Lakes Country Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Good swim for me. I drafted off of Jim (3rd best swim overall) as long as I could, but he's too fast! Everyone agreed swim was longer than last year. Top-ten swim tims as well as my time reflect that, as I felt I was in good shape, swam hard and navigated well. Improved place over last year. Was in third wave so not nearly as jostled as last year.

Swim a little tighter to the bouys on the way out.

Good tran 1 for me. 3 seconds faster than last year. Had a little trouble clipping my helmet, which is a new aero helmet. It cost me maybe 5 seconds

Practice clipping aero helmet more.

Good bike split for me with my fastest pace yet, despite fairly strong winds of 10 - 20 mph out of the south. Kept a good cadence and pushed the hills more. I had one bottle of gatorade-water mix and drank about 2/3 of it.

Nothing other than ride more.

Frist real transition error ever for me as I racked my bike one carrol over at a spot where the guy had my exact same shoes! I racked the bike and moved to the other side of my bike to gear area when I noticed everything but the shoes looked wrong and out of place. I then realized I was in the wrong spot altogether! Grabbed bike off of rack and moved to next support where my spot was. Got into shoes fine after that. My hat had blown away, so looked around for that for a few seonds, but then just grabbed a washcloth I had lying there intsead to wipe-off sweat during the run. Found hat about 6 feet away after race. Damn wind! This was 34 seconds slower than last year.

Be more careful finding tran spot and don't get distracted. There was a relay guy standing with his bike in my aisle chatting with someone outside of tran that distracted me as he was right in my way as I was running to my spot. Got me out of my concentration, but no real excuse!

Also, put hat and race belt under my shoes to keep from blowing away.

I was happy enough with the run as I had not been able to run much due to surgery and a sprained ankle at the end of July as well as hurting my left calf about 2 weeks before the race. I just wanted to run sub 8's and not have my calf hurt, which it didn't. I ran a very steady race and decided not to wear a watch as I was afraid I would get excited about my pace and push it too hard. I just went by my breathing and figured I was running around 7:40's, which was pretty accurate.

Not have surgery and not sprain my ankle so I could have run more!

Grabbed a nice cold water and walked around to cool down. Had some provided snacks and another water and a Gatorade Recover that I brought, which tasted terrible I thought. Waited for friends to come in then we hung out for a bit before heading to friend's cabin for a bbq and a dip in the lake and hot tub.


Lack of training, especially run mileage, due to surgery in mid June and an ankle sprain in late July.


It is my favorite race of the year and will be back again in 2011 if at all possible.