Pine Barrens Race Report

2010 Pine Barrens Spring Triathlon
Race Report #4: 5/23/10


Background

I returned to Atsion Lake to compete in the 10th edition of this old school New Jersey triathlon. This was my 4th triathlon of the 2010 season and 90th of my career. The advertised distances were: 0.5 mile swim, 24 mile bike and a 4 mile trail run. This was the 4th time that I’ve competed in the spring event and I’d also raced on this course twice before in the Olympic distance event held each fall.

I entered the race in very good aerobic condition but struggling with a host of injuries. I have been in Physical Therapy for a variety of hip and leg issues resulting (at least nominally) from a bike crash I suffered about 40 days ago. Additionally, on May 19th I added a painful case of Foot Extensor Tendonitis during a long ride where my left bike shoe was unfortunately cranked down too tight.

I raced at the Devilman Sprint Triathlon 2 weeks prior and did reasonably well with my leg limitations and I was hoping with 2 more weeks of therapy and a little luck I might race stronger today. Competitively, I was focused on Adam Singer, a recently aged-up Wilmington triathlete. Adam beat me both times we raced last year and I was looking to avenge those defeats at this race. This was a tall order because Adam is a strong triathlete and a difficult challenge for me even when I am 100% healthy. I saw Adam before the race and he was visibly surprised to see me, as I had not pre-registered. I could tell he was amped up a bit at seeing me—the game was on!

Race morning dawned with a slight drizzle but with a forecast for clearing conditions around race time. The weather was pleasant—mid 60s and there was a modest (10 mph or so) wind to contend with on the bike. All in all a pretty good day to race so that’s what we did.

The Swim

Shockingly, only 38 triathletes showed up to race. I remember a few years back when 250 would show up for this race. There were some very good triathletes here headlined by Scott Duprex—a sub 9 hour Hawaii IM pro who at the age of 42 can still really bring it. I didn’t think too much about it as I was focused on beating Singer and executing the best race that I could.

In that quest, I felt I needed to beat Adam out of the water. I’ve raced Adam 10 times before and he has always out-swam me. However, I feel that I am a much stronger swimmer in 2010 than I have ever been in my career so I was optimistic that today might be the day I change that statistic.

We lined up in one wave and I went way to the right—right on the buoy line. I decided to get in there and go for it and also staying right allowed me to keep my eyes on the field more easily as I’m a left-side breather for the most part. The lake was calm, murky (a cedar lake) and about 65-67 degrees.

At the gun I hammered hard. After 10 strokes I breathed for the first time and saw to my amazement that there were a good 10+ triathletes even or ahead of me. In-fact, several of them were already pulling strongly ahead of me. I expected this from Duprex but I also thought I recognized Singer moving smartly away from me. This led to a few moments of negative thoughts but I was able to quickly banish them. I told myself that I was strong and that some of these folks would fade and maybe I was wrong—Singer might not be with the lead swimmers.

Three swimmers were well ahead of me at about 250 yards and another was 15 or so yards up. The good news was that everyone else was indeed beginning to fall off the aggressive opening pace and I could see that I was likely to hold onto the 5th spot. I thought some more about the tactical situation and concluded that Singer was not in front of me. I knew Duprex was off the front and the guy swimming right with him could not be Adam. The 3rd place swimmer was a young lady with a Team USA tri-suit and I had a good look at the guy just in front of me. This analysis calmed me a bit. I focused on my breathing and mechanics and tried to stay relaxed, streamlined and as fast as I could. I did indeed hit the turn buoys at the halfway point in 5th with one swimmer sitting on my feet. As we turned back to home he moved out to try to pass me. While, I wasn’t racing him heads-up I did use this challenge to spur me on a bit and I soon found that I was steadily moving away from him.

I swam a strong, controlled (could have gone somewhat faster) race all the way to the finish and hit the beach at 13:58 with an average HR of 155 bpm. I was about 16 seconds ahead of the fellow behind me. Although I did not yet know it, from a competitive perspective I had a great swim as I put almost two minutes on Singer. This was my AG standing after the swim:

1. Christofferson --------
2. Singer +1:55
3. Catalano +3:15
4. Cosaboom +4:45

This is a very significant result for me both in terms of the gap it afforded me over Singer but also from a historical context:

-On average (historically) I’ve been 3.6% slower than Singer on the swim but today was 11.8% faster!

-My OA swim %-tile in this race historically has been:
2004: 50 %
2005: 71
2006: 77
2010: 89

-My historical swim spits have improved (although, take this with a grain of salt as this race is notorious for imprecise swim course measurement):
2004: 19:01
2005: 17:33
2006: 18:12
2010: 13:58

Anyway you look at it this was a very good swim for me and as I ran to the transition zone I knew it. What I didn’t know was were I stood relative to Singer. I was about to find out.

Transition One

I ran in a fast, but controlled manner up to my rack. I looked over at the rack next to mine and saw that Adam’s bike was still hanging there. Sweet—I knew now that I had finally out swum him. I quickly did my thing and exited T1 in 1:55. As it turned out this was 6 seconds faster than Singer (so I left T1 with a 2:01 lead) and a lot faster than the other guys in my AG. As I mounted my bike I looked back and did not see Singer anywhere so I knew I was starting the bike with at least a one-minute lead. This was very good news indeed! I also saw that the guy who was just in front of me on the swim was still in transition so I knew I was out of T1 fourth overall.

The Bike

I know this 24-mile bike loop well. It’s a good place for me to gauge and compare my fitness to past versions of me. It’s a pretty fast course, very flat, but with a lot of bad pavement.

My plan, before the middle of this week, was to come out and really go for it on this ride. My foot tendonitis threw a loop in my plans, as I was not sure I could really mash it for 24 miles. That said, I decided to head out at 250 watts (versus 244 two weeks ago) and see what happened.

The wind was from the North and East, which was very good for me competitively (the course went predominantly South and West for the first half and then back into the prevailing winds) but would lead to relatively slow bike splits. I felt OK out of T1 but not super.

In short order I passed the young lady who had out-swam me and so I found myself in 3rd out on the road. This is normally a very good thing, as I tend to run down folks on the bike—especially a 24-mile bike. As I passed her I looked (a long way) up the road and could not see anyone. I kept hammering away at around 250 watts (generally 26 mph with the favorable wind) for the first eight miles when a young stud came blasting past me. Hmmm—this usually never happens—a direct reflection of my improving swim and (currently) shaky bike.

At around 15 miles my foot began to ache so I loosened my shoe straps and basically started pedaling with just my right leg. Besides that, the rest of the bike was basically uneventful. At about 16 miles, another stronger cyclist passed me, and when I looked back at about 19 miles I could not see another soul. Over the last 4 miles I really picked up my effort and rolled into T2 with a bike split of 62:58. My HR averaged 158 bpm. I managed to deliver 251 watts with an average cadence of 83 rpm—both improvements over Devilman, but frankly quite a bit less than what I expect of myself.

As you might expect, I did a bit of analysis to see how this effort compared to prior benchmarks: I’ve ridden this bike course five times prior—here is the history:

2004 sprint 62:05
2004 olympic 60:25
2005 sprint 60:05
2006 sprint 61:44
2009 olympic 64:43
2010 sprint 62:58

So relative to most prior efforts, I’m not getting it done like I used to. I know some of this is my current injury issue but maybe there is a broader fitness thing going on (bummer!). The good news is that I was a lot faster than last September (I should be!) and my watts were up from 230 (last year) to 251 today—so maybe there is more upside ahead.

Competitively, I was able to put 3:45 on Adam (versus 1:57 last year) and I entered T2 in a pretty favorable position:

Christofferson --------
Singer +5:39
Catalano +7:56


Transition Two

I dismounted and executed a 0:45 T2. I grabbed my race belt and visor and sprinted past the timing mat knowing that I probably had a nice lead and hoping it would be enough.


The Run

I felt a lot better than two weeks prior at Devilman—the PT was definitely helping! That said, I had a ton of trouble moving my left leg and I found that I just couldn’t get my HR up much above 165bpm. I had more aerobically but my hip problems were really limiting me.

I had no idea how far back that Adam was but I was committed to trying to win this thing—I was running as hard as I could. A couple of younger guys passed me (so I knew I was 7th) at around 2 miles but after that I was alone. At a little past three miles the course loops around and I finally saw Adam and I knew that he was more than 2 minutes behind me. I was pumped—I was going to get this thing done!

I pushed on through to a 31:23 finish with an average HR of 167bpm. I’m happy with this as my per mile splits are now once again below 8 (but obviously a long way from where they need to be—sub 7). Compared to prior sprint races here this is how this effort stacks up:

2004 32:18
2005 28:25
2006 30:57
2010 31:23

I lost 3+ minutes to Adam but ended up comfortably in first in my AG:

Christofferson --------
Singer +1:55
Catalano +9:17

This was my 25th AG victory in my career (which was one of my long-term goals!) I finished 7th OA and generally felt very good about the race:

- I definitely progressed from Devilman (two weeks prior).
- My swim is better than ever
- My bike is arcing upward and probably within 10% of my potential
- My run has a long way to go but was decidedly better than Devilman
- I was able to “avenge” a couple of defeats from the prior year
- I was able to race “hard” (in my view) for the first time this year
- I’m getting stronger as I head towards IM Germany!