St. Anthony's Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

My coach instructed me to go easy and relax to the first buoy, then build to the second and hammer it home after the 3rd. Did exactly what he said. It was a freaking washing machine with the waves. The first 200 I felt uncomfortable with the wetsuit tight around me, but not gasping or anything. One goggle got kicked and leaked during the outbound leg. Kicked on my back for about 7-8 kicks to get them re-set. Learned a cool technique for turning at the buoys, and did that for both. After the first turn, I was settled in and started my build. Lots of trouble breathing to the right with the incoming waves. Went from bilat to 2/4 count breathing to the left side and felt great. Going easy on the first leg gave me tons of energy left in the arms to hammer the last part and it felt great. I was sitting on someone's feet whenever I could and passing when they got slow. Sighting was good too. I sighted much less than last year and generally just followed the crowd. The bilat breathing kept me pretty straight as well. Great swim for me. Totally happy with my swim. Took about 2.5 mins off of last year's time and in worse conditions than last year.

Keep getting stronger in the pool.

Left foot stuck for just a second. Right foot came right out. Had half the wetsuit off by the time I got to my rack.

Gotta learn to tie up the shoes and put the feet in while on the bike course. Could save 30 sec easy that way.

A little disappointed with the bike this year. Did the bike last year at roughly the same time. This year, I had a tri-bike and a disc on the back. Coach's plan was to spend the first mile at a med-high cadence in a lower gear to get everything settled in. Then find a race gear and hold there. Save energy for the last 10 miles when the headwinds and the slow grind back to T2 were underway. I did ok with the plan, but expected to be in the 21-22 range.

Oh yeah..nearly forgot. I gelled twice on the bike. One at the 5 mile mark and one at the 20 mile mark. The gel at the 20 mile mark, I squeezed and the son of a bitch exploded all over my hand. So here I am biking in aero with this thick, sticky, goopy stuff running down my hand. So I start licking my hand. LOL! Trying to get it off. That got me nowhere. Next, I wipe on the pants. That just made everything sticky. I ended up getting a big mouthful of gatorade and blowing it all over my hand to wash off as much as I could. I just couldn't get it off. It stayed with me until I got to the first water station on the run.

Longer and more consistent on the bike.

Good T2. 1:13 is right in there when you look at the top finishers in my AG. Went crusing into T2 standing barefoot on one pedal. Watched the volunteers panic as I approached the dismount line at about 10 mile/hour then hopped off the pedal and started running. Honestly, when I hit the ground, I was going a little too fast and had to sprint a bit to catch up. If I could learn to go sockless I could pick up another 10 secs.

Proud that I ran the whole race - not even stopping for a walk break in the water stops.

Switch to racing flats? Somehow I've got to learn to pickup some time by running without socks.

Was the most worried about this portion of the race. Coach's plan - steady until mile 4, then start dropping the pace for the last two miles. Followed the plan....ran 8:05-8:12 for the first 4 miles, mile 5 was still a little slow - I slowed to jog beside a guy who was in the newspaper down there for competing with MD. Shook his hand, told him he was looking great and to keep on hanging in there, and then took off. Don't know if it was karma or mental, but my next mile I clicked off at 7:45ish pace and I felt no pain. Last .2 miles seemed to take forever and I was hurting, but got a good kick in at the finish. Cool to see wifey right before I crossed the line! Did the run 1 minute faster than last year.

Meh....calf issues killed me for most of 2006 mentally and physically. Next year I'm going to kick this course's ass.

Found a few ice cold towels and some gatorade. Got my breathe back, chip taken, medal and headed over to the massage tent. The massage hurt, but this guy that did it knew what he was doing. Went in limping, came out feeling way better and getting around. I was surprised to be hurting so much along my upper bicep/lower shoulder and in along my ribs.


Calf injury/tendonitis really hurt performance with the run
Work travel schedule is killing my outside biking opportunities.


This is a great race. The bike and run courses are flat - very flat. The swim was an exception this year - it was very choppy and made life miserable for everyone.

Saw tons of faces from last year and a heck of a lot of new ones. If I wasn't drinking so damn much beer, I'd probably remember more of you. LOL! Actually, we got to see lots of cool people.

Denise aka BonBonNeaser, my wife, decided to volunteer after she dropped out of the race due to sickness/mono issues. So, she signs up for bike transition area and gets there. They ask her if she's ever done a tri before (she has). She gets assigned to hang with the head freaking ref for the duration of her shift. She proceed to make 2 pros go buy new helmets because they didn't have the appropriate safety rating. She moves one pro's bike because he was being sneaky (putting his #5 bike in the #1 spot). She freaking helps Hunter Kemper pump up his tires, all the while shooting the shit with him. Holy flipping shit.

What a weekend! Had a blast with the crew. Drank more beer than I have all year combined. I'm happily exhausted as I write this knowing that I met even more cool BT'ers. I met the ever elusive RON! :) Great race everyone. It was an honor and a pleasure to see you all again, and in some cases meet you for the first time. I'm so looking forward to racing with you guys again. Huge props for the jock staps there too. Lane, Jess, Dan, Jeff, Tom, Shannon, DENISE! and I'm sorry for who else I'm omitting - but thank you all for being out there. You're presence makes a tangible difference in my race and performance. Great to see you all and I hope I can pay it forward in the future. (and I'll make sure to remember by driver's license, and sharpies too).

Hey Kreuser - you beat the freaking waves bro. Way to go!
Hey G8RMike - you beat Wendi bro! The seagulls found you this time.

ok...I can go on forever here....see you in 2007