Boulder Peak Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

Great swim first and foremost. I shaved some decent time off of CapTexTri and felt very confident. I think I could have gone lower but some awful sun-glare on the water just killed navigation efforts and created some undue traffic. Water temp was perfect though.

Try some tinted goggles again. I went clear this year and it was rough. Good for training but not racing. I trained hard for the swim this year but I can notch up the speed again.

So much of this t-time was spent getting into/out of transition. I had a very quick set-up for the bike even when the wetsuit got caught on my heel. It felt like I was light years faster than last year and overall was one of my proudest moments of the race.

Not much really. I didn't go helmet on first because my tire kit and glasses were in there and I'm good with it, I don't think it really killed any time.

Wow, my strongest component became my slowest and only area that I did not improve. I never got my shoes on right coming out of transition and that was a bummer. Even after stopping to do it right, I still had to stop again later to adjust the insole of my right shoe. Even so, I took in too much fluid in the first ten miles and my last 16 were plagued with cramps. Gel intake was spot on.

I totally underestimated Lee Hill/Old Stage Rd and got caught. I lost a great deal of time here and honestly, I can make that climb better. This is one bike segment that I will learn from yet wish to forget.

1) Control fluid intake better
2) New shoes designed for ease in Triathlon
3) Install alternate cassette with bigger granny gear for this race course
4) More brick training of swim/bike

I didn't do too bad here but I didn't rush it either. I took the time to clean my glasses so that my eyes wouldn't be tiring when trying to focus on the run, I would be tired enough. I could have been faster but hey, I was happy with this transition as well.

Don't intake those Cliff Roks...not conducive to running. Move a little quicker or have a spare set of sunglasses ready.

So, I knocked some good time off here but could have been faster. I think the cramps I endured the first 5k kind of took the wind out of me because my pace in the first mile and last 5k was decent enough to get where I wish I had been. Miles 2&3 were not fun. This harkens back to the cramps I started with on the bike.

More brick and speed training. Watch fluid intake.

Cooled off with a wet towel, walked around looking for the family, grabbed a subway and headed off for a sit-down. Slowly stretched a little and just caught my breath.


Cramping, lack of training desired to push my boundaries.


So I improved in all components but one and that one should have been planned for better. This has been an "off" year for me, plagued with injury and a plethora of other limiting factors. Between the move here, altitude adjustments, change in training time/abilities (and some are a positive), pending deployment in a week, and overall stress levels...it has been a weird year. I will say this though - my muscles can handle the abuse better than last year, my cardio is miles ahead of last year, and experience is helping my decision making. What I need is to prepare better both mechanically and physically. I need more bricks and I need to make them longer. I think I'm at that next wall and I need to bust through it. I didn't reach my time goal this year and only barely beat last year's...it's time to up the effort in training. I also need to have my bike better suited to this area. Sure, I can climb all day on my MTB, but my TT is not setup properly for the terrain here. I will be back to Boulder next year for both the Peak and 70.3 so let the training begin!