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Race Result
| Racer: |
Richard Gendron |
| Race: |
Luray Sprint Triathlon |
| Date: |
Sunday, August 17, 2008 |
| Location: |
Luray, VA |
| Race Type: |
Triathlon - Sprint |
| Age Group: |
Male 40 - 44 |
| Time: |
1:30:41 |
| Overall Place: |
24 / 400 |
| Age Group Place: |
3 / 51 |
| Comment: |
One of the Best Tris Ever |
Race Report:
This race was awesome. I can't say it was any one thing. There was perfect weather, beautiful course, awesome competitors, good friends at the race, and a singular learning experience. TriRats took some serious silverware (wine glasses actually) home. I was particularly proud of Dario (2nd in 40-45) and Nathan (2nd in 25-29) and all the Rats that competed and officiated (thanks Mike Tine). Even before we raced we were hearing about the great results for Dave Cascio and Kevin Kunkel among others.
I'm happy with results, I executed exactly what I had planned and trained for, but discouraged by power data. I was also surprised to get penalized for blocking. Mike K, the guy I supposedly blocked, was as surprised than I was, but what can you say - a call is a call.
Course
Swim course was a counter-clockwise triangle, leg one was nice and easy with good reference points from the mtns. Leg 2 was directly into the sun with little opportunity to get a fix on anything other then the folks ahead, leg three was the easiest, coming back to the beach. Bike course was 16.5 mile lollipop of rolling country roads, with two major hills on the lollipop stick. The toughest being about a 500 yard 8% grade. run course was also rolling hills, out and back.
Getting Psyched Down
After Culpepper, I had a dream. My knee doctor sat me down and said "there was nothing wrong with you Rich, you just went out too fast". In all the post race analysis, I realized that I was getting myself pumped up before each event, the way I used to for Judo or Boxing - great for anaerobic events, bad for triathlons. So at Luray, I psyched down. From 7:40 to 7:55 I kicked back in the back of my SUV with some mellow music and concentrated on lowering my resting heart rate. I then got settled and started a warm up at 8:00. I started bike warm up exactly 1 hour prior to race time, and finished at 8:30. In the water at 8:45 and out at 8:58. Guzzle one bottle of water and start in wave 5, at 9:15.
Swim - 8/51, 58/281 - 13:53
I REALLY enjoyed this swim. I kept telling myself, "the swim is just the price of entry, relax and enjoy". I got into a nice easy stroke early and found a few groups to draft behind. I had to rearrange before turn one, but stayed clear of traffic otherwise.
T1 - 2/51, 8/281 - 1:36
I took it really easy in the sand, since I had identified it as a potential point of "going out too hard" in the past. Otherwise uneventful.
Bike - 2/51, 7/281 - 48:15
Got off to a bad start. As I mounted, my pedal flipped and my shoe hit the ground, coming out of the pedal, I had to turn back and grab it, then pedal bare foot on Shimano SPD-SL (owe) - shoe in hand. Once I got my shoes sorted I did not blow up on the initial hill out of T1. I focused on my PT and kept the watts on the low side of my target power. All went according to plan, until Mike Krongaard passed me. This is the very first time I've been passed by someone in my age group on the bike. "Forget your strategy, CHASE THAT GUY". Mike and I settled into a classic battle for the lead over the entire 16 mile course. He passed me on the uphill sections and I would catch him on the downhills and flats. Just looking at him, I knew I would lose major time to him in the run so I was desperate to put time on him on the bike. Much to his credit, Mike clawed his way back to me every time tried to create the gap. In the last third of the race I though I had put a good gap on Mike. I took the first of two hills conservatively, just north of target power. As I crested the hill, the easiest line was basically down the middle of the road. To my surprise, Mike passed me at that point (over the imaginary yellow line) right in front of one of the two officials on the course. I did not know it, but that is what blocking is - I was penalized 2:00 for that. I passed him back and then we started up the killer hill. Half way up we were neck and neck- that's when I decided to try and crack him, I upshifted, stood up and accelerated away from him. To my surprise, he did not/could not/would not respond, so I crested and took big risks getting into t2. Little did either of us know that Dario Tirado was sitting a bit back from us the whole time, just waiting for the run to start.
Despite finishing ahead of him, mike had eaten into some of my swim advantage so he beat me in the Bike leg by 30 seconds. we went 5th and 7th overall in the bike leg.
Power Data at bottom - Top speed 48.2 !!! I am pleased that NP and Avg Power are very close. I'm starting to learn pacing on hills.
T2 - 10/51, 50/281 - 0:59
Uneventful, saw mike pulling on his shoes as I left T2.
Run - 12/51, 71/281 - 24:00
My prediction did not take long. About 800 meters into the run, Mike passed me at a clip that I thought would be a sub 20 5k. A bit later, around mile 1, Dario did the same. I started to figure out that I was going to take a penalty, so I had to run hard if I was going to have a shot at third place. In retrospect I ran too conservatively, I could have put out more, but was taking the uphill portions slowly. I managed sub 8:00/mile, good for me.
Penalty 2:00
I learned what blocking is, and I won't be doing that again.
Power Data
Entire Bike Leg, plus 22 sec:
Duration: 48:37
Work: 641 kJ
TSS: 82.5 (intensity factor 1.01)
Norm Power: 237
VI: 1.08
Pw:HR: -3.48%
Pa:HR: 11.91%
Distance: 17.648 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 815 220 watts
Heart Rate: 157 175 167 bpm
Cadence: 30 152 87 rpm
Speed: 2.8 48.2 21.8 mph
Pace 1:15 21:27 2:45 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 314 81 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 820 218 lb-in
Peak 30min (230 watts):
Duration: 30:01
Work: 415 kJ
TSS: 52.6 (intensity factor 1.026)
Norm Power: 241
VI: 1.05
Pw:HR: -6.21%
Pa:HR: 13.12%
Distance: 10.849 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 679 230 watts
Heart Rate: 158 175 166 bpm
Cadence: 35 124 86 rpm
Speed: 7.8 36.4 21.7 mph
Pace 1:39 7:40 2:46 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 314 84 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 820 231 lb-in
Ratio to Top 5 - .87936
Weight - .91
Score .8002
Year's Total - 3.1733 (Enough for 7th in last year's standings)
Patriot and GA left
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