Welland Triathlon - Sprint Distance - Triathlon

According to my Timex, 16:19 (~2:10). TT start is incredibly civilized. Many people passed me just in the first 100m, but I soon settled into a rhythm. This is probably the fastest I've swum in a race.
There is a long 425m run back to T1 after the swim. In prior yrs and again in this yr, I prepared a pair of shoes so I don't have to run barefoot. As I exited the swim, and turned to go to where my shoes were, the marshal said "wrong way". I told them I had to get my shoes. After putting on my shoes, I thought I'd continue to run towards T1, but marshal said I had to backtrack and go back to cross the mat. I must have lost >half a min (in the swim split) judging from the chiptime.

Forget the shoes and run barefoot. They paved the path to T1 this year so I really didn't need the shoes.

Run up = 2:03, T1 = 1:32.
There is a constant theme with this race - 1 step fwd, 1 step back. Swim was great, but screwed up on the run to T1. At T1, for a change, I was able to get the wetsuit off effortlessly. Probably fastest ever. Then when I tried to mount the bike - disaster. Didn't really know what happened, suffice to say that this is the 2nd consecutive race I ended up getting off the bike, had to unclip my shoes off the bike and remount. Lost massive amts of time!!!!!!!! At least a couple of min (in the bike split). Never had a problem during practices and bricks.

Figure out the mounting, try it a few times as warmup.

According to my Garmin. 27.1kph going out, 32kph coming back, avg 29.28kph. I lost a lot of time mounting the bike. Quite windy, sometimes the gusts were strong, esp going out. Tried to stay in aero but felt exhausted. I went too hard going out (avg HR 148) and had to back off coming back (avg HR 145). For a race, this is the slowest I've gone in a while. For a long training day, this is a good session. My power and endurance are just not there this year. 3yrs ago, my time was 57:xx on old Kestrel, and that was also a training session. My normal avg racing HR s/b ~150 on the bike when I'm race fit. Today, ~146.

Uneventful. Took Garmin of bike, switch to run. Smooth transition, no issues.

Good training session, but pretty slow compared to 2010 when it was the longest workout for the year then and I ran 41:xx. Had a side stitch throughout. Avg HR 148, s/b ~154 when I'm race fit.

Health issues resulting in lack of power on bike and endurance on run. Haven't figured out transition issues.


Another excellent Multisport race by John Salt's group. I wish my fitness is better, but this is a good race to test my Flo wheel, as it's quite windy. ~5' slower than 3yrs ago, which was also a training day. Bike then was 57', run was 41'

Lunch afterwards at Vineland Estates Winery, 1/2 hr from Welland - Mmmm delicious!!! :)

Got nice bottle of wine and out of this world yummy natural dark chocolate almond bark.