Hagg Lake Triathlon - Olympic Distance - TriathlonOlympic

The swim was a two-loop 1500 meter effort in the lake. The water was about 70 degrees and although I could have gone without a wetsuit, I decided to have one anyway because I like the extra buoyancy. The horn blew and off we went. My goal for today was to see how long I could last before bonking. What is that? That is the term for hitting the wall. When your body says it has had enough and is telling you to stop. I need to know what this feels like so I can find ways to get through it. So I was expecting to hit the wall, but at the same time I wanted to do what I could to prevent it, too. So I was going out at a very easy and controlled pace.



The first 200m of the swim was pretty hard to get into a rhythm. I hadn’t swum since the last triathlon in June. After 200m I was huffing and puffing and had to breast stroke for a little bit and then got back into freestyle. Lots of swimmers in my wave and with the murky water I couldn’t see much so I was getting hit and kicked quite often. I just dealt with it and kept rolling along.



The first loop went fine and then headed out for the second loop. Half way through the 2nd loop the women’s leaders started catching me (they started in the wave behind me). The leader was an incredible swimmer, it seemed like she was hardly stroking at all, yet went whizzing by me like she had a propeller attached. I was able to draft off a few other swimmers although I found once I did I was hitting their feet in no time so it was a bit nerve racking.



Hit the shore and time to get out of the water.



Continue to work on stroke improvement and drafting.

Took my time with the transition. Everything went perfectly.

Coming out of transition we had to climb a pretty good hill. Luckily I had my gears set just fine and motored right up. The bike course was 40K encompassing 2 loops around the lake with lots of hills thrown in. I knew I wasn’t going to make my 19+ mph average I had last time, in fact I wasn’t concerned about my speed average at all. I was most concerned with my heart rate. I wanted to keep it under control and not blow up. Once I got going I noticed my HR was already over 140, I needed to slow it down.



The hills, oh my gosh. There were probably about 8 climbs on each loop. One was really steep and another one was really long. The best part about the climbs was the down hills on the other side. I got my bicycle up to 36 mph! Holy cow!



After the first loop I took in some Hammer Gel (Banana flavor) which I had taped to my cross tube on my bike. It tasted yummy. I also had water and an electrolyte solution in 2 water bottles. These worked well, too. My left Achilles has been giving me fits lately and it flared up on the bike.


Train more on the bike.

T2 was pretty easy since I ride in my running shoes. I spent some time looking for another gel, but didn't have one. Luckily I found one on the road as I was heading through transition. Excellent!

Remember the extra gel.

The first mile or so, my legs felt like jelly. My HR was over 130 and I still needed to slow it down. But the hills were making it difficult. I was getting passed left and right, too. I felt like I was in last place. But that’s okay, I knew I wasn’t going out to win, just experience. I sucked down the Hammer Gel at about mile 2 and I really had to pee. So I pulled off the side of the road by some trees and peed for what seemed like minutes. That is a good sign that everything is working.



They had aid stations about every mile or so and I took at least water at each station. If I didn’t swallow the water I at least swashed my mouth. At mile 4 I had to go to the bathroom again. Oh well, no problem in taking another break. I was back on the route in no time.



I was pretty tired and was glad it was over. I had some cramping pains in my legs, but was pretty good otherwise. And, I didn’t hit the wall like I expected to.

Some walking and stretching. The post race meal was yummy.


Experience and conditioning for this distance.


Thank you very much!