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08-09-09, 08:19 PM
After doing enough triathlons, I've figured out some stuff but am still learning what works and what doesn't. Unfortunately today was a day about learning and not about going really fast.
I had a good dinner last night and ate a bunch in the evening. I woke up at 4 am and had a breakfast of oatmeal and a glass of milk. This is the exact breakfast I have before any group ride. I drove down to Boulder, got my stuff set up in transition, went to the porta-potties and was feeling pretty good. I splashed around a bit before my wave started to get the feeling of the water.
At this point, I was pretty optimistic. Then the swim started and I swam. I was surprised at how long it was before the leader of the next wave caught me and how long I stayed with people within my own wave. By the end of the swim leg, my technique was getting pretty sloppy and I was glad to be done with the swim. Exited the water, ran through the sand and then grass and then the little kiddie wading pool to rinse my feet and I was into Transition 1.
No excitement in T1 and soon I was off on the bike. I am a pretty strong bike rider. Three people passed me. One was relay member with a Garmin skinsuit, the second was also a relay member, and the third... well I think it was a pro finishing his second lap as I finished my first. My new TT bike is fast, and the race wheels are nice. Interesting results here, though. This is only 5 minutes faster than when I did this same race on my road bike with clip-on aero bars.
But since I've been monkeying around with my position, I don't think I had really gotten used to it because at the end of the bike leg a few muscles were tired that aren't on the list of muscles that get tired on my road bike. As I started the run, I immediately knew that this was going to be very very bad. It was definitely one of the more pathetic runs that I done in quite some time. There was a lot of survival shuffle going on.
Full results:
Swim Rank=864/1129 Time=45:57
T1 2:12
Bike Rank=55/1129 Time=2:23:18 mph=23.4
T2 1:38
Run Rank=534/1129 Time=2:10:38 Pace=9:59 miles
Total=5:23:41
So what did I learn? First all the improvements I've made in the pool were based around streamlining my body into... what it looks like when I'm wearing a wetsuit. NOT HELPFUL! So I need to work on drills that address propulsion.
Clearly getting into a more aero position without time to adjust to the position killed me. The question that I now have to ask is whether I should go back to a higher bar position (worked great in an Oly about a month ago) or suck it up and devote one day a week to the TT rig instead of doing a group ride.
I had a good dinner last night and ate a bunch in the evening. I woke up at 4 am and had a breakfast of oatmeal and a glass of milk. This is the exact breakfast I have before any group ride. I drove down to Boulder, got my stuff set up in transition, went to the porta-potties and was feeling pretty good. I splashed around a bit before my wave started to get the feeling of the water.
At this point, I was pretty optimistic. Then the swim started and I swam. I was surprised at how long it was before the leader of the next wave caught me and how long I stayed with people within my own wave. By the end of the swim leg, my technique was getting pretty sloppy and I was glad to be done with the swim. Exited the water, ran through the sand and then grass and then the little kiddie wading pool to rinse my feet and I was into Transition 1.
No excitement in T1 and soon I was off on the bike. I am a pretty strong bike rider. Three people passed me. One was relay member with a Garmin skinsuit, the second was also a relay member, and the third... well I think it was a pro finishing his second lap as I finished my first. My new TT bike is fast, and the race wheels are nice. Interesting results here, though. This is only 5 minutes faster than when I did this same race on my road bike with clip-on aero bars.
But since I've been monkeying around with my position, I don't think I had really gotten used to it because at the end of the bike leg a few muscles were tired that aren't on the list of muscles that get tired on my road bike. As I started the run, I immediately knew that this was going to be very very bad. It was definitely one of the more pathetic runs that I done in quite some time. There was a lot of survival shuffle going on.
Full results:
Swim Rank=864/1129 Time=45:57
T1 2:12
Bike Rank=55/1129 Time=2:23:18 mph=23.4
T2 1:38
Run Rank=534/1129 Time=2:10:38 Pace=9:59 miles
Total=5:23:41
So what did I learn? First all the improvements I've made in the pool were based around streamlining my body into... what it looks like when I'm wearing a wetsuit. NOT HELPFUL! So I need to work on drills that address propulsion.
Clearly getting into a more aero position without time to adjust to the position killed me. The question that I now have to ask is whether I should go back to a higher bar position (worked great in an Oly about a month ago) or suck it up and devote one day a week to the TT rig instead of doing a group ride.