I thought I’d include this report from a week ago. I’ve done about 15 tris now, but this was only my second Sprint:
Sprint Triathlon Sunday, June 10, 2007 Birds Hill Park East Beach
20ºC air, 18ºC water, 75% humidity, sun & cloud, 10KPH south wind
I was going to race this one referring to my hrm for the beginning of the bike and the beginning of the run, but redlining it the rest of the time - however when I got out of the swim my hr was 155, and it eventually seemed to be a decent enough effort (==hard) for the whole of the bike and most of the run, so that’s what I stuck with. I must say that it seemed to work very well.
PM: The swim was a little slower than last year I think because it was pretty crowded, but possibly because I was rather tired from the night before: not only was the night rather cold for my insufficient bedding, but I was subject to that remarkable natural rule whereby the loudest people are also the most stupid, and the most insomniac, and that such creatures really seem to like camping. However I had a swift first transition, thanks to taking off my wetsuit on the grass and only then running to transition with it (it’s about 200metres), and by choosing not to wear socks. I biked hard, concentrating on my stroke and always ready to pick off another cyclist as I approached them. It should be noted that the top 3 bike times in this race in my AG were all faster than the winning time of the previous year, as were the run times - and, indeed, the total times. I believe that my improved run speed was due partly to the ergonomics of my nice tri-specific Cervelo Dual, but also because I held off from maximum effort at the start of the run, though I was still running hard. Without doing a lot of training specific to this short intense event, I could really only improve on today now by really learning the mystery of swimming, which has so far eluded me - I’m sure much has to do with subtlties of body position and water-awareness (sigh). On the more plus side: my bike/transition was the 9/91* overall (as well as 1/7 in my AG) 0r 11/113 if you count the duathletes. 50/91 in the swim, which is a step up for me. 28/91 in the run; 31/113 if you count the duathletes again. My time would have won my AG comfortably last year, but now 5:14 faster was still not enough! So I’m pleased: efficiency and pacing may not have paid off in terms of my AG position, but in every other respect were satisfying and instructive! overall I was 24/91 - I think my best general showing in a triathlon so far. I shall try a modified version of this strategy at St. Malo, see if I can get under that 2:40 barrier, and by how much.
My teammates didn’t do too badly: Rainer was 11 seconds ahead of me in his first ever triathlon; Jason came close behind; Ryan won his AG in his first ever tri- auspicious, I think. Davids Matiece and Ferguson got AG glory in their AG. Perry alone didn’t quite get up to his usual level - but he is concentrating more on long course races now, culminating in IMoo next year!
This year: 2007
1 Jim Sandor 01:13:55 00:11:54 (1) 00:39:48 (2) 00:51:43 (1) 00:22:12 (1)
2 Neil Ferguson Tri MB 01:17:44 00:13:25 (2) 00:40:34 (3) 00:53:59 (2) 00:23:45 (2)
3 John Blyth Westman 01:20:08 00:16:31 (4) 00:39:43 (1) 00:56:15 (3) 00:23:52 (3)
Last year: 2006
1 Bob Andrews Tribalistic 01:21:49 00:13:37 (1) 00:43:43 (1) 00:58:20 (1) 00:24:28 (1)
2 John Blyth Westman 01:25:22 00:16:07 (4) 00:44:38 (2) 01:01:45 (2) 00:24:36 (2)
3 Tim Durnin-Richards Tri MB 01:27:22 00:16:06 (3) 00:45:35 (3) 01:02:42 (3) 00:25:40 (3)
*This and other numbers have been revised (presumably as more data got to TriMB?
john
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