Barron Lake Times 3

This past weekend was my third trip around the Barron Lake Triathlon. While visions of grandeur danced in my head, I had some improvement but overall left feeling, well, honestly a little blah. While I did take 2nd in my age group (of 5), I know since I decided a little late into the summer to try it, my 30 days of hard work leading up to the competition was not enough... I should have trained better, and could have performed better. What I did though, was focus effort on areas where I struggled in 2023. 

They say triathlons are just as much mental as they are physical.. well I totally felt that this year. I saw it last year, as my slow swim threw off my bike, but my running confidence came through regardless of how far behind I was in the race. 

                                    2019                  Goal(24)  2023                  2024
Swim (500 yards)       12:21(4th)         12:00        16:39 (5th)        15:17 (3rd)
Bike (15 miles)           53:32 (4th)        50:00        54:18 (4th)        51:20 (2nd)
Run (5k)                      27:29(3rd)        25:00        25:40 (3rd)        25:37 (2nd)
Total (+ transitions)    1:37:31(4th/4)                  1:40:04 (3rd/7)   1:36:29 (2nd/5)

So this year I had some more realistic goals, which maybe helped, but maybe also caused me to sandbag it a little. My swim goal in 2023 was 10, and I did it in 16 and felt terrible and it threw off my time on my bike as I was all down on myself. My swim goal for 2024 was 12 minutes, and my watch said I did it in 14, so getting out of the water I was feeling better. 

Some swim context... I remember last year feeling like the swim was a lot longer and no way I did that much worse as I felt like a better swimmer. In 2019, when I felt, and was slower, there were 32 (of 65 males) that swam it in under 10 minutes.. and a handful in under 6 minutes. So the field was not much larger than this year, so it had to be a shorter swim as my 12:21 time made me 55th of 65 total. So clearly in 2019 the swim was MUCH shorter so I need to ignore that 12 minute time then for now... but I will get there! 

The mental part that got me this year, was both of my transitions were bad. For example, the swim to bike transition, my class winner did it in 1:17, and it took me 2:41. So I was a minute and a half slower... I was three minutes slower in the swim, so now swim plus T1 put me 5 minutes behind him. The same on T2, transition from bike to run, the leader did it in 46 seconds, I did it in 1:32, so while only 46 seconds slower, it was perfectly twice as slow. In total, the leader did transitions in 2:04 and I did it in 4:14... thats over two minutes slower, and that part is mental and preparation. I have not paid a lot of attention to the transitions, but those 2+ minutes would have moved me up to top 20 overall, maybe 17-18th. 

The other mental part is my bike. Two things got me this year... but first let's start with the positive. I trained more for the mount, last year I was slow to get on the bike, I struggled to clip in, and had to stop and restart... cost me extra time and momentum... but also mentally cost me more as I again was off my game during my cycle time mad at myself. My blog last year described that a little, today I will focus on my tech. 

2024 Barron Lake Swim

I started the bike strong, I mounted well, got up to speed quickly and was feeling good. I had been training using my phone, which would show my current speed, and my average speed and I made a goal of trying to get to 18 MPH average... it was a stretch compared to my training times, but I thought it was possible. However, at the competition I realized phones were not allowed, and the rickety old timer on my bike, which gave me trouble at the start last year is all I would have it only gave me current speed. So I figured if I kept her above 19 MPH most of the time, it would average out for the hill climbs when I would be slower... good in theory, and I was off to a good start. Well shortly after the 5 mile mark... on a fast and bumpy downhill... my rickety timer... fell off the bike. Now I had no speedometer! I tried not to let it get to me, and I pushed on, but now I had to motivate myself! 

So to compare, I remembered that in 2023 the first half of the ride took me 31 minutes, and the second half took me 23 (at the mid-point last year I stopped feeling sorry for my slow swim and slow bike start and pushed it). So I know my times, and I hit the half this year in 26 minutes! That was 5 minutes ahead of my pace from last year, and if I could match my second half pace would be a cycle time of 49! Well here comes a confluence of issues... lacking tech, and being over confident, I went slower! I did the second half at 25 minutes. So the 5 minutes I shaved off the front half, I lost 3 of those minutes on the back half... being mentally over confident cost me time (I can blame tech a little).

Not much to report on the run, except a slight tech challenge again. On the transition, I missed twice trying to get my watch to switch from bike to run, and I stopped and waited in the transition area to make the switch. I think I was already near the gate so not sure how accurate my running time was... and that the 15-20 seconds I lost trying to get my tech right hurt. While I was "faster" I felt more gassed this year and didn't sprint the ending which I probably could have made it under 25 minutes... disappointed in myself. 

This year in 2024, the winner of my age bracket got a 12:02, and only two swimmers (of 50 men) swam faster than 10 minutes, and only 11 were under 12 minutes. So I feel like my 15 minutes was pretty good in terms per percentage of field. So I thought to break down some percentage of field stats and blended in some other stats as well. 

Total Times
2019 1:37:31 for 47th of 65 (72 percentile) weighed 153
2023 1:40:04 for 35th of 60 (58 percentile) weighed 155
2024 1:36:29 for 21st of 50 (42 percentile) weighed 151

Now this chart has me feeling much better than blah... climbing those percentages is great! Maybe the shrinking field means less top athletes are coming, who knows, but going from 72% of field to 42% feels good! Now I feel like investing in some more training or better equipment could be worth it. 

I included weight because in 2019 I felt in better shape, I had just finished my Fit for 40 drive. It doesn't compare to late 2020 when I had planned to tackle Barron Lake again (it was canceled) and was in probably my best shape of my life and running 22 minute 5ks... but that's another story. I did start this year weighing 166... heaviest I have been in 6 years and I cut weight pretty hard the final 30 days before the race. So that didn't help. 

So enough about my weight and back to tri data, the year over year comparison had me wanting to break down my growth by area... which while the swim is still disappointing, feeling good on climbing the run percentile! (also makes me more mad I didn't try to sprint the finish)

Swim
2019 12:21 for 55th of 65 (85 percentile)
2023 16:39 for 45th of 60 (75 percentile)
2024 15:17 for 37th of 50 (74 percentile)

Bike
2019 53:32 for 50th of 65 (77 percentile)
2023 54:18 for 39th of 60 (65 percentile)
2024 51:20 for 19th of 50 (38 percentile)

Run
2019 27:29 for 38th of 65 (59 percentile)
2023 25:40 for 20th of 60 (33 percentile)
2024 25:37 for 13th of 50 (26 percentile)

I got the bug a little more now... seeing the progress and how close I am to some higher ranking times... I want to try and see how much I can improve for next year now and maybe do I dare attempt a longer triathlon? So here is to hoping my joints stay healthy and this winter I can stay in solid shape so I build momentum into a better 2025 triathlon season.  

Previous Barron Triathlon Blog: 3rd Place at 2nd Barron Lake Tri