Batavia Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

The swim went a lot better than I expected. The water was a lot warmer than Lake Michigan, which meant I could breath easy and didnt freak out. It was a one-at-a-time start, 5 seconds between swimmers, so there was plenty of room to run into the water, dive in and get going. I put my head down and swam hard for about 6 strokes, then started breathing every other stroke on my left side, looking ahead once in a while to see where I was going. On the the backside of the loop, the water got really shallow, so once my hand starting scraping the sand, I stood up and walked/ran to the start of the second loop. I did the same thing at the end of the race. I think it tired my legs out a lot, trying to run in a sandybottomed pool. The second lap was a lot more crowded than the first, and I think I whacked some poor girl in the head. ouch.

Good news, when I got out, I was with a lot of people numbered 40s and 50s, so I was already moving up the standings!

Try to swim more instead of running to save my legs for later. Overall, this went as well as I could have hoped.

My rack was at the far end from the swim exit and bike exit, so this transition was a lot longer. Ran across the parking lot, taking off my cap, goggles, and starting on my wetsuit. I put my helmet and sunglasses on first thing, so I wouldnt think about those. Kicked my wetsuit off, socks on. Not bad. The bike shoes were tough, because my hands were a little shaky and cold. Got them on, race belt too, and I ran with the bike back across the lot to the bike start.

I didnt start with my shoes on the bike because the bike start had three speed bumps right away, then a big hill. I didnt want to mess with putting shoes on going over the bumps, and risk not having them in for the hill. Plus, I'm a little worried having bike shoes adds some time and difficulty.

Rack in a better place. Figure out how to get my shoes on faster.

Ever since about 3 weeks ago, when I almost crashed skidding on a turn, I've been way too cautious going around corners. So I've got to get my head on straight for those. Overall though, the bike went well. I just couldn't go as fast as I wanted. My bike computer average topped out at about 21.5, and if I had pushed any harder, I dont know how much I would have had for the run.

Also, getting my feet out of my shoes at the end was tough. That same hill that we started on was at the end, downhill, then the speed bumps, and I was trying to pull my feet out of my shoes before the mat so I didnt fall and embarass myself. Luckily I made it, but it could have been a lot smoother.

On a high note, the only people passing me were tri-bike monsters, so that made me feel good. Kept a lookout for people in my age group, but didnt see many, at least not passing me.

practice mounting and especially dismounting. Figure out just how much I can push myself, and still have something left for the run.

I barely got my feet out in time, and my shoes were dragging on the ground, poor babies. Other than that, felt much faster, ran across the lot, helmet and glasses off, hat on, shoes on, tied, gone. The run start was at my end, so that was nice :)

Maybe get some of those stretchy shoelaces so I dont have to tie them!!

Ouch. I havent done ANY bricks in my training yet, and I was worried about my legs going in. Of course, the feeling was nothing like I expected. Just felt slow, hard to get my feet moving.

The race course was really nice, but all those people I passed on the bike went flying by me on the run. The weird part was, I didn't see ANYONE from my age group. I know its not the biggest, but wtf?! youd think I'd see at least one other guy.

I felt better as the run went on, and picked up the pace. Finally, at the end, my girlfriend was waiting just before a wooden bridge yelling that the finish was just on the other side. I gave it everything I had, and sprinted through to the end.

Because I had enough energy to sprint at the end, does that mean I didn't go hard enough early in the run? This feels like my weakest leg, and I know I need to get faster to really compete. But today, where I am in my training and experience, I can't complain :)

Stayed on my feet, stayed loose, drank some water, ate some oranges.


First tri, so definitely experience.


These were my early season hopes:

Conservative
400 m swim - 7 minutes
14.7 mile bike - 43:50
4.1 mile run - 37 minutes
= 1:27

Super Perfect
400 m swim - 6:30
14.7 bike - 40
4.1 run - 35
= 1:21.30

The biking was tougher than I thought it would be, just because of the rolling hills and sharp turns. But other than that, my training has come a long way in the last couple months. Transition times were fine, I think I can do better, but for a first time, I'm pretty happy :)