Dare To Tri Maple Grove Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

The swim was really good overall. It was very windy so that translated to a bit of chop so sighting other swimmers was a bit challenging, but still easy to sight the buoy's. I'm glad I wore my wetsuit on this because the chop was just enough to drain a bit more energy from you and the suit obviously helps with buoyancy. I noticed that on the first part the chop made me drift right a bit and then when coming back into the finish you couldn't see anything because of the sun's position. It was directly over the finish arch and reflecting on the water so all you could do was sight into the sun. But, I stayed on course and got to the finish so it was all good.

I swam this well. I would suggest to the RD's that they reverse the course next year so the sun's positioning is not such a difficulty for the swimmers.

T1 went well. Pretty standard and actually remembered to switch the sports on the 310XT so bonus on timing!

Wind. Maybe more mental, but Wind...

My hips were really tight for the fist 15 minutes of the bike. After finally getting more loosened up I was able to push my wattage a bit more, but my legs were really tired and just heavy feeling for this one.

Looking at my data I really dropped off on the last 1/3 and didn't really even keep my HR up going into the headwinds. I picked this race in order to use it as a training day for a final walk-through before Rev3 Cedar Point. Definitely could have put in a better mental effort and toughed it out better but I think the fact that it was not an A race let me ease up...

If it was an "A" race push much harder through the bike.

Well. T2 was a bit of a disaster. Was all primed for a speedy 1 legged running dismount and then when jumping off I screwed it up and unclipped a shoe. So, I ran back to get the shoe, ran to the rack and it was empty? (that's NEVER happened to me before!) threw my handle bars over the rack and almost tip it over! oops.

Shoes on, hat, race number belt - all good.

practice, practice, practice. I have not practiced a single transition this year because training for long distance, but if id do short stuff next year I'll need to do transition practice sessions.

Was a pretty good run. The course was through residential neighborhoods and was mostly uneventful. Lots of Sprint participants out there! I couldn't really tell who I was trying to chase down in terms of the Olympic distance people but started reeling in some of the elite woman on the second loop.

I really pushed the pace a bit harder for the first couple of miles trying to go for a sub 6 average but then started drifting a bit by mile 3 and 4. Splits: 1: 6'04" 2: 6'03" 3: 6'09" 4: 6'16" 5: 6'08" 6: 6'12" .2: 54: (5:09 pace)
So I just didn't have the leg speed to pull it off, but I'm pretty sure that if I focus on Olympic or Half Iron next season I'll be able to run sub 6's at this distance. Something to shoot for in the future!

No real speed work, mental toughness (not having this be an A race), pre-existing accumulated fatigue on the bike.


It's a pretty good race. I certainly had fun!

Couple things they could improve next year:
1) Don't put elite's as being eligible for AG awards also (maybe it's normal and I just never realized it?)
2) Reverse the swim course to be clockwise so the sun is not blinding you for the stretch into the finish.

Got to meet Matt (@Prie065) [who, by the way won a pair of shoes at the swag givaway!] and Mike (@mikfinne) and chat for a while. BT is such a great resource and it's always so fun to actually meet people from here out at the events!