Midwest Meltdown Triathlon - Long Course - Triathlon

Lined up near front row. Spotted the fast guys so I'd know who to follow. Was hoping to draft. Horn blows and the race was on. Within a minute or so I was already a few yards back from the fast guys. No draft for me. Scott and I are usually seconds from each other but that' usually with wetsuits. This was a non-wetsuit race. I felt a little more taxed in the first lap than I normally do. Second lap I felt OK. Hit the slower first wave swimmers coming back towards the beach on the first lap. When I rounded the bouy near the start arae I oculd see the sprint wave standing there waiting for the start. I was hoping I'd get out there a bit before they started. Luckily they started a few minutes after I passed as I don't think I got passed on the 2nd lap.

I think sighting was O.K. and I didn't run into any floaters or backstrokers. A 26 minute swim, not steller but not too slow. Swimming twice and week, I can't expect much more.

Nada

I was pretty close to the bike exit. The transition area is not that big. Either way, a T1 time like this is fast for me. This might be my fastest T1 ever.

Nada

I felt OK once on the bike. Just put my head down and went to work. $ laps of a 5.2 mile loop is pretty boring. With such a loop and averaging 23 mph, you end up saying "on your left" quite a few times, especially near the bike exit/entrance near transition. The overall winner averaged 26.5 mph so I could imagine how frustrating it could be coming up on traffic with 3 bikes wide etc. when you're trying to WIN the race.

On the first lap, yellow disk wheel guy passed me on the minor climb sections. I told him "cool wheel", he told me it was his own garage handywork. At the time I didn't know what AG he was in. He stayed in my sights for all 4 laps. At one point I got within 10 yards from him but he was usually 20-30 yards ahead of me, maybe up to 50 yards at one point.

I probably went out a little harder on the bike than I should have but I just love to ride fast. I may never change the way I race. Bike hard, tank a little on the run. If I ever become a serious contender for OA awards maybe I'll put some more thought into it.

On this day NADA. I hope to one day be able to have an easy ride where I'm averaging 23 mph. So one day my bike and overall fitness will be such that I can ride 23 mph at 85-90% effort, then run sub 7 minute miles. Yeah, that's it.....

This was probably my fastest T2. I was only about 20 yards from the bike/run exit, a few folks went under 30 seconds. I run with my bike shoes on so I can't expect steller T2 times anyhow.

Learn to remove feet from shoes?

Felt like I normally do coming off the bike. Felt better than last week though. Heading out of transition I could see yellow disk wheel guy about 30 yards ahead of me. After a few minutes I could tell I was gaining on him. Took water at the mile 1 marker, drank half, poured the other half over my head as it was starting to get warm. I had a gatorade/water mixture on the bike and I think I hydrated well during the bike portion.

I caught disk wheel guy and another guy a couple minutes after the first aid station. Then I noticed they were both in their 30's so my main competition was well ahead of me and I knew at least two of them WOULD be. So for the rest of the run I just tried to hold a respectable pace, hoping to muster up a strong finish. As I got to within a half mile of the finish I WAS able to step up the pace a little so I'm pretty sure the last half mile wa my fastest of the day, but not a pace that was groundbreaking given my total time over 5 miles.

Nada, I paced the run well to coincide with my current running ability. Averaging 10-12 miles per week will not yeild very solid run times at this distance.

Grabbed some water,drank a coke, ate a banana, a cookie. Talked with friends for a bit. I wasn't craving a beer but drank the one that was handed to me by one of my friends.


Proper training and diet. This type of performance is what the mid 40's athlete can expect with random butsomewhat solid s/b/r training.


This was the 2nd race put on by the new owner, Elite Cycling. The same RD has done it the last 4-5 year or so and everything was organixed and on time. There was a little mshap on the awards (they announced 1st to 3rd for one of the women's races but they had to correct it. So 3rd pace gile had to give back her prize a few minutes later, D'oh! Also, for the 2nd race in a row, a drawing winner crossed the finish line just as they were announced as a winner. They had some drawings post race for prizes etc. but you had to be present to win. So two weeks in a row the finisher heard their name called as they crossed the line but it wasn't to recognize them for finishing, it was for the drawing! That's my kind of finish. My friend Kaylee won those new Garmin pedals with the sensor (don't remember what it's called).