Proposal for Race Directors: Seed Your Swim Starts!

Proposal for race directors: seed your swim start waves instead of grouping them by age. It is safer, makes for a more fair/honest race, and would yield no additional costs.  The current system of sending athletes off based on age-groups makes absolutely no sense, and even less so when the categories with [statically speaking] the fastest athletes go off last (e.g., starting the male 30-34 and 25-29 age-groups after sending off 60-64 women). This always creates a situation of high traffic, collisions, and athletes who are already likely to be the most uncomfortable in the water (e.g., the slowest swimmers) being in a position to get swum over.

Safer: Grouping waves best on expected swim times and starting the fastest waves first would lead to less traffic throughout the swim, and where there would still be inevitable traffic (e.g., toward the start) it would at least be more appropriate traffic given swimmers of a similar speed would be together.  The less people being knocked into and swum over, the more everyone enjoys the race; from the beginner who might have a panic attack when all of a sudden someone is on top of them, to the athlete going for the win that is frustrated by needing to constantly fight through people.

More Fair: Fighting through crowded waters slows you down.  If an athlete has the 'bad luck' of being in a later wave, a fast swimmer's time is going to almost always be slower than if they started earlier.  There is no positive drafting effect since packs generally form early and within a wave. 

No Additional Costs: At first I thought that perhaps some races start statistically slower age groups first in an effort to have the race finish earlier, and thus reduce permit, EMS, etc., costs.  But then I looked into this a bit more, and it seems like there is almost always an athlete in every age-group that pushes the overall race time-limit.  So, even if you are more likely to have 6 athletes in a 75-79 age group on the course for 8 hours, if you have just one 'bucket-list' athlete in the 25-29 age group go 8 hours, then the course stays open the same amount of time. Given these are not real-time decisions, I presume contracts/permits are signed ahead of time anyways, so starting slower waves first can't have anything to do with an attempt to reduce costs (which is why I am always befuddled when fast age-groups start last).

How it Would Work: During race-registration, simply ask athletes for a projected swim time (with some preamble about how one might do this).  Take the distribution, and create waves based on this.  Is self-reported data ever going to be truly accurate?  Of course not!  BUT, it will be a lot better than what we have today, and certainly addresses the biggest issue of safety since it will undoubtedly separate swimmers where there are big ability [and thus likely comfort] gaps.  I would take this a step further and guess that swimmers more apt to 'deflate' their times are competitive (maybe they want a draft effect) so from a safety standpoint, I would be less concerned about having someone that swims 32 minutes start with the 28 guys if it prevents a 40 minute swimmer from being toppled 10 times.  I am not arguing this system would be perfect, but it would be directionally correct and far better than what is currently in place. 

Added Benefit: If anything, this would lead to a *faster overall race* since presumably, swim-start waves could be separated by less time since the faster swimmers would be going off first, creating a natural separation throughout the field. 

I could certainly be missing something, but to me, this seems like a no-brainer. 

Take Home Lessons From The First Half of 2013

During the process of aggregating my race reports from the first half of 2013, I did my best to highlight what I felt were some of the most important themes, things to keep in mind, etc. While every individual is so unique, I think many of these ideas could be applicable to a pretty broad range of athletes.  Take em or leave em!

Always focus on bettering/beating yourself, and let the chips fall where they may on race day. The only thing you can control is your performance and how you react to the field. If you are feeling like crap out there, odds are everyone else is too so never be judgmental during a race. There is an enormous difference between 'finishing' a half ironman and 'racing' a half ironman; be prepared to make this desicion about a mile into the run, and understand the consequences of choosing the former and the potential for regret associated with it. The swim is no longer [and perhaps never was] marginalized in the half ironman distance; it's now easy to swim 'effectively' and still give up 4-7 minutes; pool time is often hard to come by for many age-groupers, but may provide the greatest net return. While it is very important to be specific in key workout sessions, sometimes the emotional gains from training with a group outweigh any exact specificity, and I find this especially true in longer workouts; in these situations, evaluate the overarching 'purpose' of a workout. For instance, if you have 4x30 minutes at 90% FTP baked into a 4 hour ride, the purpose of that workout is probably to go out and 'ride your bike hard,' but without totally killing yourself.  You can accomplish this in a group of the right athletes, even if it means a slight deviation from that exact main set. "Success is doing everything you could the right way and saying man, I did the best I could - that's success." - Aries Merritt (The full interview is here and gold if you have the time)

Triathlon and Problem Solving

I am a big believer in approaching triathlon holistically, so it really resonates with me when well written coaches do the same.  Think Matt Dixon of Purplepatch fitness breaking 'training' down into four pillars (e.g., endurance, strength, nutrition, recovery), or Jesse Kropelnicki of QT2Systems highlighting the importance of mental fitness (e.g., getting and keeping your mind in the right place during a race) or Alan Couzens recently writing about the importance of general health as a foundation for performance. All of this is great stuff and in combination, paints a pretty complete picture of what it takes to become a successful endurance athlete.

That said, I think the one thing that is missing and doesn't get explicitly called out enough (if at all) is the importance of problem solving (e.g., critical thinking). While on its face it this may sound similar to mental fitness, it's a completely different thing.  While my understanding of the former is about fostering a state of mind that lends itself to success (e.g., strong, tough, calm, etc.), the latter is about being able to look at all the variables/levers (e.g., inputs) that impact triathlon and pull on them in a way that optimizes performance (e.g,, output); all within an individual's constraints. While problem solving is key for anyone involved in the sport, I think it becomes an increasingly important skill for age-group athletes since they often have more variables and constraints to deal with.

Problem solving has a role in nearly everything triathlon related, from traditional training trade-offs, to thriving on race day, to keeping the sport sustainable. I could go on forever, so I'll do my best to give just a few examples that capture what I'm talking about:

• Do I try and lose 3 pounds for my hot weather race, knowing the risk of injury/illness will go up and power on the bike may go down?
• Extra hour of sleep, extra hour of training, hour for massage? Over a day, a week, a month, a year?
• Pacing strategy during a race; do I push on the bike and give on the run?
• Gear choice: wetsuit vs. speedsuit in warmer water with a long transition, disc wheel versus deep wheel on very hilly terrain with sharp ascents, vented helmet vs. non, one bottle or two?
• Race mishap prevention: the added weight/aero cost of of tire sealant, carrying tubes/cartridge?
• Physical sustainability: do I complete huge weeks this year and carry great fitness going into an A-race, knowing that it may put me in a hole that lasts into the following year(s)?
• Overall sustainability: extra hour of training, or time with family? Kill myself to get to the pool during lunch at work, or a less stressful lunch (and one likely involving more real food) in the cafe next door?

Like I said, the list goes on and on, but you should get the gist.  While lots of this thinking can be outsourced to a good coach, at the end of the day, much of it falls upon the athlete too. Making things even more complex is the fact that although some of these puzzles can be empirically tested, nearly all of them are moving targets and change over time as an athlete's body, experience, residual fitness, relationship status, etc., etc., change too. For as much attention as the sport gets as being physically grueling, I think an equally neat aspect of triathlon is how mentally demanding the sport is too; and in a capacity well beyond being strong/tough.  Triathlon is rife with trade-offs, and having the skill-set to approach and figure out the balance between them is key to racing well and racing for a while.