Bengal Tri Race Report

The Bengal Triathlon was this past weekend. It's a sprint event that takes two days! We swim on Friday and then bike/run on Saturday morning. This year, the race had 178 racers, whereas only two years ago there was about 70 of us. The race is organized by Smitty Faure, the local tri club prez and overall awesome triathlete who has been on the national teams and travelled to Hungary. This is also a capstone event of some sort for college students in one of her classes, and I think that is really cool. This is supposed to be a small, local race that is inexpensive, has a great t-shirt, and gets people out and about in triathlon in Pocatello. This year was a RAVING SUCCESS! The shirt is a great long sleeve that is an incredibly bright orange (perfect for biking or running at dawn or dusk) and is the perfect weight to be worn every month of the year.

Overall Summary:  For me personally, I met my goals. Swim=9:26 versus goal of 9:45 (perfect goal of 9:20 barely missed!). Bike in about 29:30 versus goal of 30:00 (I must admit the 30:00 goal was for twelve miles and the course was only 11!). Run of 21:25 versus goal of 21:30. I had alot of  fun and met some new people, too.

Weather: Awesome weather on Saturday. About 35deg and sunny with very little wind. National Weather Service had the wind at "calm" although I could have swore there was a little headwind coming back on the out and back bike course! Anyway....we couldn't have asked for a nicer April morning in Southeast Idaho.

My attitude: I felt good going into this race physically and mentally. I set out some goals and then put them on this blog for the world to see. I'm happy to say I reached those goals. The last six weeks have been tough with newborn Noah and just some general tiredness of waiting for spring to get here. I probably peaked in mid-March as far as current fitness goes. But I have til the end of June to get that back and then some for the Pacific Crest Tri.

The swim: I felt good about the swim. Perfect goal of 9:20 missed by six seconds. I had to do three open turns because of my "lane mate" met me at the wall at the same time. I figure two seconds lost there for each open turn equals a total of six seconds I lost there, so I can then say I magically met my goal then of 9:20 if I could have done flip turns then (never mind the affects of the increased oxygen debt!). I swam hard. I think I went out way too fast, but I don't have any splits. At about 350 yards, I started thinking I might need to stop and take a break in a freakin' pool! I gathered myself together mentally and swam it in for a hard finish. I had a top ten time, with many of those other top-tenners being teenage swim-teamers. Go figure.... a friend's ten year old boy beat me by 10 seconds!

T1: Went home and had a nice chicken dinner with my sister and her family visiting for the weekend. Longest T1 ever!

The bike: Started great. Went hard on the way out. Beautiful morning. Pumped my legs really hard the entire way. Average cadence was 88, so that hit that goal. Passed a couple and got passed by four or five. Reality Check:  I busted my ass all winter on that trainer, and I don't think I got much better. We'll see when I head out on the 40k course for the first time in the near future, but for now I don't think I gained anything on the bike (serious bummer!).  Eleven miles in 29:30 puts my 40k at about 1:08 or so versus a goal of 1:00 - 1:04. Average heart rate of 165 is much higher than 154 average during last years' olympic races. Even with an expected higher rate during a sprint instead of an olympic distance, this is was higher than expected. I was thinking I'd come in at about 160. I guess that means I found a higher pain threshhold or I simply have a high lactate threshhold (which would mean I improved at something on the bike at least).

T2: Fast enough but could certainly have been faster. Took off several layers, including the pants.  At least I had the bike layers right because my body temp was just right.

The run: Went mostly as planned.  Left T2 with another guy, and he quickly dropped me (arghh!). I wanted to stretch out on the initial downhill, but it didn't really work that way. I was just focusing on turning over my legs. Downhilll almost all the way out, and then uphill almost all the way back. Still, I did a negative split.  10:55 going out and 10:30 coming back. Not sure how that happened other than the legs loosening up. I have done one transition run this year, and that is definitely evident. So I know I have the endurance and speed in my legs, I just need to work on that first two miles off the bike, which I have planned in the annual schedule to begin next week (normally around spring break, but that transition was pushed back to May 1 because of weather). Anyway, I ran it hard. Average heart rate of 168 is a bit higher than normal. I finished strong.

Where to from here?
1. I need to get outside and ride the bike. The magnetic trainer clearly is not the end all be all trainer item. I'm already planning to buy a fluid trainer for next winter season, mostly because this current trainer has a bad click/hum to it that it didn't previously have.

2. Happy Happy Happy with run capacity right now, but I need to get those transition runs in to minimize the slowness in the first 1.5-2 miles.  I clearly have the endurance, but that transition will be even more noticeable during an olympic distance race.

3. Happy with the swim time. I even think I've lost a bit of swim endurance during the past three weeks because of very little swim time. I need to re-commit to my 8k / week volume goal, and that includes hitting two OWS sessions beginning in mid-May (the lake is already full, but I'm not getting in that water right now!  lucky if it's even 45deg.).

4. I have seven weeks of good training available to me before I back off for the week of the Pacific Crest Tri. That's two good three-week cycles I can hit. I know I can improve on the bike in that time; I just have to get outside no matter what the temperature.

5. Losing this last ten pounds would do wonders all around.  Minimize wine and chocolate and other junk....uuhhh, yeah, this is where I need to prioritize triathlon appropriately with the other things in life(!).