Race: USA Triathlon Age Group Short Course (“Standard” aka “Olympic”) National Championship
Venue: Cleveland along Lake Erie
Weather: Air 68F @ start, water 76; 78 F @ finish; 10 mph north (cross, except for the start of the swim) wind
Date: August 10, 2019
I entered this race in order to qualify for the ITU World Championships in Edmonton, Canada, August 2020. At my age, that’s actually pretty easy to do. I’m doing this race in the midst of a serious final three month prep for IM Hawaii, Oct 12, 2019.
The week before I really backed off on both bike and run, both for a bit of recovery/consolidation and as a taper for the USAT NC. As a result, my CTL went from a peak of 130 the week before, to peak of 124 the day of the race (Saturday). I hit a TSB of + 19 the day of the race, so I was in good form. And it showed while racing.
I felt really good, both during the race and afterwards. The swim was a bit tough, at least the first 150 meters or so, which were into a wind-blown choppy 6 foot Lake Erie swell (not like ocean waves). The swim was shortened to 750 meters as a result. The bike was the fastest split I can remember – 1:07:18, the fastest in my AG. I’m sure I went faster sometime before 2009, but not by much; I’m sure I never went faster than 22.5 mph in an Oly bike – that’s better than most of my Sprints. The course was mostly flatish, but had a fair number of rises, bridges (nothing steep; 955′ elevation gain), and turns which required a bit of skill and attention beyond just head down motoring. I had all the power I wanted and needed to be ready for the run; after the first five minutes of “warm-up”, my IF was 0.9 for an hour, with a VI of 1.03, reflecting the turns, descents, and periods of enforced drafting. I was in a wave with all the 60+ men. I found myself in a group of 5-6 60-64s, who coalesced into an effective, but rather tight pack. I tried being at the front, or off the back a bit, but the former was too much work, and the later was too easy, but too slow. So after about 4-5 miles, I let them go about 150 meters up the road, and things went much smoother.
I was a bit cooked at the start of the run, which began with a fair amount of 2-3% uphill over the first 3 miles. I slowly wound up my effort level, reflected in my average HRs/mile of: 127, 129, 132, 136, 137, 140, 145 (last 0.2). I swear I never looked at my power on the bike, nor my HR on the run – I did the whole thing by feel, which is my goal when racing. I ended up 5th in my AG, exceeding my expectations. Since the top 18 in the 69-73 group (to reflect the AG at next years WC) make the Team, qualifying was, as I expected, pretty easy.
Reflecting back on the day the following morning, I realised it was one of those races (there have only been about 5 or 6 in my life, last @ IM MD 2016) where I felt completely satisfied with my performance, the time, the pacing, the total focus and response to any challenges along the way. What amazed me most was not my time nor my place, but rather how I felt during all three legs. I felt like I was working very hard, but that I was easily capable of working at that level, and I was pushing within 1-2% of the maximum possible – anything more, and I felt like I would have risked blowing up. Of course, I don’t usually take it easy during the 3-4 days before an Oly, as I did for this race; maybe that had something to do with how good I felt. But in the end, it was both Mission Accomplished on the day, and a great confidence boost for the upcoming Hawaii IM.