Walker Sprint Race Report

Walker Sprint Triathlon Race Report
July 30th, 2011

Background

Location: Walker, Minnesota
Distance: 0.25-mile swim/17-mile bike/2.8-mile run
2011 Triathlon Race Number: 10
Career Triathlon Race Number: 110
Conditions: Low 70s, stormy, torrential rains, 30-40 mph winds. Water temperature around 73 degrees.

I returned to Minnesota, not far from where I was born to among “other things” compete in the 2nd edition of this sprint triathlon. The other things included my father’s memorial service, which we held later this day at 2 p.m. in the nearby town of Hackensack. As you may know, I’ve dedicated this season to the memory of my father who passed away last December. It was a year ago, when I did the inaugural Walker triathlon, that my father came out and watched me race a triathlon for the last time. It seemed fitting that I do this race in his honor and memory and I guess I’ll always associated this race with the passing and memory of my father.

Given I was racing for my father, I certainly wanted to do well and defend my AG title from last year. There were 294 individual triathletes entered this Saturday morning with 13 from my AG—the latter the same as last year. I was racing with my buddy Bill Price who had flown in for my father’s service. You might recall that Bill and I did Oceanside together earlier this year—it was his first Half-Ironman. I had about a dozen relatives come out to see what this triathlon craziness was all about.

Physically, I was coming off a relatively easy week—one I needed to recover from a very hard week the week prior and also, there was much to attend to with my father’s service and travelling to Minnesota. My legs were “dead” all week but I was hopeful they would be sufficiently recovered by this morning to give it a solid go. Bill and I rode down from our hotel (about a mile from the start) and did our pre-race stuff and were ready to go in plenty of time. Bill was “unofficial” as he was racing with Judy’s number (who decided not to race) and would disqualify himself at the end of the race.

The Swim

I was in third wave. The first was comprised of law enforcement and military folks—the official name of the triathlon is “Chase the Police”. Two minutes later, the under 40 men went and two minutes after them came the men 40 and over.

As I awaited the start standing on the beach of the pristine waters of Leech Lake, I noted that the wind was picking up quite a bit, some waves were forming and the sky was getting ominously gray—hmmm, perhaps I should of paid more attention to the weather forecast!

The course looked long (it was) and entailed an on the beach start and a counter-clockwise triangle. We were constrained between two relatively close together docks so it was quite tight on the beach. Bill and I felt that the right side of the start area was favored as the first leg of the course vectored to our right—the base of the triangle (2nd leg) was much wider than the starting area—so it seemed marginally shorter to start far right. This suited me fine given my predominantly left-side breathing pattern.

Since Bill is such an outstanding swimmer (he was the fastest swimmer in the 55-59 AG at Oceanside), I lined up right behind him and next to the right side dock. My plan was to try to draft off of him as long as I could and then try to pick my way through the slower swimmers in front of me. At the gun Bill charged into the water with me directly behind him. We both did a couple of dolphin dives and the swim was on. Not surprisingly we were almost immediately clear of the field. I found it easy to sit on Bill’s feet and had a clear view of the rest of my wave—an ideal tactical situation.

About 75 yards in I could tell Bill was swimming too far right—he was aiming for some no wake buoys as opposed to the turn buoy. I reluctantly let go of his feet as I figured I would ultimately have to do so and I wanted to minimize the distance that I swam. As I headed back towards the main field I could see one other swimmer who was close—I assumed this was Downare, who won last year and I had swam side-by-side with. To my right and ahead I could see Bill moving ahead—although not that quickly.

As I neared the first turn buoy I began swimming through the congestion of the slower swimmers in the first two waves—there was lots of breaststroke, backstroke and floating going on. I made the turn and it was a real mess in front of me. I lost track of Bill but was monitoring the other fellow from my wave. I was content to stay just ahead of him, as this would get me the official fastest swim in my wave.

I did a nice job of weaving through the traffic—I stayed mostly to the right. I felt very comfortable and strong. I could tell I was swimming below my potential but didn’t see any need to pick it up, as I was able to stay just in front of the swimmer to my left. Down the final stretch I put a surge on to make sure I had the fastest time in the wave and I was easily able to move smartly ahead of him.

I hit the beach with an elapsed time of 6:46 and an average HR of just 149 bpm. This was two seconds slower than last year, although last year my effort was greater as my HR was 155. Even though I was slower this year, the course was almost certainly quite a bit longer. In 2010 I was 14th/219 or 94.1%-tile. This year I was 5th/294 or 98.6%-tile! This is the highest OA %-tile I have ever had in a swim. Here is a comparison to the top 5 guys (OA) who did the race both years and how their 2010 and 2011 races compare:

2010 2011 %Change

Downare 6:53 7:26 + 9.4%
May 7:51 8:21 + 6.4%
Domogalla 8:19 8:52 + 5.7%
Dobrzywski 7:13 8:51 +22.6%
Manske 6:22 7:03 +10.7%

My 0.5% “slowdown” obviously compares vary favorably to the above. Indeed last year I came out of the water 3 seconds behind Downare and this year I was 28 seconds faster—and he would repeat his victory this year overall. If I had swum 5 seconds faster I would have had the 2nd OA swim time. Frankly, I took it pretty easy on this swim and I feel like I probably could have gone 20-30 seconds faster.

AG wise I had a dominant swim—here is where we stood after the swim:

1. Christofferson --------
2. Massey + 0:50
3. Baudler + 1:47
4. Janda + 2:13
5. Heine + 2:32

Of the 12 other guys in my AG, only Janda represented any real threat and with a 2:13 advantage after the swim, barring an unforeseen incident on the bike, I won this AG race on the swim.


Transition One

As I ran up the beach towards the transition area and ripped my goggles off I immediately noticed that the weather had changed significantly during my 7-minute swim. The sky was very dark, the wind was howling and the rain was coming down hard. Just in the 15 seconds or so it took to run to my bike the rain and wind seemed to pick up in intensity—oh boy!

I had what I thought was a decent, but not great transition. I ended up completing it in 1:48 with an average HR of 156. Last year, it took me 1:45 (169 bpm) but I had a better rack position so pretty comparable. My body was clearly under far less stress on this morning.

As it turns out however, my T1 was substantially better than everyone else in my AG—Janda was second best but he still lost 27 seconds to me. Here is where we stood after T1:

1. Christofferson --------
2. Janda + 2:40
3. Massey + 2:43
4. Baudler + 3:43
5. Otto + 5:20

The Bike

The first two miles of the course snakes through the small town of Walker and it’s immediate outskirts. We then head out of town on Highway 34, which is always up or down, but mostly up until about 9 miles into the bike whereupon we head back to town on a rails-to-trails path that is a long false flat with probably a fairly consistent downgrade of 1%. Then we retrace part of the first section. The course was slightly changed from last year—I didn’t record the distance in my race report last year so I can’t tell how much for sure the changes impacted the course distance. This year it came in at 16.98 miles and if I had to guess, I’d say last year was maybe 0.1-0.15 miles longer. This course had quite a few less turns and should have been faster than last year—all things being equal.

But all things were anything but equal. In just the first couple hundred yards I was hit by a sharp and startling side wind gust that made my 1080 front wheel choice look like a real liability. The wind was from the side and slightly from behind in this first section. It was strong enough that I sat up and put my hands on the “hoods” to maintain control. The rain was now almost biblical and I could barely see out of my Oakleys—where did this storm come from? —I was completely surprised.

About a mile in Downare came by me, which told me I had a great swim as I left T1 behind him last year—he is a fantastic biker and I quickly lost track of him. I hit the turn out onto Highway 34 and I could see my friend Bill up in front of me. He had left T1 about 35 seconds in front of me. As we climbed the very long first hill, the wind was now very strong (40 mph?) and in our face and from the left. It was also very gusty and unpredictable. A couple of times I almost went down—and this was on the climb. It was miserable! The rain was relentless and it was hard to even go 15 mph up the hill into the wind.

I caught Bill around 3 miles in and I commented to him on how hard it was to control my bike with my front wheel and disc. I couldn’t hear his response. Things went front bad to worse on the first descent. I was terrified. The wind was moving me 2-3 feet sideways at a time. I made the mistake of sitting up and braking and my bike immediately launched into a death wobble. I quickly lifted up off the seat and clamped my top tube with my legs to dampen the vibrations. This worked and I realized my mistake—I had to stay in the aero-bars or the unweighting of the front wheel would surely lead to a crash. I got back down in the aero position but had to keep one hand on the brake—which I had constantly engaged (rear wheel)—which seemed to have marginal effect in the rain with the carbon braking surface. I was trying to keep my speed under 20 mph on the descent—anything faster seemed uncontrollable. Several times the wind hit the tail of my aero helmet and literally yanked my head around—what a nightmare!

I’d pass guys on the climb, only to have them re-pass me on the descents as I fought for control. I was determined to be extremely cautious—I had a eulogy to deliver that afternoon and a crash was not a viable option.

At long last I hit the turn off of Highway 34 and onto the path. I glanced back and Bill was probably 15 seconds behind me—I had made up 35 seconds in the first 3 miles but only 15 in the terror-filled next 6. As I dropped down onto the path the thick tree stands around the path significantly dampened the wind. Also, the wind now was from behind and my bike felt quite stable again—the crisis had for the most part passed! I knew I had loss some significant time due to my equipment choice and I was now determined to gain some back over the next 5-6 miles—I lit the “after-burners” up even though it was still hard to see in the rain. I kept it in the 26-30 mph range over this next section. My legs felt great (as they should as I was so cautious over the first nine miles) and I was consistently in the 280-320 watt range as well. I re-passed all the people who had put time into me with my struggles and quite a few others.

I had a couple more minor side-wind scares in town but soon found my way safely back to T2—Whew! My bike split was 47:58 and my HR averaged just 154 bpm. Last year, I completed the bike in 45:37 with a HR of 161. My average power dropped from 246 watts last year to 231 watts this year. My cadence went from 81 to 71 rpm—none of this is surprising given the conditions and my equipment challenges. I know some of this slow down was due to the wind—and thus affected everyone, but I knew I had some problems that others didn’t. To get a rough sense of this, I again looked at the 2010 and 2011 splits of the top five guys who did both to see how their rides changed. On average these guys were 36 seconds slower (worse conditions but shorter, less “turny” course). Based on this, I’d say I probably loss somewhere between 1:45-2:00 due to my inability to control my bike with the wheels I had. Oh well—at least I was safe. (As an aside, I would say this was one of the 5 scariest triathlon bike rides I’ve had in my career—the others being: Annapolis 2011, Kona 2010, IM Austria 2008, and IM Wisconsin 2005).

Interestingly enough, last year I was 12th/219 or 95.0%-tile OA. This year I was 14th/294 or 95.6%-tile. It would seem the best riders were not bothered by the conditions as much as the majority of the field. I also was once again able to claim the top bike split in my AG and surprisingly put huge time chunks into everyone except Janda, who was just 51 seconds slower. Here is where we stood after the bike:

1. Christofferson --------
2. Janda + 3:31
3. Otto +11:50
4. Swee +13:02
5. Peterson +16:47

Transition Two

I came flying into T2 on a mission. I executed what I thought was a great T2 and completed my tasks in 0:48 and an average HR of 150 bpm. Last year I was 5 seconds slower. More relevantly, I had the fastest T2 in my AG. Here is where we stood after T2:

1. Christofferson --------
2. Janda + 4:01
3. Otto +11:50
4. Swee +13:11
5. Peterson +17:12

The Run

With the strong last 8 miles of the bike I felt pretty confident that I had the AG locked up (although I had no idea who I was racing against). Last year I left T2 with a 7+ minute lead. I figured with the bigger field and the second year that the competition was a bit tougher this year—say 2 minutes or so. Plus I felt like I lost 2 minutes or so on the bike so I figured I was 3-5 minutes up leaving T2.

With rain and relative coolness, I felt pretty good all the way through the run—my legs actually didn’t have that “dead” feeling of the last week. Only a few runners passed me. I saw a bunch of my family at the hotel and was surprised to see that the RD had lengthened the run course—adding a 0.2-mile out and back on the new bike course. Last year the official distance was 2.4 miles and this year it was 2.8.

After the turnaround I looked carefully at the guys coming up behind me and didn’t see anyone I thought looked 50+. I missed Janda but even if I had seen him I would have know that the win was mine.

I cruised at about an “8-9” effort all the way to finish and completed my run in 21:43 with and average HR of 160bpm—well below my threshold. This works out to 7:45/mile, which given the hills and my run fitness is not a horrible result. Last year I ran the 2.4 miles in 19:33 (165 bpm), which was an 8:08/mile average.

Comparatively, this year I was 61st/294 on the run, or 79.6%-tile. Last year I was 43rd/219 or 80.8%-tile so pretty similar. It was a lot cooler this year so that’s probably why I ran at a faster pace. I was 4th best in my AG and ended up with a comfortable winning time of 79:02 (which was good enough for 21st OA-93.1%-tile vs. 95.0%-tile last year):


1. Christofferson --------
2. Janda + 2:06
3. Otto +11:45
4. Peterson +15:58
5. Swee +16:12

Conclusion

A good race and a great way to honor my father—the service later was very special.

I had the best swim I’ve ever had at a triathlon and avoided some real challenges on the bike. I picked up my 4th win of the season and 33rd OA (which raises my career win % to 30%--33 out of 110). I’m ready for the critical part of 2011 now—building for IMAZ!