USA Triathlon Nationals
August 6th - Miwaukee, Wisconsin
Doing my best to smile and look not exhausted at the finish line.
This past weekend I competed in the USA Triathlon Age Group National Championships in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at the Olympic distance. An Olympic distance triathlon includes a 1-mile (1,500 meter) Swim, 24.8-mile Bike, and 6.2-mile Run. The event was an impressive operation with thousands of athletes, volunteers, and spectators that created an infectious energy. The athletes represented the fastest American triathletes from each age group with some of the best endurance athletes in the country competing. I felt honored and humbled to race with these world-class athletes.
Although my results and final time were not as strong as I had hoped, the experience helped me learn many lessons about triathlon racing and training. I am now more energized to apply my learnings to future races and fitness goals. Getting this taste for triathlon at the elite level is inspiring me to keep pursuing these ambitious racing goals and experimenting with tools and tactics to improve athletic performance. The triathlon community is strong and vibrant, and I am thrilled that I am starting to become a member. Perhaps at some point in my life, I will have the ability to compete for a National Title.
Because I am now 25 years old, I raced in the most competitive 25 to 29 age group. The winner of our age group had the fastest time overall at 1 hour and 51 minutes (1:51) For context, the time that won the Olympic Gold Medal in Tokyo last year was 1:45, so the winner was not far off from gold-medal standards. My time was over 30 minutes slower at 2:24, placing me 49th in my age group. There were a few big mistakes and decisions that I made that held me back from a better time, so I am confident that I will beat this time in my next Olympic distance race.
Below is a breakdown of my race:
The Swim – 1,500 (Brutal) Meters
Swimming is my strongest of the three triathlon sports, but I sadly had some unexpected (and embarrassing) struggles on the swim in this race. I made one fatal mistake that direly hurt my swim—I forgot to pack my wetsuit for the trip. The swim course in this race took place in Lake Michigan, so a wetsuit was a critical piece of gear. On top of the already chilly water temperatures, the water temperature on race day was unusually cold at 58 degrees Fahrenheit while it was closer to 70 degrees just a week earlier. (The wind directions on Lake Michigan can dramatically shift the water temperature from day to day). When the water drops under 60 degrees, wearing a wetsuit becomes mandatory in a triathlon. I had to scramble at the last second to find a wetsuit and bought one the night before at REI. The wetsuit was not only too big for me because they only had XL sizes available, but also it was not designed for a swim race.
Immediately when the triathlon began and the swim commenced, the inside of my wetsuit filled and ballooned with water, slowing me down drastically. I was moving so slowly that I decided within the first 100 yards of the swim that I could not keep the wetsuit on any longer, and I ripped it off. Yes, I spent $150 on a wetsuit to wear it for 1 minute of the race before letting it sink to the bottom of Lake Michigan… I felt guilty leaving the wetsuit in the water, but I made the decision based on my instinct and strong desire to resolve the situation. The adrenaline of a race makes rational decision making quite difficult. With the wetsuit now off, I could swim normally, but now, I had to handle the frigid water temperature. The water was so cold that I never fully warmed up my body even working hard to swim fast. Those 1,500 meters were an all-out mental battle, and I was not focused on maximizing my speed and time.
I was both relieved and dazed getting out of the frigid water.
My split time on the swim ended up being just over 26 minutes, a full 2 minutes slower than my 1-mile swim in the triathlon that I completed last year. This was a disappointing start to the race as I had hoped to complete the swim in 22 minutes or 23 minutes at the slowest. Out of the 88 competitors in our age group, I finished 54th on the swim leg when I had hoped to finish in the top 20. Moving on from the cold water and getting on the bike was a mental relief, and I refocused on the next leg of the race.
The Bike – 24.8 Miles
During my transition from the swim to the bike, my body was still adjusting to the numbing chills of the cold water, but I managed to get moving decently well. But sadly, I had another issue at the end of transition. I had made the decision when setting up my transition area to attach my bike shoes to the pedals ahead of time so that I more easily could run to the bike start area (it is difficult to run while wearing bike shoes). This was a mistake because I had never practiced this type of transition, and I was not able to smoothly mount the bike and secure my feet in the shoes. I had to stop immediately after mounting the bike to adjust my shoes, costing me precious seconds. Even with this stop, my shoes continued not to fit properly and to loosen throughout the ride, and I was forced to slow down several times to adjust them. Overall, I would guess this mistake cost me about 2 or 3 minutes on my overall bike time.
Despite this additional mistake, my performance felt strong on the bike, and I came close to my goal of averaging 23 miles per hour. I averaged 21.6 miles per hour and finished the bike in 1:09. Very few athletes in my age group passed me during the bike portion, and I managed to even pass a few in my age group. I am very confident that time can be improved in a future race as I become more adept at holding higher speeds for longer periods of time. I also hope to get a much faster, aerodynamic bike in the future.
Importantly, I felt that I managed my energy levels well and saved the right amount of energy for the final leg of the race.
The Run – 6.2 Miles (10K)
My initial plan for the run was to start the 1st mile at a 7:00 pace and to decrease about 15 seconds on the pace each mile until reaching a 6:00 pace for the last 2 miles (6:45 on the 2nd, 6:30 on the 3rd, 6:15 on the 4th, and 6:00 on the 5th and 6th). Because of my suboptimal performance on the swim and the bike, I knew that my total time goal of under 2:10 was completely out of reach, so I adjusted my plan. I decided to push less hard at the beginning of the run and enjoy the end of the race more. After holding about a 7:00 to 7:10 pace for each the first 4 miles, I upped my speed to about 6:30 for the final 2 miles and finished just under a 7:00 average with a 43-minute split time.
If I had pushed my body to its limits, this time would have been better, but I felt great about my execution on the run given the circumstances and my decisions. Also, the race day was unusually hot and sunny for Milwaukee (85+ degrees), so there was no reason to risk over exertion, and I avoided the need to slow down to finish the race.
As I work deliberately on my running speed over the next few months to prepare for my upcoming Half Marathon in Sydney and my Marathon in New York City, I am confident that the running pace I can reach during these races will improve. A sub-40-minute triathlon run (~6:25 average pace) is well within reach for me, and I'm excited to see what kind of split I can achieve when I take on the Olympic distance down the road.
Lessons Learned
The obvious lessons from this experience are as follows:
I will never, ever forget to pack my wetsuit again. (Imagine me face palming right now).
I need to practice my swim to bike transition more deliberately to find the most efficient technique for me.
Besides those clear takeaways, there are other important lessons that I learned to incorporate into my training. Despite similar dedication to my training, I felt a bit slower overall on this triathlon compared to my last one in September of 2021. First, I think that I carried a bit of extra weight and muscle mass on this race. Strength is critical to speed, but I do not think I was as lean for this triathlon. This may be splitting hairs, but I am going to try to optimize my body composition to find the perfect balance of lean muscle mass and speed. This could be done with a bit more focus on cleaner nutrition and slightly fewer daily calories leading up to the next race.
Second, I did not train my fast runs at long enough distances to be prepared for a 6.2-mile pace under 6:30. Last September, I clocked a very fast run speed (about 6:45 per mile average), but I had trained more on my 5K speed (3.1 miles), and I ran several 5Ks after fast biking workouts while training. My training for this race had focused more on faster, shorter runs around 1-mile in length or even the 400-meter and 800-meter sprints to increase my raw speed. My short-distance speed has improved from this training style, but I have not done enough work translating the new speed into longer distances. As I begin to train for my Half Marathon and Marathon races, I will do many more “Tempo” runs of 3 to 8 miles in length as I described in my last post and less “HIIT” runs of 0.5 to 2 miles. The main metric I will focus on will be my 10K time (the same 6.2-mile distance as in the triathlon). My goal is to break 37 minutes on the 10K, which would be under a 6:10 per mile pace.
Third, a positive, reinforcing lesson learned is that my Aerobic Endurance training has paid off. For the entirety of the triathlon, I averaged a 152 heart rate, meaning that I stayed in Heart Rate Zone 3 for most of the race. Keeping the heart rate lower helped me to avoid exhaustion and finish the race strong. Maintaining this focus on continued development of my aerobic endurance will be critical for my races still to come this year.