I am a little slow in putting this race report together, but here it goes. I participated in the 2nd race of the Triathlon Ontario Provincial Championships, The Personal Best Indoor Triathlon held at McMaster University on February 18th. The format was swim as many lengths of the 25M pool in 15 Minutes, then the highest average power on a spin bike for 15 minutes and lastly as many laps around the 200M indoor track in 15 Minutes.
I have two points of view on this race, one as a participant and the second as a volunteer. I was the participant and my 13 year old daughter was a volunteer, that was going to be tasked with counting laps at the swimming pool.
Upon arrival at the University it was quite easy to find the right building and registration was right there when you walked in the door, very quick and easy to complete. I was very early since my daughter was volunteering and there were a number of elite and pro’s in the 1st wave that I was interested in watching. Mainly Lionel Sanders. There were a large number a spectators that came out early to watch. I think I could definitely learn a think or two watching the pros and elites just warm up, never mind the racing.
My biggest goal for the day was to get a gauge improvements in my swim, as I am still fairly new to triathlon with the swim being by far my weakest event.
The swim venue was quite good. They have a 50M pool with a divider making it two 25M pools. One was a available to use for warm up and the other for the race. I was able to have a good swim warm up for 10-15 mins before my wave. In each of the swim waves, you were either in lane with 2 or 3 people and I was lucky to be with just one other person, which was my preference. I had set a target of 750 to 800M for the 15 minutes, which I was short of. I managed 675M and was the lowest in my swim wave, or my 40-49 age group.
After the swim it was a quick walk to the adjacent building for the spin bike and track. The previous wave was still on the bike when we got there which gave us a couple more minutes to get ready then I though I would have. It gave plenty of time to get shoes on, dry off a bit and get the bike set up. For the bike I was targeting to complete the 15 mins with an average Wattage from 260 to 270W. After the 15 minutes I came in with an 264W, which was right on target, and good for the 3rd best in my age group. My legs felt pretty spent after that.
The track was right beside the bikes and again, I think we had a few extra minutes before the run started then the 5 minutes we were supposed to get. I had not really put a specific target on my run. The run is usually my best, so I have been putting more effort in training to improve the swim and bike. I had a good run completing 18.5 laps in the 15 mins, or 3.7KM, which happened to be the best run for the 40-49 age group.
The result put me 3rd out of 7 in the age group, so overall pretty happen with where I am at as the season is getting closer. I think I have figured out a few things I did wrong in the swim, so I have entered the 3rd race in the series on April 22nd, to see if there is improvement.
Overall, from a participant stand point it was a good day, extremely well organized as they kept things moving and close to on time. I was not aware of any issues that any one had. I would definitely do this event again.
As I mentioned at the start, I had a second point of view on this race with my daughter being a volunteer and they fell short here. My daughter was told she would be a lap counter, however she was not given a job, she ended up spending the time just sitting on the pool deck until about wave 7 of 10, when two other volunteers that were also participants in wave 10 that I spoken to, had my daughter take over their job of body marking when it was their time to get ready. I felt really bad for my daughter having to sit there for all that time essentially doing nothing. Fortunately that really has not deterred from potentially volunteering at a future race or wanting to try one herself. She has actually signed up to do the April 22nd indoor as well.
