Bassman Spring Oly Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

Like normal I face the crowd at swim start and wave, jump around and dance. I'm not going to get a great draft or win the swim so my goal is to have fun and keep it light and pike light. I had Shasha write Pike on my swim cap and guess what no one asked me about it. I loved it!

I started swimming and this women swims right in front of me. I worked a bit to get around her. Turns out she banged and crossed over my path like 50 times in the swim and would roll over and do backstroke for 3-4 storkes then roll again doing breast stroke kicking...plus another women did as well. It annoyed me a bunch that sucky swimmers who were struggling swam same speed as me. Right now that is how it is..I'm slow but I can do it. I was calm and not mental even though I had only 2 ows all year..that is progress for me.

Swam until my fingers touched the ground..Kevin took a funny picture of me as I was getting up...I guess I was focused and intense.

The temp. of the water didn't bother me a bit which made me happy. Summers in No Minnesota with high temps of 72 in the water mid 60s is normal and wearing a wetsuit made it okay.

I did the best I could. Truth is I'm not a very good swimmer even though I've been at it 5 years. Pike swimming joking around makes the truth be a little lighter. I keep holding onto I just haven't figured out how/what will make the difference in my swimming.

I suck at swimming...I placed above a whole 12 people..wow...so glad I swim 3x a week for years.

Transition was on "hard packed" sand which of course is a huge mess. I had a rack at far end of transition on end so easy to find. It was cold and riding wet made what to wear a challenge. I went with toe covers that I had on my tri shoes, no socks, knee warmers, and tight Gore Bike wear shell..opted for no gloves which was a mistake.

Exited transition and had to run on hard packed sand out to street which took about 1.5 minutes as it was 100+ yards. Hard to pass folks as limited space and du people were coming in. Saw Emily and Shasha directing traffic on the bike/run in/out...cool beans!

I placed best in T1 and I was slow for me due to weather.

Placed 122

Being warm and comfortable on the bike was biggest concern as a 29.5 mile bike cold is not good.

I wish I had put on gloves, socks and maybe even real booties.

Dressing for bike was tough due to weather. I felt good on the bike first 10-12 miles. I went a little to hard first bit knew it and tried to back off my effort some. I was riding with these two women a 19 year old (amused me a lot as my sons will be 19 next week and she couldn’t drop me) and a 30 year old. The 19 year old and I were paced very similar and she kept passing me then slowing down. It took a lot of effort to pace her w/in the rules as it took a lot of effort to pass her since we were virtually going the same speed. I opted then later to just let up when I got to close and soft pedal to get back off her a bit to not be in the drafting zone but depended on the terrain.

The 30 year old with flat back on Cervelo I didn't see her after about 3 miles after the race she said I was her rabbit.I'm glad I can motivate the youngesters.

After about 10 miles my uppper legs felt weird and I couldn’t figure it out then it dawned on me it was my new saddle I’m trying out. I think I probably sat forward a wee bit and it dug into my inside of my legs, hit a nerve, and made it quite unpleasant. Parts of my legs went numb and my hamstrings and quads were killing me. It was the most miserable ride in a race ever. The next 20 miles was pretty painful as I just couldn’t get comfortable. Wind picked up on the way back power dropped off some maybe 8 watts but not as much as I thought it would have and pace was about 1 mph lower due to wind. Given how rotten I felt I think I did well. That 19 year old finished about 50 yards ahead of me so I didn’t fade relative to others. No women passed me and only 3 guys who were doing the du passed me. I was so happy to get off my bike and go run.

I look back at my HIM and my loop 1 was the exact same time both 1:37 but my NP Sunday was higher. I guess that confirms that outside factor like wind effect pace even when power is higher. I was a bit disappointed with my bike as I thought I could have hit higher power numbers and better pace but fatigue and saddle issues didn’t let me do my best. This course is super flat then I look at my Mooseman Oly bike pace last year on a very hilly course and it was almost the same. It is hard for me to get my mind around that. I do wonder given that I’m mostly training on hills that my body is adapting to harder then easier effort recovery that hills allow compared to flat consistent effort of a course like this.

HIM: Loop 1: 1:37:04, NP 141, avg HR 136
This race: 1:37:04, NP 159, avg HR 147

Duration: 1:37:04
Work: 900 kJ
TSS: 111.3 (intensity factor 0.83)
Norm Power: 159
VI: 1.03
Distance: 29.126 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 391 155 watts
Heart rate: 135 158 147 bpm
Cadence: 34 126 99 rpm

Goal min 350 calories okay to try 450 which is IM nutrition goal to test out; min 40 oz hydration; 2000 mg of sodium
Ate 3 gels, 1 chocolate covered pretzel, drank 42 oz liquid 24 oz Nuuns & 18-20 oz of GE; couldn't get my Lava Salts out of salt stick..they were stuck.


When I race I tend to move up slightly in my saddle and need to remind myself to keep back and stay rotated on my sitz bones. I'm not sure if that was the saddle issue or if it is not adjusted correctly as I got a bike fit last week and they swapped saddles even though they are the same or the wrong saddle for me as it may be to wide. Silly me really not smart to get a bike fit and not ride my bike at all prior to racing. When I first tried on the saddle I put it on 1.5 cm to far back so the fit guy moved it to proper place so my body had 250 miles on the longer reach way so it was confused come race day..not the smartest move on my part.

Transition was on sand so it was pretty messy and harder to deal with. I did put on socks before my running shoes which took some time.

Placed 137 in T2

I did the best I could given situation of cold and sand.

Goal to run 2 miles see how I felt and pick it up if I could.

At a mile I actually could feel my feet again as they were thawing out and it was weird as I didn't feel that they were cold. Mile 2 they felt almost normal and I felt pretty good so I picked up the pace some. I saw some women chasing me down on the out and backs...silly me I checked their ages on the back of their calves and saw they were all under 35 so didn't worry them so much. I started wheezing around mile 3.2 and that is when I really can't go any faster just limit on my ability to breath controls my pace.

Those women caught me about 1/4 mile to go so I did pretty well compared to how close they were to me.

I passed two men the whole run..yah me!



Not sure how accurate the distance is at all as the route was different than explained with an extra out and back. I wish someone who had a Garmin would share the distance...felt like I ran faster than my time would indicate.

Walked around, tried to get some recovery food but they were out of water and we put all my stuff in the car..a little more communication with my husband would have helped. Changed clothes to get warm and out of smelly clothes.

What I did well:
Sucked it up and raced when many wouldn't in unpleasant weather
I pushed thru pain on the bike and kept my power numbers up
I encouraged everyone I passed
I thanked all the volunteers and cops (didn't hear anyone else do it once)
I was mentally good for the swim
Focused on the moment all but last part of bike

What I wish I improved:
I am not happy with how I did
It it is the same thing, I'm BOP on paper and don't really like still being there 5 years later
Of my pre race oals currently I'm not content with how I did

Lately it seems I like training more than racing..I think it has to do with training it is just me and I do my best. When I compete in a race I see where I stack up and I don't like it. I wish I was faster and better than I am...but I'm not.

I feel I did better last week at my Du but today I placed better but paper results are just that..not really a good indicator on how we did for ourselves.

I was first given 3rd Athena award which was wrong so then they gave me the 2nd overall female finisher aquabike (they didn't have aquabike though) award...goes well with my Clydesdale award I got at St. Anthony's last year. I was 4th in my AG..about 100 folks were no shows due to the weather.


I'm a pretty good cyclist, average or below average runner for women like me and improving, swimmer I'm slow but my endurance is building...just the truth of the matter. Being balanced would surely help me and I keep working on it.

The cold temps, overcast sky, and not being able to feel parts of my body didn't help; new bike saddle I'm trying caused some bike issues; I had huge build week and no tapering with 16 mile run and 75 mile bike/3 mile run brick so pretty fatigued reminder I almost fell asleep in the car after my brick.

This is what my coach said:
"It is very hard to be in discomfort when racing. That is really hard. It makes it very challenging to focus on the moment and task because it essentially acts like a loudspeaker in your ears."

I did the best I could on race day and need to be content and happy with that but I continue to struggle with that.


Good location for early season race with shallow water that warms up quickly. New transition spot in sand is tough and makes for long run to and from bike mount. Friendly racers and race staff...makes for good early season race.