Nation’s Triathlon starting up soon

[PotomacCyclist]

PART I

The biggest benefit would be to improve my open water skills (sighting, swimming straighter). My swim split was 5 min. slower than from 2 years ago. My recent pool swim time trials showed that my swim fitness was pretty good. So from a fitness standpoint, there’s no reason why I should have been so slow in the water. It’s entirely due to the fact that I messed up the sighting and the direction.

Between the 100m and 200m buoys, I was probably 20 or 30m off course, to the left. Then I had to veer back. While it wasn’t so bad on the rest of the swim, there were a couple other times where I lost my way a bit and had to swim a lot of extra meters to get back on the right path.

While I may never swim perfectly straight (and many pros don’t sight that well either), I can cut the zig-zagging down a lot and improve my times by several minutes, with no further improvement in fitness. (At an ITU race on TV, I saw one of the pro women swim straight into a buoy and ram into it with her head, because she had no idea it was there.)

If I had done a better job on sighting/swimming straight last weekend, I would have taken at least a few minutes off of my overall Olympic tri PR (personal record).

My 2nd biggest issue was T1 (transition 1 or the swim-bike transition, for the non-triathletes out there). I hadn’t practiced putting on a tight tri jersey while wet this year. Huge mistake. In previous years, I actually did spend some time practicing this specific item. I would splash on some water and then try to put on the tight-fitting tri jersey. I got the hang of it back then, to the point where it didn’t take me too long to put the jersey on. But last weekend, my lack of practice showed. I had assumed that because I did this well in the past, I didn’t need to practice it. Wrong. On Sunday, I got completely stuck halfway as the jersey tangled up my arms. It was almost at the point where I couldn’t pull it back off or pull it down. That would have been really embarrassing.

I managed to get it off again before starting over. I think I may have wasted as much as 2 minutes just in trying to put on the jersey. So if I had simply practiced that act over the summer, I could have taken another minute or two off of my total race time. Both the T1 and the sighting were not related to lack of fitness, so I could have improved my skills relatively quickly.

***

I did have a slower bike time than expected, but not too bad. I don’t race with or near the 20-24 age groups, so I don’t encounter the fastest riders during the race. But with the other AGs that I tend to see in my race, I pass nearly everyone on the flats and downhills, maybe 98-99 percent. Maybe even 100 percent. But on the slight uphills, about 10-15 percent of the riders pass me. So that’s where I need to do a little more work.

I did spend many sessions on steep hills this summer, doing many of my speed sessions on those climbs. However, it was clearly not enough. While I do OK on hills, I would still like to be able to stay even or pass those few riders who pass me (again, not counting the 20-24 AG, many of whom will be faster than me on flats, downhills and uphills).

I have a couple ideas about how I can alter my training. First, I think I should get back to doing a few more flat-route speed sessions. I did that a couple years ago and saw good results. I was getting into the top third of my AG on the bike by doing that, before I dropped back a bit this time. While I won’t do a lot of hard speedwork over the winter, next spring I could do a hard mid-week speed session on a flat route (probably Hains Point) and then add hills/hill repeats to the long weekend ride. Maybe a warm-up, then some hill repeats and then an extended aerobic endurance segment for the long rides.

I will also step up my strength training this winter. I know I could do a little more in that department. I have a good strength base as an endurance athlete, but from a performance perspective, I know I could do a bit more. So that’s what I will do. Heavier lifts in the early winter, like barbell squats. One-leg exercises like pistol squats too, especially in late winter and the spring. (I may also do more plyometrics work and upper-body work, just because I feel like it. I don’t want to bulk up but I would like to get a significant boost in upper-body strength this winter.)

A minor point, but maybe an important one, is that I need to watch the intensity on the longer rides. It’s possible that I’m doing some of them too easy. I don’t have a power meter. I ride by perceived exertion. I know that for a beginner, almost any riding will improve fitness. But for an intermediate rider like me, the easy rides don’t have as much benefit. I won’t ride superhard year-round, but I should bump up the intensity of most long rides to the aerobic/tempo level, Zone 2 and 3, not Zone 1 and 2.

***

My running has progressed nicely. I mostly look at the mile pace during races for comparison. My Olympic tri running race pace has dropped steadily over the years. There is still room for improvement, but I’m pleased with the direction of the changes, from slower to faster. I’m also very pleased with how my running form feels. I’m now at the point where I can mostly focus on speed, and not have to worry so much about technique during races. Technique continues to be very important in running. I do plenty of technique work through the year, with strides and drills as well as functional single-leg strength and core training. Everything just feels a lot smoother when I’m running, much better than 2 and 3 years ago.

I think I have room to make even bigger jumps in pace on the run. I have a pretty quick leg turnover and I can zip through stride sets at a fast pace. My pace during speed workouts has improved, so I know there is some underutilized speed in my legs. The task is to continue to work on my sustainable speed (tempo and threshold work) so that I can extend that speed over longer and longer distances. My general aerobic endurance is coming along nicely. I can do multi-hour runs without feeling like I’m going to die. But I can do a better job of working in tempo-effort segments into the long runs. I plan to do just that in the coming weeks as I prepare for my (first) marathon next month, the Marine Corps Marathon.

[Since I haven’t done much marathon-focused training this year, other than doing longer runs than is usual for Olympic tri training, I’m not going into MCM with a solid goal in mind. I’ll do my best but I’m mostly going with the mindset of just finishing in decent shape. I’ll be tired at the end of the race but I’d like to avoid the death march that I saw among many of the runners at last year’s race. In 2011, I did an observational experiment. I watched the eventual winner of the race close-up as he sped by. Very smooth technique and of course, fast speed. I left for an hour or so and came back. Then I watched the 4-hr. finishers (estimated) pass by. They were slower but most of these runners still appeared to be holding up well. No heavy slouching of the upper body and not much walking going on. I left again and came back to watch the back-of-the-pack. These were the (estimated) 5:00 to 5:30 finishers. The majority of these people were walking. Many had the death-march look, sort of a mix between despondency and exhaustion. That’s what I want to avoid. Unless something goes horribly wrong, I should easily beat the 5:00 mark. I’m sort of hoping to beat the 4:00 mark, but I don’t really know if I will. I won’t fret too much about it.]

[PotomacCyclist]

PART II

In addition to the fitness, T1 and sighting issues, I would like to make some minor improvements to equipment eventually. I already have a Felt tri bike and an aero helmet. But I have heavier training wheels. I think a proper set of racing wheels could help to shave off a minute or two off of my bike split. There are other minor improvements I could make too. While each would only have a minimal effect on time, the combination of several improvements could add up to a noticeable difference. Things like more aerodynamic bullhorns and aerobars, bike shoes that don’t have overlapping velcro straps (which I know are not aerodynamic-friendly) and someday a new tri bike that allows me to get lower on the front, for a better aero position. I don’t think I can get much lower on my current bike, because of the aerobar set-up. So that leaves me slightly higher than ideal.

All this won’t be the major factor in my times, but it can help, along with improved hill training and speedwork.

***

This post shouldn’t indicate disappointment with last week’s race. I was excited to get back to triathlon racing again. Because the swim at last year’s Nation’s Tri was canceled, and the WDC and National Harbor races were canceled completely this year, I hadn’t done a full triathlon in almost 15 months! This post simply indicates that once a race is done, I will spend a little time analyzing the results and how everything went during the race, to see what I can improve and what I should continue doing.

I do think that I have been doing many things right on aerobic endurance. I remember how winded I was in transitions during my first triathlon, and how different it is now. While I’m trying to push hard, I don’t feel so exhausted in transition now. I could only run very slowly, or not at all, in T1 and T2 back in 2009.

I can also tell that my run and swim technique is much better than it was before. On the bike, my technique was decent from the start, although I may need to do a little more drill work the next time around.

I’m looking forward to a busier racing schedule next year. If it’s in the budget, I’d like to add some out-of-town races so that I don’t have to rely on just the lone D.C.-area race in 2013. I have a few possibilities in mind, some of which don’t sell out in advance so I can wait until the spring to sign up. I think I need to race more frequently. It’s just harder to get motivated to hit race-pace efforts in training. It’s not the same atmosphere and excitement. And maybe I’ll get back to doing a longer distance next year. Maybe a 70.3 along with more than just one Olympic tri. I’ll also add some running races and maybe a stand-alone bike event or two. I probably won’t do any stand-alone swim events because that could be embarrassing. (I don’t flail in the water and I am faster than recreational swimmers. But most of the serious triathletes swim much faster than me. Swimming will probably always be my weakest sport. I can live with that.)

[PotomacCyclist]

I just read that many people had bike times that were slower than usual, including many of the top riders. That makes me feel a little better about my slower bike time. I don’t remember it being really windy, but if even the top people were slow, then something was happening. Maybe a gravitational vortex?

http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?2902-Mysterious-gravitational-effect-this-morning

[Tim Kelley]

Thanks for the thorough response! Are you keeping your split times to yourself?

You mentioned you don’t train or race with power, and I seem to recall that you don’t use a HR monitor either right? Would having HR data be beneficial in analyzing your perceived slower bike time?

[Author]

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