Triathlon Performance Analysis - Comparison to Expectations

In my Expectations Management post, I said what our time budget was for the various parts of the race. I thought I ought to compare them to what actually happened....

I have corrected some of the times because the course was a different length than I expected in some places - the swim was ~720m compared to 750, and the cycle was about 16.3 km rather than 20 km. On the other hand the run was 5.6 km rather than 5 km (cycle and run lengths according to my gps watch).
The results of the race are published on the Hartlepool Council web site.

Phase	My Budget	My Optimistic View	Actual	Corrected
Swim	30 min	20 min	16:06	16:46
Cycle	60 min	50 min	43:41	53:36
Run	30 min	20 min	27:21	24:25
Total	120 min	90 min	1:31:52	95+5 (transition) =100 min

So once I have corrected the times for the slightly different race distances, the cycle and run were both mid way between my budget and 'optimistic view' (so maybe I couldn't have done the cycle much quicker after all - I guess the tandem and Benjamin is a lot heavier than the bikes most people were using, and I don't like to go too fast in case it goes unstable...).   The surprising one was the swim being faster than my optimistic view.   I think that is down to Laura helping pace me up and down the pool so much.

Our finishing position was 142 out of 158 starters which is what I would have expected when we set out.  I was surprised it was not higher after the run because we were overtaking quite a lot of people, but I think we were un-lapping ourselves rather than really overtaking them.    So I am quite pleased that our timing was in line with our earlier 'Expectations Management'!.

Cycle and Run 1

Had our first go at doing the 20 km cycle ride, then trying to run....

Cycle went ok - less wind than on Sunday so not so much difference between the outward and return legs as can be seen on the ridewithgps analysis.

Averaged over 21 km/hr, and we covered more than the race distance (22 km rather than 20 km), in about 1 hour, which is ok by me.

Forgot to take my gps logger off the bike and take it with us on the run, so no detailed analysis.

The run did not feel as bad as I had expected - we did one lap of the course (~2.5 km) in ~15 min. This is over 9 min/mile pace, which is probably why it felt quite easy.

Benjamin is less confident in going fast in the wheelchair than he is the tandem (especially on bumpy ground - he doesn't trust me!), so I might have to limit how hard we push the run anyway.

Running Technique

We will do the run with Benjamin in his cross country wheelchair, so I will have to learn to run pushing it.

I am used to using it walking, but I will have to adjust my running technique because I may have problems kicking the chair, and I will not be able to use my arms like I usually do when I am running.

So, we went for a try out this morning on a course that is about the same as the actual race (http://ridewithgps.com/trips/1615602).

It went pretty well - the wheelchair handle is far enough behind the back wheels that it did not interfere with my stride, which was good - Benjamin's previous one was smaller and I used to kick it if I tried to run normally.

The main surprise was how hard it was on my arms - I will have to decide whether to run with elbows locked to reduce the strain, or maybe move closer to the handle so I can push it along with my body to some extent.

Still, we did the 5 km in less than 24 min - a good bit slower than I would expect doing the run by myself, but not too bad for a first attempt with the wheelchair.