Race Report: Pleasant Prairie International Dist. Triathlon

Race Report: Pleasant Prairie International Dist. Triathlon
Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin

by: Sarun T.

Final time was 2:09:59. 12th place overall. 5th person in my Age group, but 2 of the top 3 overall were in my AG so the 3rd AG award rolled down to me.

Swim:

Time: 23:41

Rank: 27/607

Swim started and bunch of guys just took off. I thought I'd be able to swim them down eventually but that was not the case. I tried not to feel too disheartened but it was a bit of shock to see a group of guys just disappear like that- especially considering how much time I've been spending in the water.

I stuck to my game plan of going relatively easy on the swim - no redlining and no attempts to close up gaps. This is the first race in awhile where I didn't find feet. Coming out of the water I felt pretty good, but I had no idea what my time was going to me. When I saw the results I definitely was very pleased. I've never broken 25 min before, and to go 23:41 without redlining is a huge improvement. I'm going to keep my swim volume at 15000 yds a week and hopefully by November I'll be down in the 22:xx.

Bike:

Time: 1:03:11

Rank: 19/607

Pace: 23.55mph

Watts: 243 NP

A pretty flat course and a ton of turns. I started passing a bunch of people who started in the wave before me right at the start of the bike. Then about 15-20 min in, I'm pretty much riding alone. I get worried about missing one of the many turns. The course isn't marked very well, though there are cops at every turn. Unfortunately they just stood there and didn't really point out what the right turn was. Fortunately, I didn't make a wrong turn.

I didn't burn a single match on the bike. I kept my pace in check at all times and at some points, tried to relax. This may have ended up lowering my wattage a bit but it set me up for a good run.

I put less effort on this race's bike leg than any of the other races I've done so far this year but in retrospect it's probably the right pace for an olympic distance. Again, the idea was to start the run with good legs, so that goal was accomplished.

Run:

Time: 40:33

Rank: 22/607

Pace: 6:32 min/mile

After a disastrous run in my last race, this was exactly what I was hoping for. I knew I could come close to breaking 40 min and this race confirmed it. My legs felt good for most of the 10k but it did start to feel heavy towards the end. No cramping issues at all. I'm now convinced that all my prior cramping issues had to do with going out too hard on the swim. It has taken me 4 long years but I've finally figured out how to pace an olympic distance triathlon.

Running down the finishing chute I saw the time say 2:22:52. I knew that I had started 13 minutes after the gun went off so I realized that I had a shot of breaking 2:10. I dug deep, started my kick (hurt sooo good) and managed to cross the mat at exactly 2:09:59 :)

Conclusion:

This is probably my best executed olympic distance triathlon yet. As I mentioned earlier, I'm now convinced that for me, redlining the swim results in cramps. Now that I have that figured out, I should no longer have cramping as an excuse for any future races.

Tomorrow starts my first week of interval and threshold work. If I can already do a 40:33 10k off the bike with just base and hill training, I don't think it would be too wishful to aim for a 38:30 by the time the Thai National Olympic Dist. Championships rolls around in November.