On to the second triathlon of 2011 (and third ever)! After the sprint in Wallisellen with individual start and indoor swim, I did the Zytturm Tri in Zug. There was an olympic distance category as well, but I opted for the sprint: 0.5 km open water swim in Lake Zug, 40 km bike around Lake Zug, 5 km run. Just the day after Wylandlauf, but with both events being rather short that shouldn’t be much of a problem.
There was a little bit more to pack this time:
Note: wetsuit, Vaseline to rub on neck, PowerBar gels because that would be a little longer than usual, arm warmers in case the weather would be nasty.
I took a very early train to Zug and spotted the first aero wheel aero helmet people pushing around their super expensive bikes at the station already and made sure to be far from them during the ride. Intimidation and stuff. I had enough going on thinking about that open water swim.
Zug is just about 25 minutes from Zurich by train. Once there, I walked to the transition zone at the lake, checked in and set up my bike. There was still more than an hour to go, enough time to chat with various people I knew from the triathlon camp and other places. My warm-up consisted of walking to the swim start so I knew where to go afterwards and jogging back to the transition zone. I put on my wetsuit and joined all the others going to the swim start.
Our wave was the first of the day, five minutes before the women doing the sprint and fifteen minutes before the first wave doing the olympic distance. The swim course looked like this:
I had to do the one marked “SDS 500m”. All there was to do was swim around one buoy and get out. That’s always easy when looking at a map, but once in the water, things are usually more complicated.
The lake was surprisingly warm, and after I had done a few strokes we were told to stop warming up and get ready to start. I wanted to be sure about the course and asked the guy next to me if we had to pass the first buoy on the left or the right. Here he is explaining to me (I’m behind the pointing finger):
He said “swim on the left side of the first buoy”, which was wrong, but I kind of knew that and just wanted to be calmed down a little. Thanks for nothing, giver of wrong advice! (Just kidding. He was friendly and nobody was harmed.)
After this, I was just treading water for a while, rather easy to do when wearing a wetsuit:
I’m on the top left.
A few moments later, this was happening:
Lovely! I kept myself out of anything that looked remotely like too many people in one place and trailed the main group for all of the swim.
Very much so, actually. The lake was pretty rough and every now and then I took a little break from swimming freestyle. That’s not really healthy for your swim split. For the last 100 metres or so I faked some more freestyle, and after x minutes (x = 1.5 times a good time), the swim was over. My split was so slow that directly behind me the first women left the water. Remember, they started five minutes after us and we’re talking about 500 metres here. So much about my not-so-strong leg.
I got out of my wetsuit without any problems, did the whole hop-on-the-bike-with-shoes-already-clipped-in thing and started the second leg.
The course around the lake was mostly flat and rather fast. During the first few minutes my left calf started cramping a few times, but once I got warm that was not an issue any more.
So I was at the end of the sprint men and just within the top sprint women. The race was of course non-drafting, but some people did not really care and after a few kilometres I was passed by a group of about twenty people all drafting off Tine Holst (who for once did not race an Ironman).
The problem with these groups is that you can’t just pass the first guy again once he has overtaken you, because all the drafters follow directly, so you have to wait until the whole group has passed you. I tried to pass and get away from the group, but a few minutes later they caught up with me, and this time they passed me for good.
The rest of the lap was rather lonely, I didn’t feel bad or extra strong, just okay. At one point I was not 100% sure where to go, but a few seconds later I saw another cyclist in front of me, so I was probably right.
A few kilometres from the end, yet another “drafting train” caught up with me. I was so annoyed, at the drafters, at myself for not being able to just shake them off, at the referees for not being around… Same game again: I had to let them all past me, tried to pass the whole group again and got caught again. Luckily, the group had fallen apart and just the first two overtook me again before the end of the running leg.
I thought “I’ll just run away from you all”, to pay back of sorts. First was the second transition, which I’m just about to enter here:
The run, advertised as a 5K, started rough because my feet were all numb from the cold. I could feel them after maybe one or two kilometres. And as always, the start of the run felt terrible (and terribly slow). The course was a simple out-and-back with a little loop at the turning point (“lollipop”?). I was barely able to keep a pace faster than 4 min/km, but having started the run in the slower part of the pack, I could still pass a lot of people. Like this guy here:
Closer…
I had him after the next turn, promise.
The run was over before I was able to settle in a comfortable pace (or feel good or anything like that), here I am just before the end of the race:
I was happy to be done with the race. My overall placing was rather lousy, with the swim being absolutely terrible and the bike also having lots of potential for improvement. The run was okay, I should maybe start working more on the other two disciplines, eh?
Zug goes into the books as my first tri with an open water swim portion, short as it may have been. It was also good preparation for the 5150 series triathlon in Zurich where I would do my first olympic distance tri a few weeks later; more about this one soon!
