Lake Geneva Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

You gotta know the course was a "little short" this morning. Either that, or I'm calling the USA swim team asking them if they need an old guy on their team... haha.
Swim went really good though as far as comfort in the water, stroke, drafting (tried some of that this time) and sighting. Out of my four events this year, this felt like the best swim. In this event, I somehow ended up in the front of the group at the start instead of to the back where I have been for previous events. I was concerned about getting ran over and getting in everyone elses way, but it wasn't too bad

I still don't feel like a strong enough swimmer to start in the front. Just a mistake this morning. I found myself pulling to the right a couple of times. Gotta work on alternate side breathing.

Still not very fast in the T's but feel like I am at least getting more comfortable. I probably would have been down in the 2's today but Cindy and I swapped wetsuits and I got one heel stuck and had to mess with it (and of course it was on the ankle with the chip). Other than that, it was acceptable.
Problem 2 at this point was when I went to jump on the bike and realize that my chain had jumped off the ring in front. The only thing I remember thinking is "Ya gotta be kidding me"... Took a couple of seconds to move out of the flow of traffic and to get it back on the ring but no real big delays.

Just need to find a rythyym in the T's. Times are getting a little better as I do more.

I went out onto the bike course with every intention of staying between 16-18mph for the ride...yeah right. Right out of the gate and within .5 - 1 mile, we hit a long steep hill climb that had most everyone out of thier seats by the top and a few people walking their bikes to the top. I dropped into the middle ring and managed to climb it out of the saddle, but that was one hell of a wake up call for the legs. From their it was out into the rural roads. I felt really good on the ride. I kept telling myself to slow down and save some for the run but I get this "testosterone" thing going on the bike when I see people in front of me. Kinda like my dog seeing small critters, gotta go and get it. So needless to say, I had a pretty good ride for me but it also effected the run. This course has a lot of long gradual hills on it and today, everyone of them seemed to be going into the wind too. I was mostly riding with a group of three or four other riders and we would take turns passing each other up and it kinda kept the pace up. I think I hit the biking "wall" at about 52 miles. After the turn at the school at about 52, there was a series of gradual hills with a cross wind leading up to Academy Drive (which led back down to the lake). I decided that I really couldnt keep the pace up and had to watch my speed for the last four miles or so settle in to around 17mph. Nothing left in the tank at that point. Overall, I am satisfied with the ride. I think I passed more people than passed me.

I need to ride a lot more distance rides with an increased average speed if I want to continue to hammer on the bike during races and expect to be able to run afterwards.

No problems with this transition. It was starting to get really warm out so I took a few extra seconds to drink some water and gatorade before I started the run.

Nothing in particular. Just need more practice.

That was awful! I got my butt kicked!!! First loop I managed to run the whole thing including Franks Killer Hill and some other unnamed for-saken hill at about the 4 mile point but I knew that I wouldn't be able to on the second loop. I realized and planned that on the second loop I would run the flats and downhills and walk the hills and aid stations. For the most part, the planned work pretty good. I did have to walk once or twice on the flats but there were times when I just thought I was going to fall over. I did manage to run a couple of the early parts of uphills to make up for the extra walks on the flats. Surprisingly, the further I got into the second loop, the better the running rythym got with the plan.

I totally blew my nutrion plan today and it really impacted me on the run. I was drinking a lot of water and gatorade and wanted to try and squeeze some hammergel early and in the middle on the run, but I could not stomach the thought of putting anything into my stomach other than fluids.

Cindy, Typuppy, Hiccup and Coredump were there at the end to cheer me on which was really cool but all I could think of was finding more water and someplace to sit and stretch my legs. I ate a banana, some orange slices and tried to eat bagel halves with cream cheese. CindyK, Hiccup and I then went over and had some beverages and food at a local establishment :)


Hammered too hard on the bike, didn't stay with my plan. Poor race nutrition.


A couple of big problems today. The swim course was short for all distances. There was no bike aid station until mile 35 and only two on the bike course. Run aid stations were about two miles apart.

On the bright side though, all of the volunteers, especially those at the aid stations were GREAT TODAY! A big THANK YOU to all who were there.