Cazenovia Triathlon (Sprint) - TriathlonSprint

Wind made things fairly choppy, which seemed to affect people's sighting. That, plus a relatively narrow launch area, made for one of the nastier swim starts I've experienced. Lots of thrashing and collisions and "trading paint" as the NASCAR folks like to say. I was motivated to get into open water as quickly as possible, but it wasn't easy until after the first buoy. Overcast conditions and flat light made it a challenge to navigate effectively, but I kept my turnover rate pretty consistent and held my technique together as HR started to rise. Good swim on the whole and no problems exiting the water. A little bit more winded at the end than I would have liked, but that's just how it goes when there's hand-to-hand combat going on.

Meh. I swam without a wetsuit, so this could have been faster, but my rack was pretty far from the exit, too.

This is one of the more challenging sprint courses in CNY, owing to a difficult mount zone, a couple of steep climbs in places you would otherwise like to settle your HR, and one very hot corner at the bottom of a screaming descent. I upped my speed a tad over last year, but the hills were fairly hard on my fat azz, and I had trouble keeping my breathing and HR out of the red zone. A stiff headwind after the halfway point also took some of the juice out of me. I tried to buckle down and rely on my aero position in the last few miles where I picked up some decent speed last year, but the wind had pretty much zapped by then. Even though I was a few clicks better than last year, it was kind of hard to keep negative thoughts out of my head after that. A respectable placing in my AG, but instead of rallying for the run, I opened the door for all of the signs and signals of fatigue here.

Why am I so slow here? Might be time to try yankz or some other speed lacing system again. There are people who are getting this done in half the time.

I ran this course nearly perfectly last year, so I had high hopes heading into race day for something around 23:00. Second half of the course is made for speed, so the idea was to build gradually and negative split. Coming out of T2, I glanced at my watch and saw that I was a few minutes ahead of last year's pace. Felt pretty winded, but I figured I was still good for 24:00 if I didn't gallop away uncontrollably in the first half. Took it very easy heading up the hill onto the first flat stretch, but I couldn't seem to establish any kind of rhythm after that. The dark thoughts that crept in at the end of the bike were back on me like a pack of dogs, and acid was starting to flood my gut. Had folks passing me on the next big climb, and I just couldn't get it together to go after them on the way back down, despite the mental promises I made to myself. Legs felt so-so, but stomach was on the verge of cramping, and I couldn't get any distance between my thoughts and my discomfort. I'm pretty disappointed with the way I failed to battle here, even though my overall finish time was a PR by 1:23.

Gave too much away on the swim? Too much HEED on the bike? Not sure, really, but the gut was uncomfortable almost from the get-go here, and I didn't have much in the way of mental toughness to get over the hump. Run volume has been way down this season owing to some discomfort in my knee, so maybe it's not such a big mystery after all?

Tale of two races in a way. Swim through bike were right where I wanted them, but things went downhill beginning with T2. Again, it's a PR for me and a place on the podium (2nd in AG), so I should be pleased, but I don't like the way I finished, and I don't like the fact that I couldn't get tough for my last tri of the season. Definitely something to think about as we head toward fall.