Rev3 Knoxville Olympic Pre-Race Report

Hard to believe it, my first "A" Race of the season is here.  Revolution 3 Knoxville Olympic! I am excited, anxious, and slightly nervous for this race.  A great mix of emotions is in the air.  This will be my first Olympic distance race.  The distances do not scare me, I know I am more than capable of doing the distances, the big question becomes, how will I do at pacing the race since I have not done this distance before. 

Swim:
1.5k - Starting upstream and then heading back downstream makes this course fairly easy to navigate and sight.  Hopefully this means I will not swim out of line too much.  This will be my first open water swim of the year.  Thankfully I will have my TYR Cat 5 Wetsuit all ready to go.  I am aiming to do the swim in 25 minutes.  This is about a 1:30/100 yd pace.  I can typically hold that in the pool, so hopefully adding a wetsuit and not too much swimming in the wrong directions will get me right at this goal. 

Transitions:
Last weekends transitions went very well, so I hope to bring that forward, add in some complexity of getting the wetsuit off for the first time in a race this year.  Since I do not know how the whole transition area is laid out I am giving myself 5 minutes total for transitions, this should be high, but I want to make sure I give myself sufficient time since I do not know the layout. 

Bike:
I will be riding my Kestrel Airfoil Pro SL again this week.  I like the aggressive position and comfort it provides me.  I have put all my miles on this bike so far, so I am naturally most comfortable on this.  I presume later in the year I will be riding my 4000, that is going to be the long course bike for the time being since I can get so low with the Airfoil!  From what I have seen, this course is pretty low winds, so I will be rolling on the HED Stinger 9s and wheel cover again.  Outside of a few climbs, they should get me some good aero benefit when I can push the pedals on some flats.   I have had some good training rides of 1:30 and pushing 240 watts or so as well as running well off those rides.  I am going to aim for around 245 watts again as I am pretty sure my legs will hold up.  The biggest question for me is how the heat will affect me either on the bike or the run after this effort. 

I want to get the most from my bike split as possible without killing my run, and since this distance is new, I am not sure where my breaking point is going to be located, so why not push the upper end of it for this race and find out!  I hope to bike the course in around 1:10

Run:
After last weekends performance at the Siouxperman Triathlon and my first sub 20-minute 5k, I am finally feeling confident about my run.  I know a 10k is twice as long, but I hope to hold a pretty similar pace.  I have done 6:45 pace following one of the 1:30 rides at 240, so I think that is a realistic goal. I am aiming to hit 42 minutes on the run.  Do not go out too fast, make sure to spray down the Avia Bolt IIs with some Tri-Slide, and then at some point hold on for dear life on the run! 

Overall: 
I am shooting to go 2:20 for this race.  I think it is an aggressive goal seeing as my times above add up to 2:22, but I know I am capable of doing this time.  This is another race where seconds are going to add up over the event.  I am now finding as I set goals that I am getting more and more conscious of the little things that eat up a couple of seconds here or there.  Those could make or break the goal!  I am really looking forward to hanging out with Team Trakkers at the race and cheering others on!  Weather is looking 50/50 right now, hopefully it holds off on Sunday and makes for a great race.

Since this is my first race at the Olympic distance, I am looking to test my body and see what to expect down the road.  I am out to have some fun, and enjoy a long weekend in the company of some pretty cool people! 

Souixperman Pre-Race Report

Here we are... nearly 8 months since the last race... wow that is depressing considering the swim for One Last Tri was quite cold temps and I would not even think of getting in a lake right now.  Why do I live in Minnesota again?  Last year, I kicked off the season in Alexandria, MN with the Chain of The Lakes Tri.  Check out the RR to see the amazing conditions we had.... This year I was going to be crazy and take a gamble on the weather being nicer, but then realized that my wife's grandparents would be celebrating their 60th Wedding Anniversary that weekend in western Iowa.  60 years of marriage trumps the chance I would need to put studs in my tires to even race!

I was randomly searching on the interwebz one day and found a tri not too far from where we would be, and hey it happened to be on the same weekend!  What a coincidence!  After getting a seal of approval, my wife's step-father and I signed up.  Another pool swim and outdoor bike/run, early season, yet only 1 week ahead of Knoxville!

Swim: 300 Yard pool swim - This is my normal warm-up set, not counting drills.  I have been prepping for the REV3 Knoxville Olympic, so I will be doing this swim based on the Oly training, nothing specific for short burst distances.  6 laps... I just got an email saying it was changed from serpentine style to swimming in your own lane.  Based on my training, I seeded myself at 4:15, a 1:25/100 yard pace.  I am pretty confident in this pace, depending how busy the lanes are, I may be able to go quicker, especially since it is all done in the same lane and no ducking of ropes is required. Any seconds gained in the swim will go a long way overall I think. 

Transitions: I say 2 minutes total for transitions 1 and 2 combined.  I should be able to move quite quickly through these and use them as a practice go for Knoxville.  There will be no flying mount/dismount, but hopefully a non-eventful transition, unlike One Last Tri where my chain had somehow fell from the big ring to the bottom bracket between my practice ride and when I left T1, I got clipped in and went straight onto my side. Transition times will also be key to a competitive overall time.

Bike: Time to bust out the Kestrel Airfoil Pro SL for the race.  Along with the bike will be the HED Stinger 9s and disc cover!  Needless to say, I am pumped to get this thing out and see what it can do.  25k bike.  Here is the route.  Pretty simple out and back with only a few corners.  Elevation change is pretty minimal, so barring any crazy winds, this could be a speedy ride.  Downhill the first 4 miles, which puts me on the straight away, then climbing to the turn around point around 7.75 miles or so, then downhill a couple of miles, and finally a gradual gain to the end from mile 11.  My goal is to push about 240 watts the entire time.  I will not try to speculate what that will get me for speed, but if the wind is not too strong, this may be a blistering fast ride. In the big picture, I am going to have to be one of the fastest bike splits out there if I want a chance at the big picture.  I know I need to have a lead going into the run.

Run: 5k on a bike trail. I am feeling quick on my feet, and have set a goal to run a sub 20 minute 5k in a tri.  Will it be this day?  Who knows.  That gives you a guess as to what I am going to push for a pace. I am a bit on the fence about setting a goal for the run... why? Well because I would love to run a sub 20 5k as stated above.  What if that isn't good enough for the day?  Will I be disappointed because I may have higher expectations for the day?  My brick last week went really well and were much longer distances, so I think the formula for success includes a little race day adrenaline, combined with it being the first race as a Trakker, and some high expectations of myself. 

Overall: Use this race to fine tune a few things before Knoxville.  My brick gave me a good idea of what I can push for watts on the bike and not kill my run, but this race should let me pair that with what I can physically and mentally hold on for the run.  I am getting pretty excited for the season to kick off and cannot wait to represent Team Trakkers!  Albeit a short race, I know that I will be using my First Endurance EFS Drink paired with some PreRace before hand and some Ultragen post race in combination with my trusty Recovery Pump to ensure I am ready to roll at Rev3 Knoxville Olympic.