Les Cascades - TriathlonSprint

This my first real OW swim. All I wanted was to stay afloat and try to control my breathing. I tried getting in the zone and just forget about how far I had to go. I used to be a competitive swimmer so I knew I could just trust my abilities and let myself glide.

A few things. I think I would have been a little more aggresive on the start. I was at the end of the pack before the start because I didnt know if I was faster than anyone else. Turns out this slowed down my start. I should have place my self MOP and I could have saved at least a minute. I would also be more careful with my navigation. At the last buoy, I found myself 20 yards out of course and had to come back. I felt so stupid. At the end of the race, I thought I could touch ground and ended up sinking to the bottom and having to get my momentum going agaibn. I must have wasted at least 2 minutes with all the mistakes I made. Looking forward to my next try.

I did not swim with my tri top. I had a Sugoi top and did not think I was supposed to swim with it. I am still not sure. I tried putting my top on after the swim and struggled to pull it down because of the wet skin. I must have wasted 30 seconds but honnestly I did not mind because I really wanted to bring my HR (182) down for the bike. At this point I still was not confident that I would actually finish the race. I couldnt get over the fact that my HR was already that high. The rest of the transition was ok. Not many complaints. My goal was not to speed through it anyways.

Prepare my top better. It was unzipped so that did not help. Next time I might swim with it. Not sure. Nothing else I would change.

WOW...is the bike my weakness or what? I knew I was not a strong cyclist but I wasnt expecting to be that bad. I had my fastest ride ( I was happy about that) but I was still getting passed left and right. I mean I had one of the slowest times of the race. Again, my HR being at 180 the entire ride did not help but either way, I now know what I need to focus on on the off season. It was quite discouraging at first but then I just made up my mind that I was here to race my race and finish it standing up. I made a conscious effort of looking at the legs of every person who passed me (there were many) and realized that their legs were so much more muscular than mine. That just made me understand why I was so weak. Also, I think my tires were a little soft so that probably slowed me down some.

GET STRONGER IN THE OFF SEASON, maybe invest in some areo bars and certainly put the proper amount of air in my tires

Again I repeat, my HR was always at 180. I was happy that the bike was over. I knew that I would need to run with a slower pace than usual to tough it out. I was pleased with the transition.

I would practice getting out of my shoes while on the bike or at the least jumping off my bike while riding to speed up the transition.

I was tired and my heart was going crazy. I slowed down as much as I can but knew that I had already completed 75% of the race so I pushed through it. I almost threw a glass of Gatorade on my head thinking it was water. I was a little surprised at how little encouragement people crossing paths on the run were giving themselves. It was almost as if if you weren;t part ot their tri team, they didnt care. I would have thought more cooperation would have happened but I guess thats due to the competitive nature of many people. I would appreciated a little "you can do it" every now and then.

Once again, had my HR been in check from the start, it would have been more enjoyable. I think I would have pushed a little harder. I think although I was really tired at the end. I could have given an extra 5% effort. It's fine, I will know for next time.

Consisted of a small walk after completing the race. I was so pumped about finishing it that I never even thought of doing stretches. I will remember that next time. That was it.


Weak legs. this certainly slowed me doen at least 5 minutes in my opinion

Unproper HR control before the race. I started the race at a disadvantage. I will certainly be more careful next time. This also must of slowed me down abour 3-5 minutes.


My only negative comment is that there were too little portable bathrooms and/or changing areas. You would often need to wait 10-15 just to take a quick pee because people were in there getting changed. It can get prettu annoying. Other than that it was great. Obviously I have no other race to compare to however I did go see a TRi last month and it seemed much smaller and less well organized than this one.