2013 Tuckahoe Sprint Triathlon
Race Report
August 11th, 2013
Background
Location: Beesley’s Point,
New Jersey
Distance: 0.39-mile swim/12.2-mile
bike/2.1-mile run
2012 Triathlon Race
Number: 9
Career Triathlon Race
Number: 135
Conditions: Beautiful
morning. 75 degrees and sunny. Wind at 5-10 mph out of the north. 74-degree water temperature. Slight tidal current.
My fifth straight year at
this funky little NJ triathlon, which was one of the first to offer an
unusually short run—which might be why I’m back here for my fifth straight year
(I’m neither confirming nor denying).
The race is known for its somewhat chaotic race organization and for
changing layouts from year-to-year. In
the first four years, the course was different each time. However, the bike, run and transitions this
year were identical to 2012, so I will be able to make that comparison.
The race continues to
decline in popularity, probably due to cheap awards and poor organization (and
a bit of a glut of summer triathlons in these parts). Overall entrants have declined for each of
the past five years: 335/258/222/205 and just 152 this year—it’s unclear how
long this race will survive but that was of no concern this morning. In my first three attempts here I finished 2nd
and finally last year won my AG. This
year there were just 4 guys in my AG (although I did not know that at the
start). I did see one fellow from my AG
(#182) and to my eye he looked like he would outrun me but that I would likely
outswim and out-bike him.
I entered the race having
won five of my previous eight races this year (with two 2nds) and with a chance
to post my best career “start” to a triathlon season. If I were to win then I would have a 6-3
record versus my prior best of 5-4 in 2009.
This would also mark only the 2nd time that I was able to
reach 6 wins in a season (the other being 2009). The other piece of exciting news was that
both Judy and Anders made the 20-mile trip and were on hand to lend me
encouragement on this morning.
I had settled back into my
IM build after our recent trip to Minnesota and had completed a 106-mile bike
ride a few days before the race. I was
reasonably rested for the race but clearly my legs were feeling the effects of
all of the training volume.
The Swim
Just two waves for the
triathlon with the men going off second.
The course was a point-to-point with a beach start. The course went straight out for about 100
yards and then after a 90 degree left, there was a long section with the tide
and finally a sharp left back into the tide and to the swim exit which was
about 75 yards up the beach towards the power plant. The course looked longer than last year and
to my eye was longer than a quarter-mile.
I estimated it was around 0.3-miles but my Garmin in-fact measured it at
0.39 miles.
I started most of the way
to the right side, away from the buoys.
At the start we ran 20-30 yards into the shallow water and then dived
in. The pace was pretty quick at the beginning
and I found myself surrounded by other swimmers. As we reached the first turn, I found myself
moving up through the pack and I estimated there were about 15-20 guys in front
of me—we were already swimming through slower women swimmers despite their three-minute
head start.
I rounded the first buoy
with no problems and looked over and saw #182 next to be, which I was surprised
by—maybe I had underestimated him. It
did spur me into a higher effort level and I soon found myself steadily pulling
away from him. From this point forward I
was swimming pass quite a number of slower women and an occasional man who had
gone out too fast.
I rounded the far buoy and
headed back towards the swim exit feeling like I was having a solid swim. I noticed everyone was veering to my left—I
was probably 10-15 yards right of everyone else. My goggles were fogged and I had a bit of
trouble figuring out what was going on.
I kept sighting the exit point and as far as I could tell I was where I
wanted to be. In fact, I was correct and
most folks were trying to go left of a final marker buoy when the course was actually
to the right.
I exited the water and hopped up on terra-firma
with a swim split of 9:33, which I
was initially disappointed with given I had swam a 6:22 here last year. However, last year the course was 0.28-miles
and as I mentioned above, it was 0.39-miles this year. This translates into a 24:33/mile swim pace,
which given my swim training this year is more than acceptable. Last year I swam a 23:05/mile pace, which
indicates I’m about 6% less swim-fit this year, which seems to jive with
everything I’m seeing in training and in recent races this year.
I took 351 strokes, which
averages out to 36.8 strokes/minute. My
average stroke length was 1.96 yards.
This compares to 37.1 strokes/min and 2.09 yards last year. My cadence is within a percentage point of
last year but my glide is still off by about 5 inches per stroke.
Competitively I had the 20th
fastest swim OA. Here is how my swim
percentile has been over the last five years:
2009: 94.0
2010: 95.3
2011: 96.4
2012: 89.3
2013: 87.5
I was able to put quite a
bit of time on #182 (Delaney) in the back half of the swim and recorded the
fastest swim in my AG. Here is how the
top three stood in my AG after the swim (as it turns out Delaney raced here in
2012 as well and I was 2:57 faster than him last year):
1. Christofferson --------
2. Miner +
2:21
3. Delaney +
3:44
Transition One
The first transition is needlessly long at
0.28-miles and I executed it in 3:10. I had the 27th fastest (82.9
%-tile) OA. In 2012, I recorded a 3:27,
which was at the 84.9 %-tile. I was a
bit faster than my AG brethren:
1. Christofferson --------
2. Miner +
2:39
3. Delaney +
4:01
The Bike
I didn’t know where I was
competitively (although I would have been very confident had I known about my
lead) as I weaved my way through the tortured path out to the main road. I saw Anders and Judy but couldn’t wave, as I
was busy avoiding slower traffic. Once
on the road, I began passing women and better swimming men in fairly large
numbers.
With the wind directly at
our backs on the way out to the turn-around of this out-and-back course, I was
moving pretty quickly but I could tell my legs were heavy and that all of my IM
training volume had sapped them of their top-end kick. This is a familiar place for me this time of
year as it always seems as I get closer to my “A” Ironman race, in late summer,
my sprint “speed” leaves me in my bike and run legs.
I continued to pass folks
throughout the ride and as far as I could tell I had reeled in most of the men
who outswam me. At one point a fire
truck blocked most of the road, which led to a dicey two-way choke point but I
was fortunate to blast through with no on-coming traffic and only a modest
reduction in speed. I finished my bike in an elapsed time of 31:06. Here is what the data for each of the
bike miles looks like:
Mile 1: 22.3 mph/163 bpm/84 rpm/259 avg. watts/262
watts NP
Mile 2: 25.0/162/85/233/234
Mile 3:
24.9/156/90/226/226
Mile 4:
24.8/156/89/212/216
Mile 5:
25.5/150/89/235/235
Mile 6:
24.6/145/89/228/230
Mile 7:
22.4/163/87/252/253
Mile 8:
22.7/163/91/247/249
Mile 9:
23.3/162/92/239/239
Mile 10:
22.3/162/88/240/246
Mile 11: 22.5/162/88/229/229
Mile 12:
24.5/162/92/248/253
It seems like I might have
a couple of bad HR numbers in the middle so my actual average may be higher
than what my Garmin measured. That said,
here is how my key bike parameters compare to 2012:
Split time: 31:06 vs. 31:00
in 2012
Speed: 23.6mph vs. 23.7mph
Average HR: 159 bpm vs.
164 bpm
Average Cadence: 89 rpm
vs. 89rpm
Average Power: 238 watts
vs. 246 watts
Normalized Power: 241
watts vs. 250 watts
Obviously, this is a bit
of a disappointment in terms of absolute power output but it’s interesting that
my HR was 5 beats lower (probably should have been 4 with good data) this year
and that my speed was pretty similar to last year. Last year had less wind and I think what
we’re seeing here is the faster nature of my new TM01 as compared to my older
TT01. It would seem that my new set-up is in the 5-10 watt faster range—I’m
going to do a more detailed analysis of this in the coming days.
Competitively, I had the 2nd
fastest bike split OA (99.3 %-tile), which continues my streak of top 10 bike
splits at sprint races. Over the last
five sprints I’ve finished 2nd, 7th, 3rd, 3rd,
and 2nd on the bike. Here is
how my bike %-tile has varied here over the last five years at Tuckahoe:
2009: 97.6 %-tile
2010: 99.6
2011: 96.3
2012: 97.6
2013: 99.3
I was much faster than my
AG competition:
1. Christofferson --------
2. Delaney +10:18
3. Miner +10:54
Transition Two
I entered T2 having on the
bike passed everyone ahead of me except the eventual winner (and fastest
cyclist), a 27 YO mohawked speedster. I didn’t know this of course, but was able to
execute a solid T2 in 0:47. I
clocked 51 seconds in 2012 and improved from 75.6 %-tile in 2012 to 85.5 %-tile
(20th OA) in 2013. I
continued to pad my AG lead:
1. Christofferson --------
2. Delaney +10:47
3. Miner +11:01
The Run
I ran out of T2 feeling
reasonably decent. My bike apparently
had not overly-taxed my legs. Anders and
Judy cheered for me and Judy urged me to try to run Midge down. This was good encouragement because I figured
I was well ahead of my competition and by locking on Midge (who had started
three minutes in front of me and was racing for the OA women’s championship) I had
something to focus on to keep my effort honest.
When I was running out the
chute at the beginning of the run I did see a guy in red who looked like he
might be in my AG coming in on the bike.
I estimated he was about two-minutes behind me and I made a mental note
to keep track of him. The run was pleasant
enough although in the sunshine and with the wind at our backs it felt pretty
warm during the first mile.
I hit the first mile in
8:28/167bpm (slow, but I wasn’t dogging it).
At the turn-around I saw the red guy and estimated he was just one
minute back—oh-oh! I began to push a bit
harder, especially the last 400-600 yards leading into the final turn off of
the main road. At that turn, I looked
over my shoulder and there he was—right on my back! Yikes!
My second mile was 8:01/169bpm, which given my run fitness was putting
some stress on my body.
We had about 200 yards to
go and I slowed to let him pass me so I could see his calf and determine if he
was in my age group. However, he slowed
with me and refused to pass. It seemed
to me that he was sitting on me and I guessed he planned to outkick me at the
end. This raised some alarms and I
decided that I would race him assuming he was in my AG.
I accelerated back up to
race speed and he followed directly behind me.
I could see and hear Judy and Anders on the left cheering me on. I angled to the left as he was sitting on my
left shoulder. I could feel him getting
boxed in and wondered if he would try to push by on the left or cut right as we
neared the finish—but still no move.
At 30 yards to go I went
all out and I could hear him let out a yelp of surprise. I headed straight for the finish and had
enough about me to make sure to drive my left ankle (the one with the timing
chip) across the mat first. He closed
the gap but still finished a foot or two behind me. I covered the last 0.12-miles in 51 seconds
(a 7:09/mile pace) with my HR averaging 175bpm.
I stood bent over trying to avoid giving up my breakfast for 20-30
seconds and then walked over to shake his hand.
At that point I discovered he was 53 and racing in the duathlon! Oh well—it sure was fun despite the pain.
I finished the run in 17:20, which averages out to 8:10/mile. I was 16:59 last year, which is not good
news, no two-ways about it. I finished
43rd OA on the run (72.4 %-tile).
Here is how the last five years have compared on this run:
2009: 82.1 %-tile
2010: 83.3
2011: 79.6
2012: 69.3
2013: 72.4
I was 3rd in my
AG on the run but my 61:49 was comfortably ahead of my competitors at the end:
1. Christofferson --------
2. Delaney +
9:20
3. Miner +10:19
On an encouraging note (I
suppose), Delaney was 1:42 faster in 2012 and 1:27 faster this year.
OA, I finished 11th
(93.4 %-tile). The last five years in
that regard:
2009: 96.7 %-tile
2010: 96.9
2011: 93.2
2012: 93.2
2013: 93.4
In the end, it was a fun
day and we sat around chatting and waiting (endlessly) for the award
ceremony. I notched my 6th
win of the year and 44th in my career. Perhaps number 50 will be within reach in
2014—but there is much to do before that pops up on the radar screen!
