I did one lap of the 70.3 Switzerland bike course today (plus the way there and back). Phew. “Hilly” doesn’t quite cut it! Eight more weeks to get used to it.

Last weekend I spent in Lausanne for some cycling and running with Camillo of “Giant Battle of the Titans” fame. Before I left, I passed by the On clearance sale to take advantage of their 50% and 60% discounts.

I even got myself a Cloudrunner (2011 model), after thinking all the time that I’m not part of the target group. Turns out I am! I did all weekend runs in them, and I like them.

We did so much training that we got up early for some pasta and then back to sleep again. (Actually not that much training, but the pasta thing was fun.)

Also, Lausanne and surroundings does not know the “flat” type of terrain. It’s always either “uphill” or “downhill”. And it was a bit cold! But all in all a solid weekend. Just no bike speed averages to show off with.

Mooloolaba recap by Liz Blatchford

Another ITU on-board camera film. These are so cool! Especially with all the screen time Nicola Spirig and Daniela Ryf are getting.

Timelapse of the transition area at the 2012 Downtown Columbia Triathlon

Because it’s cheaper to sign up before 2012. Now I should probably start some swim training!

I recently watched the tricast of the Auckland ITU WC race (rather late, I admit). Apart from all the great Movember facial hair, I noticed two things: Ryan Fisher (AUS) gives his water bottle to Tony Dodds (NZL) after he took a sip (Dodds didn’t get a bottle); Kris Gemmell (NZL) high fives Bevan Docherty (NZL) on his way to victory.

Go sportsmanship!

The Uster triathlon race pics are online! They also sent me the print of one of the bike pics, that’s why only that one is in high resolution. I think I need a height adjustable stem, because the spacers on the steerer tube are all gone and the saddle height is limited by the length of my legs. Or get a proper tri bike directly :)

To round off my 2011 triathlon season, I started at the Tägi Tri sprint triathlon about ten days ago. The 2010 edition of this race was my first triathlon ever (including getting lost on the bike), so I was curious to see how I would have improved in the meantime.

My start was at 10:30, so without getting up at an ungodly time I managed to get to Wettingen around 08:15. My trusty (upgraded) bike got its own compartment in the train:

Tägi Tri is a sprint triathlon, where the “long” race is 1 km outdoor pool swim, a 36.8 km bike and a 7.6 km run. I did the “short” race (half of all that) because my company sponsors a special category where all their employees can start for free, but only on the short distance. Fine with me.

After checking in, getting marked and setting up my transition, I went to watch a few of the waves starting before me. Every thirty minutes, about 30 competitors started at the same time, four or five of them sharing a lane for the swim. Quite a lot of ASVZ tri camp people were competing: Karin, Henrik, Marcus and Yonca (all doing the long one), and I watched them all swim. Some swimmers were incredibly fast, like Marcus who clocked 17:07 including the very long transition to cycling!

I had still some time to drink coffee and get really nervous. With my starting time approaching, I went to the swim start to get my lane and listen to the briefing, then warm up a little and swim one lap before things got serious.

We were just four in our lane and sorted out roughly who would be how fast so there wouldn’t be too much passing in the beginning. After the start, two of the guys were gone quite soon, and I was on the feet of the third (who was breast stroking, but at a decent pace). My goal was to swim freestyle for all of the distance. As usual, the first few laps were no problem, breathing every third stroke and all, but around half the distance things became a little more laborious. After 200 metres I sprinkled in about four breast strokes but then changed back, determined to not “fall back” again.

I switched to breathing every second stroke and my form was probably terrible, but hei, I managed. Unlike the year before where I had the pool all to myself in the end, there were still some people swimming when I left (“left” as in “rolled myself over the pool edge”). The transition zone was super slippery and I had to take tiny steps, but without too much hassle I could leave, jump on the bike and was on my way.

My swim time (including T1) was almost two minutes faster than last year’s and faster than one third of the other contestants. For me, that’s quite an accomplishment, but for the moment I was mainly happy with swimming (almost) everything freestyle.

Now the actual fun part began. Because I was far behind the really fast people, nobody passed me during the whole bike and at times my cycling felt pretty powerful. The course was a bit longer than last year, and the extra bit was all flat and straight, perfect for me. Thanks to intense study of the course and realising that it was almost the same as last year, I did not miss the right turn at the end of the first lap and went by the transition zone to start my second lap.

I really tried to go all in, considering the run would be very short, yet still the bike speed was not much faster than what I had for example at the triathlon in Zug, where the bike was more than twice as long. But good enough to progress a bit in the ranking.

T2 was no problem, still the same super slippery ground, but managable.

The idea was to go really fast in the run, 3.8 km being really short. I managed to have a quick first kilometre (3:45), and also the second was okay (3:54). I passed a few people, but now they were few and far between. The slight slope on the third kilometre took its toll in the shape of a 4:22 split; the last bit was faster again (3:45 pace).

The finish stretch was all straight and you could see until the very end; one guy in front of me was looking back for a long time before taking the last turn and I tried to hunt him down, but no chance. Good for a fast finish though.

My run split ended up being the 4th fastest of the 38 in my division (the “sponsored short course”), and overall I finished 13th. I was really happy with that since usually I struggle to even place in the better half, and that was already scratching “fastest third”. Plus I was content with the swimming.

We stayed for the awards (Marcus came in second on the long course), pasta and cake, and soon after I left. Good way to finish my first full triathlon year! Off to Autumn running, Winter swimming and 2012 plans.

On Sunday, I did my second ever olympic distance triathlon. This time around, it was the one in Uster; it doubled as the Swiss Championships.

In the days leading to the race, a heat wave hit Switzerland and I was watching the lake temperature very closely, hoping it would be less than 22 °C on race day so we could wear wetsuits. Well.

On Sunday morning, I took a reasonably early train to Uster and arrived a good 75 minutes before my start at the scene. Unfortunately I didn’t bring enough cash to pay for the one day competition licence, and everybody I met hadn’t enough spare either, so I had to ride back to town and withdraw some cash.

With that, my time cushion was gone and I started to become nervous. When I finally got my number, cap and all, I proceeded to the transition zone and set up my stuff. I had an awesome spot, at the very end of a rack.

It was too warm for wetsuits (by 0.1 °C, thank you very much) so I saved some time by not having to get into mine and headed to the swim start with about 15 minutes to go.

The water didn’t feel very warm at all, but after a few strokes of warming up (and that’s all I could do for warming up) the temperature was okay. We lined up behind the pros, I saw some friends and made “thumbs down” signs for the non-wetsuit swim, and off we were.

The swim was a simple out-and-back around two buoys, the bike was an extended lap around the lake and the run was two laps more or less along the lake.

After a perceived duration of ten seconds, the waters around me became pretty calm. Calm as in “because there was on one swimming next to me”. I employed my signature freestyle breast mixed stroke (freestyle until close to dying, then breast stroke to recover) and lived up to the title of my blog. Very much so. Okay, there was one guy swimming in the vicinity, but that was about it.

With about 75% of the swim done, I saw a super fast group of swimmers with orange caps blast past me about 80 metres to my right. I thought “Hu? Are they having the women’s sprint at the same time? Or why are there people at the same time on a different course?”

When a bit later a much larger group of blue capped girls zoomed by, I realised that my 15 minutes head start on the women’s olympic race was not enough to be out of the water before them, and that I had been swimming very curvy towards the swim exit (hence the 80 metres). Of course, because I didn’t have time to check the swim exit beforehand.

When I finally got out of the water, it was exactly with that blue capped group, that is, the fastest amateur women. So my transition was together with the very (very) slowest men and the very fastest women. (Déjà-vu?)

Thanks to not having to get out of a wetsuit and my awesome transition spot, T1 was quick and I was underway with the bike. My parents were there to watch and dad took this shot:

Notice the new clip-on aerobars, new saddle post and new race wheels. And how shiny my bike was because I cleaned it the evening before.

Hopping on the bike and getting into the shoes went without further problems, and I was underway on the bike course, which I’d ridden a few times before in training. It’s got a rather mean elevation profile: 

Lots of not-so-steep but steady uphill, a fast descent and then flat around the rest of the lake. Thanks to my aforementioned positioning in the field(s) I could pass quite some guys and got chicked just about three times. (They were drafting of each other, I should mention. Just because.)

The tri-spoke wheels weren’t quite as noisy as I hoped they would, but I still believe that apart from actual, measurable advantages (reduced drag) there is also a considerable psychological impact of having those things on your bike.

Things were rather uneventful (except that one time I almost lost my bottle while putting it back into the cage), I enjoyed lying on my aerobars and felt pretty fast. The long ascent was okay, I’m not a strong climber, but I was content with how I got up there. Before the in-between descent there was the “Tempo Sport Motivational Mile” with funny posters every few metres (“Running is your strength? Have fun with the next few kilometres!”) and an actual cheering crowd just before the top. Good idea. I’ll go shop with you guys again.

The end of the ramp came sooner than expected, and the flat bit before the descent was very welcome. I caught up with one of the girls who had previously passed me and stayed ahead of her, until just before the descent where she was more gutsy in a sharp corner.

Then the descent. Ever since I’ve had my little crash, I’m about as daring as a 100 year old when descending so that’s not where I make up for a lot of time. And, as a free bonus, I lost a lens (again) just before the end of the downhill part. High time to get that laser surgery appointment. It’s just not that much fun to ride half blind.

Since I’m already totally used to riding with just one lens, it didn’t bother me much, but the fast last 10 km would have been more enjoyable with full sight, I guess. A bit of extra excitement was added by a construction site, which forced us to ride around it on small paths including about 100 metres of gravel. My poor wheels!

Just before the transition zone, the bike course and the run course were next to each other and I saw some of the triathlon camp people on the run. Transition went smooth, and I started my run.

Running is by far my favourite part of any triathlon. As the overall strong people are far ahead, it’s usually collecting lots and lots of runners, very motivating. First and foremost, the girls who chicked me, of course. (Thoughts on “chicking” on Chucky V’s blog, check it out!)

After an asphalt bit, the course changed to gravel and crossed a little forest. Here I’m coming out of that forest on the first of the two laps:

I tried to keep my pace under 4 min/km, but it snuck over the four minutes all the time. I didn’t feel like I could go any faster, so that was that.

The best part of the running course was its end, just before finishing (or starting the second lap), where lots of people were lining the path and quite I few I knew were cheering.

The second lap was a bit harder, but more and more people were populating the course. I ran some time with a guy who first passed me, but at about seven kilometres I shook him off. The photographer after the forest was still there:

The last two kilometres were my fastest but I forgot to take splits every kilometre so I don’t know exactly. I just know I was happy to finish, here I’m just about to:

And I was done. As in other triathlons before, I didn’t feel extremely exhausted in the end, but during the run I could not have gone any faster, or so I thought. Leave more on the bike next time?

Compared to average times, I’ve lost about ten minutes in the swim alone – it took longer than my run! The bike was average, but also there I have a lot to improve. I’m not super happy overall, especially with the more than crappy swim, but I did like the event as such. I’ll be back.

I’ll do one more triathlon this year, Tägi Tri sprint (the first tri I ever did, last year) in one week, and then it’s all about preparing for NYC marathon. Plus a few short races (the last of the ZüriLaufCup series) and Greifenseelauf half marathon where I want to go sub 4 min/km. Next race: Rütilauf, the day after tomorrow!

In the pro race, Nicola Spirig topped the women’s field by something like six minutes to claim her fourth consecutive title; Ruedi Wild took advantage of Sven Riederer’s absence (he wants to focus on the last WCS race in Beijing) and took his first title.