Hy-Vee Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

I felt nice and relaxed during this swim. It was my second triathlon in as many weeks, and first olympic. The first tri was 750m swim and I improved my pace by a couple seconds per 100. Not a huge deal, but I'm happy with it. I'm no good at drafting it turns out, whenever I would get close enough it would freak me out and I'd look up. So, I abandoned that and just tried to get in a rhythm. Going out I felt good and was even thinking to myself that it was enjoyable compared to the "what the H am I doing out here" thoughts I was having in my first triathlon. Sighting wasn't too bad going out but coming back the sun was starting to get higher and the glare made it tough for me.

Get into some type of swim class to work on technique. Push a little harder; in hindsight, I wasn't trying hard enough if I was "comfortable".

Felt like I was forgetting something so I double and triple checked everything before I headed out. Turns out I wasn't forgetting anything and wasted about a minute. I've had good luck with having shoes already clipped in so far.

Don't lollygag.

There was a little headwind on the way out, made the return trip pretty fast and more enjoyable. I must have swallowed a lot of water/air on the swim because I felt bloated and my stomach was rumbling the entire time. Due to the GI discomfort I took probably two drinks the entire bike course. More on that later. I was able to ignore the gas and it didn't seem to hinder my performance since my avg speed turned out to be faster than in my sprint two weeks before. The return trip was quick with a tailwind. I wish i would have looked at the time at the turnaround to see how much faster the second 20km was than the first.

Spent more time in the drops on the way out against wind but it just gets so uncomfortable after awhile. Crank a bigger gear on the way out since the return trip was noticeably wind aided. Increase bike fitness. Ride, ride, ride...the unofficial motto of BT. I told myself to not even think about a tri bike until I'm holding 22mph over an olympic course, but they look awfully fun.

Thinking clearly compared to T1. Had a little more sense of urgency.

Get back to T2 before everyone else, should make racking the bike easier.

Legs felt good coming off of the bike. I'm not sure if it was the big race atmosphere or what but my legs felt better than any brick I've ever done and certainly better than my first tri. HOWEVER, that only lasted while on the flat ground inside the park. Once I got out onto the road I was starting to think about the pending hills. There was one big hill on Fuller Rd. that about killed me. If it wasn't for spectators, I would have probably walked up it.

I didn't run, or ride for that matter, at all the week before because of a extremely untimely suspected Right achilles problem. Any running at my preferred pace was made impossible. Felt like the tendon was about to snap with every toe off. So my run was more of a modified shuffle with very little plantar flexion even on the uphills. Prior to that nuisance I hoping to run atleast 8 min/miles.

On the bright side, my stomach discomfort worked itself out by about the 5km mark.



Don't get hurt the week before.

walked around and regained my wits. Ate a banana.


Right achilles pain. Although I was happy to just finish my first olympic/second triathlon, I hoped for a faster run split.


I don't have too much to compare this to but it was fun being a part of a big event. It was interesting going to the swim practices the week before the race and seeing the pro athletes out there doing the same thing. I'm looking forward to coming back again next year and shattering my time. Defintion of "shatter" is TBD.