Kansas City Tri – Olympic Distance Race Report: Brendon Terry
Date: 14 May 2017 BIB: 346
Results URL: http://onlineraceresults.com/race/view_race.php?race_id=58513#racetop
Gear:
Bike - 2011 Trek Speed Concept 9.9 w/ETAP, 54/42 Q-Ring Chain Ring, 172.5mm Red Crank, Vector 2 Pedals, 11-28 SRAM Cassette.
Shoes – Brooks Pureflow 5
Suit – Triple Victor Team Gear - LG Pro Top and Bottom
Race Type: B+
Race Goals: Qualify for USAT Age Group Nationals (Top 10% AG). Train through race as part of preparation for Raleigh 70.3 on 4 JUN 17.
Weather: Sunny, Water temp wet suit legal, 14 mph wind from the south
Course Description:
Swim: two loop swim in a lake, the sun was directly on the swim line out to the first turn of each lap (~500m), a brief run out to the beach to cross the mat prior to beginning second lap, beach access was very shallow so could walk/tri to run for a ways out before having to swim
Bike: Two loop bike course that was completely closed to non-race vehicular traffic on a divided highway. Each loop had 3 180 turn arounds, two of which were at the top of hills, but the second one was at the bottom of a hill, limiting the amount one could take advantage of the descent and killing any momentum for the return trip back up the hill. The TAs were made easier by taking up the entire width of a divided highway vice on just a single two lane road.
Run: Two laps around a park, first 1.25 was on a road, then the last 1.75 or so of each lap was on a gravel running/walking path in the lake park.
Pre-Race Events/Schedule:
Dinner the night before was homemade IHOP pancakes with syrup and a banana and strawberry topping about 1730. Also snacked on some marshmallows. Got the gear prepped and was in bed lights out at about 2200.
Race Plan:
Swim: Wetsuit legal swim, so was expecting to be at close to threshold pace and be under 27:00
Bike: Planned intensity factor was .90, or about 230 W, don’t spike the power over 300 W on climbs and maintain power on descents.
Run: Maintain a sub 6:35 pace and push it off of the bike. Hit the first mile around 6:45-6:50 and then pick it up from there.
Nutrition: Rocket fuel for the bike, back to 2 scoops of hydro per 24 oz vice the 3 that I did at Texas, figured the higher exertion of this race meant that I needed to make the fuel less dense and more digestable. Had a 28oz BTA full and a 24 oz refill for the bike.
Race Day Execution:
Warm-Up: Biked ½ mile over to Gary’s house at 0415 to carpool to the race site, which was an hour drive. I ate my breakfast on the way. Got to the race site at 0540, picked up packet, took poop #1, then walked back to the car to get gear. Racked bike and set up transition, then moved other gear to the Leavenworth Tri Club tent. Ran back and forth to transition looking for my chip, which I had left inside my helmet but was flat against the inside so I missed it. Applied race tats and then went for a warm up jog at 0645. Came back to the tent and put the wetsuit and all swim gear on and did a warm up swim from 0710-715. I didn’t hear what the final water temp was, but I was not cold and would have been fine without a wet suit. Bobbed like a cork with it on though. I hit up Bob Garven at the start for some body glide on the back of my neck that I had forgotten to apply. Waited at the start for the national anthem and watched the elites go off at 0730.
Swim: Swim seemed to me to be a bit long. My measured pace was faster than planned, but the longer course meant that I didn’t meet my goal time. When watching the elites, we saw some of them turn mistakenly at the first big buoy (yellow) for the sprint course, instead of the second one (orange) for the Oly. The first leg of the box was directly into the sun. I had clear goggles, but did not have any real issues with it. I hit the first lap at 14:18 and 892 yards, jogging across the beach some before heading along the angled buoys back to the first leg into the sun. I ended up doing a breath every stroke for 3 strokes, sight, and then switch sides for 3 strokes mixed into my normal 3 stroke bilateral breathing pattern. Just needed more oxygen and had a little bit of an issue settling into a good rhythm.
T1: Hit the lap button to start T1 at the swim exit arch on the beach where I thought I saw mats, but the ones they actually were using must have been up the hill at the entrance to the transition area, which accounts for the 30 second discrepancy in what they measured and I measured for the swim and T1. Got to the bike after a fun barefoot run over the asphalt. Had a moving time of 55 seconds of th 1:53 I measured, so took 58 seconds to put on shoes, sunglasses, racebelt, and helmet before running with the bike to the transition exit. Crossed the line and mounted the bike already wearing the shoes and I was off.
Bike: Bill Garven had told me Gary Klein was just ahead of me into transition, so I started the bike on a mission to chase Gary. All for naught as I’d beat him out of transition. At this point early in the bike I noticed that my HR monitor battery must have died during the swim without an alert. It had been about 4-5 months since I’d replaced it. Should have done that before the race as it’d been a while. I had extra batteries in my transition bag, but that didn’t do me any good on the course. Generally kept to the power plan pretty well. The first lap was discovery learning as I had not driven the entire course prior. The turn around at the bottom of the hill was a real momentum killer, and I spike the power a bit high coming back up that hill into the headwind from the south. Lap 3 was awesome come back from the southern most turnaround on the fist lap, relatively flat with a tail wind and I was able to cruise. I saw someone in my AG was right ahead of me, but heading into the second lap he pulled away and I didn’t blow the power plan to stay with him. Ended up not quite finishing the fuel in the BTA, so the refill was not necessary, just extra weight on the climbs. Had a good clean dismount, leaving the shoes on the bike and I was into transition.
T2: T2 went smooth. Had no issues racking the bike and ditching the helmet. Put on my shoes and then did the race belt and the visor as I was jogging to run out. Moving time 17 seconds of 48, so spend 31 seconds at the rack doing that.
Run: I hit the first mile as planned, but then got into cruise mode and never really picked it up. I passed two people from my AG in mile 3 on the first lap, and then continued in cruise mode. I need to hit some threshold intervals on a brick in this next period to get back into feeling what pushing a run feels like on these shorter races. On the second lap the sprint folks and others from the Oly were intermixed, so the run course was much more crowded. Without a visual on anyone to directly chase, I maintained a steady pace and didn’t pick it up the last 2 miles into the finish.
Overall thoughts: The main AAR comment for this race is that one needs to know what the primary goal is and recon prior results accordingly. The main goal of this race was to qualify for USAT AG nationals by being in the top 10% of my age group, (4 of 39), which I failed to do by 3 minutes. As the announcer stated right prior to the swim start, this is one of the few Oly’s left in the area and is very competitive. My same speeds and transitions, without any increase in speed for the shorter distance, would have seen me finish the sprint course in about 1:06:30, which would have won the M35-39 AG. With 25 people in the sprint AG, it was almost a certainty I would have been in the top 3 to meet the qualification standard. I had a great race that set an Oly PR by about 5 minutes, but missed the overall goal and purpose for the race by registering for the wrong distance. The sprint would also have been easier to recover from and better facilitated executing a better build week prior to starting the taper for Raleigh 70.3 on 4 June.
Overall the venue is awesome. Great swim, bike and run. There’s not much they can do about the bottom of the hill turn around, which is my only real dislike of the course. Bring shaded goggles if you have them.