Minneapolis Lifetime Triathlon
Saturday July 8, 2017
1.5k/40k/10k
I like my race weight to be down around 195. At the start of the year, I was up about 15 pounds. It used to be I could lose 10 pounds in a few weeks, now it takes me half a year to lose 15. Oh well, at least I made it. I knew it was going to take a while this year so I tracked my weight. Here is the data.
Swim (0.93 Miles)
Goal: Fast
Actual: Good Enough
It was a beautiful day for a race. No wind, low humidity with a temp that started around 70° and moved up to around 80°. The water temp was just barely wetsuit legal, and I wore my sleeveless suit for the first time. Good choice, even without sleeves I was getting a little warm on the swim.
The swim started out going east, and that put the first turn right in the teeth of the sun. I couldn't see the buoy through the water reflection until I was right on top of it. After the first turn sighting was easier, but then my goggles started to fail. I had to stop twice to empty the water out of my goggles. I think this pair is about two years old, I suppose it's time for some new.
We started out two at a time in a time trial start. I must have been near some slow swimmers because it felt like I left everyone behind and swam alone for quite a while. After about 20 minutes I caught up to a pod ahead of me, and the fasts from the wave behind also caught me. There were a fair amount of weeds at the end of the swim, but overall it was a great swim.
Goal: Fast
Actual: Good Enough
It was a beautiful day for a race. No wind, low humidity with a temp that started around 70° and moved up to around 80°. The water temp was just barely wetsuit legal, and I wore my sleeveless suit for the first time. Good choice, even without sleeves I was getting a little warm on the swim.
The swim started out going east, and that put the first turn right in the teeth of the sun. I couldn't see the buoy through the water reflection until I was right on top of it. After the first turn sighting was easier, but then my goggles started to fail. I had to stop twice to empty the water out of my goggles. I think this pair is about two years old, I suppose it's time for some new.
We started out two at a time in a time trial start. I must have been near some slow swimmers because it felt like I left everyone behind and swam alone for quite a while. After about 20 minutes I caught up to a pod ahead of me, and the fasts from the wave behind also caught me. There were a fair amount of weeds at the end of the swim, but overall it was a great swim.
Swim Time: 29:34 with a 1:48/100yards average
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| Swim Exit |
Swim Rank
235 out of 582 finishers
235 out of 582 finishers
169 out of 404 males
24 out of 65 age groupers
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| My time is noted in the green interval. |
T1
Goal: Run, don't walk
Actual: That's not asking much.
Over the last year I've gotten into the habit of walking through transitions. It's a dumb way to build up time, and I expected I would need every second for my goal at this race. My last Olympic race was a couple years back, and I clocked a 3:09 on a course that was a little long. I figured I would be able to hit 3:05, but I really wanted to break 3 hours. So, I ran into transition and got on my bike as quick as I could. My transition time was right on average with the field. For field and male averages, check the stacked time graph at the end of this post.
T1 Time: 3:33
Position
235 out of the water
251 out of T1 (582 racers)
Bike (24.5 miles)
Goal: About 1:20, beat 18mph
Actual: Boom Bitches!
This was a closed bike course. The roads were still a little tight even without cars, so I can understand why they close the area down.
I had gotten more comfortable on my bars since the NewBriTri. I got in 30, 40 and 50 mile rides between the races, and that made all the difference. There were a lot of flats to the course and a lot of curves/turns; there were not many hills. My garmin has crapped out for elevation, but it's safe to say there wasn't a great deal of climb when compared to my route at home.
I flew along pretty good, and stuck to a higher gear than what is common for me. There were a couple guys that I passed/passed me about four of five times. I was faster on the flats and the uphill, but they had the guts to fly on the downhill parts. I am totally a wuss on the downhill parts and often ride my breaks. Not a problem; I knew I was clocking a good time. If I was slower maybe I would have opened it up a bit on the downs. This was the fastest bike split I have ever had.
Bike Time: 1:14:42 with a 19.7 mph average
Bike Rank
314 out of 582 finishers
261 out of 404 males
39 out of 65 age groupers
T2
Goal: Fast
Actual: Yup
I had a fast T2. I felt good and I was optimistic for the run ahead.
T2 Time: 1:53
Position
272 off the bike
261 out of T2
Run (6.2 miles)
Goal: Beat a 10 min/mile average
Actual: An All-timer
The only thing I knew about the run course was that it was a double loop. I had no idea if there were any hills. Coming out of T2, I could see that I had years of time to beat 3 hours. As long as I didn't blow up completely; I should be fine. Ten or eleven minute miles would have been enough.
It turns out the the run course is wildly flat! There were no climbs of consequence, and only one or two inclines of nuisance. Plenty of folks passed me (as usual), but I passed a few as well.
I did the first couple miles in about a 9:00 average. I was getting a little concerned that I might blow up, but this turned out to be my day. After the third mile, the course looped and I knew there were no worries. I kept my fastest pace possible without having to walk it off. I had the course short by about a tenth of a mile, but both my watch and the official time had it as my fastest 10k in over two years.
Run Time: 56:36 with a 9:08 min/mile average
Run Rank
354 out of 576 run times
273 out of 399 male times
41 out of 63 age group times
There were a lot of handouts in the shoot. I took one of everything, and looked kind of greedy. Naturally, someone got a pic.
Total Time: 2:46:16
312 out of 582 finishers
244 out of 404 males
37 out of 65 age groupers
Stacked Time Comparison
I cut 23 minutes off my previous Olympic time. I beat the field average for the swim, bike and total. I beat the male average for the swim. I'm quickly approaching the point where I'm only going to break personal records with some serious training. I suppose that's not the worse thing in the world. Great race, great day.
