Pittsburgh Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

As soon as I got in the water my timing chip began to feel very loose. I spent some time trying to adjust and almost lost it. I got myself in the middle of the pack at the start and was immediately getting passed - not my usual swim experience this summer! It has become one of my strengths. I couldn't get my breathing down - was doing a lot of every 2 stroke breathing and wasn't breathing out well. I think my legs were dragging big time and my form was way off. Once I got past the turn around I realized my suit was unzipped about 1/3 of the way and acting like a big parachute in the water - pretty sure I forgot to fully zip it before getting in the water. I fixed that and finally got into a better rhythm - even caught and passed a few small groups. Did get passed by some caps from the wave behind during the last 1/3. Navigation was also not great - I was too far to the right on both the swim up and downstream and had to re-adjust. I also hadn't noticed how narrow the swim exit was - the area was roped in to prevent you from going downstream, but the exit itself was at the far upstream portion of the roped in area. Little things, but probably cost me some time.

Zip up my suit. I think a swim warm-up would have helped me as my head and my body were not in the game at the beginning. Rest and recover better before race day.

Time will look different from actual results - I used the times from my Garmin which will put the 400 yard run from swim to T1 under the T1 time (and take it off the official swim time). Transition felt ok. I ran at an easy to moderate effort up the sidewalk - did get passed by someone moving faster - but didn't feel lightheaded or dizzy. I decided to run with my bike shoes on since it was a short jaunt to the dismount line, and I've been strugging getting my feet into my shoes lately. I noticed my timing chip was hanging by about 2 velcro teeth - I had twisted the strap while trying to adjust it underwater, so I took a few seconds to re-secure it. Ran to the mount line with my bike, hopped on and started pedaling.

Secure my timing strap better before the race started. I suppose I could try to run faster. I've also been using an X-lab to hold my water bottles on the back of my bike - the only issue with this is that the bottles are too tall to fit directly under the rack, so I have to tilt my bike to the side to get it under. This doesn't take a huge amount of time, but I could probably save a few seconds in Olympic and Sprint distances by taking it off and getting an aero water bottle to sit underneath me.

I still wasn't feeling great physically or mentally, but was happy with the bike effort I put in. I tried to stay aero for most of the way out on the first loop, but I wasn't feeling very comfortable and I was beginning to feel the climb. I decided to relax a little and sat up - still stayed seated to pedal, and passed one of the two people who had passed me so far. Got back aero on flats and dowhills - course was not crowded yet and I was fairly aggressive on the turn around. After the short climb after the turn around, I went back aero for the entire descent until some of the turns around the stadium. I still wasn't feeling very comfortable in aero for some reason and had to force myself to stay there. Second lap was much more crowded and did a lot of "on your left" shouting. The road is a little narrow for that number of riders, and the rumble strip areas narrow it even more. A couple of times on the way back out for Loop 2 I had to slow down and wait for an opportunity to pass because the space wasn't there. Turn-around was also tighter with more people on it. Descent, however, was just fine. I smartened up and stayed upright on almost the entire climb out and quickly passed two others who had passed me earlier who were trying to stay aero. I barely drank or ate anything - I finished my aero bottle right at the end, and forced myself about 2/3 of the way through to take a few sips of my accelerade, but I had most of my hydration and my 2 gel packets left when I wracked in T2.

I need to work on this climbing and riding position thing - obviously I've found on steeper climbs that sitting upright works better, but most of this was not very steep. I also need to work more with getting comfortable in aero position - most days I don't have a problem with it. Not sure if this was just an issue with my body feeling like crap today, or if my neck and back are tighter after swimming. I think I also did a very good job of pre-hydrating the day before and morning of the race - again, for this distance I could probably go without the extra weight of the X-lab and 2 bottles and get a single cage bottle.

Got my feet out of my shoes and dismounted without a problem (see my Philly race report...) Racked the bike, remembered to take my helmet off and switched my cycling for my running sunglasses. Wasn't sure how my ankle was going to hold up, so I took some time fumbling with a BioFreeze packet to get it into my back pocket.

The glasses - my regular sunglasses I've noticed sit farther down on my nose and, when I'm aero on the bike, block some of my view. Too bad, they are nice glasses with interchangeable lenses. I couple years ago (before I got those) I got a pair of Tifosi glasses with pale yellow lenses for not sunny days or evening rides - I happened to try them out a couple of weeks ago and found they sit up higher on my face and the bridge doesn't block my vision. I decided safety was best so I brought them and swapped glasses between run and bike - not a huge issue, but a few seconds. I could probably have also put the biofreeze in my suit before the race started - it would have stayed put through the swim, I think.

My tendonitis didn't flare back up!!! I decided to run more relaxed and not push the pace too hard so as not to kill my ankle. I was surprised when my Garmin kept telling me I was hanging around 7' pace, but it was alerting me at about one to two hundred yard before each mile marker, so I figured its positioning was off. My posterior tib tendon felt a little tight between miles 1-2.5, but then disappeared. I managed to keep a steady pace the entire time and felt good. Took some water and Gatorade on the course - the lemon lime left a bad taste in my mouth, so I switched to just water, and poured most of it on myself. Got to the finish, hit the Garmin and it said 6.21 miles and showed a new PR for 10K :-)

Nothing - this race was not supposed to be an A race, but more of a tune-up, speed work/race practice before the HIM I'm planning in September. I won't be able to run this fast during the next race, but I feel much more confident that my injury is resolving and that I'll be able to run. I'll take the PR with a grain of salt - the course and weather worked perfectly for me - my previous best 10k was on a hillier course with some rougher trail thrown in - but I'm very happy that my running seems to be "back"!

Drank water, did some stretching, drank my Endurox, got a massage, put on my recovery compression socks, walked around the expo and waited for results to come out.


Hmm, a 12+ minute PR for Oly distance and I have to figure out how I could have gone faster...

1. Recovery and rest - while I wasn't planning on tapering fully for this race, I did back of my training the week before (from 10hr to 6hr). However, I did a really crappy job of resting up - definitely needed more sleep in the days leading up, and could probably have used a little more yoga - I felt very tight the day before and day of the race. I did a good job pre-hydrating the day before, but I should have been smarter with the amounts that I ate. I suppose it worked since I barely fueled at all in this race and didn't bonk, but I think I may have felt better pre-race.
2. Mental errors - my timing strap issue and zipper issue on the swim, biofreeze issue in T2.
3. Posterior tib tendonitis - I just made it back to 6 miles for the first time in a month about 6 days before the race. I obviously ran well, but makes me wonder how well I could have run if I hadn't injured it.


Overall good - well organized, ok number of volunteers, course well layed out. I would definitely like a swim warm-up, though - personally, I think it helps me quite a bit. The bike course is a little boring and a little crowded - a not very scenic ride on a narrow concrete highway. The run course was also slightly ambiguous - I get the feeling that we were supposed to be running on the left, but we were all running on the right. At one point, the out and back legs crossed each other - not a huge issue, just minor details. The pre-race meeting and post-race ceremony were held right next to the big inflatable tents - meaning all you could hear unless you were squeezed up front was the air compressors/fans keeping the tents inflated. Besides the finish line, it was also very hard to find water post-race. The expo was nice, the main area around the race/transition site is beautiful and probably good for spectators, the trophies and medals for award winners looked good. I think a race this size (not huge, but not small) could have some sort of finsher's medal or towel. They advertised a finsher's "Terrible Towel" on the website, but all we got was this crappy blue towel in our race packet - so you didn't have to finish, and it wasn't even the right color! I mainly did this race because I'm a diehard Steelers fan who doesn't live in Pittsburgh - and for me it was cool to be near Heinz Field and I got some pics of me with my tri stuff in front of the stadium (minus my football season facepaint and Polamalu jersey). Besides being a good course to set a PR, I probably wouldn't be able to find another excuse to make the 5 hour drive down the turnpike to come back to it (different answer if it was closer, though).