MetaSprint Sprint Tri

MetaSprint Sprint Triathlon

Swim: 21:12

T1: 2:49

Cycle: 42:37

T2: 1:47

Run: 29:18

Total Time: 1:37:46

Final Category Position: 185/323

Considering the lack of training for the last month, the results from this race ain’t too bad (though I know I could do much better if proper conditioning was done)

Swim

Less than ideal start. Took the outside line and tried to swim a shorter route but somehow got sucked outwards instead and took a longer time to reach the 1^st buoy. Numerous tussles with froggers left and right, and had to take numerous double strokes to quickly overtake them for safety.

T1:

Messed up here. Couldn’t find my bike when I first ran in, and wasted around 30s looking. Too many white bikes and with the racks not numbered, it was too easy to miss my bike. Ended up spotting my bike by the number tag rather than recognizing the bike itself.

Ideas: Tie a bright coloured cloth or flag to the bike rack to make recognition easier for races with unnumbered racks.

Cycle:

Was pretty cautious on the bike leg ever since Roy reminded me not to overstress on the bike and reserve for the run, which is my strongest leg. Was targeting to maintain at around 30km/h, but ended up hovering between 28 – 31km/h. Not too bad. Tried the low gear fast cadence strategy at the end of the cycle to reduce HR and increase blood flow to calves. Worked!

T2:

Again had problems trying to find my spot.

Though not as bad as T1.

Run:

Started slowly at about 6:15min/km. Wanted to give my HR some time to stabilize first before ramping up the speed. Following the –ve split strategy, the first 2.5km should not be any faster than 6min/km. It was quite hot though, and I swear that splashing the cold water on my face alone lowered by HR by 3 beats.

Held back a bit more till the 3km mark then I started to let the legs loose and opened up the strides to go faster. Speed went from 5:40min/km to 5:20min/km.

Still had the extra energy left at the final 500m to go from 5:00min/km with a final all out full energy sprint. Good run but I think I can make it better by going slightly faster for the 1^st half.

Conclusion:

I’m happy with the run. By now it is quite obvious that speed calibration and strategy correction before any race is important. The last 21km run was screwed up as I relied on the 42km pace and strategy, which I ended the run much slower than my abilities with too much energy left in the tank after the run.

Though I didn’t do any calibration runs before this Tri, my previous races for 5km were quite on target and I just had to follow the same strategy which worked nicely.

There were some time during the swim when my mind drifted off, and it seems that I didn’t move that quickly in the water during that period. It seems to happen every time I day dreamed and didn’t do sighting. Next time I should try starting mid-pack. Perhaps with more front crawlers around there will be less need to do sighting and easier to draft as well.

Using the hamstrings for the bike this time has probably helped me to save my quads and calves for the run. Gotta practice more and clock more cycling mileage. Time to invest in a proper trainer.

Taking a break from racing and focus on training now.

Next event: TriFactor OD Tri on 18 August.

2013 2XU compression run report

Did the 2XU 21km run on Sunday morning.
Timing wasn't really good at around 2:10, but then again I had not clocked any LSD for some time already, and was off proper training for the last few weeks, so I can't expect much out of this run anyway.

And through this run, some questions that I thought I had solved previously popped up again.

Ups:
1) Did the run in my Tri suit. Needed to clock some mileage and get used to running in the Tri-suit. Found that the first half of the run was unusally hot even though it was still dark, and I had to keep pouring water on myself to cool down. It was only after daybreak then it started to feel cooler. Conclusion: The Tri-suit only works against temperature when it is wet and in well ventilated conditions. The first half was too crowded with people and that pretty much limited the airflow. The 2nd half was much cooler after the crowd had spaced out, even though the sun was already up. Gotta try a few training LSDs to confirm this.

Downs:
1) Did not check my gear properly before going for the run. GPS unit went flat at 6.8km mark, and I couldn't tell my pace after that. Had to rely just on feel and HR. Perhaps I had been too reliant on my gear, and the hotter than usual tri suit pretty much threw my feel and HR off balance.

2) Too obsessed with keeping my HR below 170, which was a benchmark I used for the full marathon. It might have been too conservative and caused me to hold back too much in the 1st half.

3) Sore muscles. This is strange. It wasn't really a tough race nor did I go all out. My calves are still sore till today. Usual 21km in training doesn't feel as bad

Points to Ponder:
1) Using the high cadence short stride should have given me a pretty decent pace and no/little impact to the knees. Somehow this time I had draggy feet and it doesn't seem to work for me. My knees were a bit sore at the end as well. Perhaps I didn't execute the technique properly after a long training hiatus. Need to clock more LSD

2) Never ever underestimate B or C races again by not training for it. Especially for the next 3 Tris in line.