Wildflower Triathlon - Olympic Distance - TriathlonOlympic

I've been swimming more often lately and it made a big difference. It didn't really show up in my time, which was about the same as last year, but I definitely noticed that I felt more comfortable in the water. I fell into a natural breathing pattern very quickly and was able to focus on my stroke mechanics, drafting, and sighting. Even though there was no time improvement, I definitely felt good coming out of the water. I mostly stayed with my wave, although I did get passed by a few black caps from the wave behind me.

Not much. I would say drink less water, but I think that actually turned out to be a good thing.

T1 was an improvement over last year. I can't remember if the run up the boat ramp is included in the T1 split or the swim split, but I know I took less time getting to my bike. No socks on the bike, just shoes, glasses, and helmet, and of course I had my wetsuit almost completely off by the time I got there. I've also gotten better at pushing my bike by the seat while running. All in all, a good transition.

Nothing

Lynch hill was a bit painful, but no problem. At this point I had done 3 rides on the course, the most recent one being 2 weeks ago, so I knew what to expect. The course was crowded and I had to dodge a lot of people. I passed many people and was passed by some. Someone called me "a good little climber" which I found amusing. I tried to keep up a challenging pace without going too hard. By this time it was sunny so I actually felt like drinking from my bottle, but I still had a little bit left at the end. I did manage to shave a few minutes off last year's time.

Drink the whole bottle, maybe even part of a second bottle. For a training ride it would have been fine, but I was not adequately hydrated when I started the run.

I did take the time to put on socks, but I managed to do this fairly quickly. I'm not sure what I spent so much time doing last year, but I did better this year.

Finish my bottle on the bike ride instead of wasting 5-10 seconds drinking from it in T2.

I drank 2 full cups at each aid station to catch up on my hydration. I made a pit stop at mile 1 or 2, wherever the volunteer camp port-o-potties were. That was time well spent. I did walk up one hill. Fortunately, about halfway through the run, the cloud cover arrived along with a slight breeze, which really helped. As good as I felt going into the run, I quickly started to feel like crap, and felt like crap for pretty much the whole run. I had to dig deep to keep myself running and I spent most of the run on the verge of pushing my heart rate into the bad place. I flew down Lynch hill without regard to my knee (which actually cooperated throughout the race and has felt great ever since). I was thoroughly spent by the time I crossed the finish line.

I would do a better job of keeping on top of my hydration throughout the race. I was undertrained for the run, which I know didn't help. My time was still better than last year!

I waited about 35 or 40 minutes for my sister to finish. Meanwhile I had a tasty beer (even Bud is tasty after a race). I walked around a lot, then found my sister after she finished. They only let me back into the finishing area when they saw that I had beer.


Limiting factor was my knee. It wasn't an issue during the race, but it is the reason my training wasn't where I wanted it to be.


I missed my somewhat arbitrary goal of 3:30 by a minute and a half, but still shaved over 13 minutes off my time from last year, so I can't complain. Hopefully next year I will finally get to do the long course.