Faster running off the bike

Could be the course, could be because you were warmer coming off the bike than doing your open 5 miler, which is more likely the case.

Sometimes on a brick run, I might start out running faster than I should because HR and adrenaline are all jacked up, but I've never really come close to any of my open running race times in any of my tris, apart from one reverse order race (meaning the 5K run was before, rather than after, the bike).

You didn't say how long the run in the tri was. Was it also 5 miles, or was it 5K? If it was shorter, you might have run a faster pace than in your 5 miler....

My guess:  a combination of things.  The sprint was 5K, not 5 miles (as previous poster guessed).  That makes a difference.    Possibly a course was mismeasured.  Possibly you didn't go hard enough on the bike.  Possibly you didn't go hard enough in your 5 miler.  Possibly you weren't properly warmed up for your 5 miler.  Possibly you were just feeling better on the day.

In any case, nice race!

This user's post has been ignored.

Almost definitely mismeasured triathlon run course (sorry!)

My 5k/10k times in triathlons have varied a lot, and I'm certain it's due to the course mismeasurement, as all my competitors notice the glaring changes. In my last local sprint, the 5k last year was probably 5.5k, and then they overcompensated this year making it 4.8K. My bike split remained identical, yet my 5k time between the two years (on exact same fitness and effort) vary by over 3 minutes, which is ridiculous considering how consistently I run, with almost all my race efforts varying by less than 1-2%.

Tricourses are notorious for being mismeasured. Even with the "same" course year to year (which happened to me).

Pure standalone 5ks are generally much better about the distance - they're rarely mismeasured if more than 100 people show up to race. 

In my limited experience, I have found that my higher cadence from the bike translates to a higher cadence on my run. That has ended up making for a faster run time at times.

Triathlons, especially smaller races are not an exact science in measuring.

My last tri advertised a 750m swim/13 mile bike/3.6 mile run

Almost everyone said the swim was long, but I can't confirm that.

The bike was actually 11.3 miles...but they still used 13 miles to calculate my average.  Official results had me at a 24.4 mph avg when really it was 21.3 mph.

The run was correct at 3.6 miles.  I mapped it out, and people's garmin confirmed about 3.62 miles.  But if you take my 29:08 time and calculate the pace...it's 8:05.  The official results listed my pace at 7:40.  It was wrong for everyone...so the must have used 3.8 miles as the distance to calculate pace.



Edited by tri808 2010-04-13 6:29 PM