Lake Havasu Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

A very challenging swim. By the time my wave started, the wind was creating white caps an d heavy chop in the water. On the first leg out into the lake, I must have taken four consecutive breaths and got nothing but a mouthful of water! Once we goot into the canal it was muchh better but the turn marker broke free and I ended swimming a little too far back out into the lake before I realized I needed to go towards the beach. Some other folks kept heading out and I knew that was wrong. I exited the swim 1:32 slower than last year under ideal conditions, so I was ok with that.

Just be a faster swimmer in general!

I am a very fast Ironman transitioner. My transition times at Ironman are usually right up there with the best of them. When it comes to Olympics, I suck! I can not for the life of me get my wet suit off quickly if there are no strippers. All the other top finishers are out of T1 in 35-45 seconds and I'm sitting there pulling my suit over my heels! As bas as this T1 time was, it was a whopping 25 second IMPROVEMENT over last year! LOL!

I'm just a disaster...

Brutal, just brutal. Immediatley you rode into the wind for a few miles. The wind was staedy with severe gusts. I just tried to make myself as small as I could on the bike. The climb up into the first neighborhood was also problematic as you turned so frequently that the wind was coming form all directions. When it was a crosswind, I couldn't stay down on the aero bars or I would have fallen over from the gusts. I was passing people from the earlier AG and collegiate waves, so I was making progress but it was tough. The middel stretch of the course was another 6 miles back into the headwind followed by another detour. I finally got back onto the main road back towards transition and was able to enjoy 6 miles of tail wind and I was hauling ass. Curious thing with me, I have a hard time getting my heart rate up when going into the wind. I was in the low 150's while fighting the wind. Once I had it at my back, I was able to spin up into the mid 150's. i would have liked to see a higher average HR on the bike but with only 110 mile per week average training, this was probably the best I could do. Thank God I decided to run my Zipp 606's and left my disc at home!!! I was 2:44 slower than last year, which again wasn't too bad considering how slow it felt.

Nothing.

I don't have a T2 time or run split, the timing my timing wasn't recorded. Bummer :(. T2 went fine, I'm sure it was similar to last year, maybe 45-50 seconds.



Nothing

The run course was changed from last year and T2 times were included in everyone's run splits, but I didn't even get a split time here either. I'm estimating my time based on the overall math and my HR effort, which was a slightly sub 6:30 effort normally. The run course now had us running through a long section of deep, loose sand along the canal on some dunes. It cam at the every start and very end of the run and was brutal. It was so slow and had to be 400 yards round trip and severely slowed the run pace for everyone. I felt so so for the first mile but really found a great rhythm around mile 2. My HR was parked at 163-164, which with all my recent training felt great. I didn't feel like pushing it up more, although in retrospect I probably should have, but I was cruising, feeling good, and passing the college kids and that made me happy. :)

As I came towards the finish, my wife was there with our two dogs and she gave me our speedy dog Dexter's leash and I ran across the line with him! The pics are great, I'll post them when I get it!

Run a bit faster, I clocked in with 6:05's last year by pushing more on the run and would have been closer to that had it not been for the beach section of the run. It was like XTERRA!

After crossing I found my wife to get an update on how her race went. I told her that she was really in the front half of all the women Sprint swimmers but she kept insisting she was at the back. She said the bike was hard with the climbing and winds and the run was good, but had no idea of her times as she doesn't wear a watch. We had a beer with our friends and i wandered over to check the results. I found Jamie's name and scrolled down....and she finished 3rd in her AG 30-34 out of 13 women!!!!!! She missed 2nd by 5 SECONDS!!!!! I was so excited, i went and told her and she wouldn't believe me, thought it was an error, and then said there were probably only 3 girls in the AG! It wasn't until they announced her name at her first awards ceremony that she actually believed it. I am so proud of her.

As far as I am concerned, you know that line in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" where they keep saying "Who are those guy's?" about the posse on their tail? Well this race was staked! The top 4 men were all Pro's from Boulder and I also finished a respectable 2min behind Sarah Groff, pro and US National Team memeber. The athlete I usually compare myself with is a local guy named Patric Bless who last year I would often finish second to, he went 9:18 in Kona this year, so he's super fast. At Olympics i am usually a few min. behind him and he finished 6th in 2:10:16, so I was right where I should be. This was a very satisfying result and it was great to kick off the season well. I am in a new Ag this year and have never finished off of the podium in any triathlon I have done with the exception of Kona. Boston Marathon is next!


Bike fitness is down from last year.


Went over to the Javellina Cantina for the awards ceremony had a Corona with my triathlete wife!