The Nation's Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

On the way out I just found some open space and sighted off the shore line to my right as I turned to breath. Every once in a while I'd sight the buoys. After getting through the first 100-150M or so I settled into a pretty easy swim. Although I find I have to concentrate harder on form in a race. Don't know if it's the excitement of the race, the wetsuit or both. When I got about 200M out from the turn-around I had to get on a diagonal line to get to the buoy. Turned the buoy pretty tight and didn't bang into anyone, which surprised me. On the way back I was nervous about drifting left and swimming into oncoming athletes. But luckily didn't. Made it through the return leg without too much difficulty. Sighting was a problem and pulling up to see wore me out a little so once or twice I flipped over to take a break. Didn't have too much contact with anyone out there. Climbed up the stairs and onto the main walkway. Coaches Brian and Kevin were there cheering us on as we came out of the water. Ran through the misters (detoxification?) and on my way to T1.

Not sure. This was a pretty good swim for me. Probably try and hold a straighter line on the way out and not get so far outside of the turn-around buoy. Also, I need to learn to breath left. That would help a lot in difficult sighting situations.

I put my shoes on in transition as I haven't mastered putting them on while riding. I think the time I'd sacrifice trying to put shoes on, on the bike, not to mention the potential for crashing as I try to put them on, is greater than the time I lose in T1. That being said, I had a hard time getting my shoes this day, and I think it shows in my time.

Work on getting those bike shoes on!

I'm not the most technical rider. I just try to ride at a comfortably hard pace throughout. And shift gears to keep my momentum consistent. Overall this felt like a really good bike. I felt strong throughout the ride and didn't really feel a lot of fatigue. The only problems I ran into were nutrition and the finish. I had one gel on the ride, probably should have had one more. And I had way too much water/gatorade (I took one bottle of each) left after the bike. I drank at most half the water - 10 oz. And very little of the gatorade. I still have not mastered riding and drinking. I lose too much speed and momentum. Second problem was the finish. Just as I pulled up to dismount, I started getting some cramps in my hamstrings. probably related to problem number 1. So I took it easy, and tried to stretch while walking through T2.

Work on hydration and nutrition while riding in training!

Due to my tight hamstrings, I walked through T2 and took a couple seconds to stretch. I also sat to put my socks and shoes on.

Just need to get more efficient. But I'm not going to stress over :20-:30.

Like I said, overall I'm very pleased with this time, but a little suspicious of the distance. The first 3-4 miles were tough but went pretty well. I tried to break the race down into segments. So the first 7 minutes I tried to take easy, then went hard for 15, easy for 1, hard for 10, easy for 1, etc. This worked pretty well until about 3.5 miles and I started to get tired. I walked through the aid stations at miles 4 and 5. The final mile was really tough. I was struggling and pulled up to walk just as we were about to make the turn onto Constitution (?) for the finish. Luckily I got some encouragement as a woman passed me and yelled "Come on purple!" So I got going again. On the final stretch in, still struggling, Jared caught and passed me and gave me some encouragement to get down to the finish line.

So far I've done three olympic distance races and I haven't been able to get through the run without some walking in any of them. I need to work on my endurance and maybe get some advice on what types of training would help. My run has gotten a lot better in just a year or so. If I can build up my endurance over this distance I'll do real well.

A really good race. And I beat my goal time by 4 minutes. I only have one comparable time (the other Olympic had the swim cut short due to strong surf). That was my first ever Olympic distance and it was a much hillier course. All that being said, I was 17 minutes faster in this race.

The best part was doing this race with Team In Training. I had a really great experience and found the whole thing very rewarding. My teammates and coaches were awesome. And it was great to be part of such a worthy organization. Lots of "Go Team" cheers throughout the race.

Here's my two favorite moments of the race. 1 - Mary Ellen standing in the middle of the road with bikes going one way and runners going the other cheering her lungs out for TNT. Just awesome. 2 - Heading through the start of the second bike lap. A really big crowd had gathered there and they were cheering everyone on.

Final comments. For anyone reading this I highly recommend this race - it was very organized and lots of fun. And I highly recommend Team In Training - www.teamintraining.org - you'll be glad you did it.