Rockin R Toobin Triathlon - TriathlonOther

Really enjoyed the swim, it was the first challenging one I've had. Swim was downstream on the way out, upstream on the way back. Slightly disappointed that they shortened the swim 125m for 'safety'. I could have used that extra time in the water to compensate for bike/run... They gave people the option to opt out of the swim which I'm fine with but since that option was available leave the swim course alone.

Nothing eventful, pretty quick transition considering I took the wetsuit off on my own.

I somehow missed the wetsuit strippers when coming out of the water, woops.

Tough bike course, I used all of my gears for this course and was the first time I ever needed small chain ring for a sprint. Goal was 300W on the bike and I avg'd 301W so I was pretty happy. Not that it's a huge difference but the PowerTap had me at 22.8mph not the 22.9mph in the results. Speed was affected by the hills, headwind on way back and every good downhill seemed to have a 90+ deg turn before the bottom...

Shoes stayed clipped in during dismount which was nice (they didn't at Longhorn). Running shoes on, grabbed my hat w/Garmin & race belt and ran out.

Nothing

Come out of transition and almost immediately up a fairly steep hill (Garmin had 80ft climb in 400ft, 20% grade). Legs were not happy and it took me a while to feel like I could get into a running rhythm. At this point there were 3 of us running together and I could tell the other 2 were stronger runners than I so my goal was to keep them in sight since they started the wave before me. Got to the aid station (~mile 1) and felt much better after some water. Little did I know it was the only aid station on the run, this course needed two aid stations not one! After ~1.5mi I felt like I could run finally and started to pick up the pace and close the gap from the two that were at the beginning with me. They ended up finishing ahead of me by ~30s but my later wave start put me ahead of them. My garmin had me slightly faster than results (6:40/mi), either way I like the direction the splits were going... 6:57,6:44,6:29,6:09

Nothing for my current fitness, need to run better off the bike.

Watched Betsy finish the race and floated the river.


Only 3rd week back to training so just getting into the swing of things. Run is obviously still my limiter which is no big surprise.


This was by far the hardest sprint course I've done and as luck would have it the most out of shape I've been for a race. I was a measly 10 seconds off 1st OA which I wasn't happy about but that's the nature of TT starts, need to race as though someone is on your heals the entire time. Overall, I'm happy with the results and have reconfirmed what I need to work on this season to prepare for November.