Tower Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Tried to start strong but not burn out. I felt sluggish through the last half, but must have still held a decent pace, because my overall time wasn't too slow and I know I didn't go out super fast. Only grazed the wall on a few flips, which was annoying. I was out of the pool at 7:10, with a bit of a jog to the mat, so pace in the water was about a 1:36. I've done a 500 at 1:32 pace, but was **very** winded at the end of it, and I don't think it would have been worth it to knock myself out like that to drop :15-:20 seconds in the water.

Never wear blue/smoke tinted goggles again. These are so dark, it's almost distracting. Make sure to hit the wall on my flips - didn't kill me, but I missed a good push off on at least 2 and a few seconds here and there on a sprint is what it's all about.

Good T1. Steady run from the pool out to my bike. Much more efficient than last year. Shades, helmet, jersey, go.

Bring my bike jersey into the pool area. I don't plan on doing enough sprints to justify buying a one-piece race suit. There is plenty of space at this race to get the jersey on running from the pool to the transition area.

Eerie pattern in my rank in swim and bike! On the whole, no complaints about the bike. Hopped on with my shoes already clipped in and my feet on the shoes, and got strapped in and going pretty easily. On the N & E legs of the bike (into the wind) I tried to avoid grinding it out and just kept a good cadence and managed to stay close to 20 MPH. On the S & W legs, I tried to get into gear as soon as possible and open it up to get some seconds. I always worry I'm going to do an extra lap on this course. Remembered to start getting out of my shoes early on the last leg back into transition and was able to get off the bike and ready to run quickly (PITCH FOR WRITING RACE REPORTS - I HAD TOTALLY FORGOTTEN ABOUT DOING THIS UNTIL I READ MY REPORT FROM LAST YEAR. SAVED ME SOME TIME!!)

Nothing. Good bike. No complaints.

I felt pretty good about this transition. Other than skipping socks (and I'm not sure those 5-10 seconds in transition are worth it, given that I'm used to running with socks on), I'm not sure it could have been much faster. Maybe some room for improvement, but not tons.

Not much.

Here's the weak spot!! Suffered a bit from not doing bricks for the about a month before the race as I felt I was really laboring through the first half mile. Kept moving through the halfway point, and then got a side cramp at almost the exact same spot on the course as last year. The big difference this year is that I had a better base fitness in running and was able to push through it without losing too much off my pace and was able to finish pretty strong.

Other than training leading up to the race, nothing. This was the best race I could have run given my current fitness level.

Stretch a little. Drink more. Eat eveything in sight.


Not very much of a challenge to find the weak spot in my race. I was 36th overall and 36th in the run (every single person who beat me overall, beat me in the run). In swim and bike I was about top 20-25% in my age group and top 10% overall; in the run I drop to about top 50% and 30% respectively. Much better than last year, but clearly the area with the most room for improvement. Had I not had an achilles injury leading up to the race (with a corresponding drop off in mileage for the few weeks before), I think I had a realistic chance to be about 1 to 1:30 faster overall on the run. No complaints, just focusing on the importance of not getting hurt and being able to keep training.


This is a great early season race near Chicago. They've done a great job in the 2 years that I've run it, and I think I'll always try to kick off the season here. My one complaint is the seeding on the swim (which is done on the honor system). With wave starts that require everyone be out of the pool prior to the next wave, it really holds things up when someone underestimates their times - if you're even a minute off on a 450 yd race, I get it, you might have had an off day, but there was someone in every early wave (6:00-7:30 estimated time) who was finishing at 9:00 or 10:00 minutes and clearly had no chance of swimming much faster. Maybe you get pulled out of the pool and sit for a penalty time based on how much (or little) yardage you covered. There's got to be a way to make something like that work.