Toyota Desert International Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

I probably had the worst swim of any race I have ever done. The first 200 yards or so were great, but then I just lost my head. My focus went out the window completely. I had a hard time sighting (we were swimming straight into the sun), and I did zero drafting. My stroke was short and choppy, and I got dizzy, tired and frustrated. So what should have been a great swim for me, became a minute slower than previous year when I had been doing Tri's for 5 months. Ouch!!!

I would probably have started out a little slower and found some feet right away as opposed to going hard out on my own. I never found my pace and I need to have that.

T1 was brutal. The water so cold that it had left my fingers and feet numb. Trying to remove a wetsuit with fingers that don't work, over feet that aren't responding is a trip. It felt to me like it took forever, but it only took about 15 sec's more than planned.

I was 11th in T1 in my AG

Practice getting my wetsuit off. I have only "practiced" at races, and it's something I seem to have some difficulty with.

My plan for the race was always to drop the h.a.m.m.e.r. on the bike and pray that I had some legs left for the run. I have been working on my bike quite a bit this season, so I felt comfortable going hard on this course. It did take me some time to get my feet in my shoes due to them having no feeling from the cold, but once I got strapped in (500 yards later), I was able to go pretty strong. I caught up to a bunch of guys from my wave, and pretty much gapped everyone. I felt very good on the bike, and was happy that I never made it into Z3 on my HR even though I was pushing hard. I was very happy with my focus though. I hardly looked up. Stayed within myself most of the time. Just focused on how I was feeling, my position etc.

I think I might have been able to go a little harder on the first part of the second loop. Headed back my avg pace was 24.5mph, and I would have loved to have averaged that overall, but the second part was a slight uphill, and I hadn't calculated for the overall drop in speed with that slight incline. So next year, the goal is to average 25mph. But my goal was to do it in exactly an hour, and I met that.

I feel really comfortable with my T2's in general, so this was no different. The only slight change was my footwear. I was running in my Zoot Advantage, which I hadn't done before. I had practiced getting in, but not the whole shebang. But it worked well. Coming into T2 I did a running dismount, but had to circumvent a few people who were dismounting from a stopped position. I ran hard down the transition area, racked the bike, helmet off, shoes on, cap on, race belt in hand and I was off. Couldn't really have done anything else differently.

Nada. It worked out really good.

I was 5th in my AG in T2.

So this was going to be the X-Factor in the race. Due to a Plantar Fasciitis injury, I have been completely off running for 3 months. It wasn't until the week before the race I did a few short runs to see how my foot was feeling. In other words, I hadn't run 6 miles in about 3.5 months, much less of the bike, even less of a bike where I have just dropped the h.a.m.m.e.r. for 24 miles. So I had NO IDEA how it was going to go. But I just got out there and went. My HR was a little high during the first mile or so (171 which is Z4 for me), so I slowed down a little. As I passed the first mile marker I looked at my watch and saw that I was going about 6:41, so I wasn't that slow after all. I did the first loop fairly conservatively staying around 161 HR (low Z3), but as my legs began to function around mile 3, I decided to pick it up a little. I kept staying around 163, and would slow down when I saw my HR go above 171. But one thing that kept me going was my buddy Jeff Ku. I passed him on the bike, and got into T2 with about 10 seconds on him, so I knew he was right behind me. He's a fast runner, and I was feeling him closing in. On the second loop I saw him about 500 yards behind me, so I picked it up a little more. All I was thinking the entire last 2.5 miles was "I don't want him to catch me". It was a great run. I was able to focus tremendously, and as the finish line came into sight I was able to pick it up even more. I crossed the line in 39:09 about 45 sec's ahead of Jeff. And I couldn't have been happier.

I can't imagine what I can do with the proper run training. I really think I could smoke this course (36-37 min's), so I want to really focus on my running and getting it ready.

I actually didn't stretch at all, which wasn't the smartest thing as my calves hurt the day after, but I iced my Plantar Fasciitis and got a foot massage about 3 hours after the race, which really made a difference.


My mind on the swim, and not enough run training on my run.


I really like this race as it's a great way to open the season and do a hard workout in the middle of my base training.