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Race Result
| Racer: |
Richard Gendron |
| Race: |
Giant Acorn |
| Date: |
Saturday, October 4, 2008 |
| Location: |
Bumpass, VA |
| Race Type: |
Triathlon - Sprint |
| Age Group: |
Male 40 - 44 |
| Time: |
1:11:12 |
| Overall Place: |
36 / 339 |
| Age Group Place: |
8 / 44 |
| Comment: |
Finishing Well |
Race Report:
Pre-Race
When I signed up for Giant Acorn, I thought it would be a good way to end the season. At 1.5k-20k-5k it's relatively short even for a sprint. I was hoping to run this one easy and then slide into off-season training. Now, much to my surprise, I find myself within reach of a third place finish in the overall AG standings. Dario Tirado, assuming he finishes on Saturday, will zip from about 10th place up to 2nd, and way beyond anyone's reach - way to go Dario ! I am currently in 4th, about 4:00 minutes behind the second place (who is not racing) and roughly 2:00 behind fourth place Matt Hoy, who is racing. There is one other below me, Mike Liegh, who is racing and could catch me, but its a fairly big gap from my math.
After Luray, I figured the table out, and turned my end of season party into a serious event - upgraded it to an A race. Since GA has a short bike race, I've spent the last 6 weeks losing weight and running hard and often, against doctors advice. On the bike I will be relying on the long hard bike season rather than recent interval training. If recent training runs are indication, I will not be running defensively for this one, but still give up about 2 minutes to the AG tete du course. I am hoping that Dario and I are in the same vicinity during the run - I will use him as motivation.
Course
The swim course is around a small peninsula. Swimmers are never more then 100 yards from land. Good for fans, but I can't imagine its any fun to watch the swim. 300 yards out, turn right, 150 yards across, turn right, 300 yards back - nice warm nuclear reactor warmed water of about 74 deg. Bike course is a Banana Pancake flat single loop with only one turn that you can't pedal through - actually you could with the perfect line and no skrit on the street, but traffic and skrit kinda nixed that for me. I think I could have stayed big ring the whole time, but played it conservatively on the one little roller at around mile 9. Run course loses the bananas and is just plain ol flat and mostly shaded. I like it. Oh, and there is only a very small roller out of transition, nothing of note.
Pre-race
Given the short distance, I thought warm up was key, but did not focus on it properly. I got to the race late so started warm up a bit later than I wanted. Got 25 min on the bike and 500 yards in the water. Feeling good but not great. In retrospect, I should have hit the water with more purpose.
Swim 15:45 (16/44, 108/339)
So I lost my Full wetsuit at Kinetic this year, actually grabbed someone else's, returned it to him later, but never recovered mine. I was determined to get through the season without one. I was one click away from ordering a De Soto from the west coast last week, but did not click. Huge on-click mistake. I was one of only about 5 swimmers without full wetsuit, despite the warm water. Normally I would not mention it, but the swim was so crowded and we smashed into the Women's 30-39 wave after about 200 yards. With all the steering through traffic, I kept losing body position - the extra buoyancy really would have helped, especially with the 8 lbs less of body fat I was carrying in this race. I also decided to wear a cycling skinsuit, figuring the sleeves would help with the slight chill in the air. I learned that even short-sleeved skinsuits have significant drag in the armpits, and It hurt my time. Net result, I came out of the water at least a minute back of where I should have been.
T1 1:07 (1/44,13/339)
No Wetsuit, I better damn well be 1st in T1
Bike 31.25, 24.1 mph (Tied for 1/44, tied for 5/339)
Man I like Lake Anna for Biking. I was not as warm as I wanted and I forgot to check the lower strap of my shoes before the race. As a result, I could not lock down the bottom strap of my shoes. I quickly wrote it off and tried to find a rhythm. I had to play cat and mouse with a younger rider early on and was pissed at all the blocking, despite my screams of "Bike left" and "Move right" - fuel for the fire. It took about 1.5 miles, but then I found a rich vein of hurt and mined it hard. I quickly lost my cat. For most of the time after that, I was quite alone. I focused on cranking up the reading on the suffer meter, which really started to sing "Brazilian Carnival" around half way through the leg. Power numbers are not great, but I must have been nice and aero to squeeze all that speed out of it. I did sit up and drop the big ring once to get up a short steep roller. Top 10 bike leg makes me happy, especially in this large a field. Would like to see my cadence numbers higher next year. Geek data:
Full Bike Leg (Forgot to activate PT until 2 minutes passed)
Duration: 29:54
Work: 395 kJ
TSS: 51.1 (intensity factor 1.013)
Norm Power: 227
VI: 1.03
Pw:HR: 2.21%
Pa:HR: 2.08%
Distance: 12.03 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 651 220 watts
Heart Rate: 161 174 169 bpm
Cadence: 42 166 86 rpm
Speed: 15.3 34.7 24.1 mph
Pace 1:44 3:56 2:29 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 194 63 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 674 221 lb-in
Peak 20min (227 watts)To get rid of transition issues:
Duration: 20:01
Work: 273 kJ
TSS: 35.1 (intensity factor 1.025)
Norm Power: 230
VI: 1.01
Pw:HR: 4.46%
Pa:HR: -8.75%
Distance: 8.072 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 651 227 watts
Heart Rate: 165 174 169 bpm
Cadence: 55 122 89 rpm
Speed: 15.3 34.7 24.2 mph
Pace 1:44 3:56 2:29 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 194 65 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 674 221 lb-in
T2 :56, (8/44, 51/339)
Socks seem to be worth the extra 10 seconds
Run, 22:01, about 7:10 pace. (13/44, 81/339)
This is now my postsurgical PR for a 5K with or without a swim and a bike. I did see Dario just before the turnaround, he was heading the other way. Not much of note except that Bill Wightman (43) passed me with about .5miles to go .... no way, not today, I will not give up a place. when it happened, I was trying to decide when to start a kick - NOW. I sat on Bill's shoulder and just hoped he would lead me out for a sprint finish. He tried hard to shake me and my stomach was protesting, but the rubber band held. As soon as we hit the grass, I kicked it hard and crossed a good 6 seconds ahead of Bill. We both sucked air and grabbed our knees for about 3 minute, gave up our chips to the chip gods and and gave each other a victory embrace.
Fitting finish to a good race.
Dario did Rats proud by taking 3rd in a stacked AG field.
Priority for off season - Increase LT power on the Bike, Get a 2 piece wetsuit that fits, Continue to build the run as long as the knees hold up. Swim faster, rather then more.
VTS
Ratio to Top 5 .9116
Race Weight - .92
VTS Score .8387
Comment - Matt Hoy beat me by about :45 seconds so he deserves his finish above me in the overall in more ways than one. Mike Leigh beat us both (2 full minutes over me), but, by my math, will finish behind me in VTS. All three of us pushed the current second place behind us and Dario replaced him, So I held onto 4th spot, and Matt gets the last podium spot - well deserved.
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