A Day at the Races

September 17, 2017 marks a challenging day on our calendar, as both Andy and I competed in our chosen sports. For Andy it was a marathon, for me a sprint distance triathlon.

We’re challenging you to create a makeover of our race results. As our sports are quite different from one another, we’re giving you two datasets to choose from: each contains two races, so you can compare our performance from a prior race to that from today’s race.

Further below you will find some questions that we’re interested in, and you’re free to take your analysis and visualizations into whichever direction you like.

First, a bit of background information via a bunch of links:

• What’s a marathon?
• What’s a sprint triathlon?
• An explanation of draft legal vs non draft triathlon
• Andy’s two races: Madrid Marathon & Richmond Marathon
• Eva’s two races: German Sprint Triathlon Championship (Cologne) & Age Group World Championships Sprint Distance (Rotterdam)
• Andy on Strava
• Eva on Strava

Now let’s look at today’s results:

Andy

Follow this link for the interactive version.

Eva

Follow this link for the interactive version…

Some notes from Andy and what he wants to know:

1. Today’s race plan: Andy raced this as a long run in preparation for the Frankfurt Marathon next month, so it was 1hr 55 min easy + 35 min fast, then run walk for the rest of the race.
2. The race today includes heart rate data whereas the Madrid Marathon does not.
3. My goal for Frankfurt is 3:25. Is that achievable?
4. Tracking heart rate is new to me. Do you see anything interesting?
5. I’d like to see a comparison of the two races over the length of the race. How does my speed, cadence, etc. compare between the two races.
6. How can I improve after mile 22? This is a common question for marathoners as this is when you “hit the wall”.
7. Are you able to see when I had to stop to use the bathroom? How much time would not using the bathroom along the way save me? 🙂

Some notes from Eva and what she wants to know:

1. Today’s race plan: go as hard and as fast as possible across all three disciplines and leave nothing in the tank, have a fun race and don’t break any bones
2. This race was draft legal, so my aim was to catch a group on the bike and draft off them. Can you tell whether I did this (my pace should remain consistently high but at a lower effort and heart rate)
3. How does my heart rate compare between the two races?
4. Can you identify specific parts of the bike and run where I seem to be dropping speed and getting tired (e.g. There is no hill slowing me down but I’m getting slower)
5. When I run, my second kilometer always feels very tough, possibly because the adrenalin is wearing off and I still have so far to go. Is there anything interesting about kilometer 2 that you can tell me?
6. How do the bike legs compare between both races with Cologne being non-draft legal and Rotterdam being draft legal
7. Was my swim stroke rate higher in one rate versus the other?
8. What’s my acceleration like? After slowing down on the bike (e.g. Due to a hill or a turn around), how long does it take to get back to top speed?
9. What are the high level performance indicators regarding speed, heart rate, bike cadence, calories burned, etc?
10. How much time do I spend in transition as a percentage of the total race?

So over to you now: Whether you create a race summary dashboard, in-depth analysis of our running performance or something different altogether, we look forward to your vizzes.

P.S.: If you’re attending TC17, you can use this MM submission to enter the #FitData17 challenge: