Sandy Beach Triathlon - Triathlon

Could've done with a little more w/u. For 130-ish people swim was not crowded - only had one older geezer who seemed to dog me and cross over my line the whole way. Wetsuit sure helps sighting - can't believe the difference in the buoyancy after doing the Tuesday night races with no suit.

Train. Am not doing any swim training right now so do not have any other gear other than plod.

Had added BG to bottom of wetsuit legs on the outside having seen a gal do this at Tuesday night's race. Also BG'd the tops of my feet and ankles. Had best exit from wetsuit yet - still had to stick thumb in back of heel but it came right off. Zipper pull cord gets wrapped around my R arm while swimming- very annoying.

Not much. It was kind of warm but wanted the buoyancy.

First couple miles was undulating after the short (but felt long!) hill up from the TA. Legs had nothing but then once I hit 209 they got going. Skies opened with a burst of heavy rain up near Bantam (approx. 6 miles) in.

Train. Intervals to get some power to get over the top of the gears.

This seems a little fast :-D so I might have pressed the watch late going in but it was pretty quick and a small TA so even if I added :05 it was still good.

Treat myself to those Saucony Grid Type A running shoes!

When I set up my gear pre-race I realised that I had left the insoles at home when drying the shoes from Tuesday night's race. Was annoyed at myself but just rechecked/tightened laces and set up shoes as normal. Never noticed the difference during the race. At top of the steep hill coming out of the TA a woman went by me. Kind of pissed me off but I let her go. Then fairly quickly she came back to me and I passed her. Course was hard on the legs with regular rises that weren't always huge but enough to kill and leg turnover. Tried to get legs going on the downhills. Saw the lead woman, a gal from HVTC, coming back from the turnaround then about 300yds later saw another gal cranking along and told her that she had 300yds and could catch the other gal. She had flown by me on the bike with a very "elbowey" style and no tri bars - just hammering - and her running style was awesome - she ran 18:01 - fastest overall - she was petite and weighed about the same as ONE of my legs. LOL. She did catch the HVTC gal and win the women's div. I was passing a few folk and with about 1/4 mile to go the road straightened and I saw a gal ahead of me and decided to try and catch her. It was way to early for me to be kicking but I could see the lights of the police cruiser parked at the last turn off in the distance and tried to judge my effort. She started coming back to me although I felt like I was running out of ground. She hesitated a little at the last turn like she didn't know where the course went and I closed in more and she was maybe 20 yds ahead of me with 50 yds to go downhill to the line. She high-5'd a guy and I got a little closer and then sprinted and finished just about 2 yds behind her (missed her by :02!) - bit annoying really but my HR split was 178 bpm which is what? 98% max.

Not much. Even though legs feel like they are dogging it I am getting faster

Walked around, cleared out TA, went into the lake, stretched.


Training.


This race normally attracts ~80 people - very local community field. This year it jumped to 120-130. I heard one guy say "Yeah, these guys come into a local race looking for the win." Well organized. THe RD commentated through the race and kept things moving along. Looked like lightening was coming in but it held off until the swim was started and most people were in. Good fun event with no frills but race T.