Edit 2/1/13: The triathlon organizers re-examined my timing and published a correction to my T1 transition time. I ended up 9th/39 (male only)
Saturday, was my first triathlon ever! Sure it was a modest one (super sprint distance) but I signed up with the primary goal of learning...And boy did I learn!
Yes technically I finished last (official time), although it was due to a technical issue more than a performance issue.
about 35 - 40 min before the race, I accidentally stepped over the timing mat at T1 and my timing chip was triggered. This resulted in a very bad total time obviously... I am appealing the result to see if this can be corrected but regardless, I am more interested in the learnings of this first experience.
I started the event in wave 2. The swim consisted in a 10 pool lengths race, in a serpentine course along the pool. In the excitement of the start I started hard and after about 100 yards I really felt I was abandoning any notion of proper form, breathing every second stroke and just basically trying to survive the water.
I completed the swim in 5:57 which for me is a pretty good average. I have never swum that fast before (even though this is pretty slow everything considered...). I was pretty happy with the result.
I pulled myself out of the pool, ran over the timing mat to my T1 area. There I picked up my bike shoes and put on a t-shirt over my tri-suit (required to display your race number before entering the bike area).
The bike part was confusing to me. Frankly, I would call it even a bit stupid!
The spinning bikes were all set at the same specific (and very low) resistance and it was not allowed to adjust it.
Once on the bike, since the resistance was so low I started pedaling like a maniac at ~140rpm. My heart rate was in the higher zones (4B ~ 175) . After about 5 to 6 miles, I noticed that the rpm counter on the bike was not moving. It was blinking at 120 rpm and whether I accelerated or not, it would stay at the same cadence.
I called one of the staff to my bike and pointed it out, but she explained that beyond 120 rpm, it did not count. She said there was not point going beyond because the cadence meter would not register.
This really did not make sense to me. A low resistance and a limited cadence? What is the challenge in that? Is everyone supposed to to the same bike time by absence of challenge??
I slowed down in the last couple of miles and indeed, every time I would fall under 120rpm, the cadence would display properly.
After seeing the results of the race, I am not convinced that the higher cadence was not registering the miles beyond 120rpm. There were better times than mine on the bike and I maxed out 120rpm pretty much the whole time.
Oh well... As a result, I think my slowing down towards the end really impacted my bike time by a minute or so.
When I reached 8 miles, I jumped out of the bike and ran to T2. There I struggled a bit...using bike shoes and then transitioning to running shoes was clearly a big mistake on such a short course. I lost about a minute switching shoes over the fastest guys. The right thing to do here was to use running shoes for the bike as well. But no matter. I learned a lot in T2 because of my misfortune.
The day before, I had installed this Yankz system on my running shoes that I thought would help me transition better by not having to tie my shoes.
When I removed my bike shoes in T2, I was bare foot and tried to slide in my running shoes. My feet were still a bit wet from the swim or maybe some sweat and this turned out to be difficult. The insole of the shoe would fold and wrinkle under the foot as I was trying to slide it in.
I will definitely have to re-examine the T2 in future races. I clocked the slowest T2 transition of the race...
Then I climbed a couple of flights of stairs to access the indoor (mini) running track.
We had to revolve 23 times (for only 2miles!) around it This meant that the radius of the track was very small and the turns pretty sharp. As a result, I had to use the whole width of the track to be able to negotiate the turns properly. Since I started in wave 2 of the triathlon (because of my expected slow swim), this also meant that I was running with much slower runners. I had to constantly switch lanes, slalom between runners, wait to pass some, and change rhythm frequently. My running time was pretty good compared to my competition but pretty slow for me over this distance (6:45 pace).
Overall this was an interesting race which gave me a good opportunity to learn about some of the things that can go wrong in a triathlon.
I am glad I participated in this race because it gives me great insight on things I need to work on, especially as regards transitions.
In the afternoon, I went to my spinning class and we had another of these killer weekend coach's special workouts. It involved lots of variations of cadence / resistance over constant high heart rate zones and I really enjoyed it.
Sunday was more chill. I went skiing to Brighton Ski Resort for a half day with a friend. I taught him the basics of skiing (his first time). I did only 1 slope by myself at the end.
I will post the video later, but on the first turn, my left ski came off (must not have been attached properly). And later, another quick fall on the snowboard park trying one of those (very) slippery ramps for the first time.
Saturday, was my first triathlon ever! Sure it was a modest one (super sprint distance) but I signed up with the primary goal of learning...And boy did I learn!
Yes technically I finished last (official time), although it was due to a technical issue more than a performance issue.
about 35 - 40 min before the race, I accidentally stepped over the timing mat at T1 and my timing chip was triggered. This resulted in a very bad total time obviously... I am appealing the result to see if this can be corrected but regardless, I am more interested in the learnings of this first experience.
I started the event in wave 2. The swim consisted in a 10 pool lengths race, in a serpentine course along the pool. In the excitement of the start I started hard and after about 100 yards I really felt I was abandoning any notion of proper form, breathing every second stroke and just basically trying to survive the water.
I completed the swim in 5:57 which for me is a pretty good average. I have never swum that fast before (even though this is pretty slow everything considered...). I was pretty happy with the result.
I pulled myself out of the pool, ran over the timing mat to my T1 area. There I picked up my bike shoes and put on a t-shirt over my tri-suit (required to display your race number before entering the bike area).
The bike part was confusing to me. Frankly, I would call it even a bit stupid!
The spinning bikes were all set at the same specific (and very low) resistance and it was not allowed to adjust it.
Once on the bike, since the resistance was so low I started pedaling like a maniac at ~140rpm. My heart rate was in the higher zones (4B ~ 175) . After about 5 to 6 miles, I noticed that the rpm counter on the bike was not moving. It was blinking at 120 rpm and whether I accelerated or not, it would stay at the same cadence.
I called one of the staff to my bike and pointed it out, but she explained that beyond 120 rpm, it did not count. She said there was not point going beyond because the cadence meter would not register.
This really did not make sense to me. A low resistance and a limited cadence? What is the challenge in that? Is everyone supposed to to the same bike time by absence of challenge??
I slowed down in the last couple of miles and indeed, every time I would fall under 120rpm, the cadence would display properly.
After seeing the results of the race, I am not convinced that the higher cadence was not registering the miles beyond 120rpm. There were better times than mine on the bike and I maxed out 120rpm pretty much the whole time.
Oh well... As a result, I think my slowing down towards the end really impacted my bike time by a minute or so.
When I reached 8 miles, I jumped out of the bike and ran to T2. There I struggled a bit...using bike shoes and then transitioning to running shoes was clearly a big mistake on such a short course. I lost about a minute switching shoes over the fastest guys. The right thing to do here was to use running shoes for the bike as well. But no matter. I learned a lot in T2 because of my misfortune.
The day before, I had installed this Yankz system on my running shoes that I thought would help me transition better by not having to tie my shoes.
When I removed my bike shoes in T2, I was bare foot and tried to slide in my running shoes. My feet were still a bit wet from the swim or maybe some sweat and this turned out to be difficult. The insole of the shoe would fold and wrinkle under the foot as I was trying to slide it in.
I will definitely have to re-examine the T2 in future races. I clocked the slowest T2 transition of the race...
Then I climbed a couple of flights of stairs to access the indoor (mini) running track.
We had to revolve 23 times (for only 2miles!) around it This meant that the radius of the track was very small and the turns pretty sharp. As a result, I had to use the whole width of the track to be able to negotiate the turns properly. Since I started in wave 2 of the triathlon (because of my expected slow swim), this also meant that I was running with much slower runners. I had to constantly switch lanes, slalom between runners, wait to pass some, and change rhythm frequently. My running time was pretty good compared to my competition but pretty slow for me over this distance (6:45 pace).
Overall this was an interesting race which gave me a good opportunity to learn about some of the things that can go wrong in a triathlon.
I am glad I participated in this race because it gives me great insight on things I need to work on, especially as regards transitions.
In the afternoon, I went to my spinning class and we had another of these killer weekend coach's special workouts. It involved lots of variations of cadence / resistance over constant high heart rate zones and I really enjoyed it.
Sunday was more chill. I went skiing to Brighton Ski Resort for a half day with a friend. I taught him the basics of skiing (his first time). I did only 1 slope by myself at the end.
I will post the video later, but on the first turn, my left ski came off (must not have been attached properly). And later, another quick fall on the snowboard park trying one of those (very) slippery ramps for the first time.
This morning (Monday) was tough. I had a short 6 hour night and the alarm was not welcome at 4am.. However, once up, I felt good. I went spinning again (60 min) and ran for a good solid hour afterwards.
More fun to come this week!
More fun to come this week!
