Reeds Lake Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Since I started doing triathlons last summer, I have always been a lousy swimmer. Last year this swim took me 30 minutes (no thats not a typo). However, I was happy with my swim performance today. Only problem was getting kicked and hit like 4 times by the same guy in the first 100 yards who was doing breakstroke. I passed him and didn't have too much more bumping the rest of the way. My goal time for the swim was 20 minutes so I have no complaints.

I went a little bit wide after the first turn going to the second buoy, probably could have saved some time by swimming more straight at it.

I had no issues getting my wetsuit off and felt my actual transition was pretty good. However, this is a big race with a huge transition area so the trot with my bike to the mount line was a long one. During this time, I noticed my aero bottle was coming loose from the bracket so I just pulled it off and sat it off to the side. I am about ready to be done with that thing. I figured for 18 miles I didn't need to drink on the bike.

I think being able leave the shoes on the bike in a race like this would save a significant amount of time. Maybe I will have to practice this next year.

I really don't get this but this is the third race in a row that I have noticed this. When I get on the bike, I am winded from the swim and really have a hard time pushing the pace. It takes somewhere around 7-8 miles for me to start feeling normal and actually start pushing on the bike. That probably means I need to get my swim conditioning better. However, I am happy with my overall performance and was right at my goal time of 57 minutes.

I have begun to realize I need to bike more. I look at other people's logs and see most have logged 2X more miles than I have this year. Based on where I am right now, I am happy with this bike split.

I thought this went fairly quickly but I did take time to put on socks. Again its a large transition so there was a lot of time in transit.

Maybe I need to start going without socks.

Not a great run for me. I was not feeling great and just took the pace really easy. My goal time was 49 minutes so I didn't get it done here.

Run more/bike more

Got some water and a bagel, walked around a bit then packed up and went home.


I have really begun to realize that I just don't train enough to be much fater than I am. I have been averaging 100 miles on the bike and 40 miles running a month. I was talking to some guy before the race and this was his first triathlon, he told me he had already logged like 2200 miles this year, I haven't even done half that. If I want to get faster, those numbers should probably be doubled if not tripled but between work/kids/family life not sure I have the time to do that. For now, I will just be content to hang out in the back of the pack.


I like this race. It is well organized and well ran. My only complaint is the bike course and the crappy roads.