Chicago Triathlon post-race analysis

Looking at my actual bike splits from last weekend, I’m happy, but looking at my raw power file for the race, I can’t help but be disappointed by my performance. I was shooting for 90% of my FTP number but I could only manage 80% according to the data. Wow, that was a pretty weak performance. Once again it looks like I failed to push it like I wanted to on race day. I’m happy with my 1:10 bike split, but I wonder how I could have done if I had been able to push 90% like I wanted to. I also wonder how much my race wheels (and aero helmet) played into it. If I could go that fast at such a relatively not-hard pace then imagine what I could do with a full race setup on a standalone 40k TT. I think I’m going to have put one of those on my race calendar soon…

Standings wise, I finished in the top 18% of my age group, whereas last year I was only in the top 48%, so that’s a solid jump up. That’s approaching the front of the pack where I want to be. Compared to the whole field, my swim rank and bike rank went up. Last year, I was in the bottom 20% for swim times, this year I’m only in the bottom 50%. Ha! I’ll take it I guess. On the bike, last year I was in the top 32% (not bad), this year I was in the top 15%! Sweet, that’s a big improvement on the bike compared to the overall field.

The run was a different matter. Last year I was in the top 18% on the run, this year I’m only in the top 24%. However, this discretion could be attributed to the fact that I was running at a much later time than most of the field (I was in one of the last waves) when the sun hit its highest point. Looking just at my age group (we all started at about the same time), I see that only the top 8 guys or so were able to run faster than 9 minute miles that day. Wow, that’s pretty crazy, looking at years past this age group has traditionally run a lot faster. In fact, overall, this was a slow year for this age group (reflective of the high heats during race time). This year only 8 guys managed to go under 2 hours 30 minutes; last year 58 guys went under that same time. So I guess it wasn't just me that melted on the run.

Alright, enough excuses on the run :)

Here’s something inexcusable… 3:52 in T1 and 3:10 in T2… jeez, was I taking a nap in there? Chicago does have a big transition area, but comparing that to other people in my age group I see that I’m spending an extra minute or so more in transition than my peers. That’s free time I’m just giving away there. I think I have to take a refresher course on transitioning this upcoming off-season.