Well, it was my first race since the Pittsburgh Marathon and I can say that even though I didn't have an incredible time, I was pretty happy with my performance on the Pittsburgh Triathlon. This was only my second Triathlon ever and my first Olympic (international) distance Tri. So I was really just happy to finish. Going into this race my only two goals were, and in this order: Number one; not drown on the swim and end up washed downstream to Emsworth Locks and Dam, and number two; Finish the race. Mission complete! So here goes for the race recap.
The train up:
Kim and I are still really new to the Triathlon scene so the train up for this race was a lot of trial and error. Add to that the fact that we had just come out of Marathon training for the Pittsburgh Marathon and were also training for the Chicago Marathon later this fall. So we needed to get a good plan together. We ended up going with a Balanced plan of two swims, two bikes and two runs a week. We also went with a plan that was based on training load vs mileage which was a new concept for us. Essentially with training load you are looking at using time based workouts where you will increase by 10% each week for three weeks and then have a recovery week where you scale it back by 40%. It sounds complicated, and it was when we got started but overall it was pretty successful. It was definitely a change though and as we got later into the plan and the times for the workouts increased it got increasingly more difficult to accomplish. I mean, who has time for a nearly three hour workout mid week when you work full time and have a toddler? I will do a separate post on how we worked through those issues but needless to say we had to get creative. For me the most difficult part was getting my swims in, biking and running are pretty accessible (especially when you have a treadmill and a trainer in the basement but the swims are harder to swing. We ended up getting a membership to a local pool which had 25m and 50m lanes which helped a lot. Kim was a competitive swimmer growing up so she was comfortable in the water, me...... lets just say the swim is something I need to work on. Anyway if you are interested here is the train up plan we used.
The train up:
Kim and I are still really new to the Triathlon scene so the train up for this race was a lot of trial and error. Add to that the fact that we had just come out of Marathon training for the Pittsburgh Marathon and were also training for the Chicago Marathon later this fall. So we needed to get a good plan together. We ended up going with a Balanced plan of two swims, two bikes and two runs a week. We also went with a plan that was based on training load vs mileage which was a new concept for us. Essentially with training load you are looking at using time based workouts where you will increase by 10% each week for three weeks and then have a recovery week where you scale it back by 40%. It sounds complicated, and it was when we got started but overall it was pretty successful. It was definitely a change though and as we got later into the plan and the times for the workouts increased it got increasingly more difficult to accomplish. I mean, who has time for a nearly three hour workout mid week when you work full time and have a toddler? I will do a separate post on how we worked through those issues but needless to say we had to get creative. For me the most difficult part was getting my swims in, biking and running are pretty accessible (especially when you have a treadmill and a trainer in the basement but the swims are harder to swing. We ended up getting a membership to a local pool which had 25m and 50m lanes which helped a lot. Kim was a competitive swimmer growing up so she was comfortable in the water, me...... lets just say the swim is something I need to work on. Anyway if you are interested here is the train up plan we used.
8
15 JUN
|
35-Swim
5x(kick 1 length, rest 15 sec, swim 1 length, rest 30 sec)
|
Off
|
58-Swim
|
Run- Sprint workout
3x1600 (400 RI)
|
Run- Tempo
2 Miles Easy
2 Miles ST
2 Miles Easy
|
Off
|
Long Run-
8 Miles at MP+30
|
6h 13m
| |
70-Bike
10 min easy, 15 min tempo, 5 min easy, 10 min tempo, 10 min easy, 15 min
tempo, 5 min easy
|
373m
| ||||||||
7
22 JUN
|
38-Swim
kick 2 lengths
swim 20 min
kick 2 lengths
|
Off
|
Run- Tempo
1 Mile Easy
5 Miles MP
1 Mile Easy
|
Run- Sprint workout
4x800 (2 min RI)
|
128-Bike
|
Off
|
Long Run-
9 Miles at MP+45
|
6h
49m
|
10%
|
77-Bike
17 min easy
17 min temp
8 min easy
8 min hard
10 min easy
10 min tempo
7 min easy
|
409m
| ||||||||
6
29 JUN
|
42-Swim
|
Off
|
70-Swim
|
Run- Sprint workout
1200, 1000, 800, 600, 400 (200 RI)
|
Run- Tempo
1 Mile Easy
5 Miles LT
1 Mile Easy
|
Off
|
Long Run-
10 Miles at MP+45
|
7h
30m
|
10%
|
85-Bike
20 min easy
10 min tempo
10 min easy
10 min tempo
10 min easy
10 min tempo
5 min hard
10 min easy
|
450m
| ||||||||
5
6 JUL
|
25-Swim
10x(kick 1 length, rest 15 sec)
swim 10 lengths non stop
|
Off
|
Run- Tempo
1 Mile Easy
4 Miles MT
1 Mile Easy
|
Run- Sprint workout
5x1000 (400 RI)
|
85-Bike
|
Off
|
Long Run-
11 Miles at MP+45
|
4h
30m
|
-40%
|
51-Bike
10 min easy
5x(3 min hard 3 min easy)
11 min easy
|
270m
| ||||||||
4
13 JUL
|
42-Swim
5x(swim 4 lengths, kick 1 length, rest 1 min)
|
Off
|
70-Swim
|
Run- Sprint workout
3x1600 (400 RI)
|
Run- Tempo
2 Miles Easy
3 Miles ST
1 Mile Easy
|
Off
|
Long Run-
12 Miles at MP+45
|
7h
30m
| |
85-Bike
20 min easy
10 min tempo
10 min easy
10 min tempo
10 min easy
10 min tempo
5 min hard
10 min easy
|
450m
| ||||||||
3
20 JUL
|
46-Swim
3x(1 length fast, 1 length easy; 2 lengths fast, 2 lengths easy; 1 length
fast, 1 length easy) rest 1 minute between sets
|
Off
|
Run- Tempo
1 Mile Easy
5 Miles MT
1 Mile Easy
|
Run- Sprint workout
2x1200 (2 min RI)
4x800 (2 min RI)
|
155-Bike
|
Off
|
Long Run-
14 Miles at MP+45
|
8h
14m
|
10%
|
93-Bike
10 min easy
30 min tempo
10 min easy
30 min tempo
13 min easy
|
494m
|
Peak
| |||||||
2
27 JUL
|
37-Swim
|
Off
|
62-Swim
|
Off
|
124-Bike
outdoors
|
Off
|
Run- Tempo
1 Mile Easy
6 Miles LT
1 Mile Easy
|
6h
36m
|
-20%
|
74-Bike
outdoors
|
37-Run
|
396m
|
Taper
| ||||||
1
3 AUG
|
23-Swim
|
Off
|
39-Swim
|
78-Bike
outdoors
|
Off
|
Off
|
RACE DAY-
Pittsburgh Triathlon
|
3h
30m
|
-30%
|
47-Bike
outdoors
|
23-Run
|
+Race
|
Taper
|
Pre-Race:
The race expo was held at Point State Park which is also where the actual race started and finished. It was also where the transition area was set up. This was nice in that you could get an idea of where things were going to be when you showed up at O' dark-thirty to get ready for your race. The expo was really small, and kind of lackluster. There were a couple of booths and a station to get your bike inspected. They also had a newbies meeting with a really good Q&A for those that had never done a TRI before which was a nice touch but with the size of this race combined with the Sprint and the Adventure race I expected a better expo. The few vendor booths they had set up were really just not that impressive. One thing that they did have which Kim and I didn't partake in was a swim session in the River so that you could get a feel for the water. I thought that that was a really good idea and, had we not been having childcare issues I probably would have taken them up on it.
Since we live right on the light rail line and since it worked out so well for us during the marathon we had planned to ride the T into the race on race morning. Little did we know that the T doesn't open up early enough to get in in time before the transition area closed. The transition area closed at 6:15 and the first train leaving our stop didn't leave until about 5:45. I wasn't going to try to cut it that close so we chose to pay the $10 to park and drive into the city. The good news was that at 5am on a Sunday there was no traffic and we cruised right in.
We got to the transition area and got checked in. They had a pretty good security system with your race number on everything to check in and out of transition and we posted up our bikes and running equipment with plenty of time to spare. We even had time to take a selfie.
The race:
Swim:
The race itself was really well organized I think. We walked out to the swim start, since there was a pretty small field (about 150 participants) for the International distance Tri they only had two waves. The first was all of the men and 5 minutes later was all of the women. It was an in-water start, so with about three minutes to go the race officials started having folks jump into the water. I have to say this was a little nerve wracking as it was about a four foot drop from the bank into the river but There was plenty of water there to keep from hitting bottom. I, not wanting to tread water for three minutes waited until they made the announcement that they needed ALL the swimmers in the water and I made the plunge. Shortly thereafter they called for the start and we were off and swimming. Now this is by far my most difficult event. In fact up until about two years ago I didn't even know how to swim with my face in the water and swimming one length of the pool was a struggle for me. Since then I have come a long way but I still swim more like a rock than a fish. The swim started off upstream on the Allegheny river and then crossed under all three of the "Three Sisters Bridges" before we saw our turning buoy and made the turn to head back downstream. Once heading downstream we were further out into the river which made it more difficult for me to sight the buoys but overall it went relatively smoothly. I was keeping with my race plan and keeping pretty good easy strokes and really focusing on my breathing. I also hadn't drowned yet when all of a sudden, BANG! somebody ran into me hard. I looked up and saw Kim's tri suit and her Pink goggles. She ran into me just under the last of the Three sisters. What are the chances that out of the 150 people in the water she would run into me. I was actually pretty happy about it though because that meant that Kim was having a really good swim. At that pace she was on track to pass a good portion of the men even though they all had a 5 min head start. The rest of the swim was uneventful and I made it safely back to shore without drowning. Success!
Transition 1:
The Swim to run transition was a really long one. We had to run almost a quarter of a mile from the Swim out point to the transition area. This was all on a hard concrete surface so it was pretty hard on the feet nothing impossible but not the greatest either. When I got into the transition area I knew just how poorly I had done on the swim when I only say a few bikes on the racks on the men's side. As it turned out I came in 132 out of 156, so it was a truly bad performance. I had a decent transition coming in at just about half way for the field in just over four minutes, which considering the run in, I think was pretty good. One thing I did forget to do though was to switch my watch over to biking so my transitions/biking stats area little off on Garmin Connect.
Bike:
The bike was my best event this race. The course was an out and back and was two loops. I knew that coming out of the water I was way behind so I tried to push hard on the bike. Pretty quickly I started passing people so I knew that I was on the right track. What I didn't realize was that the bike course had a monster climb on it. It wasn't that steep, but it was essentially a six mile climb and them a six mile descent for the first loop and then over again for the second. I ended up picking off quite a few people on the climbs which was nice but then I would get passed again by a few on the descents. I was wearing a regular buike jersey and I was on a standard road bike so the folks in tri suits and on tri bikes with aero bars could just get more aerodynamic than me. Lesson learned for next time. I did the best I could on the downhills though and got deep into the drops and kept pushing my biggest gear at around 90 rpms. With that it put me at right around mid way in the field. Considering this was my first race of this distance I was really happy with that time.
Transition 2:
The Bike to run transition was pretty easy. It was at the same location as the swim to bike so all o f my gear was already set up and I had already been there a few times so there was no confusion over where to go. Really nothing to report here, it was just a matter of slipping off the bike shoes and sliding into my running shoes and I was off. It took my just over 1:30 to complete the transition which put me at right about half way through the field again. Same as my first transition, which considering I haven't really worked on any strategies to make this go faster I figure is pretty good.
Run:
As per usual for me, coming off the bike my legs felt like a ton of bricks. I started running anyway and headed off to start the 10K. It was one of those sort of runs where you start bargaining with yourself. It started with the "I will stop to walk at the turn around point", and then once I reached the Turn-around, "I will stop to walk at the 4 mile mark", and then I reached the four mile mark and all of a sudden I was feeling pretty good. I wasn't moving along at a blazing speed but I had passed a few people and it got my energy going again. In fact a women I had been going back and forth with on the bike with I had caught back up to on the run. I then made it my goal to pace off of her and pull myself through to the finish. The course was a really pretty out and back along the riverfront so there was plenty to look at, although I don't think I actually looked at any of it. I was pretty focused and determined just not to give up at the end. I ended up finishing with an average time of about 9:30 miles. I know I can run a lot faster next time but at the beginning of this thing I only had two goals. Not drown...check, and finish...check. I can say I went out and did both of those with a smile. An added bonus was that I finally beat my wife on a long distance course. I almost always win when it is a shorter race (half marathon or below) but she has always won on the Marathon distance. This time I came out on top. Pretty good day for everyone!
Overall Impression:
The race itself was really well put together and well organized. There was good support on the run with water stops and the bike course was laid out so it was easy to understand. The Swim had plenty of support from life guards and the buoys used were easy to spot. The major gripes that I have with the race were in the details that surround the race. The expo was severely lacking. There wasn't much in the way of vendors and it was kind-of a big letdown. The finishers medals and the shirts were really boring as well. This must be a Pittsburgh thing because the finishers shirts for the Pittsburgh Marathon were boring too. Now those two things don't really matter for the race itself, and I would much rather have a well put together course than a nice shirt but it is definitely something they could work on for next year. The only major issue I had with the course was that the bike was mostly on the HOV lane of the Highway. Pittsburgh is a great city and there are lots of places that would be nice to show off and to see. The Pittsburgh Marathon did a great job of this and the swim and the bike routes were great in showing interesting parts of the city, but the bike route while not a bad place to go out and ride really didn't add anything extra to the experience. One thing I might add that the sponsor of this race is the Friends of the Riverfront, who built both the three rivers water trail and the three rivers heritage trail. Next time lets do the bike on the trails. I understand that this might be a logistical problem in closing off a popular trail but I am sure it could be done. I look forward to seeing what this race has in store for next year.
No comments:
Post a Comment