. Krick --------
2. Strauss + 0:58
3. Christofferson + 2:50

The Bike

The bike at Sunset is a rolling 16.54 miles in length. It has quite a few hills (for NJ) and with the wind today was a little tougher than the typical NJ triathlon bike leg. I figured I needed to catch Krick by around 12 miles or so if I was to build a big enough buffer for the run. I felt very good on the bike and was comfortably around 260 watts. In my mind, I thought this would be good enough to do the job. The calculations indicated I should be able to pick-up 2:25 or so on Krick (about 9 seconds per mile). I noticed my HR was relatively low but for some reason I didn’t decide to go harder as I was pleased with the power numbers I was seeing.

I kept hammering away passing many folks from the waves in front of me. About 4-5 miles in I blew by Strauss and eagerly looked forward to doing the same with Krick. However, when 12 and then 13 and 14 miles clicked by I began to think that I was in trouble. By 15 I concluded that I wasn’t going to catch him. Then at 15.5 miles I saw him and put the hammer down passing him at 15.8 miles. Fortunately for me, the bike leg was a half mile long and I was able to jump off the bike 8 seconds in front of Krick.

My bike split was 44:05 (22.5 mph). However, my HR only averaged 157 bpm and my cadence 79 rpm, which indicates that I did not push nearly as hard as I could have. My power averaged 260 watts and I as I analyze this data I realize I made the mistake of seeing reasonable power numbers and not listening to my body telling me I was in better shape than I expected.

I did several analyses (comparing to 2005 and looking at historical correlations between my HR and average watts) and determined that I probably should have been able to average 270-275 watts for this race. If I had done this I would have caught Krick at 12.8 miles vs. 15.8 miles. And more importantly, I would have had around a 50 second lead vs. the 8 that I had. It’s clear in retrospect that I made a rookie tactical error in letting my power meter dictate my intensity as opposed to using it as one of several collaborating data sources to how my body felt.

I was the fastest in our AG on the bike but only 14th OA (92.4 %-tile). Here is where we stood after the bike:

1. Christofferson --------
2. Krick + 0:08
3. Strauss + 2:43

Transition Two

I knew Krick would be hot on my heels and I really pushed hard through transition. I did everything very quickly and dashed away with a total transition time of 1:14. This was tops in the AG and was also 7 seconds faster than Krick. I knew he was very close and that the cards were stacked against me. None-the-less, I was determined to not go down without a fight. Here are the standings after T2:

1. Christofferson --------
2. Krick + 0:15
3. Strauss + 3:06




The Run

I knew that John had outrun me by 49 seconds at Parvin and that my lead was considerably less than that. I also felt I was running better now than mid-June and maybe, just maybe I could hold him off. I really thought I pushed hard on the dirt trail that follows a stream in the early part of the course.

I hit the one-mile marker in 7:57 (165 bpm HR), which was a bit deflating—I figured that I needed to run 7:30s. Yet, John had not caught me. Shortly after one mile there was a bit of a u-turn and I was able to get a look at where he was. I saw that I probably had at least a 10 second lead. I could tell he was hanging with me but he didn’t seem to be really gaining on me.

I kept trying to push harder, to perhaps open up a gap but my lack of run training/speed work was clearly in evidence. I hit the 2-mile marker after climbing a short but steep hill with a split of 7:51. I stole a glance at John and he seemed no more than 30-40 yards behind me. Yikes, this was going to be very painful.

We pushed across a big field and then back down a steep hill (which I ran very hard) and on to the final stretch of road to the finish. We were at about 2.5 miles and I became aware of John’s breathing as he was sitting on my shoulder. I tried to throw a surge at him but he stayed glued to my shoulder. I slowed way down hoping he would go by but he refused to do so. I could see the three-mile mark ahead and put a final desperate surge in to try to break free. We passed 3 miles and I could see the finish line just about 150 yards ahead. For a second I thought I might be able to hold him off.

Then with 100 yards to go reality set in and John sprinted past me and it was immediately clear I would not be able to respond. I deflated like a balloon and almost came to a complete halt. I had been running at my limit and now the game was over. I stumbled across the line a full 14 seconds behind John with a run split of 24:07. My final 1.1 miles were covered in 8:13 (7:28/mile) and my HR averaged 168bpm. Strauss came in 2:45 later. I had the third fastest run in my AG and 54th OA (68.8 %-tile). For the race I finished 29th OA (83.5%-tile).

It would be easy to say I lost this race in the swim or maybe even the run—certainly my current fitness in those two disciplines would support that view. But in the final analysis, I think I talked myself out of going as hard as I could on the bike and as a result lost the race through poor tactical execution. C’est la vie! It was a lot of fun and John won fair and square in an exciting race—you really can’t ask for more than that!