2013 USA Triathlon Age Group Nationals Race Report

Olympic Distance racing or Age Group Nationals was never something on my radar.  I have always enjoyed (and done well at) long course racing and therefore I have never focused on short events.  But when I found out AG Nationals were going to be in Milwaukee I figured I should take advantage of it being close by.

Thanks to Theresa and Abigail for joining me for another race-cation, I have plenty of pictures and can pretty much tell my race report by pictures.

 I was unusually relaxed before the race, maybe too relaxed.

Swim - 24:30 -  I probably could have swam just as fast if I just floated on my back behind the 76 people in my wave that finished before me.

Bike - 57:53 - Ok but not great bike.  Power numbers were low, but not horrible and I managed to stay very aero and get the most out of the power I did have.

Feeling great

and then not so great

Run - 36:43 - First 5 miles felt awesome.  Then reality set in and the last mile was a rough one but I managed to hold it together.

Overall - 2:02:12 - I managed to work my way up from 76th to 12th AG and qualified for Team USA for 2014 ITU Worlds.  More importantly I didn't try to force anything on the swim/run and was able to finish with a solid run.

Now on to the long part:



Lessons Learned

• Gadgets during racing.  It was pretty easy for me to learn to use my power/pace targets to hold me back early on in races.  What I didn't learn until last year (and am still working on) is that I can't expect to go to every race and just sit at my target power/pace all day long.  In the past I've forced myself to hold a target number even when my body wasn't into it and those races never ended well.  Sometimes I have to just ignore the target and just go with what my body has that day and see what happens.
• Most of the time I blame bike pacing or nutrition when I have a bad run but I am starting to think the swim has more effect on my race than I thought.  I'm noticing that when I swim really hard and have a great swim split I tend to be flat on the run and have a subpar run split.  Time for a little more trial and error to figure out where the sweat spot is with how much I should push on the swim.
• Short course racing allows me to race more often.  Not only is is fun to race more often it provides a great way test things out in actual race situation.  Plus it takes a little pressure off as an entire years training is not focused on one race.

On a side note, my triathlon "career" has more or else revolved around WTC Ironman and 70.3 races.  It was really great to see that USAT did an outstanding job running this race and had a competitive field show up.  A few things that I really liked (and wish WTC would do):

• Our entire M30-34 AG started together in one wave, with a 10 minute break before and after us.  This is SO much better than WTC spiting the AG into 2 or 3 at 70.3 worlds and keeping the waves about 5 minutes apart.  At a national or world championship, most of the people are there to race and we race better when we are racing head to head and not guessing what wave someone started in.
• It was a fair race from what I could tell.  I was really worried about the amount of drafting on a pretty flat race like this but because of the big gaps between waves and tons of draft marshals on course, I saw almost no drafting at all.
• Packet Pickup took literally 1 minute.  One person checked my ID, USAT card, gave me my entire packet and then another person got my chip.  Done.  Unlike the 5+ step process and multiple lines at WTC events.

As usual, I owe a few thank yous:

• Theresa and Abigail for supporting this crazy hobby year round and for coming to this race.
• Zoot for great products and listening to my feedback.  The Kiawe 2 were awesome once again.
• Ceepo for the awesome Katana and continued support.

2013 Lake Zurich Triathlon and Racine 70.3

I'm a bit behind again so here are two race reports in one.

Lake Zurich Area Triathlon

Lake Zurich is a great local/grass roots triathlon that I really enjoyed last year.  I love that it is a very well run event with a low price.  Plus there is race morning packet pickup and I only have to get there an hour before the race.  Last year I started in the first wave and was first across the line, only to find out someone in a later wave had a faster time.  The reality is he would have still beat me if we raced head to head, but I still wish we could have been in the same wave.  I shared this feedback with the race director and he actually listened and added an elite wave this year.  I was not planning on doing the race this year, but because he listened to my feedback I signed up.

Other than the really warm water, the swim went great.  I started to the far left and just did my own thing until the first turn buoy.  Then I found some feet and stuck to them for the remaining three quarters of the swim.  Thanks to Jen Harrison leading the way I had one of my best swims yet.  The only problem was I was really warm thanks to the wetsuit legal swim and my heart rate was super high coming out of the water.

I started the bike in about 6th place and decided to let my heart rate settle before I picked up the power. My heart rate did settle but I the power never went up.  I ended up riding at lower watts than many of my half ironman races, but I was still able to catch up and come into T2 only steps behind the leader.

Thanks to the super easy to put on Zoot Kiawes 2.0s, I left T2 in first place and started to chase the motorcycle.  The only problem was my legs felt like complete crap and again I was struggling to hold half ironman paces.  I wanted to just give up but I remember how I felt after giving up in Kona three years ago so I was determined to keep going until someone caught me.  I was never able to pick the pace up, and it never got better, but I pushed through and luckily never got caught.

Of course, I was thrilled with winning the race and with having a good swim but a little bummed about my performance on the bike and run.  I'm really glad that I was able to push through and make the best out of the situation but I know I should have ridden at least a minute faster and last year I ran over 3 minutes faster at this same race.

Ironman 70.3 Racine

This was my 6th time doing this race.  It use to be just like Lake Zurich and was an inexpensive/low key race that I loved.  Now it is a huge WTC production which brings some good and bad.

Instead of starting in the first wave, I was in the 19th wave and the water was the choppiest I can remember in the 6 years I have done the race (but probably the warmest as well).  I felt fine on the swim and had no issues but my time was over 3 minutes slower than it should have been.  I'm pretty sure it was a combination of having to swim through and around tons of people and my long/slow swim stroke that is not the most effective in rough water.

Starting the bike I felt fine but my legs were flat feeling.  I ended up with the lowest average watts for any half ironman in the last 3 years, but my bike split was only about 2 minutes slower than I expected.

Coming out of T2 my legs like they usually do after a 56 mile bike ride.  Typically the first 1-2 miles are a bit of a struggle, but then I get into a groove and can run pretty well.  In this race I didn't find my stride until about mile 10, but once I did I started to feel really good.  I ended up having a really good last two miles and finishing really strong.

Overall, I performed better at Racine than Lake Zurich, but with a much more competitive field (which is a good thing) I was only 4th in my age group.  Either way, the good news is that once again I executed the best race I could that day.  I didn't make any pacing or nutrition mistakes and I didn't force anything and blow up like I used to do years ago.  I just stayed relaxed and did the best I could.

Things haven't quite started to click yet this year and my fitness isn't were I wanted it to be but I still have almost 3 months to build up until Kona.  Coming up next is USA Triathlon Age Group Nationals.