USAT Age Group National Championship - Olympic Distance - TriathlonOlympic

WOW!! I've always heard of triathlon swimming being a full-contact sport, but had never really experienced it except for the first 100 yards or so and then intermittently in isolated spots throughout the rest of the swim. This was a totally different enchilada. In the typical local race, there might be a range of people in a +/- 50 person wave swimming anywhere from 1:10's through 2:30's. Even when the water gets a bit congested as you catch earlier waves, you're swimming faster than the people you are catching so you clear other swimmers wihtin a few strokes. This ball of wax had 200+ people that were largely in the 1:10's through 1:40's, so the entire swim, from start to exit, was a compressed group of lots of people trying to occupy the same space. Contact (from light to heavy) throughout. On the positive side, it was easy to stay in the pack and swim a more or less straight line, with the exception of a few times where I had to pull up and adjust my position to find some slightly more open water. At the end of the day, even though it was a challange, I'm really happy with the outcome. 1:25 pace is my best ever by a wide margin. Of the three disciplines, this was my strongest today (top 45% of a fast, fast crowd), and it's given me the confidence that I can go out harder on the swim in future races.

Nothing, except maybe find god and offer a prayer before the start.

Decent T1, but I could have run it faster. I was in the back half of my age group getting out of transition. No real errors in the execution - just had to move faster.

Move faster! It's U.S. Nationals!!

Generally a good ride. This was my fastest olympic bike, so I'm happy on a personal level. Relative to the group, I wasjust barely in the middle-of-pack. This was where the race started to get humbling. I didn't have it in me to ride much harder without sabotaging my run, and I just had to bite the bullet and let a good number of people ride by me while I stayed focused on my own race. Looking over the power, I think I went out a little too hard: 20' max power (200w) was in the first 20' of the bike. I also might have pushed a little too hard at the end: 1' max power (340w) and 5' max power (237w) both occurred over the last hill just prior to T2. Looking at the start and finish, I might have expended too much energy right out of the water, and I definitely burned some matches working the last hill (maybe I got a little too caught up in a cat and mouse game with a certian elite female coach who caught up to me in the last few miles of the ride). On the whole though, a PR for a bike at this distace and I didn't completely destroy my legs, so a good ride and good experience.

Be a little more careful with my effort level throuhgout. Develop my fitness during the off season.

I was a bit too lethargic getting myself out of T2 and towards the back of my age group.

Never forget that I probably had :20 of hustle in T2 that might have gotten me under 2:30 for the overall race.

The run was a little disheartening. I dropped to the BOP and was just never able to get myself moving at a good clip. The sun came out during my time on the run course, and it felt hot (but that affected everyone in my age group). I might have compromised myself by going a little too hard on the bike, but at the same time, I'm not sure a mile-per-hour slower on the bike would have yielded me 3' (+/- :30 seconds/mile) of savings on the run. There's no way to ever know for sure, and I think any savings would have been marginal, so I'm not going to beat myself up over it too much. If I had it to do over again, I would have taken the last hill on the bike (237w for 5') a bit easier, and maybe given up 30" on the bike to feel a little fresher to start the run. Given where my HR went when I tried to hang on to my pace at the end of the run, I think I went out at the right intensity and didn't make any real tactical errors on the run itself. Also, after PR's swimming and biking and factoring in a warm run, it was somewhat of a personal victory to merely slow down a bit on the run and not simply implode. I'll take the entire experience as motivation to keep developing my run fitness.

On the run itself, not much. Keep developming my fitness and try to bike smart.

Walk-around a bit to catch my breath and settle down my stomach and then kick back on a lounger in the NormaTech leg sleeves at the expo.


Overall fitness. I had a great race for me. I've got some work to do to be more competitive with the group at Nationals.


What a blast. USAT did a great job with the event, and the City of Milwuakee is a fantastic venue. It was a little bit of a bummer to get held in the water for 15' prior to the start, but that was only a minor glitch in an otherwise stellar experience.