Zurich Tri 2009

[skean]

After a break of a year, to do the Ironman, I was back at the Zurich Short triathlon this morning for my third go. My ultimate goal on this one is to get under an hour, but I wasn't expecting it this year as a) I wasn't anywhere close to that at Burnham and b) I was up till 02:30 at a Wedding reception last night. Getting up at 06:00 this morning

Comments

[ravenbait]

What distances are those? And what the hell is going on that only some of the swimmers were allowed wetties?

[ravenbait]

Was that a 20k bike? In under 30 minutes? And you complain that your bike was slow?

I'm no slouch on the bike and I usually expect a 35 - 40 on the bike leg. Hell, the guy who won Peebles was only a minute faster than that.

[skean]

Was a 500m Swims, 20km bike, 5km run.

I'm not really complaining that that my bike was slow - for me that was stonking, albeit with about 5km of pack riding in there. I'm just saying I dropped a hell of a lot of places. You can see that the Swiss are a nation of strong bikers. It is a very flat, very straight course as well - basically a long straight that you do 4 times, starting and finishing halfway along in the middle. No gradients to speak of and good surfaces. Prime aero territory.

Wetsuit story:
In these here parts, it's more common not to wear a wetsuit. The regulations apply to when you are allowed to. For this race, it was if the water temperature at 05:00 at 50cm depth was <21.9 C, you could. Every other year it's been above that - this year, it was officially hovering around 21-ish. Me and a good portion of the field simply didn't bother bringing our wetsuits, so completely our own fault. I'm not sure I'd have done any better - the swimm was very stop/start, and I would have lost time in T1 and over the island

[ravenbait]

Was it drafting permitted, then? I've never raced a drafting event.

Hurm.

Never raced a flat course with good surfaces, either!

[skean]

No. That's the problem...it specifically excludes it. Not a single static or bike marshall blinked an eyelid at a frickin peleton taking up the whole lane and 50m long.

[fialta]

Sounds like a great race, well done! You'll definitely do it under an hour next year!
So did some people wear wetsuits and some did not?

[skean]

Thanks - we'll have to see next year...

Yup, wetsuits, I simply didn't bring mine so didn't have the choice. Others did and could (see comment above for rules)

[despaer]

Nice one. I shall have to think of another way to gain advantage for Burnham then. Or failing that, I may resort to some more training althouth that would be a last resort really.