Pelican Fest Recap

So I thought it would be cool to step down from the olympic distance races and do a sprint this spring, plus the Pelican fest is about as local as it gets (nothing like getting up in my own bed when it is actually light out to do a race). Well it turns out that a few pros decided to show up and I figured, what the hell, I'll play along.

The swim start was aggressive, at least for what I was expecting. I put myself in the thick of it, determined to catch as fast a pack as I could. Even though I sprinted almost as hard as I could to the first buoy, I was still passing quite a few people a few minutes later, so I think that top end speed is something that still needs work. Or maybe I just didn't have enough time to warm up, since I didn't really feel smooth until the 2nd half the swim. Lindsey was on my right most of the way, which was her plan and also kept me from slacking off which I can sometimes do on the swim. It turns out we were in the 2nd pack about 1 minute behind the first pack and almost 3 minutes(!) behind Mark V.

Did the flying mount on my bike, except it was a little struggle to actually put my feet in the shoes - one of these days I will actually practice that, but I don't think I lost too much time there. After that it was put the head down and hammer for the 10 mile loop. I think I averaged a little higher than nationals (278W for the whole ride, 287 for the non-technical part), which is good considering the higher altitude. That got me 25.3 mph which is the first time I have averaged over 25 in a tri, but more importantly, the 3rd fastest bike split of the race, put me in 5th position.

T2 went pretty well, good dismount, but fumbled with the bike for a few seconds trying to get it to stay upright. Gave up on that after a couple tries and just put the shoes on and went. Immediately my stride felt pretty smooth and bouncy, so I thought I was going to have a pretty good run. 4th place was still far enough ahead that it was tough to tell if I was making up ground though, but went we went back by the TZ (about 2.5 miles), I was getting pretty close to him and he had also caught up with 3rd. Still, they were far enough away that I knew I was going to have to put it in the next gear to catch them by the line which was getting close. The layout of the run course had a lot of turns in the final 300 yards or so, but I came into 4th and was just 2 seconds off 3rd at the finish, with the fastest run split and a new 5K PR for me of 17:01. Always nice to get a run PR in a tri (and yes I believe the course was legit based on gmaps).

Now I know the 1st and 3rd guys were pros, and the guy in 2nd has also raced pro at some point I believe, so it was cool to be in that mix even though I didn't beat any of them. And I know this was none of their "A" races, but not mine either, as I did a pretty hard swim workout 2 days before and some hard bike and run intervals earlier in the week. Even so, knowing that I can bike and run at the level these guys are, and just a minute behind on the swim (so more like 2 minutes in an olympic), puts me where I want to be right now. The next 4 weeks will see me hit the pool pretty hard and put in a little more bike and run volume so I can be on top of my game at Boulder Peak.

So how long was that nationals swim, anyway?

We all know that an accurately measured swim course in a triathlon is about as rare as a liquor store in Lubbock. I happen to think I've been pretty lucky with swim courses so far, though, usually coming in within a minute or two of expectations. Given all that can go wrong in an open water swim, currents, pack dynamics, run up to transition, that is pretty much as well as one can hope for. But nationals was a different story, with all time goals going out the window when I came out of the water and saw my swim time.

That's why I think it's important to emphasize, especially to those coming from swim and track programs, that there is a difference when you go to open water swims and variable difficulty courses. In the pool or on the track, your time is your time, whereas in triathlon, it's all about who you beat compared to last time.

That being said, can we determine how long the swim at nationals was? Fortunately, about a month before nationals, many of the same athletes competed at lake Havasu which I feel was pretty spot-on in terms of swim distance. So, I took a sample of all men and women that competed at both Havasu and nationals, and started looking at statistics. First, the correlation (r=0.947) was very good and tells us that the havasu time was a very good predictor of nationals time. The average time difference was 5 minutes, but this can't be applied across the board because, assuming the swimmer swam at the same speed for both courses, the slower swimmer will have a greater time differential, since the time to swim the same incremental distance will be longer.



Instead, the ratio of nationals to havasu times should be the best indicator of course length. Using this metric, on average nationals times were 19.3% slower than Havasu, with a standard deviation of 5.5%. This gives a course length (assuming Havasu = 1650 yds) of 1968 yds, plus or minus 90 yards. So to get your 'real' swim time, divide by 1.193.

There are a couple of factors this analysis doesn't account for. First, swim paces should slow when swimming a longer distance. However, I don't think this is too big of a factor because a triathlon swim is usually not done at the 100% effort (to save for the bike and run), so when a course ends up being long by a bit, it should not be necessary to slow down. Another factor is the impact of tapering from havasu to nationals, meaning that most athletes should be faster at nationals than at havasu. This might explain some of the lower percent differentials from havasu to nationals, the lowest of which was 11%, and could bias the distance correction to be a little short. Use of wetsuit was also not controlled for, but should be a minor factor since I think most people that had wetsuits in havasu had the same wetsuit at nationals.

Brief synopsis of what I learned in 2008, plus, extra info that can help triathletes.

Train with a HRM. Don't train on ego, and beat your teamates in easy practices. These should be easy days, and not mini races. Train hard only when you have the base to do so (usually at least four weeks). When training hard limit yourself to two days a week of doing so, and no more than three intervals per week (one in each sport). This means that if doing three intervals (hard days) on one of those days you need to double up and do intervals in two sports. Make sure you have one long (easy - mod effort) day in per week for each discipline.

Train with fluids and foods especially when you are going long. In training the average person should take in the fluid equivalant of one water bottle on hr along with 200 calories, if the training session is longer that 1.5 hrs. In races you should shoot for 2 bottles per hour on the bike. Especially in Irons and Halfs. Also in longer races (Irons and Halfs) one should shoot between 350 calories - 500 calories an hour.

As for olympic distances you do not need to eat anything. Sports replacement drinks, and if you like, gels, are another option. About 1.5 to 2 drinks and 200 calories per hr is what you want to shoot for here. Since olympic distance are shorter and faster, it will be harder to digest. So, you need to find out what works for you when you are going hard.

Longer distance races require the intake of extra sodium (especially when it is hot). This especially true if you are succeptible to cramping. If you are thinking of going this route, you need to practice with salt capsules. The best one is salt tabs. In order to absorb the salt into your bloodstream optimally, one should chew the tablet and quicky drink some sports replacement drink to avoid the nastiness. This tidbit of information was posted by Mark Allen. After I took the advice practicing chewing the tablet and racing like that, I noticed a great difference.

Also, a Hrm in an Iron and even a half can be very useful. Keep in mind that most of the Half will be anaerobic, so do not worry about going over the limit. In an Iron however you need to conserve energy, and need to be careful how hard you go. Personally you want energy for the run, so take in calories, fluids, salts, and don't go too hard on the bike and swim. This is relative of course, so use good judgement.


Always have a warmup and warmdown.

Stretch after workouts.

And finally practice, practice, practice...

MCTC Training Camp Tucson

The First MCTC Winter Training Camp was fantastic. Everyone had a great time, made new friends, got a tan, lost their eggrolls, and enjoyed the awesome weather. I encourage every CSU'er to go to this camp in the future, it was a blast and very inexpensive. The U of A put on a great camp, and their corral (yee ha) of athletes was very easy to get along with. We did some great swim workouts, that were among the longest sets some of us have ever done, rode up Mt. Lemmon, and even hugged cactuses (yes, you can say cactuses not cacti, I wikied it). So kudos to U of A. Now all the rest of CSU needs to do is HTFU and go to the camp next year.

Chris

What we want for Christmas.

Recently I got asked by a triteam member "What should I ask my parents for Christmas that will help me in triathlon". The basics in this sport are basically clothes, bike, keeping bike in good shape, and good running shoes (updated every 300-400 miles) at your local running store. Why your local running store? Well, it is because they fit you for the right shoes so you don;t get injured. Other than these items, the most important part of triathlon is being healthy (mentally and physically). In order to do this, you need to train smart. So, a great present to ask for, if you don't have one, would be a Heart Rate Monitor. And whether or not you have that make sure you google the most appopriate ways to use it. This can be attained by looking up Mark Allen + HRM, the maffetone method, slowtwitch, or Brad Kearns. All of the sites that you will be led to will help you in understanding how to train properly. If you have any questions, you can ask a more experienced member on the team, like myself.

Chris

ps. make sure you stretch after every workout. If it is freezing outside, get inside quick and stretch there. plus, within 15 min. after every workout grab a snack, and within the hour get a meal to recover properly. also make sure you are fueled for your workouts.

Races so far...

Hey this is Chris Viskup from the triteam reporting. Some good news this summer so far. Joe "Inspector Gadget" Munchak qualified for the Ironman World Championships in Kona with his stellar performance of 9:48:10 (1st place Age Group, 28th overall) at a very hilly Ironman Coeur d Alene. He said he will now be training to beat former Olympian Andy Potts in Kona (well aren't we all). Josh Kantor also finished his first Half Iron in Boise with an impressive time of 6:04:18. Josh also raced an olympic distance too with a PR (i don't know the race or the time), but I heard that not only is he getting fast but that he has buns of steel. The only other race I know about is myself at the Connecticut state championships (even though I am from NY) getting 2:04:49 (11th overall, 1st age group) on a very hilly Olympic course (but with a long swim, short ride, Long run // somehow they never get the actual distance right). Didn't even know it was there state race till after the race (just because NY doesn't host one). BTW, el Presidente Roberto "Beater" Howard got our team sponsored by Rudy Project. Congrats Rob.

Welcome

I decided to set up this blog as a way to communicate over the summer, and if it works we can keep it going next year. I know with the listserv and facebook group this might be getting redundant but each person has their own preference for communication so I thought I'd try this as another option. There a few advantages to this format such as easy posting of pictures and the ability to have discussions which wouldn't easily be handled in a mass email or facebook format. Here are a few notes to get started:

1. Only invited people can create posts, but anyone can view or comment. I can change these settings if people would like.
   
2. For some reason the posts take a minute or two to show up, but that shouldn't be a huge problem.
3. Right now only officers/coaches are able to post. Anyone else will need to email me if you want to join.
4. I will get around to editing the template and adding some pictures at some point.
   

I think that's all for now. I know some of you were interested in half ironman training tips for over the summer so I may make that the subject of a later post. Hopefully Wendy can comment as well.

-Joe