Bountiful Triathlon - TriathlonMini Sprint

My age group rank was 2 of 7, but the guy who beat me in the swim was 2'30" ahead of me (he was 5'45 vs my 8'15")! This was only a 350m swim. Certainly my weak sport. I bested him overall by 15 seconds, but lost more than THREE minutes (in a Sprint) to him in the swim and transitions. I breathed right-side only, and was rolled to the left WAY too far; I did a few breast strokes on the first two laps to catch breath. I'm pleased I finished without stopping, but I was lame.

Swim more. I only trained for four weeks for this event, and swam 11 times during that period. Get a swim coach.

This was a run/bike/swim Sprint. My transition was 2 of 7 by age group, but 42 of 199 males overall. That doesn't sound bad, but I was 50 seconds and there were a bunch at 30 seconds. I just about crashed getting on my bike, doing a 10 foot slide on my cleats and just about biffing. I looked up at the crowd and said, "You're waiting for a big crash, like at NASCAR." They laughed. This was good for me, as it relaxed me a bit, but still, I'm sure I lost 10-15 seconds in that move.

I could have shaved 10-15 seconds with diffrence shoes and a flying mount.

I was 1 of 7 in my age group, ahead by 12 seconds. Next out was 3:15! I was 29 of 199 of males overall (not bad for a geezer who only trained for four weeks). I'm very pleased with my biking performance. My mantra was, "Ride like Lance!" (Sounds corny, but it helped.) I stayed in aero position (on a road bike with aero bars) for all of the ride except the corners, kept my pace up (between 90 and 102), and kept my heart rate at about 90%. I did drink my entire water bottle (with 1 scoop, rather than 2, of P90X recovery powder). I went through corners fast but safe.

Practice more. I think I could shave a minute on this time and this is an event that I have an edge on my age group.

This was a run, bike, swim event, so this is between bike and swim. There was a 200 yard run between sensors. My 53 was 13 seconds back from leader in my age group. I walked as I neared the pool, but that was after the sensor. There we lots of people in the 30-40 second range. I was 39 of 199 males.

Not bad, but it could be improved.

I was 1 of 7 in age group, and 33 of 199 in males. I'm stoked, as I'm aging and didn't do much training. I pushed hard the whole way, without much gas for a sprint at the end (which was good, as the 5K here a few weeks ago I had too much sprint energy). Interestingly, I could talk on the run so you might think I wasn't pushing hard enough (and heart rate was 75-82% of measured max), but it hurt just right.

Train more.

It was a sprint. I didn't need much of a warm-down.


#1 My lame swimming. #2 My fair transitions. If I could shave off 2 minutes (1 minute from the swim, 30 from transitions, and 30 from bike), I would have been 14th out of 199 men, and I'm 52.


Good, local race. I placed well because there were lots of first timers (like me). It was a great, low pressure race for me. And the short swim was important for me, as I'd struggle with a longer swim.