Boulder Peak Race Report

July 11
(1) Boulder Peak Triathlon
The Boulder Peak was my best olympic distance tri to date. I finished 3rd in my age group -- my fourth podium at an Ironman-owned event in a row -- at a competitive race over a distance that doesn't fully utilize my strengths.

Here's how it went:

Warm-up
My wave started over an hour after transition closed. Since my shoes were stuck in transition, my 10 minute run warm-up took place long before my race started. Fortunately, the race organizers allowed athletes to warm-up in a roped off swim area. I did some easy laps and a bit of aqua-jogging, and I was ready to go.

In the future if I had a sherpa I'd bring a second pair of shoes so that I could do a run warm-up closer to my race time.

Swim
The good: I completed the swim in 25:25, which I'm pretty sure is a new PR for me. I was only four minutes -- not the typical 7 or 8 minutes -- down on most of the tops guys in my AG. I also felt strong exiting the water, like the swim didn't take much out of me.

The bad: I am still coming out 4 minutes down on my competitors. That's a huge difference to make up in a 2 hour race. I finished as the 8th amateur overall, yet if I swam just 3 minutes faster I would have been 3rd amateur and would have beat some well-respected guys. Still, my swim was in the top 10% overall and I'm making progress.

Also in the "bad" category is my spotting. I breathe to my left, and fortunately for me most triathlon swims are counter-clockwise. I like that because I can spot while breathing and also because my tendency is to drift to the left, which isn't bad when the drifting just takes me closer to the buoys. At the Boulder Peak, however, the swim is clockwise and my drifting took me off course. Here is the route I believe I traveled:


I kept looking up and seeing that I wasn't where I wanted to be, and I'd make an effort to take an optimal line from my location back to the pack of swimmers. Yet the next time I'd look up I'd still be off course. I need to practice spotting more! I will try to get into the 2 mile swims at Cherry Creek reservoir tomorrow and next week. Anyhow, at least I'm aware of this and I will make sure not to make the same mistake in Louisville.

Bike
The Boulder Peak bike course is awesome. I really like the course's climb and descent. My plan was to go nearly all-out on the first uphill section (designated by the first green line in the diagrams below), then get some rest on the middle downhill section (designated by the red line) while still putting in some power where possible, and then to pick the effort back up for the flat section at the end (designated by the second green line).



This strategy worked well because knowing I'd get a little break in the middle allowed me to really push the effort at the beginning and end. Also, it's not so much that I tried to go easy in the middle -- I didn't, and my cadence was 110+ rpm on the downhills in my 53x12 so that I could put out some power -- but that the terrain makes it tough to put out 270 W at some points.

Anyhow, my bike split was a very respectable 1:04 (and four seconds) for the 25+ mile course. This was the 7th fastest amateur bike split, although a few AGers went 1:01!

Stats: 247 W avg (although a 60 minute average of 256 W -- I had to coast for a while at the end as explained below), 266 W normalized, 20 minute max power of 282 W, 29 minutes of the rider were at 270+ watts. No HR data. A solid ride for me.


Other notes about the bike:
- I could have pushed a bit harder during a few sections at the start of the ride. For example, on Hwy 36 I noticed I was riding at 240 W for a while and made myself pick up the effort.
- Going off in the last wave is annoying. Example: Near the top of Old Stage coach, I was rapidly approaching a rider that was making a pass. The rider making the pass was all the way to the left of the lane, basically straddling the double yellow line. Not wanting to break the rules, I said, "on your left," as I approached. The rider didn't budge. I repeated, "on your left," this time louder. The rider still didn't budge. Finally, I shouted, "ON YOUR LEFT!" as I'm right on the guy's tail. He turned and said, "I heard you!" "Yeah? Then MOVE TO THE RIGHT! When passing it is not necessary to take up the entire lane," I attempted to explain. I could have easily fit between this rider and the person he was passing, but alas that'd also be against the rules.
- The roads were open to vehicular traffic. While I passed a few cars on the right coming down Nelson without any hassle, the open roads caused a long delay entering the reservoir. Traffic was going in both directions on 51st St., and a strip of pavement only about 8 feet wide was alloted for riders. I had to cruise easily for a quarter mile or more as a result. This is why I averaged 256 W for the first hour, and then the next three and a half minutes dropped my average by almost 10 W.

Run
My bread and butter. I was aiming for a third straight IM-branded race with the fastest amateur run, though I knew it'd be a challenge with the race in Boulder (I make the IM-branded distinction just because IM-branded races usually bring out quality fields.) I felt good despite the hard effort on the bike, but ran to the 3rd fastest amateur run at 5:48/mile. My turnover could be a bit quicker for a race this short, and that's what I'll focus on during the 5430 Half. Still, a solid run to cap off the day.

(2) This week may be my biggest training week ever. I did a 15 minute flop at the Res and an hour spin later in the evening to hasten recovery.

July 10
(1) 45 minute run in the morning with a few short race-paced efforts.
(2) A short ride to loosen the legs for the next day's race. I only did 15 minutes or so because I forgot my bike shoes and had to ride in my Zoot running shoes.
(3) A short swim in the evening just to keep my feel for the water going and to stay loose.

July 9
(1) 1:20 run in the morning. More of a jog than a run, running 8:00-8:30/mile.
(2) 3800m Swim. I got booted from the gym at closing time before I could finish the other 900m! The main set was 42 x 100m, alternating seven 100s pulling and then seven 100s with no gear. I nailed the first twenty one 100s in 1:33-1:35, leaving on a pretty long interval of 1:50. However, I slowed to ~1:40 for the next fourteen hundreds.