Rumpass in Bumpass Sprint Tri Report
This past week I had read a swim study on the effects of how different efforts in the swim could affect the overall race of a triathlete. It turns out that maybe a lot of us try to swim too fast during our races, only to end up not performing as well on the bike or run. I’ll dig up the study and post it later, but for this last weekend’s event I thought I would experiment with my own swim to see just how effective it was.

I got in the water early to get used to the water temperature, and then got out, walked over to the starting area and promptly got back in the water. My intention was to start fast for the first 25 meters just to get away from the pack, and then settle into a nice rhythm.

I have to be honest here, I haven’t enjoyed a swim so much since Hawaii in 2006. I focused on strong powerful strokes, good rotation, and keeping the breathing effort level all at about 85% of what I normally would have tried to do for a sprint distance race.

I get out of the water in control, had the legs to run easily to the bike, and off I went. With a smile plastered on my face (well, except when I had to run through the mud and up a hill in my bike shoes) the rest of the race.

Bike time was technically better than last year (with it seems like 20% less effort) and the run was faster than last year as well (and no pain for once!).

I will take this lesson and use it in future races.

Anyway, this weekend Team Orange did a great job all around at both races (sprint and the monsoon Olympic the day before). We all had conditions to deal with (Oly folks had it worse), but everyone had great runs and great bikes.

Results for Sprint:
Molly Roohi – First Overall Female – Rumpass
Erin Young – First Overall Female at Escape to Fort DeSoto Sprint
Trish Blackwell – 2nd Overall Female – Rumpass
Justin Riddle – 3rd Overall Male – Rumpass
Debi Bernardes – 1st Master (7th overall) Female – Rumpass
Max Bernardes – 2nd AG – Rumpass
And a whole slew of PR’s and First Timers doing a great job!