TriTulare - TriathlonSprint

Did the first 100 yards okay, and then panicked! For whatever reason, all my form was gone, and I started to hyperventilate... but there was NO QUITTING!! Shifted to backstroke for 100 yards trying to catch my breath, and then to sidestroke for the rest. Should have done sidestroke earlier, as I was just fine then, but finished in the last four out of the water...

Well... more pool time would have helped. But seriously, I had thought of sidestroke as my "panic stroke", and did backstroke instead. Noted that my sidestroke was as fast as a number of peoples' freestyle, so I could have saved a couple minutes overall right there...

It came together in T1. Had rehearsed this, and it went just as planned. Passed three of the people in my slow-swimmer group in transition, and set my sights on the fourth right away.

I'd like to be one of those people who could jump on the bike, but I've NEVER liked doing that. Might try working on it.

My bike background helped on this one. I got right into my planned speed, and was at 21mph during the beginning parts on the little bit of city road... but the farm roads made it rough... literally. But still passed 8 people on the ride, and felt really good while doing it.

Drink a little more, but with the rough road and following a horrible swim, I'm really happy with my performance!

Another good transition. Nobody caught me while there, and I was out and running fast.

Not bad, all things considered. Calves ended up cramping, as I thought they would, but I walked a little bit and stretched them out. On the good side, I passed people on the run, and didn't get passed by anyone in my age group, so again, I'm realistically happy!

My thought was to slowly ease into the run, as I had done in training... but in hindsight, had I tried lengthening my stride earlier, I would have had a much better run... as my easing in just hampered my getting the legs working better.

Swim work, and the wrong approach to getting my run going. I now know that if the going gets rough, I can rock the sidestroke, and perform well doing it, so I'll work that into my pool work.

Can't wait to get into the pool, as I'm so looking forward to my progress!


The bad part was the swim, but I can fix that! I'm happy that I didn't give up, as when things went bad in the water, it seriously crossed my mind to just stop, as I felt hopeless at that point -- but I recovered from that and did what it took to finish!

I'm really happy with my bike, as that certainly helped me out -- and I passed people! And I passed people on the run, too! In fact, I ended up passing 12 people overall (which became my motivation as I was chugging along)

!For a local fundraiser, this one was fun. They could have tried an extra couple swim waves, as the lanes got CROWDED!! And I hope that the people who didn't do the full distance on the swim get noted accordingly...

Overall, a fun race, and I'll do it again... especially to see how I progress over a year!