Tri the Parks - John Tanner State Park - TriathlonSprint

The race started with, what I must admit, the worse swim start Ive been it so far. I was in the middle of the fray for the first 150m, as I should be, but my confidence level was very quickly dropping. My lack of a wetsuit was a very big mistake, as I felt like I was struggling to pick my head up out of the water for a good, deep breath. Instead, I was forced to breath with every other stroke, effectively ruining my pacing/breathing strategy with bi-lateral breathing. I took in two gulps of lake water, disgusting, but continued to press on. My navigation was good, because I was right on the buoy line the whole time. Could not find any good feet to save my life, but then again, I couldn't 6 inches in front of me, so I am used to it. By the time I rounded the final buoy, I didn't kick up the pace any: I was over it and just done with swimming. But once I hit the shore, I was off, putting the nasty swim behind me.

WEAR WETSUIT. I had it in my car. Honestly, I just thought it would take more time to take off than it would have saved in the swim, but I am sorely mistaken. I could have easily had a top swim time in the AG if I was wearing a suit.

Relax more, my breathing was jacked up.

Computer malfunction, so no T1, T2 or bike time. LAME! My T times are always fast, and I like to look at them as a confidence booster :)

Ran fast out of the water, I had catching up to do. Passed Coach Dan in T1, fumbled with helmet a bit but hurried up. Got on the bike (flying mount) and was off.

Like always, I keep it real simple in T1 and T2. So not much. I do think I need to practice transitions some before next race, I was a bit rusty since last fall.

PRACTICE FLYING MOUNT. Don't look like a noob. Almost fell off and took me a good 2 minutes to get my feet in the shoes, struggled with straps the whole bike.

Right at 20.5 mph, according to my time calcs.

I wanted to hammer on the bike, but wet roads made me a bit cautious. NO nutrition or water, and it worked fine (only 30 minutes of biking doesn't require much). Flew by 3 people in the AG like they were standing still, was only passed my a handful of people with go-fast wheels, but no biggie, they were machines out there. Took it super easy on the corners, and since the course had a couple of sharp ones, my speed was cut down more so than what it should have been. Came back into the park hot, but not so much I was out of control, flying dismount, pick up bike and into T2

Not much. Keep effort consistent, push a bit harder on sections I could have used to mu advantage, like the crest of a hill. Weather played a big role in performance of everyone's bike split today, and I was no exception.

Flying dismount was good, though picking up my leg over the new X-Lab wing was tricky. Just need to practice it more. Run with bike in hand instead of rolling it to keep shoes from bouncing around, but Transition was very tight this time around, not a lot of elbow room.

Bike back, shoes on, off I went. Felt mild stomach irritation. No water needed, it was going to be over soon.

Leave sunglasses next time, they fogged up too much because of the rain.

New Zoot shoes are awesome!

Almost immediately off the bike, HR spiked and stomach cramp right below the diaphragm. I tried to hold it off as long as I could, but by .5 miles in, I was hurting bad. Had to stop and breath for a moment. I couldn't relax enough for the cramp to subside. I knew it was from the lake water I drank, as I almost threw up I could taste nasty water in my mouth. Ugh. I ran as well as I could, but it wasn't good enough. Came in hard for the last stretch and finished with a sprint PR

More run training. I know I am getting faster, but I want to take another 1.5 minutes off my 5k time. Stomach cramp was the downfall of me, and it took almost the rest of the run to recover.

I did a good job at passing one AG guy early on. I took some advice and stalked him, observed him and when the time was right, passed him with smooth running and good power. I never looked back. Passing an opponent is just as mental is it is physical, and even though I was hurting, I sure as hell was not going to show it.

Run faster on downhills, power through the uphills. Those people that said one hill was a killer were not kidding, that one at the turn around was bad!

Walked around some, nothing much. Talked and mingled, looked at results. I was cold and tired, so I didn't hang around long.


- No wetsuit
- Weather conditions
- Cramp on run
- Hard workout the day before.


Coach Dan said that, once a race was over, you have 10 seconds to decide if you did a good job. Otherwise, you over think it and look at results, messing up your perception of effort given. That being said, I am disappointed on certain levels but proud on others. I am happy for a PR, a good bike split and amazing T times as always. I am not happy with opting out of a wetsuit and my run performance, but it shows areas I need more focus on. I have been having a hard time focusing in the pool lately, and my effort has gone down big time. I need to pick it up and double efforts in preparation for Peachtree International, less than a month away.

Coach Dan said this was not an important race to him, so he trained me like it wasn't for me either. It makes sense, otherwise I would not have had such a hard run the day before. Thinking about it now, I know that my error comes from thinking too much about this race. I over analyzed everything the 2 weeks coming into the event, and that just made me nervous. But its just a sprint: have fun! Sure, race hard and push your limits, but have fun and trust in your fitness. I have put in more hours so far this year than I did all of last year, and its showing. I am getting faster. So just stop thinking too much and race!


First time doing a TTP race, and I am looking forward to the rest of the series. They are doing this one again at the end of the season, so yay for a benchmark event! I want to come back after a year of IM training and crush this 1:08 :)