Triathlete Levels: Where do you fit in?

Every aspiring triathlete's goal is to cross the finish line on his/her first race and earn the title "triathlete" and become a member of a group of endurance junkies currently mushrooming in basically all parts of the globe. No matter what the distances are, for as long as its a race involving swimming, cycling and running all in successive green lights, a triathlete will finish.

In the short span of time I have been joining triathlons, I have observed how triathletes in different skill and endurance levels approach races or trainings. Every triathlete is different from one another in some ways, no two are of the same skill and mentality.

There are also stages in a triathlete's life, or journey into the sport. I could say I am probably past the beginner stage but still a long way from being competitive. How about you?

I have broken down these stages in simple layman's language:

1. Triathlete wannabe a.k.a. "Triathlete in Training"

The stage where the interest in joining a triathlon race is steadily peaking. Always surf the net for articles about triathlons, as well as free training programs. Have probably downloaded the sprint, olympic and half ironman training programs from triathlongeek.com. Have gone to Cartimar or Quiapo for his/her roadbike or probably tri-bike. Currently owns an MTB which he/she plans to use on his/her first race and take it from there.

This athlete may also own a high-end tri-bike but hasn't practiced using cleats yet. Or he/she may be a cyclist venturing into triathlon, in which case he/she hasn't got the legs for running yet, or probably still has "hydrophobia" and dreads swimming in deep water.

He/She may probably be a good swimmer with poor bike skills, or a good cyclist with poor swimming skills. He/She huffs and puffs after running for 1 minute and not too sure if he can wear cycling shorts for running.

He tells the world his/her new PRs in training in all three disciplines, even if these are slow compared to others. Every improvement in speed and mileage is reported on his online journal and favorite social networking site.

He/She is bothered whenever asked the question: "are you a triathlete?" and starts looking for answers that will convince the person asking that "hey, I will be in a short while."

If you belong to this stage, just keep on training, we all need to start somewhere.

2. The Beginner

By now, you probably have completed one or even two sprint or olympic distance triathlons. Probably even finished a half-ironman. You are now hooked and eager to race your next. Cost of racing is nothing to you.

"Triathlon is all about finishing"...these phrase goes on and on in your mind. You have felt the pain of joining one, but won't stop. Every race counts and will be good for your resume. Its not about the quality of the race, but the quantity. You want to do more races than the person who started tri-ing the same time you did. You want to be ahead in experience no matter what the cost.

Your mountain bike is not good for your sport, so you seriously consider buying a roadbike...NO, a tri-bike is better, and in all probability, you'd buy one.

You bought a tri-bike which the internet or some smart ass says will fit you perfectly because you're as tall as his friend who has one. You try to squeeze yourself into this bike only to realize 5 rides after that its a teeny weeny bit small for you. You don't trust your own assessment and need others for confirmation.

You are learning the ins and outs of triathlon. You are now friends with other triathletes whom you've raced before. You wake up early to train, but still has a hard time doing so most days.

A noob in the sport: gloves worn during the 1st run of a duathlon, cap instead of visor, knee low resulting to heel strike

You are slowly getting smarter, triathlon-wise and stopped wearing underwear everytime you race. Body glide is your new race best friend.

3. The Intermediate Triathlete

Triathlon is slowly becoming a lifestyle. You ride your bike even without a race.

You wake up at 4:00 a.m. to run or swim in a nearby pool before you report for work. You only join races that matter, so as to save on registration fees and spend the money instead in upgrading your bike, or in purchasing a new pair of shoes, probably Zoot or Newton.

You don't only join races to finish, instead, you want to finish it ahead of the others and your PR. You are more confident now in all the three disciplines of the sport. You may still start at the back of the pack during the swim, but the washing machine is becoming less and less scary.

You now upgrade your bike based on what you need. You have replaced your Vision aerobar with a Profile Design T2 because the latter offers more flexibility on the elbow position. You know what you need based on experience and not by what others say.

If you're the sharing type, this is the point where you mentor others without knowing it. You share experiences and try to let others learn from it. You are confident in sharing because these are all based on experiences, not books or the internet.

4. The Competitive Triathlete

"I'll start from the leftmost and slowly work myself at the turn around to be ahead".

You draft strategies days before the race and execute these almost perfectly. You are oozing with confidence in all facets of the sport. You need to be in the top 10% of your age group, otherwise, its a bad race. You are a lot stronger now, physically and mentally. You don't get intimidated like before. You have fire in your eyes at the starting line.

You study the splits of your nearest competitor, time-wise, and try to look for weaknesses which you can exploit. You are the wolf who pounces on victims when they least expect it.

Others look up to you. You are a hunter, as well as a target.

A newbie and a very competitive triathlete. Javy's bike seem to be a perfect fit for him while mine looks small for me.

Your position in the bike is more aggressive now. Little adjustments mean a lot...you know that now.

You can dig deeper on crucial moments. You are a machine, a well-oiled machine.

5. Elite/ Professional

You live the sport 24/7. Your life revolves around swimming, running and cycling. Your body is striped due to training, and sunburns keep peeling off dead skin, but its all part of the sport.

You are approached by sponsors and look for sponsors as well. That's your source of income.

It is better for you to DNF rather than be beaten by an age-grouper. You'd rather be dead than get caught walking the marathon.

You wear your cycling shoes once you mount your bike and take it off before dismounting. You practice this for faster transition times.

Every second counts. You may have lost the previous race by a mere 2 seconds.

We all start slow and end up stronger every race. No matter what the manner of finishing is, it helps us improve on the next race.

We start as wanna-be's and most peak at intermediate, sometimes competitive.

Where do you fit in?

The Road to Camsur: My Steed

With 84 days before the BIG event, most triathletes have, one way or another, started training for this year's edition of Philippine Ironman 70.3 in Camsur. As of my last peek at the event's website, there are 570 individual and 58 team participants already confirmed, up by 161 individuals last year.

With bike being the longest part of this race, I am not taking any chances with my ride. Last year, I was praying throughout the bike leg not to have flats, and God heard me. This year, I upgraded some components of my bike, which, hopefully, would serve me well. No matter how you train for a 70.3 or Ironman, even if you have the best swim time, one trouble with the bike and you can kiss your lead goodbye. For me, its not the lead. I will never, ever be in the lead in races, BUT, I can have a new PR, and that's my objective this year.

With very limited resources, my steed is the best I can afford, and so far it hasn't disappointed me. Let's take a look:

Standing proud. My Kinesis KT610 is ready for action anytime.

Armed with a Profile Design saddle mounted bottle holder, I can carry two extra bottles with me for those long rides.

Another Profile Design component. The Elite Pro carbon crank arm, 175mm. Battle scarred but raring to crank it up when the need arises.

Bianchi chainrings complete the crankset. The 53/39 teeth help me keep at pace with most riders.

An Ultegra SL 10 Front Derailleur ensures smooth shifting on the crankset all the time.

Ultegra SL 10 Rear Derailleur takes care of the gear shifting at the back end of the steed.

700x23C Continental Gatorskin tyres wrap the rims. I super love these tyres! The current pair on my bike has over 3,000 kms on them and hasn't shown any sign of retiring. Tough as nails and roll smoothly with proper air pressure.

The ADAMO Road saddle is one of the best investment I made on my bike. The moment I had it on, I kissed perineum area numbness goodbye. I highly recommend this saddle to anyone who wishes to compete in triathlons, duathlons and time trials and would like to stay on the aero position most of the time. Keep your wife happy after each training or race. :-)

The Cateye Strada Cadence ensures that I get the miles even when training at home. Its rear-wheel mounted magnet and monitor counts your mileage even if the bike is mounted on a trainer. It has a cadence counter so you know how many RPMs you are pedaling. If you want to hammer the pedals like Lance, go get yourself this cyclo-comp.

This Profile Design aero bottle bracket keeps my aero bottle in place even on rough roads.

Small but terrible. The VISION brake levers are one of the tiniest brake levers I've seen. But being small don't make it inferior. It's shaped ergonomically enough to enable you to grasp it with one or two fingers to brake.

Why are Dura-ace components so expensive? It's because they do the job well...errr...excellently! This pair of Dura-ace SL BS79 has never misfired since day 1. Shifts correctly all the time, and very smoothly.

Vision aero bars wrapped with red Look bartapes is my resting place on the front end.

My steed's whole cockpit. All Vision except for the bar end shifters.

Profile Design carbon bottle cage on the downtube ensures easy reach of fluids while on the flly.

Light, durable and affordable. The EXUSTAR EPS-R pedals have not let me down. Power transfer from legs to cranks is ensured without a fortune spent.

American Classic front hub ensure smooth roll of the wheels.

This Profile Design bento box is a life-saver! No more hunger on the road...well...at least not on the first 100kms.

TNI carbon wrapped 90mm stem may be heavier than other stems. But it does its job.

A pair of 2009 American Classic Aero wheelset connects the bike to the ground with minimal friction. The fastest wheelset I have ever used. They will stay on my bike for as long as I can think of.

The Kinesis logo on the headtube. No, the "K" doesn't stand for King, but probably should have been with the Kinesis KT610's bang for the buck reputation.

At 5'11", the frame fits me perfectly.

What's for snacks during the ride? Choco Mucho ( 150 calories ), GU energy gel ( 100 calories ). This bento box also contains a pair of tire removers and 3 Allen wrenches for quick adjustments of saddle, seatpost, cockpit, etc.

Kinesis KT610's proprietary carbon aero seatpost becomes the holder of my spare tube.

Never leave home without a hand-pump! This MOB hand-pump stays at my back pocket while riding.

Ultegra SL 10 brake calipers stops the bike when it needs to. Equipped with a Salomon brakepad, these calipers give me the security I will ever need on descents.

Ultegra 12-27 cogset enables me to climb those hills and burn the flats.

The Kinesis KT610 frame in all its glory. Responsive, durable and affordable.

A couple more races before Camsur and I'm sure me and my steed will be in fine form. That new PR looks too tempting to break! :-)

Thanks for reading!

God bless.

Deo P.

Race Report: Subic International Triathlon 2010

2010 SUBIC INTERNATIONAL TRIATHLON

The Subic International Triathlon is the oldest and most prestigious ITU ( International Triathlon Union ) sanctioned triathlon race in the country, and this year's edition has attracted more than 600 participants including delegates from 23 countries and the who's who in the local triathlon scene. This edition also hosted the 2010 Junior and Under 23 Asian Triathlon Championships, the highlight of the 2-day event.

May 1 was the staging of the Adult Sprint ( 750m swim - 20kms bike - 5K run ) and the female Olympic Distance ( 1.5K swim - 40K bike - 10K run ). The male Olympic distance was held on May 2.

I was registered to race in the Olympic distance category and drove to Subic on May 1. Had lunch with my teammates and did a short recon of the swim course. Normally, my nerves would start racking up a day before the race, but, this time around I was unusually very relaxed. I have raced the Philippine Ironman 70.3 in Camsur last year where the distances were crazier and I survived, so I thought this race would be easier.

Race Day

I woke up around 3:30 a.m. on race day. My teammates and I informed the admin, in the hotel we were staying in, that we would be up early and would need to be served breakfast around 3:00 a.m. Teammates doing a triathlon for the first time hardly slept due to nervousness and anticipation of what was in store for the day. I slept like a baby and needed to be woken up by my wife after getting my wake up call which, unfortunately, only she heard.

The whole race course of SubIT 2010 was different from other triathlons I joined. The transition areas were in different locations: T1 was at Dungaree beach where the swim was going to be held, and T2 was at the Boardwalk just in front of our hotel where the run part was going to happen. After depositing our T2 bags, we proceeded to Dungaree beach for the start of the swim.

The SWIM : 1.5 Kilometers

The race started at exactly 6:00 a.m. with the Elites, then the Juniors, then the 29 below and 50 above...then us.

Waiting for the horn start, I could see different facial expressions among my co-age groupers. Some were obviously nervous, others look focused. I was a bit tense but nowhere near nervous. I had visualized the distances weeks earlier and was ready for this race. It was just a matter of charging into the water and finishing the swim.

Then the horn went off, and all of us attacked the ocean...

My game plan was simple: stay at the back of the pack during the swim, attack on the bike, and then hold them off in the run. I am a poor swimmer so in order for me not to be last, I need to make up lost time in the bike.

Upon diving into the water, I immediately saw bubbles from the kicks of the swimmers in front of me. 50 meters into the swim and I got kicked in the face, my goggles knocked off. I held onto the buoy, released the water from my goggles and swam back into the race.

The swim part of a triathlon is always the most dangerous. In 2008 alone, on the 9 deaths recorded in triathlon races around the world, 8 occurred during the swim portion. Some were caused by cardiac arrests due to the sudden change in body temperature upon diving into the water, the rest were due to drowning and mostly claimed the lives of those who were new to the sport. Last year, in Philippine Ironman Camsur 70.3, Miguel Vasquez, a CEO of an insurance company, suffered a stroke during the 2^nd half of the swim portion and drowned. His body was only discovered after all the other participants got out of the swim portion. He was seen floating near the banks of the river, lifeless.

Swimmers on both sides of the swim course. A great sight to see!

The Subic shoreline is a trench, where there is an immediate deepening of the ocean floor after around 200 meters from the beach. Once we reached this, some swimmers panicked and swam towards the buoy line where I was swimming comfortably. There were a lot of contacts. There was one particular swimmer who stayed on my left for quite some time. He was annoyingly hitting my left shoulder every time he stroked and I pushed him to my left so he would stop hitting me. He came back and hit me again. Pissed off, I intentionally hit the back of his head with my left stroke. He held on to the buoy, and so did I. We stared at each other for a second then I yelled at him to go. We hit the water again and never saw each other throughout the duration of the race.

Finished the first lap of the swim in 20 minutes and dove again to complete the swim portion. At about 200 meters to my swim finish, I was overrun by two faster swimmers to the right. Good thing me and my teammates practice situations like this in the pool so I was kind of used to it.

Finished the swim in +/- 42 minutes. Not fast but definitely my fastest 1.5 kms in the water. I was grinning from ear to ear with my swim time, also relieved that the swim was over for me.

Getting out of the water with two Polo Tri members. Grinning from ear to ear, relieved that I was done with the swim portion

The BIKE: 40 kilometers

I was at T1 with Hans Pe, a former teammate, and Poch, a forum colleague. Whatever part of triathlon I was good at, it was in transitions. It only took me 1min 33seconds to transition from swim to bike. As a practice, I always psyche myself up upon mounting my bike. I am a cyclist and whatever time the other participants had on me in the swim, I always try to get back at the bike.

At T1, trying to transition fast to catch the guys who got out of the water ahead of me

Leaving T1, I was with two other cyclists who got dropped within the first kilometer. Going up the bike course, I saw a group of around 7 cyclists doing the same pace climbing the hills.

Caught the group in front of me in less than two minutes and hung on with them for about a minute. Thinking their pace was slow, I excused myself and tried to pass to their left, but, four of the cyclists were blocking the road and wouldn't let me , so I did the next "bad" thing: I passed these four in the middle without excusing myself which caught them by surprise.

I caught a lot of participants on the bike, mostly going uphill. Some even walk their bikes on the climbs. In all modesty and surprisingly, I never felt it was that hard of a climb, or I probably was used to climbing steeper roads, or probably my adrenalin was pumping so hard. Whatever the reason maybe, it served me well in this race.

Going back down was fast, as in 60kph fast. It was nerve-wracking. I crashed on descents before so I know how it feels sliding down the road using your palms as brakes. I pressed on the brakes gently while negotiating the downhill turns, it was better to be slower and safe than fast and crash.

When I reached the flats, I pushed on the pedal harder. I felt my eyes turn red and all I could think of was to pedal faster than the one in front of me. I caught several participants again, but other stronger cyclists also passed me. I caught someone I look up to in triathlons and that actually surprised me big time, or he was just probably having a bad race. Whatever the reason was, it boosted my confidence so much. I adjusted my saddle height two days prior to this race and I think the risk I took paid dividends.

Pushing the pedal harder upon reaching the flats

I reached T2 in after 1 hour and 25 minutes on the bike. I wanted it faster but miscalculated my speed. My cyclo computer conked out in the middle of the bike leg! My hopes of doing sub-3 hours seemed to become hopeless! I was at 2:07 of the race already and running 10K in 53 minutes, including transition, was something I haven't done yet. My 10K PR stands at 56 minutes!

The RUN: 10 kilometers

I transitioned in less than two minutes in T2, had an energy gel then ran. The run course was to go 4 loops at Boardwalk then a short 600-meter loop going into the finish line. I would normally be struggling to get my running legs after biking for more than an hour, but this time, its different.

My position in the bike has changed. I now sit at a 78 degree angle which makes me use my quads more than my hamstrings while biking. As a result, I could run fresher off the bike.

I had a good run on the first 3 loops. I was at 2:55 of the race going into the final 1 1/2 laps. I pushed and pushed until my legs hurt hoping I could finish even in sub-3:10.

I was at 3:03 of the race with one full lap to go. I gave up hope of going under 3:10. I relaxed my stride but going slower meant feeling the heat more. I maintained a steady pace of about 6:30-6:45. My legs felt like burning and my mind was telling me to walk even just a bit. I didn't. There was a water station at the turn going to Waterfront road, I thought I'd pour water on my legs there.

Upon reaching where the water station was, it wasn't there anymore. Shit! Now I felt my burning legs more and had to walk a bit. It felt good. So I walked more than I needed to and did the shuffle before reaching the final water station leading to the finish.

Running towards the finish line

No matter how you raced a triathlon, whether you're the first or the last to cross the finish line, it always feels good. You forget all the pains and agony you went through during the race, leaving you with a euphoric feeling that will last for days.

Finished the race in 3 hours, 19 minutes. It will do for now.

Deo P.