Tiger Tri - TriathlonOlympic

This is my longest OWS race to date. (In two weeks I'll double the distance at my first-ever HIM.) The course looked really long from shore, but ended up being fine. I waded in almost last (as usual) then swam wide to get around the stragglers...what can I say, it works for me and I avoid the crush. I was in more swimmers this time than ever before, though, and got bumped and jostled a bit - it was actually kind of fun, it made me feel like a hardcore triathlete. Partway to the first buoy...crap, forgot to turn on my watch, so I did it then...no clue about my time for the rest of the day until the finish. My goggles were leaking and either the sunscreen on my face, the baby shampoo that I used for defog, or the lake water was burning my eyes. I had to stop three times to try to reseal the goggles. I guess the good news was that with the water sloshing around, they didn't fog up. On the first leg, one lady swam perpenducular to me and I went over her legs - when I looked up I was still heading toward the buoy, maybe she had a cabin on the side of the lake or something, but she was sure pointed in the wrong direction. During the second leg I caught up to someone with a huge splash from their kick - I'm not sure what happened to them, either they calmed down, went under of I passed them because after a while they disappeared. There were two buoys on both the first and third legs, but only the turn buoys on the middle leg going across the lake. I had trouble seeing the second turn buoy and followed the crowd until I spotted it. At the second buoy we were close enough to shore to see the bottom, which surprised me and threw me off a little. On the second and third legs I found some feet to follow - that's hard to do! It would be going fine, then I'd look for them and they'd be way off to the side...hmmmm, perhaps I need more work swimming straight? And on the third leg, someone was drafting ME! ME! Whoa, does that mean I'm a swimmer? They kept bumping my feet then they probably found faster feet and disappeard. I swam pretty straight, but seemed to want to pull to the right (away from the buoy line) on the last leg. Luckily the finishing arch was very easy to spot, so I could correct without having to stop to get my bearings. I still felt pretty good at the end - not too out of breath or worn out, which was my goal. I've learned to barely kick in my wetsuit which saves lots of energy, but makes it hard to go back to the pool!

Nothing. I felt good and when I started to get out of breath I let my arms kind of float more through the pull until my breathing caught up.

Had to run up the hill on some carpets to the main road - part of the pavement was uncarpeted and I kept expecting to step squarely on a rock but it didn't happen. I ran a little, then walked, then ran the final bit to the bikes. My wetsuit stuck a little on my heels, but came off pretty quick. My chip strap is neoprene, too, so I worry about it coming off with the wetsuit. Like the last race, T1 seemed to take a long time. I really didn't feel like I was kicked back in an easy chair or anything, but it seemed to take a while. Gloves and the Garmin took the longest. Had to load the wetsuit and everything up into another bag to be brought to the finish, and as other competitors were doing it, I threw my bag to my brother to bring back...thanks BB.

I'm not going to race with the Garmin anymore, or if I do, it'll only be for pacing on the run. It takes a long time to get on, then the Multisport display doesn't tell me what I want to know (pace, leg distance, etc.) AND the HR reading is way too small for my old eyes - I can't even see it on the bike and have to squint and adjust my wrist to see it while running. I'll just wear my Timex with the BIG numbers. :)

What a blast this ride was! The net elevation loss was fantastic and I took full advantage of the downhills. Unfortunately, there were some stretches that looked like downhills but felt like uphills - these were kind of hard. Once again forgot to turn on the Garmin until I'd headed out, then realized I'd also forgotten to reset my bike computer. Duh. So I got them started and squared away in the first mile or so. My stomach was still a bit dicey, but my Perpetuum/HEED mix went down really easy so no problems. I did cramp up a bit on the bike which is really strange for me. I had the outside of one thigh twinging as well as my calves, and some weird ones. The weird ones would start in the front sides of my pelvis, work around the inside of my upper thighs and end up in my lower back. At that point I would stand up and stretch and be fine until they started again - what's this about? I rode by myself for quite a ways, but about halfway through there were three people that I caught. I played leapfrog with those three plus one more 23-y-o guy for the last half of the ride - I'd pass them on the downhills and they'd all pass me again on the uphills. I'm a much stronger hill rider than I've ever been before, but those extra 25 pounds or so could have something to do with getting passed so easily on the uphills. I drank one full aerobottle then refilled it out of my extra water bottle and drank part of that, and had about the right amount of the fuel mix according to my plan. All my stomach problems were gone by the end of the ride. I probably could (should?) have had a bit more water given the heat, but I ended the ride feeling good.

Figure out the cramping and get rid of it. Practice more on hills. Drop some more poundage. Otherwise, this was a good ride.

Ah, this time's more like it! They had bike catchers and people to hand you your run bags. It's always a bit of a struggle giving my bike up to a stranger, but I managed. They had a bench to sit on to change shoes, they took my helmet and gloves and even helped with the run bag. As I was changing, a volunteer came over and dumped out the rest of the bag, asked what I wanted, and packed up the rest with my bike shoes for me. I wasn't sure where to go - didn't see the benches right away, couldn't tell where to run out, but they pointed me in the right direction. Had some water on the way out to run.

Not sure - just keep practicing the transitions.

OMG it was hot. And OMG I'm so slow. And OMG I'm a troglodyte! I once again forgot to lap my Garmin until I was out there, AND I'd set the alarm for every 15 minutes to remind me to sip on my calories. The first time the alarm rang I was all by myself on the gravel road with tall grass along the sides and I spent the next 15 minutes trying to figure out the sound I had heard. What kind of animal lived in tall grass and made that funny noise? Snakes? Ground squirrels? Crickets? When it alarmed the second time I looked around the grass again and happened to glimpse the Garmin and finally figured it out. Sheesh. I passed the HoneyBuckets in transition thinking I could make it at least one loop, but stopped in the one by the golf course a little way into the run. Whew, that was one hot, stinky little room! At least I figured I was getting enough to drink if I needed to pee, but this was from partway through the ride and I didn't have to go again for a long long time. I carried my Amphipod fuel belt with one small bottle of Perpetuum/HEED mixed thick and one bottle of water - thinking that on such a hot day I might need water more often than every 1.5 miles. It takes me a long time to go 1.5 miles. :) That worked well with the added bonus that when I tried it on the day before, I had to take it in a good two to three inches from the last time I wore it last September! Hooray for tri training!!! I drank water at every aid station and with the exception of the first Garmin alarm took a sip of 'feed' every 15 minutes or so. I also needed a bit of my own water from time to time. Boy was I glad to see those aid stations. And isn't it funny how d@mn cold lukewarm water feels when you pour it over your head? Brrr - felt good only I wished I could have just soaked in a tub of it each mile and a half. I walked a fair bit on this run, mainly I think because of the heat. I did bring my metronome and used it for the first time. I had it pre-set to the cadence I wanted and when I finally remembered to turn it on I was able to run farther between walk breaks than I had with slower cadence and longer steps. The grass and gravel was fairly forgiving to tired feet, but I was SO incredibly happy to make it over the big hill and onto the track. After running for so far it seemed almost cruel to have to go around the track before you could finish, but I finally made it!

Sunscreen. I burned a bit where my tri top is cut in more on my shoulders. Also I should have used bodyglide on my toes before I put on my run socks. I had Sportshield powder in my socks but I got two blisters between my toes on one foot...Ouch!

The volunteers handed me a bottle of Gatorade which I drank on the way over to the tents with the misters (what a great idea THOSE things were!). Probably should have stretched. Picked up my t-shirt and another bottle of water, stood in the mist some more, cheered on some more finishers. Gathered up all my stuff and packed it up. And to top off a great day, they had the gym showers open! What a luxury to get to take a shower before getting in the car. Me taking a shower was probably even more of a luxury for my tri-brother who had to sit in the car with me for another couple of hours! Of course I hadn't brought any soap or anything, but there were a few drops of the industrial high-school shower soap left - at least enough so I felt more human. I got a little dizzy a couple of times while I was walking around, but just slowed down a bit and was fine. They had some food cooking that smelled wonderful, but I just couldn't bear to eat at that point. Had PB&J in the car on the way home, and stopped for coffee - yum.


The heat. I wouldn't have been much faster even if it had been cooler, but I would have been more comfortable. Cramps on the bike - gotta figure those out. My snail-slow running pace...still working on that. Now that I feel like I can swim a bit better in OW, I'm starting to feel the lack of speed on the run - while I increased my run distance quite a bit over the winter my real focus was on learning to swim, so maybe this winter will be more on maintaining the swim and bike with a run focus.


This is a fun race. Each year there are about 100 competitors, so it's a nice size. They had lots of volunteers, but I heard that at least one station ran out of water and only had Gatorade for awhile - they all had water when I went through. I would recommend this race, and hope to go back again next year.