What a Master Novice Should Not Do (Page 2)

DO be sure to pack your bag and gather your gear the night before. Then DO check it all again when you put it in the car to make sure you have everything.

DO NOT realize 15 minutes down the road that you left your bike helmet and wetsuit at home. If you do this, the big cushion of time you had given yourself to get to the race and setup transition vanishes. 

I'm pretty sure all our races are draft legal.  But the rules are weird in that they are segregated by sex - females aren't supposed to draft with males and at the pre race meeting they told everyone not to use aerobars (not a problem for me as I don't have them) while in a peleton.  Only saw 1 peleton and they were all behind us.  I grabbed a guy with an aero helmet as I figured he'd be fast.  :0  I was 5th female out of the water (??) so I had fast guys at my disposal. 

Aren't you in South America?  That's why you have this situation...USAT doesn't sanction many draft legal races for age groupers...but we may begin seeing more.

Back to the OP.

Race belts are nice.

Start slow on the run until you gather yourself and go from there.

Don't bring too much water on the bike. One water bottle should suffice, unless you are extremely slow and plan on taking over an hour to complete the distance.

Good luck.

Hello

Print the race check list and start laying your gear out on Thursday.

Get to the race a little early, get set up and then walk around and enjoy.

Don't eat PIZZA the night before to help you sleep.  You wont sleep any better.  So save the double helping of PIZZA for the night after the race.

Have fun

Then come down and race the Try-Charleston Sprint with me.

Kevin 

Pizza (and Mexican!) are really bad ideas the night before, at least for me.

BT Checklist.

Make sure you have your bar ends capped (I bring extra).  Make sure you don't have any glass in transition (DQ offense).  Make sure you remember your bike.  And your front wheel.  And don't ride it prerace without the helmet on.  Extra goggles.  A water bottle.  USAT card and ID (usually needed to check in).

Know the bike course.  Figure out how transition works, particularly T1.  I always rack and put my stuff such that I am on the non-drive side running out.

Most of all get there early.  Not to get a good spot or anything like that, but just to be able to have time to take it all in - people watch, be able to walk the rows and check out all the cool bikes, get a warmup swim in, etc. 

Think about the angle of the sun in the swim. If you're into the sun, make sure your goggles are smokes or mirrors.

Also, find landmarks aligned with the buoys, trees, buildings, whatever.

When I started last season, keeping oriented in the open water was super important to me, and made a huge difference between freaking out and having fun in the washing machine.

No PIZZA 

Eat all the double meat, pepperoni, veggie thick crust etc you want. Just hit the port-o-potty before the race starts. 

Kevin

And for reference, it isn't.  (I'll be doing the same race.)

x whatever on having fun.  Stay focused on that, and racing responsibly, and everything else takes care of itself.

Since I know the race, I'll mention another point, that comes up in other races too but is quite significant in this one.  The bike course is three short loops.  By the third loop, the course can get a little crowded, and more important, there will, by then, be a wide variety of riders on the course, from those who wouldn't break the aero position to prevent a bee sting and are averaging 28mph to those who are riding beach cruisers at 12mph, and everything in between.  And they'll all be riding side by side.  No matter which category you are in, be considerate to those in other categories.  The rules are designed to make that happen to some extent, so if you follow the rules, all is well.  Specifically, hold your line and stay right except to pass.  Be wary in the corners -- there are some fast corners in this race and people can get unpredictable in the corners.

It's a really fine race -- nice 'small time' feel, and you should have a great experience!

Don't forget that your leg and your timing chip need to cross directly over the timing mats!  Listen for the beep. 

I almost screwed my timing of an entire race last year because my leg crossed just wide of the timing mat going into T1.  I didn't hear the beep and I knew it was close....so I ran back and waved my leg over the mat until I heard the beep.  It cost me at least an extra 10 seconds in T1, but could have messed up my whole race time if I wasn't paying attention and failed to cross that mat. 

(Chances are, the race management group would have figured it out....but still, there's nothing more annoying that working your butt off and seeing your race times and AG placement wrong after the race)

Pizza is always my pre-race meal! ALWAYS!

What do you have against pizza?

Haha!  I don't think y'all have been to the CoJ forums.  I'm pretty sure it was meant to be pizza which is not food related at all.  

To the OP, this is more of what to do that you may not have thought of...

Practice your transitions with efficient set-up.  Think about putting your gear in about the space of a kitchen towel and keep it grouped.  Have a "used gear" location behind this "towel area" to put things you're done with. 

When you come out of the swim, take your cap and goggles off on your way to T1.  T2 should be short - ditch your bike, change shoes (if necessary) - grab anything extra that you need and put it on while you're running.

You guys are great! Thanks for the advice, encouragement, and making me laugh (despite my stiff muscles).

Sue

Um...

Instead of asking what NOT to do, work through in your mind the things you NEED TO DO to get to the finish line with a smile on your face. 

Obviously, you need all of your gear (organized)

You need to swim easy enough you can bike.

You need to bike easy enough you can run. 

Since it doesn't take much energy to drink beer after the race, you don't need to go easy enough on the run to do anything else. 

Remember, most of us do this for fun, not profit.  If you'll have more fun warm and dry on the bike, dry off after the swim (yea, it'll cost you a minute extra in T1, will your sponsor drop you?) 

Thanks McFuzz...I really do need to think more positively! And going all out for the run is a good strategy. 

Sue

DO have a TESTED backup pre-race meal that you know you can tolerate (like a protein shake/smoothie - something liquid so you don't have to chew), in case you can't eat what you planned due to race day nerves.

I had to decide whether it was worth it to go into an Oly without breakfast at all, or to puke and be dehydrated.  UGH!