Bear Sprint Triathlon/USAT Delaware State Championships: Race Report
Date: 5/19/24
Location: Lum’s Pond State Park; Bear, DE
Format: Sprint: 800 yds/10 miles/3 miles
2024 Triathlon Race #: 1
Career Triathlon Race #: 170
Conditions: Good. 60s/70s, moderate humidity, low wind, 65-degree water, muddy/slippery on a portion of the run.
Background
First triathlon of the 2024 season, a season in which I hope to race 4-5 triathlons as well as a number of 5k running races and a few open-water swim races.
This also represents the 2nd triathlon of my post knee-replacement athletic life. I had been training consistently, especially since January and while I was lacking in much intensity in my training, my average daily volume was quite high at 4+ hours.
This is a small sprint race held early in the season in Lum’s Pond State Park in Delaware. I’ve probably raced there 6-7 times through the years including a couple of half-ironman distance races. I also raced this race in 2022 as one of the first post-CoVid races.
Turns out this race is the USAT Delaware State Championship with slots awarded to the National Sprint Championship in Atlantic City later this year. I didn’t know a lot about my competition, but I decided that it would be a worthy objective to shoot for the State Championship! Turns out there were 169 competitors overall and 5 in my 65-69 YO Age Group—the oldest age group in the race.
Swim
The swim was in the murky and 65-degree water of Lum’s Pond—not my favorite place to swim for sure. They changed the shape of the course this year, which was something I thought they had needed to do. The Sprint race is supposed to be 750 meters (820 yards). In 2022, this had turned out to be 1,216 yards but on this 2024 morning I ended clocking it at 815-yards...pretty much spot on.
The young guys went first with the 45+ year-old dudes 2 minutes behind them. I had a drama-free start and kept my starting pace under control to keep my HR from spiking. I didn’t feel great, but I didn’t think I was swimming particularly poorly. About 1/3rd of the way through the race I started to feel a bit pukey so I backed-off quite a bit to try to get it back on an even keel. This seemed to work and as I reflect back on the race, I suspect it may have been more nerves than anything.
Anyways I plugged along through a pretty uneventful swim and hit dry land to discover I had swum a very, very poor swim. My Garmin had me at 17:16 over 815 yards which is a ridiculously slow 2:07/100 yards. In 2022, at this venue I had averaged 1:53/100 yards and based on my training this year, the really should not have been a problem for me this year. That means my swim was about 2-minutes (114 seconds) too slow.
I’m at a lost to explain why. I would have thought a poor swim would have been something like 1:56-1:57/100. I never swim this slow in practice and I never would have thought this was a possible result. I did have a brand-new wetsuit and was swimming in the open water for the first time in 8 months, but still, this was really bad. A quick look at my key swim metrics sheds some light:
Stroke Cadence: 2024: 33 strokes/min 2022: 32 strokes/min
Stroke Length: 2024: 1.40 yards/stroke 2022: 1.62 yards/stroke
So, there it is. My stroke length was pathetically short—14% shorter than 2022. And 2022’s race was not that good. I’ve had quite a few races where I manage 1.9-2.0 yards/stroke. I know what I need to work on—I just need to find some time in the open water.
As bad as my swim was, it not surprising that it really cost me from an overall race competitiveness perspective. In 2022 I was 49th out of 178 on the swim—73.0 %-tile. This year I was 77th out of 169—55.0 %-tile. No other way to cut this—really poor swim!
Meanwhile, in the dinosaur division I was as it turns out the second fastest swimmer as I was down 1:26 to the leader after the swim:
1. Nachman --------
2. RC + 1:26
3. Littles + 2:08
4. Jarman + 3:25
5. McGrath + 9:13
Transition One
The swim to bike transition involved a longish run through the woods near the pond on a muddy and slippery trail. After entering the transition area, I soon got to my bike and discovered Nachman sitting directly in front of my transition area looking like he was having a yard-sale. He muttered something about hating transitions and I had to grab my stuff and pull it a couple of yards away to get at my T1 business.
As I was getting into my bike gear up ran Littles, who was the competitor I had judged to be the most serious threat to title hopes. I had an OK transition I guess and was able to leave T1 in first. My T1 was 2nd to Littles by 16 seconds. In 2022 I was 24th/178 (87.1 %-tile). This year I slipped to 34th/169 (80.5 %-tile). Here is where we stood after T1:
1. RC --------
2. Littles + 0:26
3. Nachman + 2:03
4. Jarman + 3:26
5. McGrath +10:42
The Bike
As I headed out on the bike, I had seen enough in T1 to tell me that it was likely down to a two-man race at this point. Even with the poor swim, I knew I had a bit of a lead on Littles. I guessed 30-45 seconds, so I had a good sense of where I stood tactically. I figured I needed to put about 3 minutes or so on Littles on the bike to give me a big enough cushion for my run.
I ended up riding what I measured to be 9.91-miles in 27:18, for an average speed of 21.8mph. I averaged 193 watts, my average HR was 158bpm, and my average cadence was 81rpm.
This feels like a relatively slow ride. I knew I lacked the intensity in my training to ride, say, 23.0mph but frankly I would have expected my power to be around 210 wats and my speed closer to 22.5mph. although in 2022 I rode 22.0 mph on the same course. I was 20th in 2022 (89.4 %-tile) and this year I was 15th (91.7 %-tile). I’m not quite sure what to make of this data but overall, I’m reasonably happy with the bike. One encouraging outcome was that my L/R power balance for the ride was 48%/52%. vs 40/60 or worse before the knee surgery. With any luck and some good hard outdoor miles, I should be able to add 1-2mph this year.
In my AG I was able to put 3:42 on Littles and more on the rest of the field. I entered T2 in very good shape, competition-wise:
1. RC --------
2. Littles + 4:08
3. Nachman + 7:10
4. Jarman +10:31
5. McGrath +25:23
Transition Two
I ran into T2 feeling like I had likely done enough on the ride to be able to hole Littles off on the run—especially given the encouraging early season results with the limited running I’ve done on my new knee. I quickly executed my transition work and ended up posting the 2ndfastest T2 in my AG (Littles was 40 seconds faster, which is not good—something I should probably work on and way too much time to give up in T2!):
1. RC --------
2. Littles + 3:28
3. Nachman + 7:57
4. Jarman +11:17
5. McGrath +26:33
The Run
It took a little while after T2 to get my HR and breathing under control. I wanted to take it easy over the first little bit and be prepared to negative split the run if I saw that I needed to half-way, as this was an out an back run course. Also, the early (and last part) of the run course was very muddy/uneven/slippery and that definitely slowed down my 1st and 3rd mile.
I hit the first mile in 10:45 and decided I need to get a move on. After rounding the half-way marker, I soon saw Littles and determined I was about 2:45 or so ahead of him, which struck me as enough to get the job done. It was. Mile 2 went by in 9:40 and Mile 3 in 9:56 as I cruised home. I clocked the run at 3.06 miles and ended up doing a 30:57, which was 56 seconds slower than Littles 30:01, but good enough to get me the State title. It was also 1:33 faster than 2022! My average HR this year was 153bpm vs. 165bpm last year so yet another good sign about where I’m in.
Here are the final standings:
1. RC ---------
2. Littles + 2:31
3. Nachman + 9:03
4. Jarman +23:02
5. McGrath +46:41
Not a bad way to start the year! Nice to be State Champ—even if it’s little ole Delaware. Obviously, I have a bunch of stuff to work on, which I’m motivated to get after but we’ll have to see how the navigation of the things I need to address in Minnesota goes. Onwards and Upwards!
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