My last Sprint race as a Senior. My next one will be as an age-group athlete next year. I still have a novice and a standard before I finish as a Senior Triathlete. I may also do a Duathlon towards the end of the year which I would still be a Senior for.
It was also my last chance to get my annual 750m swim target in. I planned to wear my comfortable ti-suit and goggles that I have been racing in all year. I decided to pack my tighter, faster swim suit and racing goggles with a view to possibly just trying to race a swim PB and then train round the other events. It is really tough to cycle and run in the tighter suit. The faster goggles limit my vision so I have to be in clear water or behind someone that I trust to swim evenly in order to get the benefit of them. Otherwise I end up lifting my head to watch the feet in front and cancel out the hydrodynamic benefits.
I knew in advance that I was going to be in Heat 7 at 13:30 but I still had to be at the venue early to get registered and set up in a good transition spot. I aimed to be there just after 10 so I could set up, attend the briefing at 11 and then head off to chill out for the couple of hours until my race started. I turned up to find that Transition had been changed to neutralise the advantage of the end positions. This meant there was no real 'good' spot to have. I settled for a space in the middle which was still sparsely populated, and where all the other bikes were racked to the opposite side. This meant I should have plenty of elbow room when I arrived. Then I wandered around for a bit before heading in to the pool to watch heats 3 to 6.
I got comfortable and closed my eyes for a bit. I couldn't quite sleep but I was very chilled and could have had a nap if I had a bit more time. In hindsight this plan possibly went too far.
I had decided on the comfortable suit and goggles. Then I lost the goggles and took out the fast ones. Then I found the comfortable goggles and decided to stay with them. When we eventually got into the pool my warm up was slow as I tried to restart from near sleeping. When the race started I tried to really push the first few laps to wake myself up and get onto the feet of the two people in front.
By the fifth turn I had passed both swimmers in front of me. I was at the front of the queue but I was having to work flat out and wasn't dropping the other 3 people from my lane. I got tapped on the next length. I let my brain take over and waved all three of them through in a tight cluster. Hopefully this move would make it clear to all of them that there was nothing between us in terms of pace. I hoped that showing I was capable of being at the front but was willing to sit at the back rather than continually chop and change would send a message: everyone should just work together and not waste time with fighting for order. From there we did mostly settle down. There were a couple more changes by the two girls in front of me later in the race. I think this was just so they were sharing the work of following the leading guy and 'resting' in the third place spot. Certainly they didn't look to be attacking moves to try and break up the group and move the pace on.
I did have to use a lot more touch turns than I wanted to. The younger girl that I was often behind was slow into the turns and fast out. If I used my tumbles I was too close to her coming out of the turns so I used touches when I was too close.
My official swim time is 12:36 but that includes climbing out of the pool and running to the mats. Garmin says 12:28 and I am going to take that as both a PB and my 12:30 target for the year. Without all the overtaking I think there still might be more in the tank. I might try a 750m time trial on my own before the end of the year.
My first transition was slow again. I decided to wear the socks, which I didn't need for such a short race. I was also quite fiddly with shoe straps and helmet buckle. I grabbed my bike and was out of transition with both girls from the swim. I mounted better and was past them. I settled in to the bike really quickly.
I felt quite comfortable on the bike and was very quickly passing people. I know the route well. I was pushing on the flat sections and trying to stay tucked in and work on the uphills. The only little problem I had was that one of the Di2 switches was coming lose and I had to keep hold of it in my TT position for fear it would work itself loose of the cable.
The official results say that I only passed 3 people on the bike. I am not completely convinced by that. I count 8 from the times, and I counted 11 on the road. I can explain some of the difference away if i was passing people from other heats, or slightly different start times (5 or 10 seconds in front or behind). I don't think this quite adds up though.
T2 was the same as last week. Blew through, no problems. Again the computer says 11th but I count 9th on the times, and within a handful of seconds of the fastest again.
Out on to the run and I felt pretty good. I could see a handful of people just in front of me. With the way the heats and laps were mixed up by now I had very little idea of who I was racing or who I was lapping. I recognised a couple of racers in front of me and knew one was from my heat and one from the heat in front. I worked my way past both of them in the first half of lap one and then started trying to pass other people without knowing who was on which lap. Again I passed a lot more runners than the results give me credit for. Maybe they were on different laps or from different heats.
As I came round to start lap 2 I passed one of the swimming girls as she was just coming in at the end of the bike leg. Then one of the good swimmers from my club. Very happy to see the sort of time I have put into them on the bike. The second lap on the run I was starting to tire but I kept chasing as the assortment of people still on the course reminded me that I could still be racing against times from earlier heats. I passed another girl from the previous heat just as we crossed the line.
After the race I was chatting to the guy I outsprinted at Knockburn last week. Turns out the shorter distance and lumpier bike route gave him the edge. At the same time I beat one of my club mates by 6 seconds. The guys I want to be beating are still just that little bit ahead of me on each discipline. The couple of minutes (or 4 in some cases) they take on the bike are still the real losses. I can clean up the seconds elsewhere, I need to find those minutes on the bike.
Looking to next year, I am optimistic that the races I want to do well at will be draft-legal which takes some of the bike losses out.
I am happy with my last sprint race as a Senior. Good weather, good race.
Full results are here.
My official results are:
I got comfortable and closed my eyes for a bit. I couldn't quite sleep but I was very chilled and could have had a nap if I had a bit more time. In hindsight this plan possibly went too far.
I had decided on the comfortable suit and goggles. Then I lost the goggles and took out the fast ones. Then I found the comfortable goggles and decided to stay with them. When we eventually got into the pool my warm up was slow as I tried to restart from near sleeping. When the race started I tried to really push the first few laps to wake myself up and get onto the feet of the two people in front.
By the fifth turn I had passed both swimmers in front of me. I was at the front of the queue but I was having to work flat out and wasn't dropping the other 3 people from my lane. I got tapped on the next length. I let my brain take over and waved all three of them through in a tight cluster. Hopefully this move would make it clear to all of them that there was nothing between us in terms of pace. I hoped that showing I was capable of being at the front but was willing to sit at the back rather than continually chop and change would send a message: everyone should just work together and not waste time with fighting for order. From there we did mostly settle down. There were a couple more changes by the two girls in front of me later in the race. I think this was just so they were sharing the work of following the leading guy and 'resting' in the third place spot. Certainly they didn't look to be attacking moves to try and break up the group and move the pace on.
I did have to use a lot more touch turns than I wanted to. The younger girl that I was often behind was slow into the turns and fast out. If I used my tumbles I was too close to her coming out of the turns so I used touches when I was too close.
My official swim time is 12:36 but that includes climbing out of the pool and running to the mats. Garmin says 12:28 and I am going to take that as both a PB and my 12:30 target for the year. Without all the overtaking I think there still might be more in the tank. I might try a 750m time trial on my own before the end of the year.
My first transition was slow again. I decided to wear the socks, which I didn't need for such a short race. I was also quite fiddly with shoe straps and helmet buckle. I grabbed my bike and was out of transition with both girls from the swim. I mounted better and was past them. I settled in to the bike really quickly.
I felt quite comfortable on the bike and was very quickly passing people. I know the route well. I was pushing on the flat sections and trying to stay tucked in and work on the uphills. The only little problem I had was that one of the Di2 switches was coming lose and I had to keep hold of it in my TT position for fear it would work itself loose of the cable.
The official results say that I only passed 3 people on the bike. I am not completely convinced by that. I count 8 from the times, and I counted 11 on the road. I can explain some of the difference away if i was passing people from other heats, or slightly different start times (5 or 10 seconds in front or behind). I don't think this quite adds up though.
T2 was the same as last week. Blew through, no problems. Again the computer says 11th but I count 9th on the times, and within a handful of seconds of the fastest again.
Out on to the run and I felt pretty good. I could see a handful of people just in front of me. With the way the heats and laps were mixed up by now I had very little idea of who I was racing or who I was lapping. I recognised a couple of racers in front of me and knew one was from my heat and one from the heat in front. I worked my way past both of them in the first half of lap one and then started trying to pass other people without knowing who was on which lap. Again I passed a lot more runners than the results give me credit for. Maybe they were on different laps or from different heats.
As I came round to start lap 2 I passed one of the swimming girls as she was just coming in at the end of the bike leg. Then one of the good swimmers from my club. Very happy to see the sort of time I have put into them on the bike. The second lap on the run I was starting to tire but I kept chasing as the assortment of people still on the course reminded me that I could still be racing against times from earlier heats. I passed another girl from the previous heat just as we crossed the line.
After the race I was chatting to the guy I outsprinted at Knockburn last week. Turns out the shorter distance and lumpier bike route gave him the edge. At the same time I beat one of my club mates by 6 seconds. The guys I want to be beating are still just that little bit ahead of me on each discipline. The couple of minutes (or 4 in some cases) they take on the bike are still the real losses. I can clean up the seconds elsewhere, I need to find those minutes on the bike.
Looking to next year, I am optimistic that the races I want to do well at will be draft-legal which takes some of the bike losses out.
I am happy with my last sprint race as a Senior. Good weather, good race.
Full results are here.
My official results are:
| Total time | Pos. male | Senior | Split time | Speed split time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Swim(Time: 12:36) - Pos. 18 | |||||
 Transition 1(Time: 1:45) - Pos. 25 | |||||
 Bike(Time: 40:59) - Pos. 18 | |||||
 Transition 2(Time: 44.4) - Pos. 11 | |||||
 Run(Time: 18:40) - Pos. 14 | |||||
No comments:
Post a Comment