Tri It race report

2012 Tri-It Sprint Triathlon Race Report
June 9th, 2012


Background

Location: Lum’s Pond, Delaware
Distance: 0.25-mile swim/9.8-mile bike/2-mile run
2012 Triathlon Race Number: 5
Career Triathlon Race Number: 119
Conditions: Sunny.  Mid 70s.  Light breeze.  75-degree water.

With the girls off in France, I pulled dog-sitting duties so my prior plan to race Eagleman was out the door.  As a last-minute replacement, I opted for the “Tri-It” sprint triathlon down at Lum’s Pond—this is a 2nd-year triathlon, which I had not done before.  Lum’s Pond is just 22 miles south of us and I could walk the dogs at 4 a.m. and with any luck be home by 10 a.m.

I was still three weeks in front of my IM build and not in very good shape—especially from a running perspective.  I faced strong competition from John Nicholson and Peter Rittenhouse, both of whom had recently beat me.  I met up with Sparty, now recovered from his elbow surgery and beginning his own campaign for Kona.  Sparty told me about another Turk’s Head guy, Chip Porfido, whom he had raced the prior week.  We looked up his results and I quickly came to the conclusion, that I was likely just 4th best in my Ag on this morning.  I told Sparty, if I was going to win this thing that I was going to have to do so in transition as my recent transitions have been very poor from a competitive perspective.

There were 335 people entered in the race and 14 in my 55-59 YO AG.  We had to sit around for a while after they closed transition as they held a kid’s race.  This provided a nice opportunity for Sparty and I to chat.  Finally it was time to head down to the questionable waters of Lum’s Pond.

The Swim

The swim was a simple counter-clockwise “box” and to my eyes it looked pretty close to a quarter-mile.  We were in the 2nd wave and as is my custom, I started to the right, away from the buoy line.  At the gun, I broke cleanly and was able to navigate relatively easily around the whole course.  I was ahead of most folks in my wave, but there were a few folks in front of me—one of whom I knew was likely to be Porfido.  I felt decent, but not great—I think my limited recent swim volume has taken the edge off of my stroke.

I exited the water in 6:37 and my Garmin had the swim distance as 0.27 miles.  This works out to a 24:24 mile pace and as such was a fair bit slower than my last several races.  I took 245 strokes to navigate the swim.  This translates into an SGolf score of 67.4, which is a definite step back from my prior three races (65.0, 61.5, 59.8).  I think this was an OK but not a great swim—probably more of a C+/B- kind of result—it definitely indicates I need to start working harder on my swim in the near future.

It turns out that I had the 2nd fastest swim in my AG (92.9 %-tile), but was a full 37 seconds behind Porfido.  Alarmingly, both Rittenhouse and Nicholson were much closer to me that they had been in our prior contests.  Trevor Lyle, last year’s winner in the 55-59 AG rounded out the top 5.  Here is were we stood:

1. Porfido --------
2. Christofferson + 0:37
3. Rittenhouse + 0:42
4. Lyle + 1:13
5. Nicholson + 1:14

Transition One

I made my way up the tricky rock and root covered path to the transition area.  I felt like I did a decent job as I was passing a number of folks (although these were primarily really slow wave one swimmers).  I made it to my transition area and had a bit of trouble getting my wetsuit bottom off.  I glanced over and saw that Porfido’s bike was gone and saw Rittenhouse arrive just a few seconds behind me.  It immediately registered that I was in a difficult situation competitively.

I completed my transition in a time of 2:25 (the transition area was 0.15 miles in length).  It felt fairly efficient but I was just 51st OA (85.1 %-tile) and I was a horrible 7th (!!!!) in my AG (57.1 %-tile).  In fact Nicholson crushed me on the transition, putting 36 seconds on me—effectively erasing my swim advantage.  Here is where we stood after T1:

1. Porfido --------
2. Christofferson + 1:20
3. Nicholson + 1:20
4. Rittenhouse + 1:34
5. Lyle + 1:53

The Bike

At the mount line Nicholson bumped me from behind and he apologized as I stumbled.  I told him no worries but he was able to move ahead of me.  Jeez—I’ve got really big problems now.  All three of these Turk’s Head guys are way better runners than I and I’m not anywhere close to getting done what I need to get done to have a big enough gap out of T2.

It’s a very short bike course and I start trying to crank it up right away.  I feel pretty good although my HR seems on the low side.  My Edge 800 is not reading my PM so I have neither cadence nor power numbers to help manage my effort.

I soon pass Nicholson and try to focus on running down Porfido as soon as possible.  A few miles in a group of four guys come by tightly packed together.  I see two Turk’s Head uniforms and realize that one is Rittenhouse and the other is Dawson, a fantastic triathlete in the 60-64 YO AG.  I drop back and pace them from 20 yards or so behind waiting for the group to break-up.  It does not as they interchange places.

I try to ignore this and but the hammer down and pass them all.  I look under my arms and see that I’m dragging something with me.  Soon they come by again.  I decide to sit back and just try to stay in range for a mile or so and vow to come by them much harder the next team.  They continue to track each other closely and just past 7 miles I put the hammer down and soon I have opened up a sizeable gap.  I continue to pour it on to the bike finish, as I seem to be feeding off a bit of anger.

Just before the final road in I catch Porfido and move into the lead.  I hit the finish in 25:02.  The course turns out to be 9.79 miles in length so my average speed is 23.5 mph.  My HR averaged 161 bpm, which is definitely low.  I don’t have any power data but I would guess if I was really in shape that I would do 24.5 or so mph on this course so my guess is that my power was around 240 watts or so.  Here is how the mile splits worked out:

1: 22.7 mph/161 bpm
2: 22.7/162
3: 23.8/161
4: 23.6/159
5. 24.0/160
6. 23.2/160
7: 22.9/158
8: 25.3/161
9: 25.0/164
10. 21.4/164

I pass no judgment on rule infringements but offer this data from the race:

Time through T1

Dawson: 9:01
Rittenhouse: 9:03

Bike split

Dawson: 25:32
Rittenhouse: 25:33

Afterward, Rittenhouse told me that he had a great bike and that he thought that riding with 4-5 guys really helped him pace the bike.

In any event, for the first time this year, I did not have the fastest bike split in my AG and Rittenhouse effectively turned my main weapon against him into a liability.  Here is where we stood after T2:

1. Christofferson --------
2. Porfido + 0:02
3. Rittenhouse + 0:06
4. Nicholson + 1:52
5. Lyle + 3:41

I ended up recording the 12th fastest bike split overall, which is a 96.7 %-tile result.



Transition Two

I wanted to believe, because the run was so short, that I still had a chance, although if we had stopped and had a rationale conversation about it I would have readily admitted that I in fact did not.  I proceeded to make a very rookie mistake as I ran down the wrong row between racks.  By the time I realized this and then had to duck under one rack near the end and run all the way back to my spot I had given away a lot of time.  By the time I began doing my transition proper, Rittenhouse and Porfido were on their way.  Jeez!  I knew I was cooked.

I ended up taking 1:38 in transition, which was a horrible 184th OA (45.4 %-tile) and 8th in my AG (50.0 %-tile).  Here is where we stood after T2:

1. Porfido --------
2. Rittenhouse + 0:12
3. Christofferson + 0:29
4. Nicholson + 1:47
5. Lyle + 3:56

I had entered the race with an objective of narrowing my disadvantage in transitions—especially against Nicholson but today I gave up a total of 70 seconds to him—simply not good enough.  When I get to the shore in 10 days or so, I’m going to actually break down and practice my transitions.  I’m not strong enough to be this poor at transition.

The Run

As I started my run I pressed the stop button on my Garmin so I don’t have any split data (not my day!).  I looked ahead and saw Rittenhouse and Porfido easily pulling away from me.  I knew it was likely that Nicholson would catch me soon as well.

I tried to push it on the grass and trails given the shortness of the run, but once again I felt slow and sluggish, uncoordinated and well, old.  Nicholson caught me just before the turnaround and I cruised home with a total run time of 15:54 and an average HR of 164 bpm—a little on the low side.  Since I didn’t start my Garmin until I had run for some distance, I don’t have an accurate run distance but will just assume it was 2 miles—it seemed about right.

My run was 78th OA (77.0 %-tile) and was 5th in the AG (71.4 %-tile), both of which while mediocre, are better than recent races for me.  My total time for the race was 51:36, I finished 24th OA (93.1 %-tile) and here is where we finished in the AG:

1. Rittenhouse --------
2. Porfido + 0:30
3. Nicholson + 1:17
4. Christofferson + 2:51
5. Lyle + 8:11

Final Thoughts

Four superior triathletes beat me in my AG today.  If I was in true mid-season shape I might have been able to stick my nose in there—but there is a good chance I would have still finished 4th.  I’m not going to beat myself up over this as my time would have but me in the top 3 in all but one other AG and in-fact, I would have won the 30-34YO AG.  I beat last year’s 55-59 winner by 5:20!

The race confirmed my fitness problems and highlighted a need I have to work on transitions.  I’m confident I can make real headway here—just like last year—when I begin my IM build shortly.  For now, I’m on a plane to CA and all eyes are on the Race Across American, where I start racing in less than 48 hours!  More on that soon!