Triathlon and Team Oaxaca’s Formula for “Wet Run” II

We have done this exercise with a sprint distance triathlon.  The Cape Town Triathlon gave us the opportunity to do the same exercise for an Olympic distance triathlon.  Unfortunately, Cape Town and the ITU did not program well the competition; as a consequence, we ended up with a short swimming course, in addition to an unchallenging bike. This give the opportunity to calculate the “wet run index.”  I will used the names of the same competitors:

3	Vincent	Luis	FRA		01:39:28	00:08:43	00:00:42	00:59:32	00:00:20	00:30:11
4	Richard	Murray	RSA		01:39:39	00:08:47	00:00:46	00:59:26	00:00:19	00:30:24
8	Mario	Mola	ESP		01:40:16	00:08:50	00:00:50	00:59:22	00:00:21	00:30:55

The wet run Olympic distance index of Mario Mola does not correspond to the sprint distance “wet run.”  Vincent Luis’ wet run index as well as Richard Murray’s wet run are more in accordance to what we expect.  As it was said in previous post, one needs special bike training to be able to have a good “wet run.”  On several occasions Mario has not been able to have the best wet run most likely due to some problems with the way he is riding the bike; Mario is unable to have a good “wet run” when he is not drafting or the bike course is too technical.  Improving his bike power would change Mario’s running form and speed running, which is why is important to have a “wet run index.”  It is easier to follow the improvements taking into account the bike and run as one measure.  Unfortunately, the measure should be using power meters (bike) instead of speed to be more accurate.

14 mars 2015

Triathlon and Team Oaxaca’s Formula for “Wet Run”

People love formulas. I like them too; they make me feel on control and I have parameters to measure in the future.  Now that we have a World Series, Abu Dhabi, we can extrapolate results to have a formula for a “wet run.”  We have explained what a wet run is in previous posts:

18 févr. 2013

Triathlon and “Wet Run”

When I first heard this expression and thought about running and what makes people run after finishing the bike and swim in triathlon.  The wet run is real; it is just for intelligent triathletes. As we mentioned in this blog, there are benchmarks that are needed in order to perform in triathlon.  Swimming in 16:30 and biking a 5k on flat surface in 6:45 is necessary to speak of “wet run.”  This post comes after looking at the numbers from Alistair Brownlee´s coach posted by Alfonso Andreu.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ5mGUHGQlsaMP8-kmGht3icMw76EOvTHLBSIRdXWP3KrcYF4xrUbFZ0gXQSFLlSXIYGv-HgiugKTfNJidQZBc6RlpjyDdTpPmmZbkbxPUzFkOPJKRBEosZ2PGhVnJui0mKl1L5_IfrCBp/s1600/P2071135.JPG

During this last race, the first five were on the podium as juniors (Murray was gold medal in duathlon); all of them were born in 1989-1990:

1	Mario	Mola	ESP		00:52:32	00:09:03	00:00:27	00:28:21	00:00:36	00:14:03
2	Vincent	Luis	FRA		00:52:45	00:09:06	00:00:31	00:28:23	00:00:23	00:14:19
3	Richard	Murray	RSA		00:52:50	00:09:12	00:00:33	00:28:14	00:00:22	00:14:26
4	Joao	Silva	POR		00:53:02	00:09:03	00:00:31	00:28:23	00:00:25	00:14:37
5	Jonathan	Brownlee	GBR		00:53:03	00:09:09	00:00:30	00:28:24	00:00:23	00:14:35

 

Most of them are unable to swim in 16:30 the 1,500 meters in a swimming pool and/or unable to bike 6:45 on flat a surface, but they could do a beautiful “wet run” during this competition.  Why? How? The race was sprint, the swimming was not that difficult neither the bike.  This allow us to calculate the Team Oaxaca Index for “wet run.”  Because a “wet run” should take into consideration running after the bike.  This calculation gives a rough idea of where we are.

 

Riding the bike at 42 k/hr. average over a flat surface in a peloton for 20k give us a good information:

100(28.21 +14.03) = 4224

This number will be assigned to Mola, 4224, in a sprint distance triathlon.  He can hardly lose a race if the average for the bike is 42k/hr. because his “wet run” is the lowest. Calculate your wet run for a sprint distance in a peloton so you do not lie to yourself.  If you have a number lowest than Mola’s you are ready to win.

Let's see Crisanto Grajales’ “wet run.”  We have two races to compare.  It appears that the average power on the bike was the similar for the two races:

19	Crisanto	Grajales	MEX		00:53:48	00:09:09	00:00:32	00:28:21	00:00:26	00:15:16
12	Crisanto	Grajales	MEX		00:55:49	00:09:29	00:01:27	00:29:26	00  :00:19	00:15:05

His race at Abu Dhabi had a 4337 index; at Mooloolaba had a 4413.  His wet run index was higher at Mooloolaba because of the bike course.

Mola during the Gold Coast World Championship had a low index when he was a junior.  His “wet run” in that occasion was 4415.  He has improved his “wet running” index by 191 to win as elite athlete.  He has improved that much in little more than five years. 4% improvement in little more than five years. Oops!  Mola is the one that has improved the most over the sprint course.

“Wet Run Index” should be calculated using biking power, but we still are archaics by using speed instead of power to give results.