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Big Races, Lessons Learned, Part 1
By Betsy Delcour
4/9/2009 |
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As triathletes there are those of us who train to race, and those of us who race to train. In other words, unless we’ve got that goal race, odds are good that our training may be subpar. But races offer us invaluable information about ourselves. They’re our chance to test our physical limits – how well have we been training? Were we able to lower our times, or place higher than we did at the same race last year? And they also provide a good measure of our mental strength – when you got a flat, did you fall apart and call it quits, or were you prepared with your repair kit and get yourself back out there in 2 minutes? Did you have quick, efficient transitions, or did you waste a minute looking for your left sock? In other words, while races often represent the culmination of months of training and preparation, they are also great sources for information, and present great opportunities for us to learn and continue our improvement in all aspects of triathlon.
This past weekend offered four major races that attracted many of the best professional athletes in the world (in addition to myriad other local races). As age groupers, we may look up to the pros for their ability to race at what seems like superhuman levels, their business-like attitude towards racing, and let’s face it – we look up to them for all the great gear they have too. :) But we can’t forget that the pros are human too, and they have good and bad days like all of us. And yes, even though they may have raced 100 times with nearly as many podium finishes, they still learn from these experiences. So Xtri decided to chat with a few of the athletes who raced in Australia, South Africa, California and New Orleans to gather some wisdom about racing, and hopefully get some insight into racing at our best…
How Did You Place, and Did You Meet Your Goals for this Race?
Placing well and meeting race goals are not always one and the same. If anything, some of the pros we talked to entered their race with the mindset of getting the cobwebs out, or measuring their fitness at this early point in the season. Lisa Bentley, who’s dealt with a heel injury that kept her on the sidelines off and on for over a year was satisfied with her 9th place at New Orleans. “My goal was simply to get back to racing after 3 months off of running. I wanted to advance my fitness and I have no doubt that I did – and I wanted to get back into race mode and go head to head with other athletes.”
Swiss athlete Ronnie Schildknecht, who placed 3rd at Oceanside was happy with his result, racing against such a world class field. Andy Potts, who placed 2nd there after having won last year was happy, but is hungry to reclaim his title next year. Knowing he gave it his all, he’s satisfied with how things went though. “I was really happy with my effort and race as a whole. I wanted to push hard from the start of the race [where he set a new swim course record] all the way to the finish line. I started the day with a full tank of energy and when I crossed the finish line my tank was empty – mission accomplished.”
Petr Vabrousek, who raced IM South Africa and placed 3rd remembered to enjoy the day while racing. “I definitely met my goal of getting to the podium here again, along with enjoying the beautiful day as I went along, of course!” And of course, it helps when you give it your all, and it results in a win. Chrissie Wellington said “I won and came 11th overall…my goal was to go out there and give it everything, and I did!”
Not everyone was especially thrilled with their races though. Dede Griesbauer had a so-so first race of the season, placing 8th in Oceanside. “I didn’t race especially well…I didn’t race that poorly either. It was my first race of the season and a nice break from the massive amounts of training I’ve been doing!” And there were still others who had flat days, and neither met their race goals or placed where they know they’re capable of. Bryan Rhodes who competed in Oceanside said “I placed 27th and didn’t come anywhere near what I had planned for in the race.” Chris McDonald, who’s had a great season so far, had a similar experience in New Orleans, placing 13th and coming “well off [his] goals for the race.”
What Went Right or Wrong During Race Week or on Race Day?
We all know this by now – 90% of racing is mental. How well are we able to cope with issues that arise in the days leading up to the race and on race day? Getting to a venue, traveling with bikes, staying in hotels, packing all of your gear, setting up transition – there are thousands of opportunities for something to go wrong! Having the privilege to speak to so many professionals over the years, one thing I’ve learned that ALL of them have in common is a positive attitude – they just do not allow any BS to get in the way of their performance (well, usually). And every race has its challenges, so it should be no surprise that nearly everyone had at least some minor bumps in the road, while some definitely had some bigger issues to overcome.
Of everyone I spoke to, Rhodsey wins the award for being followed by the biggest bad luck cloud on race day, even though he felt great all the days before. “Race day was very stressful. First my homestay had put my car keys into her handbag, so I spent 45 minutes at 4:50am looking for them. Lucky I didn’t lock the car with my race bike in it, otherwise I wouldn’t have made it to the start line. I got a ride down to the race site and had 30 minutes to set up before the gun went off. Then less than 10K into the bike I got a flat front tyre so it took me 5 minutes to get it sorted as the pitstop didn’t fill it with much air pressure, so I had to wait for tech support.” On a day like this, finishing the race as Rhodes did is commendable.
Lisa Bentley also had a less-than-stellar race week. “I arrived on Friday and was quite overwhelmed with the stuff associated with racing – seeing the course, figuring out transition, organizing rides to the start of the race and the bike pick up and the swim start (separate from the transition area), finding groceries, places to eat, finding a bike mechanic to fix my bike which had been ‘challenged’ in transit. My pre race didn’t go as smoothly as it usually does. Despite my experience, I found myself quite stressed out and that made this pre race prep less than ideal. That said, I would not let it get in the way of my race and I never thought about it once when the gun went off. It was all on and I was racing and loving it.” There’s that positive attitude I mentioned earlier…
Others had a mix of good and bad. Dede Griesbauer had a gritty start. “Face planting in the sand during the first sand portion of the race wasn’t that cool, unless, I guess, you were watching me do it. The bright spot: I LOVED my new Kestrel Airfoil. I was very pleased with how dialed in I felt after being on it a relatively short time.” Ronnie Schildknecht had a comeback during the race. “Well, my swim was a bit off. I trained well in Switzerland but I lost too much time in the swim. My bike performance was great with the fastest bike split of the day and my run was very solid.”
For others, mother nature threw them a curveball. Pt. Maquarie got hit by a cyclone during race week. “We didn’t know if the race was going to go ahead, but it’s a credit to the organizers (and the weather gods) that it did!” said Wellington. For Petr Vabrousek, it was the change in temperatures from the Czech Republic to South Africa: “The swim was right, bike superb, run slower than expected…why did I expect to run fast in this heat, coming off of skis?”
Stay tuned for Part 2 of this article, where we'll discuss nutrition, race day surprises and if we can expect to see the same pros at the same races next year!
Photos
1. Andy Potts, Oceanside 09 (courtesy of Eric Wynn)
2. Chrissie Wellington, IMOZ 09 (courtesy of Andrew Sawatske)
3. Dede Griesbauer, Kona 08
4. Ronnie Schildknecht, Oceanside 09 |
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