CHISAGO CITY SPRINT TRIATHLON, WHAT A DEAL

EARLY MORNING ARRIVERS

Triathletes living in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St Paul had their pick of 7 different triathlon venues over the weekend of July 26/27, typical for any summer weekend in this Midwest hotbed of triathloning.  I chose the Chisago City Sprint because it would be my third year in a row at this race, it is USAT sanctioned and Chisago City is located less than one hour northeast of the Twin Cities.  It is a "home town" race that at $45 for the sprint is a super deal. You get all the usual stuff including a t-shirt, food, trophies and free coffee to help you wake up as your set-up in the dark.  Finally, with the bike segment being my strongest  leg, this sprint course was ripe for me with a 1/4 mile swim, 22 mile bike, and 5K run. The race venue also hosts a half Ironman and attracted approximately 500 to each event.

The race venue is typical for these "home town" type of races. A bit of seaweed in the primarily sandy lake, a grassy area for the transition (in this case a knoll overlooking the lake), a bit of biking over grass and through a bike tunnel under a major road, and a lot of relatively flat, smooth, and wide roads for biking.

I have been negligent in my training this year focusing on other more important stuff like family and health.  In the prior three weeks I swam a total of 12,000 yds, biked 200 miles, and ran 13 miles.  Not very impressive.  I have been struggling with knee pain due to arthritis and hence the extremely low running miles for a running based triathlete.  Two weeks ago I tried a new approach to run training in that I ellipse before running on a treadmill.  So, two to three times a week I ellipse for 25 minutes and follow that with a 25 minute treadmill run.  Boring, but my knees hurt less following the ellipse.  I am hopeful that I can gradually increase the training time but do not expect my running form to ever recover to pre-arthritis fitness.

AWARDS CEREMONY DONE BY 10:00

This year I "geezered" all but 31 of the 493 finishers in the sprint race, first in my 65-69 age group of two. Interestingly, the trophies for all age group podium places have the same inscription, "Award Winner".






More interesting is a comparison and interpretation of my three consecutive years time splits.

YEAR     Finish Time     Swim Time     Bike Time     Run Time
2012         1:30:57             8:53                 57:03            22:43
2013         1:32:50             8:11                 58:40            22:47
2014         1:30:02             7:58                 55:09            24:23

In 2012 and 2013 I wore a wetsuit for the swim, 2014 I did not.  2013 had minor road construction which caused a rerouting of the bike course and a slight increase in distance.  2014 had 20 mph winds. In 2012 and 2013 I was in far superior shape.  For example, in 2012 I won the USAT National Championship in the Duathlon while in 2013 I finished second (by 15 seconds) in the USAT National Championship in the triathlon.  By 2014 my knees had such pain I could hardly run train.  However, I still had my fastest overall time in 2014 aided by my 24 mph bike segment.
 

EARLY ENOUGH TO CATCH THE SUN RISE

Race day was partly cloudy, mild (70's), moderate winds (gusting to 20 mph), not very humid (maybe 60%-80%?); good race-day conditions for Minnesota.  All things equal, ability drops off about 1% per year as you age past 50, so, in addition to inadequate training, by all accounts I should have been materially slower this year.  On the other hand, age/experience does count for something (both my transitions were faster).  It may be as simple as that when it comes to short races, less (but focused) is more? Happily, I was rewarded for getting up at 4 am with a fun race experience.