Loveland Lake To Lake - TriathlonOlympic

I was in the first wave, which made me a little nervous as I would get eaten up by later waves but it turned out to be not much of an issue. The gun went off and I waited about five seconds before starting. I took some conservative lines, swam freestyle as much as I could, and rested my shoulders with bouts of breast stroke. I did get caught by the 3rd wave but that was it. My actual swim time was 34:00, which is just a bit over 2:00/100 yard pace; very good for me. I also heard from a few people that the swim course was long based on previous swim times so that's even better for me.
Swam until my fingers touched sand and started the trek to transition.

Get some sort of warmup in prior. It helps to loosen up my shoulders. A little more agressive lines in the future, especially on the 2nd leg.

My original plan was to put on socks for the ride but after getting to transition, my feet were covered with grass so I hastily wiped them off and just put on my shoes.


In sprints I usually have the shoes on the pedals and no socks. Probably should continue doing this for Olympic distance as well.

Spent the first few miles settling in and riding at a high cadence. Tried to maintain this cadence as best as I could and stay consistent on the uphills. I did pass a lot of people but also got passed a ton. Seemed like everyone had a TT bike and knew how to use it. Played leap frog with a few different riders but in the end I got past all of them but one.
The downhills were fast and fun and I hit a max speed of 45 mph. I really pushed the last 10 miles and saw my average speed climb the whole way. Little hairy on one of the last turns that took us onto the opposite side of the road; a rider had gone down and seemed to be hurt pretty bad.
Really had to pee through the last 10 miles or so of the bike and this kept me from drinking the rest of my Cytomax bottle.

Probably push a little harder but this was a 30 mile ride and I still needed to run a 10k in the sun afterwards.
My cyclometer had the mileage at 29.3, so my average was more like 19.2.
Anyway, I'm really happy with this ride. My goal was to average 18 mph and I easily exceeded that. Bike seems to be improving.

My feet felt great coming off the bike, no hot spots or anything, so I decided to continue sockless into the run. Had trouble with my left orthotic rolling up a bit when I put my shoe on so I had to take it off and put it back on. Had to pee but I figured I'd get into the run and see what happens when I'm not crouched over with a lightly padded saddle jammed into my crotch.

Baby powder in shoes when I go sockless. Anti-chafe on feet.

Felt strong out of transition and was really curious what my Mile 1 split would be as I've only done 5ks off the bike. Didn't feel like I was running very fast but I hit Mile 1 at 6:40. Eased off a little and settled into a good rhythm.
So while the bike course was absolutely beautiful, the run course started off a little rough. Until you got to the lake, you either had to run on some sketchy sidewalks or badly cambered roads. The sidwalks were narrow and riddled with driveway entrances and the roads were IT band flaring cambered. You were also dealing with runners coming back who were intent on holding their lines. I played chicken with a few of these elites as they were coming in. In some cases, they were given an entire lane of the road but still insisted on encroaching on the narrow bike lane/sidewalk that the outgoing runners were given.
Anyway, I felt really strong through about 4.5 miles but was wasting energy dodging around runners on the sidewalk along the lake. I also started to get a hot spot in the ball of my left foot just a few miles in. Not sure if this had something to do with my orthotic get messed up or what. At 4.5, I started to fade a little but kept seeing runners ahead of me who were in my age group. So as much as I wanted to coast a little, I kept having to pick off these guys. I'd pass one, look ahead and see a 39 on the guys leg and literally say to myself "for f*ck's sake!"
Got the last guy I could see with about a 100 yards to go and finished strong, though a bit nauseated.

Probably wear socks. The hotspot bugged me most of the run, though I don't think it slowed me down. I don't have a realistic chance of placing in this type of event so I may as well take care of my feet.
Needed to finish my bottle, which probably would have helped in my run.

Walked around, ice, water, gatorade. The clouds had cleared for the run and it was in the high 80s now.


Experience. Swim. This is my first crack at the Olympic distance. It was nearly twice as long as any type of endurance event I have ever done.


A very well run race. Bike course was amazing. Lots of volunteers. Pretty good post races stuff, even some vendors.