The Original TRI for FUN Triathlon #1 - TriathlonSprint

Awesome! I basically learned how to swim last summer, and have been at it 2x/week since. I'm pretty sure the swim is now my favorite part of the actual race itself. All the people, the excitement, I loved it. It was a wave start with probably 40 or so people, and I started up near the front on the outside.

On the GO signal, I took off, buried my head, and pounded out about 5 hard strokes before breathing. My side was not bothering me at all, and I got into a really good groove quickly. No real contact today (compared to my last tri which was a 150 person mass start and I started way in the back, where there was a LOT of contact). I swam the whole way breathing every stroke on the left (my default side). I've been practicing bilateral in the pool a lot, but didn't try it during the race.

For the beginning, I was not really sighting at all. There were a few folks in front and next to me, so I just swam along following. My main focus was on turnover, and keeping it high. I tend to slip into a slow relaxed stroke when doing long sets, and wanted to focus on keeping the arm cadence up, and to really REACH with each stroke.

After the first bouy it thinned out a bit, and I began sighting about once every 2-3 breaths. I was really straight every time, so I began to lengthen that out to sighting every 4-5 breaths, with a focus on really burying my head when not sighting. I didn't do any drafting, but could see a few folks around me. Second bouy was uneventful, then I tried to pick up the pace a little coming into shore.

I passed a few previous wave folks here, and added in some kicking (till now I was just floating my legs behind me). When my hands hit the bottom, I stood up and ran out. Ran passed one guy who was walking up to transition. Talked to my wife later, she said I pretty close to the front end of my wave at the swim exit, very cool!

For pacing reference, I did a shorter Tri here last September, and averaged 2:00/100 over 400 yards. Today I swam twice as far, and averaged 1:40/100. Granted I used a wetsuit this time and not last time, but still twice as far and going faster, it's nice to see the improvements. I wouldn't do a thing different.

As I was getting out of the lake I unzipped my wetsuit and pulled it to my waist. Very easy, since it's sleeveless. After that, I pulled of my goggles and cap while running to my transition.

In transition, I tossed my cap/goggles onto my backpack, pulled off the wetsuit (stepping on the legs and pulling out, it came right off) and hung it over the rack next to my bike. Then it was helmet on, shoes on (mountain bike shes with velcro straps, no socks), Garmin 305 on wrist (I need a better solution for this, it takes too long to put on!) and I was off. I RAN with the bike to transition exit, and did a flying start. I passed one guy who was fumbling with his shoes while I got up to speed, then settled in and looked down to see what my heart rate was. DOH! I forgot to put on my chest strap this morning! Bummer...

Put on my heart rate strap before the race starts...

I'm on a mountain bike with slicks. And my biking has been lacking, so I didn't expect this to be my strength. I was right! I passed a few folks from the previous wave, but not a single person from my wave... I was passed a LOT! I could tell by the number of high end tri-bikes that went by me that I had a good swim :) Not much to say about the bike leg, I just settled into a good high cadence, and kept going... I had a bottle of HEED on the bike, and drank most of it before the turnaround point. After that I didn't take in much more, cause I didn't want to be full on the run.

Bike leg was good, since it was an out and back I could see exactly who was in front of me, and I could see I was the first mountain bike! Not that it matters, but it's something I could hang onto as the roadies and tri bikes went by me...

Last year at this same place, on an 8 mile race on the same course I averaged 17.14mph on this same bike. Today I rode 16 miles at 17.52mph. Not much faster, but further and I haven't really been biking lately. I need more bike training to get any better.

I unclipped and swung one leg over the bike while riding into the dismout area and did a pretty fast running dismount. As I came into transition I was lost! I'd never seen a transition so empty, everything looked so different! I slowed to a walk as I looked for my rack, and heard my wife yell, "one more rack!" so I ran to the next rack and got moving. Thank goodness she was there, I was about to start panicking!

Anyway, it was a blazing fast transition. Rack the bike, pull off the shoes (I'd already undone the velcro before dismounting), slip on the Zoot's, grab my hat (which has my racebelt in it) and GO!!!

Remember how many racks in my bike is!

I put on my hat and clipped my racebelt as I was running out of transition. I could tell right away that while my side was definately hurting, it was not going to really affect me. I could still run fine.

Here I was super bummed to not have my heart rate monitor, because I really rely on it when running. My plan had been to set the low limit alarm at 158bpm, which would keep me up into a fast tempo run at a minimum (my lthr is around 165). I know I have a tendance to slow too much when I'm not paying attention.

I have no idea how I really did with that today, but I think ok. Being a race situation, and with so many other runners around me it was pretty easy to keep pushing the pace harder. I was passed by a few folks, and passed a few myself.

My goal had orininally been to push as hard as I possibly could from the very beginning and either PR or puke on the course. I tempered that a little cause my side REALLY hurt when I picked up the pace to a full on all out run, so I tried to keep my pace at a level where I was always running just a little faster than felt good.

Comparing again to last year where I ran the 2 mile run at 10 minute miles, today I did 3 miles at 8:43 minute miles. Massive improvement! Run has been my focus, and it obviously shows.

Not hurt myself a week before a race? Wear my HR strap?

Not much, drank a little water, hung out with my family, then packed up and headed out. Good day!


I'm totally happy with my performance. To get better, I need to bike more.


This is my third tri, and my third with TBFracing.com and I love them! Such a well run race. I'll be back in July for the same race. I'm looking forward to racing the exact same course again, I've now got a target to shoot for, I've got to beat my time next month!