XanGo Echo Challenge - TriathlonOlympic

What a horrible swim. Either this course was long, or I sucked, Maybe both. My goal was sub 30, but I came in nearly 5 minutes over that. In training I've been hitting sub 30s, but not today.

I got to the race site and had about 5 minutes to set up in transition, and was basically very rushed. This prevented me from getting relaxed in the water, and I think I just went out too fast and had trouble controlling my breathing. I had to stop 2-3 times and breast stroke in the first 200 meters to pull myself back together, which was really strange. So, my nerves got to me, which hadn't happened in a couple years. Very odd.

Get to the race WAY earlier so I could have enough time to prepare. Stretch, spend more time in my wetsuit.

There was a longish run into T1 over gravel, so I had left an old pair of shoes to put on to spare my feet. I ended up wasting about 20 seconds trying to get the things on with wet feet, so that was bad. Other than that, things went pretty smoothly. Got my suit off fine and everything else. Just took a bit longer than my 2:00 goal.

Nothing.

A pretty good ride. I knew I was going to try and push the run, so didn't go crazy on the bike. Turns out I had inadvertently stopped by Garmin 19 seconds into my ride--a fact I didn't notice until the turnaround--so I had no clue what my overall pace was. This came back to haunt me as I missed my 20 mph goal by a fraction, something I would have avoided had I been able to see how fast I was riding. Anyway, it was a pretty good ride. I rode the "hills" okay and passed some people. Not enough though, as I still finished way behind a lot of guys in my group. My goal was 1:12, which would have put me in about 18th of 31.

We ended up walking/running our bikes for about 100 yards into T2, as the timing mat was way at the back. I can't help but think that cost me a lot off my average as well (I know I'm digging for any excuse here, but it ticked me off to miss my goal).

Make sure to turn my Garmin on...

Great T2 at 1:30.

This was my best run ever in a triathlon. My legs felt great and I was able to keep up a good pace of between 8:30 and 8:45 minute miles. I passed quite a few people. Again, for me, this was a great run and really encouraging. I think a lot of the track work I've been doing lately paid off.

I kept my HR in the 156-162 range (Zone 2) which worked well. I probably could have pushed it to about 166 on the way back and run closer to 8:00 miles...

I sprinted at the end and beat another AG by 1 second, which was cool.

Push even a bit more...

The swim was really bad for me. Need more OWS. I felt fine on the bike--28 miles is a short ride for me these days, so I just need to regulate my effort better..


I liked the bike and run courses, but the overall location for this tri leaves a lot to be desired. Very spectator-unfriendly (worse than Jordanelle) and a rough, rough transition area. Lots of uneven ground to run on. Saw one woman tumble pretty hard on a rut.

So, well organized (as all Triutah events are), but don't know if I'd come back with my family again to this race. Would probably do it again alone, though.