2016 Kinetic Sprint
May 15st, 2016
Background
Location: Lake Anna State
Park, Virginia
Distance: 750-meter
swim/15.3 mile bike/3.14 mile run
2016 Triathlon Race
Number: 3
Career Triathlon Race
Number: 149
Competitors: 563 overall
and 24 in my Age Group
Conditions: 54 degrees and
very windy. Choppy waters at 62 degrees.
Just two weeks after my
somewhat surprising AG victory at Rumpass, I once again drove the 207 miles
south to Lake Anna for my third triathlon of the 2016 campaign. The Kinetic sprint is “big” (as far as local
Sprint triathlons go) and historically very competitive. I did this race twice—back in 2007 and 2008—when
I was in considerably better shape than now, and finished 2nd in my
AG both times. The course has been
modified during the interim with the bike being shortened from 17.5 to 15.3
miles.
Looking over the roster of
pre-registered guys in my AG (and the race day entry of Oxman), it was really
clear I would have trouble finishing any better than 5th. Even at the peak of my capabilities, I’d
probably, at best be the 3rd or 4th fastest guy in this
race. Still, I was eager to race again
and hopped to demonstrate some improvements in my fitness over my prior two
races.
I drove down the day
before, checked out the course and picked up my race packet. I returned to the Thornburg Holiday Inn
Express for a quiet pre-race evening.
The race was set for a 9 am send off so I didn’t even have to set my
alarm clock for the following morning.
The Swim
It was cold and unsettled
race morning—this spring has been trying on us East Coast triathletes! At least it was dry, which was unusual over
the prior 30 days. The wind was light at
6 am but increased steadily throughout the day and well into the high 20s/low
30s during the later stages of the race.
By the time I swam it had picked up enough to create a noticeable chop
that definitely impacted the swim.
I was in third wave at
9:08 with all of the 45+ guys—we had 135 in our wave. It was a clockwise swim and I would have
preferred to have started on the buoy line, but opted to go to the outside left
(even though I breathe predominately on my left) to avoid a lot of traffic. The course was in shallow water off the beach
with two right turns and a return to the beach a bit closer to transition. It was advertised as 750 meters and it looked
pretty accurate to my eye. Ben Foy
introduced himself to me just prior to the start—he finished second to me at
Rumpass—and provides a yardstick for comparing my relative performance between
the two races.
At the horn I found
relatively clean water and with the exception of some minor tussling at the two
turn buoys, I enjoyed a relatively contact free swim. I felt a little slow and uncoordinated. This seemed to amplify after the each of the
turns as at the first, we swam straight into the wind driven waves and at the
second, the waves came into my breathing side.
I didn’t feel real off but my sense was that I was having a slow swim.
I exited the water in 14:55, which confirmed my suspicions about a slow
swim. My Garmin clocked it ay 816 yards
or 746 meters so a well-measured swim course.
I averaged 34 strokes per minute (which is a couple of strokes off my A
game) and a dismal 1.57 yards/stroke, which is a good foot short—some of this
the current state of my swim fitness and probably some of it was caused by the
conditions.
In any event, I had the 5th
fastest time in my AG (83.3 %-tile) and the 118th OA (79.2
%-tile). Not a disaster, but not helpful
from a racing perspective—I’m anxious to get up to the Jersey Shore and start making
some improvements in my swim. Compared
to Foy I was 16.5% faster in this race, while at Rumpass, I was 14.6% faster—so
I did a bit better according to that yardstick.
In any event, here is where we stood after the swim:
1. Oxman --------
2. Fayyad +
0:33
3. Palowitch +
1:28
4. Isley +
1:43
5. Christofferson +
2:03
Transition One
The Kinetic transition is
a bit of a klugie thing—a long run into T1 followed by a big uphill after
exiting T1. My T1 took 3:21 and covered
0.21 miles. I thought I executed a
reasonably strong T1—which is more technical than T2, so no surprises that I
generally do better in T1 than T2, given my experience base.
In any event, I had the 2nd
fastest T1 in my AG (95.8 %-tile) and the 95th fastest OA (83.3
%-tile). While I was still in 5th
in my AG, I was able to make a significant dent competitively (cut my deficit
in half):
1. Oxman --------
2. Palowitch +
0:09
3. Fayyad + 0:36
4. Isley +
0:42
5. Christofferson +
1:01
The Bike
This was a 15.3-mile
lollipop course that was impacted by both the rolling terrain and the strong
and growing wind. I’ve never been super
strong on this course and today wasn’t any different. The initial half of the course was to the
north and then northwest—into the teeth of the wind. Additionally the first 2.5 miles (and the
last) were within the park on an uneven, twisty road so this held the average
speed down. Here is what the first five
miles looked like (speed/heart rate/cadence/average power/normalized power):
1.
14.8/163/79/215/222
2.
21.3/161/84/202/202
3.
19.4/161/79/214/214
4.
20.7/160/81/207/208
5.
23.1/160/79/214/214
You can see after the very
slow first mile I just plugged along until I hit the descents in Mile 5 and
began to get rolling. I passed a guy in
my AG during this first 5-mile segment so I knew at that point that I did not
have the fastest swim—which was no surprise.
After mile 7 we moved into
a cross and then subsequently a tailwind so my pace began to pick up:
6.
20.4/162/75/241/243
7.
17.6/161/76/218/218
8.
25.5/160/75/202/203
9.
24.7/160/77/225/227
10.
18.9/159/75/233/233
During this 5-mile stretch
I passed two more guys in my AG. Also the
above splits seems to indicate I was grinding too much and I would have
benefitted by spinning at 5-10 rpm more…something to work on for future races.
Down the stretch I had to
deal with a couple of guys who wanted to let me know they were better cyclists
than I (they were wrong) and I generally pushed it pretty hard—here are the
last splits:
11.
20.5/161/76/225/227
12.
24.3/162/80/220/221
13.
22.0/161/76/218/220
14.
23.8/164/81/236/236
15.
23.9/166/79/217/219
15.3
13.0/161/64/175/191
The power profile from 6
on is very encouraging. I was a little
tentative early in the ride but my output down the stretch indicates I can
definitely go harder in future races. My
AP for Miles 1-5 was 210 watts but the grew to 224 in the middle 5 and held
steady at 223 watts for the final five. I finished the bike in 43:50 and the
distance clocked in at 15.3 miles. This
translates into the following stats: 21.0mph/78 rpm/161 bpm/219 watts AP/221
watts NP. Comparatively, here is how my
bike rides for my first three triathlons this year look, stat-wise:
Pasadena Bumpass Kinetic
Distance (miles)
9.6 12.0 15.3
Climb (ft.)
377 108 577
Heart Rate (bpm) ? 159 161
Cadence (rpm)
75 81 79
Speed (mph) 20.4 21.1 21.0
Average Power (watts)
220 211 219
Normalized Power 220 213 221
Obviously, still a long
way to go to do what I normally do on the bike but I feel like my next couple
of rides should jump up above 230 watts, which would be respectable, given my
training limitations right now. Also,
relative to Foy I was 13.2% faster today vs. 11.0% faster at Rumpass.
From a competitive
perspective, I had the 2nd best bike split (95.8%-tile) in my AG and
the 40th OA (93.1 %-tile).
Due to a drafting penalty for Oxman, I moved into 2nd in my
AG, although I still physically had two guys in my AG up in front of me:
1. Palowitch --------
2. Christofferson +
1:42
3. Isley +
2:04
4. Oxman +
3:28
5. Ortiz +
3:29
Transition Two
After dismounting at the
bottom of the steep hill (not the easiest thing), I ran quickly into T2 with a
sense of urgency as I knew two guys from my AG were likely right behind
me. I
executed what felt like a solid T2 in 1:26.
This was good enough for 2nd in my AG (95.8 %-tile) and
105th OA (81.5 %-tile). Here
is where we stood (Oxman was actually 1:34 ahead of me leaving T2 but these
results reflect his penalty):
1. Palowitch --------
2. Christofferson +
1:40
3. Oxman +
1:56
4. Isley +
2:06
5. Ortiz +
3:34
The Run
I made my away across the
long grassy stretch and then up the steep hill and passed the bike mount line
and began heading out the park. All
things considered, I felt pretty good.
The first mile had most of the elevation gain in this run (125 of the
167 feet) and I pushed pretty hard to record a 9:21 first mile with an average
HR of 165. Isley passed me (as did Oxman
although with the penalty this was just officially and not physically).
The second mile was
flatter and I pushed a bit harder and split the 2nd mile in 8:56
with a 167 bpm HR. During this mile Dyer
passed me and I’m guessing so did Ortiz, although I never saw him (could have
been wearing compression socks). The
last mile was partially on pavement and partially on a narrow, winding but
paved path through the woods, and featured quite a bit of downhill
running. I split my third mile in 8:30
with an average HR of 166.
I pushed steadily through to the end of the race
and recorded a 27:47 for the run
with an average HR of 166 bpm. Objectively,
this is still quite slow but does represent an element of improvement for
me. The chart below compares my three
“5k” runs this year:
Pasadena Rumpass Kinetic
Distance (miles) 3.30 3.06 3.14
Time 29:46 29:03
27:47
Pace (min/mile) 9:02 9:30 8:51
Heart Rate (bpm) ? 161 166
Climbing (feet)
121 217 167
Competitively, I didn’t
compare too well as I had the 13th fastest in my AG (50 %-tile) and
329th OA (41.7 %-tile). I
dropped to 6th OA in my AG (79.2 %-tile) and 111th OA
(80.5 %-tile) for the full race.
1. Palowitch --------
2. Oxman +
1:27
3. Ortiz +
3:04
4. Isley +
4:49
5. Dyer +
5:46
6. Christofferson +
7:02
Despite this, I think this
was a solid race for me. Even with my A
game, I would have had only an outside chance of being 4 minutes faster and
probably 4th is as best as I could do against this field. I’m pleased with the progress on my bike and
run. Also, I dropped 23 pounds between
Pasadena and Kinetic and looking ahead, I’ll have more balanced energy in/out
(indeed, I’m trying to go from 7% body fat to 5%, while keeping my weight
around 173—so add some muscle mass) going forward and I predict this results in
faster times in the races ahead.
Onward and upward!!!
