Philadelphia Sprint Triathlon Race Report
June 25th, 2011
Background
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Distance: 0.5-mile swim/15.7-mile bike/3.1-mile run
2011 Triathlon Race Number: 7
Career Triathlon Race Number: 107
Conditions: 80 degrees and sunny. Little wind. 78 degrees water temperature.
After missing St. Andrews last week (family/work) I was anxious to return to racing on this beautiful Saturday morning. I stayed in Stone Harbor the night before to celebrate my 54th birthday with Judy and my two sons. I awoke at 2:30 a.m. and hit the road shortly thereafter. I arrived at the race site just as it started to get light around 4:45. I overdid it on the departure time but since this was my first time doing the race, I thought it best to be safe.
My two primary concerns pre-race were whether or not this was going to be wetsuit legal and how hilly/technical was the bike course. The water was announced as 77.5 degrees so wetsuits were legal—this was good news for me. I watched several hundred bikes rolling towards transition and saw maybe two discs. I bumped into Wes Burns and Midge Kerr and they both were without discs as well. Midge’s friend said the course had “very nasty” hills. So at the last minute, I made the decision to sacrifice some speed for safety and I changed out my 1080/disc for a pair of 404s (my training wheels). This was a decision I would come to regret.
This is a big race and in fact 959 individual triathletes would start (plus another 80 relay teams). 61 souls were entered in my AG but ultimately only 49 would wend their way into the murky waters of Schuylkill River. With Tom Dillon and Johnny King-Marino entered, I knew with the work in progress state of my run, that I was racing for a 3rd place finish at best. There were two other fellows (Fabrizio and Patterson) and perhaps some others I hadn’t heard of that I also needed to worry about. I wasn’t pre-occupied with this as I was here to do the best I could and have a high quality “brick” workout. Still, I wanted to get to the podium. My legs were a bit heavy and tired from a 5+ hour training day on Wednesday as well as the 20+ hour training week I was in the midst of. I was training right “through” the race but I’ve been able to race well when I’ve done that in the past and saw no reason why I couldn’t turn in a solid performance today.
The Swim
Tom and I were racked right next to each other so I spent much of the pre-race chatting with him. We went down to the water together and jumped in as they called our wave (the 3rd). We both (independently) chose to swim over to the right, which was on the buoy line. Our wave was pretty large (at least 150) as we were paired with the 40-44 AG. Just before the start Dan Fabrizio swam over and started talking to Tom. This was awesome because as far as I could tell, Dillon and Fabrizo were the two strongest swimmers in our AG. On the fly I decided I would start behind them and draft the two of them or pick one if they separated.
Moments later the horn sounded and we were off. Tom and Dan went at it aggressively right from the start. Tom was to the right and wanted to drift left while Dan seemed to want to hug the buoy line. They crashed into each other 5-6 times and I was just swimming easily behind them waiting for them to sort things out. Soon they crossed as Dan fell a bit behind Tom. I was on Dan’s feet and now I had a tough decision to make and I needed to make it quickly. Do I try to go after Tom who I think is the best swimmer or stay with Dan, who is a bit bigger and seemed to be taking the more direct line? I decide to stay with Fabrizio, ultimately because I didn’t think I had a chance of beating Tom overall today and if I can just stay close to Dan, I’ll be in very good shape. (When I beat Dan at Genesis two weeks prior he had outswam me by 27 seconds).
I was able to stay right up on his feet—in fact I probably hit him 10-15 times—which I’m sure was annoying. The water was very murky and I was trying to just feel for the bubbles. There were lots of other swimmers on the buoy line and as we picked our way through the back-end of the wave in front of us Dan would have to change course and speed and that’s when I would hit him.
I felt very relaxed and like I was really taking it easy. Every now and then a slight gap would open up as we wove through traffic but I was going so easy a short burst to close the gap was never a problem. A couple of times, my brain tried to convince me that I should be going harder and I should swim by him. I tried to resist the urge but one time I had swim off to the side a bit and then I realized how hard Dan was actually going—I quickly got back on his feet.
I stayed on his feet for the whole swim! First time I’ve ever done that. I resisted the urge to swim past him at the end as it didn’t seem quite right—given he had done most of the work on this swim. (When we climbed up on the shore, he was moving a little slower than I and I wanted to go by but I held back and directed him in front of me as we reached the timing mat. It did not seem like good karma for me to snake him at the end like that! As soon as we crossed the mat I did run past him).
I didn’t know where Tom was (although my guess was that he was already out of the water) and I didn’t know how any of the other guys in my AG did but I knew I had just completed a fantastic swim. Fabrizio is a great swimmer and a direct competitive threat and to be right with him was very good news indeed.
I hit the shore with an elapsed time of 15:42 and an average HR of 151 bpm. The course had looked longer than a half mile and it obviously was with this time. However the most important take away from this data was my HR. I had averaged 158 bpm at Genesis when Dan had beaten me by 27 seconds. The difference between 151 and 158 is huge. 152 is my IM target HR and 158 is just about the max that I can handle on the swim. I know this is no real insight, but the light has finally gone off in my head about drafting on the swim. If I could do this at IMAZ in November it would be a huge advantage—might be worth as much as 5 minutes and/or much less stress on my body. If I were able to find a similar situation there then this race would have been a huge benefit for me.
Competitively, a fellow named Evans actually outswam everyone in the AG—albeit by just a few seconds. As it turns out, Dan was second and I third. We were actually able to put a nice gap on Tom and a sizeable one on the rest of the field. Here is where we stood after the swim:
1. Evans --------
2. Fabrizio + 0:05
3. Christofferson + 0:06
4. Dillon + 0:21
5. Patterson + 2:02
I was 96.0 %-tile in the AG and OA I was 62nd (93.6 %-tile).
Transition One
I climbed up the steep “sandy” landing area and after crossing the mat I sprinted into the large transition area. My rack was at the far end, near the bike in/out. I was very surprised to see Tom’s bike next to mine (and no Tom). I figured there was a good chance that I was leading the AG. I busied myself with my transition and Tom came running up several seconds later. He yelled at me to take my hands off his bike (I was lightly leaning on his seat as I did my stuff).
Tom soon finished his transition activities and was off. I yelled to him to be safe but he did not respond—I guess you don’t have time for small talk when you are so fast in transitions. It was very humbling watching Tom do his transition—he was a full 37 seconds faster than I. However, I actually did a pretty good job, as I was the 2nd fastest in our AG! I finished my transition in 2:22 with an average HR of 151 bpm.
Here is where we stood after T1:
1. Dillon --------
2. Christofferson + 0:22
3. Fabrizio + 0:30
4. Evans + 2:19
5. King-Marino + 3:17
The Bike
I ran out of T1 intent on running Tom down as quickly as I could. Frankly, I didn’t harbor any illusions about holding him off on the run but I knew I needed to open up a gap on the folks behind me if I was to sneak into the top 3. After mounting up and settling in, I glanced down and noticed that my SRM was not registering. Gee whiz—this is the 3rd race in a row I’ve had a PM problem. I had tested it before the race and it worked fine. I hit one of the buttons and it started registering my power and HR, as well as elapsed time but no speed. So somehow, my speed sensor wasn’t picking up a signal. I knew from experience that this also meant whenever I stopped putting power through the BB (when I was coasting) that my timer would stop. Given the descents on this course and my unfamiliarity with it, I knew my average power was likely to be overstated. (As an aside, I have an upgrade project underway, which among other things will address my continuing PM problems).
The first part of the bike course is a very flat out and back of about 1.5 miles. As I neared the turn-around I saw Tom and was able to calculate that I was losing ground to him. Oh-oh. I checked my average power and it showed 255 watts, which was probably a reasonable number since I hadn’t been coasting. The problem was it felt like 290 watts and probably should have been at least 280 watts (the last time I raced Tom I averaged 271 watts for 12 miles). I was worried about losing some time due to my wheel choice, but now I had a new worry.
I made my way (relatively conservatively) around the first lap and came to the conclusion that the technical difficulty of the course was way overblown—there were a couple of tricky parts but my training rides in DE are way more demanding than this bike course—I had blown the wheel decision. I rolled through the first lap near 22 minutes (vs. the expected split of 20:30—this based on prior year performances) and I also saw that Tom had opened up a further gap. I was now very aware that I was not getting it done on the bike.
I plugged along and finally hit the end of the 15.7-mile course with a time of 44:07 and an average HR of 156 bpm. This translates into an average speed of 21.4 mph. This is the speed I ride IM bikes at! Obviously, the speed was affected by the climbs and turns but it is very evident that I had one of my worse bike splits of my career. At 156 bpm, I was a good 7-10 bpm off where I should have been—my legs were just too fried to push my CV system hard enough. This poor showing was very evident when I look at how I did competitively. I was 2:34 slower than Tom (I believe this is the first time he has out-rode me in a triathlon, which is ironic as today was also the first time I had outswam him!). I was only 6th in my AG (a very disheartening 89.8 %-tile) and I was 56th OA (94.3 %-tile). More importantly, I lost valuable time to Marino and Patterson behind me and missed an opportunity to put Fabrizio away. Here is where we stood after the bike:
1. Dillon --------
2. Christofferson + 2:56
3. King-Marino + 3:22
4. Patterson + 3:27
5. Fabrizio + 5:12
Show what happened? One possible explanation is that Tom had a phenomenal ride. Clearly, he had an awesome ride and the analysis below is not intended to deflect from that fact—Tom won this race on the strength of a great bike ride. However, when I look at how my time compares to some other riders, it’s also clear that my poor performance was a major contributor to the above results. Basically, I believe there are two primary drivers: my low power production and my lack of aero wheels. Below is an attempt to quantify those two components.
At Bassman, I was 0:24 faster than Tom. Philly is longer (15.7 vs. 11.8 miles) so all things being equal, I should have been 0:32 faster than Tom today. Tom was 2:34 faster so there is a total gap of 3:06 to explain.
As it turns out, Wes also did not ride with his disc today but did when we raced at Genesis (I used my race wheels there as well). Therefore, I can hypothesize that the difference in my performance today vs. Genesis (as compared to Wes) is solely due to my lack of power. At Genesis, I was 1:08 faster than Wes and today, Wes was 1:16 faster than I. Since these two races are essentially the same length, my performance shortfall was 2:24.
If this is true, then I can hypothesize that I lost about 0:42 due to my wheel choice—which strikes me as a reasonable estimate. Now my average power was recorded as 254 watts. As I noted above this is an inflated number given my SRM issues. I can use the cubic relationship between power deltas and speed deltas to estimate what my implied power today was. My performance shortfall is 5.7% compared to Tom’s time. This implies an 18% power shortfall from the 271 watts I had at Bassman. This translates into an estimated power today for me of 230 watts—which again seems reasonable.
Of course, the broader question was why did I have such a poor bike split—one of my worst of all time, especially given how strong my bike splits have been this year? I did have a very heavy training week including a 5+ hour training day on Wednesday and a long ride and long run mid week. But I’ve raced well on heavy training volume before—it’s part of my “C” race strategy. No, today was just a very bad ride for me—maybe I was a little sick but for sure I was a lot slow.
Transition Two
My heart wasn’t fully into it as I went through my T2. I knew I was in trouble given my bike. My legs felt like lead. I certainly wasn’t giving up but I knew I was very vulnerable. My total T2 was 1:42 with an average HR of 157. This turned out to be the 8th best T2 (85.7 %-tile). I didn’t hurt myself as most of the folks chasing me weren’t much faster and here is where we stood after T2:
1. Dillon --------
2. Christofferson + 3:15
3. King-Marino + 3:39
4. Patterson + 4:03
5. Fabrizio + 5:30
The Run
I put on my brave face and tried to make a go of it. However, right away my legs felt very heavy, tired and sore. I had no zip whatsoever. Oh oh! I’ve seen this movie before. I was trying to do my best but I knew it was probably only a matter of time before I was passed.
Sure enough, not far up the road (well under a mile) Marino came speeding by in a desperate (and almost successful) attempt to make up over 3 and a-half minutes on Dillon. I was now third and the only thing I could do was hope that no one else was close. However, right near mile 1, Patterson streamed by and I was off the podium. My first mile was 8:00 with an average HR of 161bpm.
At the turn, I saw that I had about 1:15 on Fabrizio and figured even with my legs being as they were, that I was likely to hold him off. My second mile was 8:08/163bpm. I checked in the rear-view mirror several times but as I neared the finish line I could tell I would hold on to 4th. My third mile was an 8:07/165bpm and I crossed the finish line with a very disappointing 25:02. Certainly one of my slowest 5ks of all time.
My run was 14th best in my AG (73.5 %-tile) and 262nd OA (72.8 %-tile). I was 4th in my AG (93.9 %-tile) and 65th OA (93.3 %-tile).
Conclusion
Great race for Tom—congrats! Very poor race for me—clearly the worse of the season and one of my all time poorest showings. On the plus side, I gutted it out and finished safely. I tried pretty much as hard as I could—I just didn’t have it. I also had probably the best tactical swim I’ve ever had and I think I learned a very important lesson about the swim for IMAZ. I’ll take that plus, get back to training and hope to bounce back in a couple of weeks when I race again.
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