Indianapolis Sprint Triathlon Series - TriathlonSprint

This time they let people start by swim ability, so I went in with the "swim like a fish" group after the elites instead of back in my age group. This helped a lot, as I didn't have to pass very many people and didn't have any collisions. The water temp was comfortable, but I was chilled enough that my arms felt kind of icy the whole swim. I really should warm up for the swim! I took almost 20 sec off my June swim on the same course, but I still think I should be getting more out of the swim.

Warm up for the swim, and then swim faster!

Overall, T1 was fine, but my cold fingers fumbled a bit with my helmet and shoes. I tried to make up for it by running faster on the way out with my bike. No wetsuit, so no problems there.

Nothing.

The course was modified from the June course to make it an out-and-back instead of a loop. Once I got past the little hills at the beginning, I was inspired by the speedy guys passing me in aero to give it a try. I've been practicing it a lot on my training rides but I was worried about not having easy access to my brakes in a race situation. We were spread out enough that I felt pretty comfortable with it as long as I wasn't going downhill or around a sharp curve.

I think I could have pushed the pace a little more, but this was a good ride for me.

OK, but I had some trouble with my race belt and basically I was just a little spaced out and not focused enough.

Pay more attention to what I'm doing!

Also modified from June to be an out-and-back, and this time I think the distance was right. I really liked the out-and-back because I knew exactly what to expect on the way back! I came out of T2 feeling ready to run hard, and then hit that little hill just past the timing pad and my legs reminded me that I had just gotten off the bike. I eased up a bit and then tried to pick up the pace little by little as my legs recovered. I spotted a woman up ahead of me and focused on catching up with her, which I finally did with about a half mile to go. At that point, it was all downhill to the finish so I started my kick and managed to stay ahead of her to the finish. I was totally surprised by my run time - it didn't feel that fast. My average HR was only 167 for the run, which is lower than a typical tempo run at 20-40 sec per mile slower. I kept looking at my HR monitor during the run and saying to myself, "I really should pick it up now." Maybe it was the cool cloudy weather, or maybe my HR monitor was clogged with lake goo, or maybe the course was short again after all!

Nothing. I was very happy with the run.

Walked around and around, put on my warm layers (it was still chilly out), walked around some more. Drank some water and ate a Clif bar.


Could have been more focused on the bike and in the transitions.


The bike and run courses were much easier to navigate than in the June race. They had volunteers posted to remind us to slow down before the sharp turns on the bike course, which I appreciated. The race was well-run and had a fun, friendly atmosphere.