Mountain Lakes Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Set a good pace and held it except at the first bouy where there was somewhat of a pileup. Spent a lot of energy moving around slower swimmers (trying not to go over top - which I was successful at). Sighted fine.

The course changed this year and the times were much slower - I think the course was somewhat longer this year than last. I was aiming for 9:00, but given the longer course I may have done just fine. Really hard to know with all the other variables out there.

I have to say it is a nice thing having swimming as the strongest of the three disciplines. It really helped - I had no nerves at all starting off today in my first ever tri. The swim is the one discipline where I know what I can do.

Seed myself higher. I felt like the nut on the highway weaving in and out crossing 4 lanes at a time. I passed 40 people, at least.

First time through this, and it was not a good experience. The time itself was fine considering my equipment is suited for lightning fast transitions. While I was jogging out with the bike my bike was either hit or I just lost it and it fell over. On the drive side. Repercussions to come.

Not drop my bike.

Upon mounting found that I threw my chain. Wonderful. It took 1:10 to get that back on and I took off. I subsequently found that my rear derailleur was hosed. I only had 5 of my 9 gears in back. The dropped bike really screwed things up.

Spin out is at 23-24 mph (i.e. just enough gear to keep me going) with my reduced gearing. I end up doing my best Lance imitation and go the whole time at 90-120rpm. I'm not used to that, for sure, though I have (thank goodness) done a good bit of interval training with high spin work. Course was nice, though. Official average speed - 20.8mph. The time I am counting after subtracting the mechanical time - 21.6mph (I'm racing myself, so this is my story and I'm sticking to it). This would put me at 17 or so and in the top 20% of my AG. I think I left a good bit on the table. 22 was very achievable. I certainly did evil things to my legs by having to ride the way I did.

Considering what I had to to to get to the finish line, I can't help but be pleased with the effort.

NOT DROP BIKE. This would have given me a bit more freedom to push the bike. As it was a spun out in a lot of spots.

Good time. Room for improvement, but nothing structurally wrong here.

N/A

Well, I finished! Ran 26:59, so I officially beat a 9 minute mile by :01. Woohoo!

Seriously, though, my legs were just toast. The bike leg really stressed muscles that I hadn't used like that before. During a race isn't a time to try and keep cadence over 100 for 16 miles. I really didn't realize what damage had been done until I was going on the run. I really didn't have too much difficulty finishing the bike in good order. Given the circumstances, though, I can't really be too unhappy with the run. Serious HTFU here.

I typically run 8 minute miles, so it isn't like I am smoking the course in any case. The run is the discipline where I know what I can't do.



Ummm - not drop bike and subsequently torch legs?

Grabbed a water and sat down. Got up briefly and grabbed another water and sat back down. After 10 minutes recovering I wandered around with my wife and stayed long enough to see that I wasn't winning a new bike (sniff). Then took off.


I think I've beaten that to death by now, but damaging the bike was a distinct limiter.


The race was very well run. The bike course was well controlled and it seemed the organizers had their stuff together. I'll be back next year.