Debut Triathlon race report

On August 24th, while the olympic men in China were running the marathon, I was in Chiba-Japan, taking part in my debut triathlon.

Race details:

Name: The 3rd Teganuma triathlon

Location: Chiba at lake Teganuma

Nearest stations: Abiko and Tennodai (Joban line) both about a 20 minute bike ride

Distance: Olympic Distance (1.5 km swim / 40 km bike / 10 km run)

Swim

At Lake Teganuma and out and back course - no waves - pretty dirty.

Bike

A 4 km course out and back so you do 5 laps.

The course is pretty much all flat but both turns at the ends are pretty much 180 degrees and one actually is like turning around a tree - so many people fell there. I'd say of the 400 participants 30 fell there and 4 got injured or their bikes broke due to the fall (some on video - thanks to my mom who filmed everyone else except me).

Run

A 3.3 km course. Pretty much flat as well. Water stations and drums to cheer the runners.

Now to my race:

Taking part in my first triathlon was a bit of a last minute decision. With a good marathon debut during the winter I thought why not keep the debuts coming and decided to sign up for Teganuma about 7 weeks before the race date. Of course till that day I had not done a single swim nor ride, but I just wanted to get over it and enjoy the challenge.

My training consisted of: 13 swims and 8 rides (4 in a stationary bike at the gym) and well, my regular running training.

Far from appropriate, specially for the bike leg as all 8 rides were very short - the four in the gym were of 60 minutes and the remaining four were pretty much under 50 km except for my first ride with Gordon where I learned (tried) all in one day - I was about to step into unknown territory.

The Swim

I had done 13 swims - no other swims this year (maybe one or two after Tokyo marathon). Then again I have a 10 year swimming background and bounce back easily into shape.

I was pretty confident about it and ready to beat those with years of recent experienced. Maybe too confident to be an ex-pool swimmer in his first open water swim event. My main goal was simple, to break 28 minutes. My "in my heart" goal was to break 24 minutes which ended up been realistic.

The whistle blew and off we went. Where? That I did not know as I was on the phone while they were giving the swim instructions. I lifted my head after about 80 meters in and found myself in top 5 or so. It felt good, I am going for the leader ... what a mistake ... put my head down and began swimming without breathing (breathing is a waste of time in the pool). Put my head up again and I was totally off course facing the opposite way ... oh I am first place !!! turned around ... nope I am now 50th place or so.

Turned around and began swimming hard. Trying to concentrate on my stroke was hard as I kept lifting my head to keep on course. Open water swimming so different than swimming in the pool. I decided I'd keep someone to my right and follow them ... but concentrating in someone made me swim towards them and eventually on top of them.

I swam in zig - zags I think ... I bet I did about 1600 meters in all ... who knows.

Total official time: 26.39

19th place ... yes very disappointing because I was wrong and the wetsuit did make me faster ... meaning a sub 24 was possible for sure.
Note: The water was so dirty. I could not see anything under water and when I say anything I mean not even my own arms.

The bike leg

I only shifted gears once in the entire race because I didn't really know what to do with the gears. I came to total stops in the 10 turns/curves the entire leg had because I did not want to fall - and I didn't. I had to slow down to mamachari (shopping bike) pace every time I took a drink or ate some gel because riding one handed is pretty hard for me. And every time someone went by me (so about 300 times if you count those that lapped me) I shaked in fear.

What can I say: Loved the bike leg.

Things to improve on are those things mentioned above plus actually training for it. Perhaps a good start would be to buy my own bike. I think owning a bike is important for the sport of cycling.

Tried my best to keep the speed-meter at 30km/hour but going down to 22 km / hr was sometimes inevitable. Did the last 8 km keeping over 33km/hr so was pretty happy about my "rasuto supato".

A funny thing: I was thinking man some of these guys will have a 10 km advantage when they finish the bike leg ... how am I suppose to catch a guy who has a 10 km advantage on the 10 km run.

Total unofficial time: 1.18.30

193rd place ... sounds ridiculous, but I was actually happy with this time and very happy with this leg because I thought breaking 80 minutes was impossible. One day I am breaking 70 minutes.

Official time: 1.22.31

This time has both transitions included...meaning each transition took me about 2 minutes ... pretty slow ... put on my socks ... stretched ... ate a gel.

The Run

Terrible ... disappointing ... underperformed.

I wanted to do 35 minutes. I wasn't really tired and the weather was really cool. 35 minutes was challenging? I'd say more like easy.

However ... cramps ... I cannot believe ... I mean I was cramped ... severe ones on both legs and in different muscles. After 1.6 km I could not move. So I stopped and stretched each leg for like 30 seconds ... but it was useless because the pain was in different muscles and a certain stretch would not stretch the entire leg.

So I just ran like that 8 km cramped keeping my legs almost straight .... I bet it looked funny. I actually discovered that if I step behind my shoulders and lean forward as if I were to fall down the pain would be less.

Still not one person passed me. And I passed so many people skipping, wobbling, running moving my legs in circles - I just could not bend my knees. Last 2 km my legs finally relaxed a bit and I was able to put in a 3.30 pace or so.

Official time: 38.38

8th place ... yea the number looks good ... but this was by far my worst leg.

Total time: 2.27.48

All right for a first time I guess ... but breaking 2.20 should have been possible without cramps and faster transitions. Then again I guess this is what triathlons is about ... been able to control your body through the 3 sports.

I placed 49 out of all athletes including elite. There were 7 elite so I actually placed 42nd ... which actually makes my run 6th and swim 14th.

In my age group I placed 11th. Too bad I couldn't get in the top 10.

I still have 4 years left in the 20's age group so hopefully by 2013 if I keep racing triathlons I can be more competitive.

All in all I loved it. It was really fun ... debut triathlon, debut bike race and debut open water swim. All in one so it was pretty challenging.

Had an amazing 2 hours 27 minutes ...
(Videos and pictures to come ... maybe)

2008 Olympics - athletes? or super humans

I am still young and have many olympics to see. I'd be very impressed though if London or any other games to come are better - athlete performance wise - than this one.

With most of the media trying to convince the public that choosing China as a host was a mistake, it was hard to not think the 2008 Olympic games would be the games to never remember. Yes, there were some messed up situations like the little girl singing issue (how the real singer was replaced) and how terribly organized the women's marathon was (hopefully the mens will be okay). But the organizers are human, like us, so I guess a mistake or two is not such a biggie.

The organizers are human like us ... but are all the athletes? Because I have seen things I have never heard about or thought possible. Let's keep in mind this is the Olympics. EVERYONE participating is a professional athlete. Everyone taking part in the games is amazingly good at the sport they play. Pretty much every athlete here can take an entire elite high school team from any country single handed. How elite can you be among the elite? What if a boxer can knock out any other boxer with both feet tied and an arm tied to his body? And with his eyes shut ... that did not happen, but maybe one day it will ... because in another sports it pretty much did.

Michael Phelps:
8 Golden Medals in one olympics. 8, yes eight. Some countries don't even have 8 medals in their whole history. In fact all of the South American continent together doesn't have 8 golden medals, even if you add Central America reaching 8 is still not possible.
So who can win more gold medals? Michael Phelps or 1000 super elite athletes? What does probability teach you ... well probability is wrong.
Not only did he win 8 gold medals, he beat 7 world records while doing it. That is not normal, that is something that will never ever happen again (unless they extend the olympics to 4 weeks, thus giving the next super human that appears more time to rest).

Usain Bolt:
100 meters in 9.69 ... yea it's true he did have a 9.72 before. Did you watch the race? He jogged at the end. He extended his arms to the point they acted like a parachute slowing him down. He pounded his chest, looked at both sides, smiled, was totally not concentrated. That 9.69 is actually at least a 9.59. And if this 21 year old is normal, meaning he will peak in 5 years, that time will go down to about 9.39. In 5 years nobody ... NOBODY will be running under 9.70. And maybe you will have this guy running under 9.40. I mean he will be able to jump rope his way to the finish line and still win.
So you are not sure how far 100 meters is .... think about a 25 meter pool like the one in your gym. At max speed in 5 years Bolt can run from one end to the other in less than 2 seconds (at max speed - maybe a 2.2). So by the time you say his name - Usain Bolt - he is at the other side. That is something you only see in cartoons - beep beep.

And there are some others like Jelimo the 18 year old Kenyan 800 meter runner or the sexy Russian pole vaulter who already has 24 world records under her belt.

Human evolution ... right before our eyes.

July running: At top shape

Haven't raced for a while but somehow and well through how I feel during runs I can tell I am in the best shape ever. Probably ready for some personal bests, it's not time for that yet though.
I pretty much just jogged long and did some tempo's and a few workouts.
Highlight of the month: Back to the pool and my first bike ride training ... why? Because I signed up for my first triathlon.

July

1.- 10 km tempo - 3.28 pace: Total 20 km
Splits: 3.31 - 3.33 - 3.31 - 3.29 - 3.32 - 3.33 - 3.28 - 3.28 - 3.29 - 3.09
2.- Jog 15 km
3.- Jog 15 km
4.- Jog 10 km
5.- Jog 16 km
6.- Jog 12 km
7.- Jog 17 km
8.- Morning: 1600 meter swim
Afternoon: 3 x 2000 - 2 min 400mt recovery jog: total 16 km
6.58 - 6.59 - 6.32
9.- Jog 15 km
10.- 1500 meter swim
11.- Jog 17 km @ 4.08 pace
12.- Jog 17 km
13.- Jog 18 km
14.- 1700 meter swim
15.- Morning: 1800 meter swim (1500 meter trial - 25.24)
Afternoon: Jog 15 km
16.- Ladder workout 400 x 2 - 800 x 2 - 1200 - 800 x 2 - 400 x 2: total 17 km
17.- Rest
18.- 1700 meter swim
19.- Jog 18 km
20.- Jog 18 km
21.- Rest
22.- 5 x 1000 - 70 sec 200mt recovery jog: total 16 km
3.06 - 3.06 - 3.10 - 3.10 - 3.07
23.- Morning: 2100 meter swim
Afternoon: Jog 17 km
24.- Jog 18 km
25.- Jog 14 km
26.- Jog 18 km @ 4.05 pace
27.- Jog 20 km @ 4.06 pace
28.- Morning: 90 km bike ride
Afternoon: Jog 14 km
29.- Morning: 2100 meter swim
Afternoon: Jog 12 km
30.- 1500 meter swim
31.- 3 km + 2 km @ 3.10 pace: total 15 km

Total running: 400 km
Total swim: 14 km
Total bike: 90 km