Tri! Ballantyne - 1st place Masters and 4/380 OA

Headed to Charlotte this morning at 4:40AM to race in the Tri! Ballantyne Sprint. 300M pool swim, 13.2 mile bike, and 5K run. Finished in 1st place for Masters and 4th place overall out of 380 participants. 3rd place beat me by 10" and 2nd place beat me by 23". Numerous places where I could've made up the 10 to 23".

SWIM

Felt pretty good during the swim. I can't tell you the number of people that underestimated their 100M swim time as people were breast stroking, hanging on to the walls, and having to pass 5 and 6 people. There were several times where lanes 4 and 5 were completely empty.

Time: 5:29 - includes 25" run to T1

T1 - 56" - took too much time - had problems getting my socks on my wet feet. Oh well.

BIKE

Bike was rolling and was advertised as 12 miles but my computer had 13.2. It was downhill the first 3 to 4 miles and then a gradual uphill until mile 10. I had the fastest bike leg for the entire race!

Time: 31:25 - 25.22mph

T2: 39"

RUN

I forgot to charge my Garmin and ended up having to leave it in T2 as it was completely dead. Another race without a timing device. My turnover was pretty good for the first 1.5 miles and slowed a bit due to some hills but I ended up picking up the pace again just after mile 2.

Time: 20:20 - 6:32/mile pace

My run times have come down quite a bit and probably due to all of the 3 - 4 x 1 miles @ threshold.

Total time: 58:47

Tri the Midlands Race Report

Made the podium again this past weekend with a 2nd place finish in the 40-44 age group and finished 12th OA out of 387 participants.

SWIM




















The swim is still my weakest event. I was 26 seconds faster over last year but still about 2' slower than where I should be.500M swim with 75 yard run to transition - 10:17 (4th out of 27 in AG)

T1: 1:14

BIKE

Felt pretty good on the bike and ended up taking 1' off my time over last year. Switched to a full carbon disk in the rear and an 80mm deep carbon wheel for the front versus 58mm deep for the front and my PowerTap wheel with wheel cover for the rear. Had the fastest time in my age group and 6th fastest overall. Averaged 24mph for the 14.4 miles.

Time: 36:39

T2: 51 seconds
RUN

The majority of this run is uphill with a long, steep section just before the turnaround. When I crossed the finish line I looked at my Garmin and saw 2.7 miles and not 3.1 miles. Turns out the people setting up the aid station at the turnaround did not go far enough up the hill.

18:33 for the 2.7 miles or 6:52/mile (2nd out of 27 in AG)

Total time: 1:07:33

Go Tri Sports Triathlon at Hilton Head Island

Go Tri Sports Triathlon at Hilton Head Island was my first race of the year and my first mass start swim. I was hoping for a calm ocean swim with a nice current but instead got choppy water. I am definitely not a fan of mass start swims, especially with me not being a strong swimmer. I've finally come to realization that my wetsuit is too small in the top and restricting my stroke. I couldn't do more than 10 strokes without taking a break. In hindsight, I shouldn't have worn the wetsuit and won't next year.

500M swim 10:44

T1: 3:32 - Way too slow. Not sure what happened here except I didn't sprint through the Holiday Inn parking lot, etc like others did.

The bike was flat and fast. Pretty uneventful and finally, a race where the participants stay to the right unless they are passing. Averaged 24mph for the 12.8 miles. Had the fastest bike time in the 40-44 AG and 6th fastest overall.

12.8 miles in 31:53




T2: 0:36 - Very happy with this time

I decided not to wear a timing device for the race and I think it cost me some time on the run. I ended up running the 5K in 22:11 but was hoping for 21' or faster.

Finished 1:08:54 - 3rd AG and 19th OA.

Bike Workout

I blogged yesterday that my workout today would consist of:

15' @ 185W, 40' @ 270W and 5'@ 285W - all continuous

I ended up doing 20' @ 201W, 10 @ 261W, 10 @ 272W, 10 @ 277W, and 10 @ 280W
**All watts listed are PAvg and not NP.

Duration: 1:00:16
TSS: 96.9
NP: 255
19.678 miles

For the 40' of continuous threshold work, my NP was 273W and Pavg was 272W. I feel confident enough to move my FTP in WKO+ from 260W to 270W starting tomorrow.

Getting things going again

Plan for this year is to do all sprint distance events so I'm readjusting my training plan to reflect this change. Gone are the 2+ hour rides and 8+ mile runs. I'm implementing a modified Daniel's 5K to 15K running plan consisting of 2 or 3 quality days/week and will add 1 or 2 easy runs as bricks to get the miles. My body can't handle the abuse of running every day nor do I see a benefit for racing sprints. Goal for running is a 5K time of 19:15 or less.

For the bike, I'm strictly focusing on raising FTP and each workout will be no longer than 1 hour unless I'm doing a group ride. Goal is to be able to ride for 1 hour at 285+W or 20' @ 315+W. Today my HOP consisted of 15' @ 185W, 25' @ 235W, and 20' @ 282W all done as a continuous effort. Tomorrow I'll shoot for 15' @ 185W, 40' @ 270W and 5'@ 285W - again, all continuous.

Swimming distance will be cut back as well but not as much. Early focus will be on 10 x 50's with shorter rest periods between reps as the weeks go by and then move to 10 x 75's, and 5 x 100's as the season progresses.