Colchester Triathlon 2014

Sadly, there will be no results to post this year, because the race was called due to thunderstorm**.  Shortly before 8am, they announced that the race would be delayed at least an hour, and they would make the call at 9am.  Just before 9, the skies opened, lightning flashed, and everyone mourned.  Even rained out, this was still a wonderful event to attend, chatting with volunteers and hopeful participants.  I'll be back next year.

Still, it is a little weird to have all this swag for an event that didn't happen.  I guess now I know what it's like to own a "Denver Broncos 2014 Superbowl Champions" t-shirt.

** Apparently, the Lake Placid Ironman Triathlon was affected by the same storm, but I don't see any news of that posted yet.  And, of course, the rain stopped here around 11am, and the skies had brightened and the sun is threatening to show itself around noon.  Sigh.

2013 Colchester Triathlon

Pictured, at least a few people finished behind me on the swimming. 

Sunday was the 29th annual Colchester Triathlon, and my fourth, and the results are in (actually, the results were immediately in, because this year we had anklets with chip timers in them).

Also, for the first time since I began participating, the transition times were broken out from the race times.  Now I'm not sure whether I actually did better than my last year's times, or whether I was actually slower on the racing legs because last year's racing legs included the transition times.  I think, maybe, or maybe am just hoping, that it's the former.

This year vtsportsimages got nearly everyone on the swim, bike, and running legs, so I now have a swimming picture (see how kind I was to wear a rash guard so you're not blinded by my pasty white flesh?) to go with last year's cycling picture (apparently, I look more or less exactly the same on a bike from year-to-year).  I will not be showing a running picture until I learn how to run properly, or at least look like I'm running in the picture.  :-)

Takeaways:

1. I was advised to get a wetsuit.  Maybe if I can find one on clearance.
2. My conditioning was better, but could still be improved.  A couple of spectators were alarmed by my loud breathing (I do that even when I've only been running 5 minutes, much less 25; I'm like Monica Seles out there, only if she sang snatches of "I Wanna Be Sedated" during the bike leg).

Primary goal for next year: wetsuit or no, improve that swim time.  I'm finishing 96th on the swim, 83rd on the cycling**.  That's not good enough for someone who considers himself a swimmer.  I know I can crack 2min/100 yards, so there has to be more pool/lake time next year.  A better running time will have to flow from improved conditioning through swimming; at 40+ years and a 6'5" 200+lb body, I simply can't commit to doing more running to train (the wear and tear would be too much).

** Note: All Sports Events has an interesting concept of how far 1/2 a mile is.  An 18:34 1/2 mile is closer to a 2:15 / 100yds pace than a 3:27 / 100yds pace. 

2012 Colchester Triathlon

It looks like I'm riding
a toy bike

Yesterday was the 28th annual Colchester Triathlon, and my third.  This year, I had a road (touring) bike instead of my hybrid, pictured right (purchased from vtsportsimages' smugmug account).

They've posted the results in PDF format, so it will take me a little while to get it into my preferred spreadsheet format, but it's clear that:

1. the road bike made a huge difference, beating my previous cycling best by 5 minutes (instead of being passed left and right, I was only being passed left),
2. the low lake levels shortened the swimming leg relative to last year, and
3. my conditioning could be a lot better (28 minutes to walk/run 5k is too slow)

Next year: improve my overall conditioning so that my legs aren't dead at the start of the bike/run transition, and so that I spend less time walking in order to get my breathing/heart rate under control.  I should be able to get to 1:20:00 "just" doing that.


UPDATE: spreadsheet up

Colchester Triathlon: Week 1 training results

Last Friday I decided that I would try to get in enough shape to do the Colchester Triathlon, at least to finish, and ideally under 1:30:00.  The course is a 1/2 mile swim, 12 mile bike ride, and 3 mile run; close to 1/20/5 km.  I like that, but better yet if the bike ride were 15km.  I'm going to try not to dwell on this too much, but looking at the 2009 results, the run and swim times are roughly equal**, but a disproportionate amount of the race time is spent on the cycling.  This is especially unfortunate because it seems to me to be the leg in which the (really expensive) equipment is closest to being as important as the athlete -- the "cheap" Trek triathlon bikes are nearly $2,000.  By contrast, you can easily spend under $200 (combined) for a good racing suit, goggles and running shoes.


At any rate, the good news of the first week of training is that, even when tired at the end of the day, I can maintain a decent jogging rate that does about 3 miles in 25 minutes.  I'll take 12kph on the last leg of the tri, but if I can up that to 15kph, that would be better.


The iffy news is that I did 12 miles in 50 minutes on my Trek 7100 (yes, it's not a racing cycle, that's why I'm grumbling about the bike leg being so long  ;-).  24kph won't cut it on the bike; I have to get that under 45 minutes (26.67kph) and ideally under 40 (30kph).  Toe clips are high on my priority list (no, they didn't come with the bike and I just never bothered to get them before) and frankly I'm hoping that just getting the clips will bring my time under 45 (no, I don't know anything about racing bicycles, so this may be wishful thinking).  Alternatively, I could rent a racing bike, but since this is my first tri, let's do this in baby steps.


A big unknown at the moment is the swim leg.  I jumped in the pool at the Y today and casually swam 1200 yards in 20 minutes (i.e., swimming at a pace I could keep up more or less indefinitely), but I've never swum competitively in open water.


** and bully for the Colchester on that score!  My impression is that the swimmers usually get screwed because the swim leg of most sprint triathlons appears to be 500-600 yards (to be fair, I think this is because the swim leg is in a pool, and the swim leg has to be abbreviated simply to accommodate all the racers, but it still stinks).  Making the swimming and running legs roughly equal is a huge step in the right direction.  Shrink the biking to 15km and it's still the longest leg, but much closer to being fair.