Post Triathlon (RedMan Olympic) Thoughts...

It’s been a few days since the RedMan and I’ve been able to digest some thoughts about the race.

Let me start by saying, this was my 5th triathlon since May 30th of this year, that’s a pretty nice amount of tri’s if you ask me! The difference with this tri as verse the others was this was an Olympic distance, not a sprint or super sprint. So the distance is double what the longest sprint course I have done.

One of the great things about this course … it is at my normal training grounds at Lake Hefner in Oklahoma City. I train at here a few times a week, and most always do my long weekend day here. I felt that gave me a little bit of a boost, since I like to plan everything. And I do mean everything.

Let’s jump into the individual parts of the tri, then I will break down some additional thoughts at the end.

Swim (1500 meters/.92 mile), 49:03

The start time for the Oly was 9am, which was the latest start I’ve ever had on any event. This kinda stunk in that in Oklahoma the earlier in the day the less wind. However, the powers that be decided to start the Sprint people at 7:30 and hold us off till 9:00.

It was an open water, triangle shape course, 2 loops around.

• Got off to a decent start, I started with the younger men group in the first heat. I must admit, even tho my swimming is pretty decent, I did not fair well today. I had practiced the course at the open swim times they had the previous two days, and felt fairly confident I could hold my own on the swim. When it came down to it tho, I was out of it. Started slow, and got even slower as the meters kept adding up.
• Wind was blowing 5-10mph from the south, so not too bad when we were headed north, but when we passed the turn and headed back south, the water was very very choppy. Here is where I did not do well, I do not handle water in my face well, especially when it affects my breathing, as it was doing.
  
  • Note: get more open water swim training. Training in the pool, even tho I can swim well over 1 mile no problem, does not translate well to open water.
• Next open water swim, keep the wetsuit on. I had been using it in practice cause it was cold, but opted race day to go without. Let’s accept the additional flotation it will add.

Transition #1, 1:53

One big thing here that helped me almost match my PR best T1 time was the Tri-OKC singlet I bought about a month back. You wear it to swim, bike and run; no need to change/add any clothing. Very nice.

• For sprints I might start going sockless, this was shave a bunch of seconds off.
• Learn to get onto the bike faster, I had trouble going from foot and clipping in without stopping.
• You can see video of my transition here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/neillharmer/3940591649/ (thank you Clint!)

Bike (40K/28 miles), 1:32:31 

The bike is my strong suite, I tend to rely on it the most when it comes to shaving time off my overall PRs. This was a fairly flat course, the bad part was the dam on the north part of the lake, the winds from the south seemed to have picked up slightly and caused some wind fighting. Compounded by the fact that it was a 4 loop course, so we had to face the dam 4 damn times! There were some rolling hills, nothing too crazy, just enough to get the blood flowing and legs burning a bit.

• I had trained the exact course 2 weeks before, and did it in 1:29:24, that was without having swam right before. So I was right on pace with what I wanted. Now tho, that brings me to a point I have to be VERY careful of next long race. Peaking. I honestly think I either A, peaked at that training run or B, wore myself out so much I was out of it for the next week or so. Although, it’s more than possible both were the culprit.
• Need to work on tucking more, keeping arms in, head down, knees as close to the bike as possible, and really pushing thru the heels.

Transition #2, 2:14

Not my best transition time, in fact, it was the worst T2 I’ve had to date. Not sure what was up, other than I wore myself out on the bike, which, I do tend to do.

• Still need to work more on taking off bike shoes on the bike.
• Get running shoes on faster. The zip bungee shoe laces have helped alot!

Run (10K/6.2 miles), 1:35:18

HORRIBLE RUN! I learned alot here tho.

• My brick training has really paid off, it does not hurt too bad off the bike. (Wanted to get the good out of the way, cause that really was the only good news on the run)
• The run is typically my weakness, the bike legs that work so well for me on the bike seem to get in the way on the run. I always feel so damn sluggish and uncoordinated. I’ve previously run 2 races at or over 6.2 miles (1:10 and 1:15 times each). I did not expect those times at this race being that I had already been in motion for over 2 hours. But I was shooting for more like 1:20 range.
• Nutrition. Here is where I failed. When I ran my half marathon I had carb packs with me and those helped alot. But in the last few months the carb packs have been giving me really really bad stomach cramps (this also includes Gatorade too). So long-story-short, I stopped taking em, because even in training it would be really painful. I stopped even trying em because it was hurting bad. Come run time … DEAD LEGS. My legs were nothing, my body was mush and my mind was spent.

Overall, 4:00:59

As I touched on in the bike portion, peaking. I really think I peaked (and possibly overtrained) 2 weeks prior to the event. I think this because I had nothing to give the week and a half after, and about 80% of that nothing left to give was mental. I was spent; didn’t want to get up to workout, didn’t want to come home and workout, nothing. It wasn’t there. This was a hard lesson.

Also, mentally come race day, was not even close to there/focused. Not sure why, but this is another aspect I need to really put some man hours into figuring out. It’s weird, I normally thrive under pressure on stuff, but in this case, I do worse. I put TOO MUCH pressure on myself to perform. In training I can kick some ass, in all events. But on race day, it’s like I force it and just don’t do as well.

I enjoyed the RedMan a TON, and look forward to doing it again next year. Although, next year, I’m shooting for the Half Ironman (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 run). Here’s to training!