Race Preview : Lakefront Days Sprint Triathlon

Good old Lakefront days. I'm happy to be here again this year. Also it feels like the group putting it on is paying attention and making minor modifications like adding a relay division or switching to a time trial start. Things like that make me think they are in this for the long haul, and I'm happy to have a triathlon very close to my home.

Race Info
The swim is a short out and back, billed as a quarter mile. The lake is pretty small and protected so there's no worry of waves or boats. This year instead of a wave start they are doing a seed yourself time trial start. Elite go off first in a wave, then we're supposed to line up by projected swim time, fast people first, slow people after that. Based on various running races, it will be interesting to see if people actually line up like that. I know if you're honest about where you line up for a running race (e.g., you line up correctly, and you're not in the fast group) you can get stuck behind people who just want to start sooner. Then again I plan on declaring a 6:30 swim time which should be fast enough to get me to the front of the line.

The bike is an almost 14 mile loop, it starts out kinda rolly, then settles down with only one little climb in it with a few miles to go. I am very familiar with this course. I made my goal based on last year's performance, which looks pretty stinking fast right now.

The run is around the lake the swim is on, about 3.3 miles. Its through a park, but there are long sections of no shade due to a lack of big trees. It's sort of rolly, but no really tough hills. The primary goal here will be to just stay consistent on effort. In my training runs I have been making an effort to try to stay focused on effort, hopefully that will allow me to follow through on the race. So far this year this leg has not gone well.

Goals

	Goal	Pace
Swim	6:30	1:30 per 100 yards
Bike	38:30	21.5 miles/hour
Run	26:20	8:00 mins/mile
Total	1:14

This is basically the same goal time as last year, this is the first race where I am setting my goal not as past of last year's performance. This year I just haven't seen the gains in any one place that isn't removed by deficits in another.

Closing Comments
I'd say my overall conditioning is on par with the rest of the summer. I wish it was a little better, but I'll give it what I've got. One sort of disappointing thing about this race: the age group podium is only one spot deep, so unless I pull the win out of my pocket, no fancy hardware for me :)