Squamish Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

I seeded myself rather far back and avoided any sort of washing machine type start. There was a bit of bumping and grinding in the first couple hundred meters but due to poor navigation I ended up off to the right on my own fairly quickly. Major suckage hit when my goggles started to leak almost right away. Rather than try to fix them I just swam with one eye more or less closed the rest of the swim. In fact it was easier to swim with both eyes closed and sight every 6 or 8 breaths. Worked out pretty well. No calf cramps and pretty happy with the swim time. Went with single side breathing the whole way and didn't go too hard.

Check goggles better and not rest them on my sweaty forehead so they got all fogged up right before the race. Try and find some feet and stick to them.

About a 100m sprint from the water into transition.
In general I was pretty slow. Took too long taking off wetsuit and putting on socks and other paraphenalia. Also had to get everything into a plastic bag so it could be taken back to T2 later on.
No separate T1 time - it's included in bike split, but I think I was about 4 minutes.

I might try biking sans socks next time and put them on in T2 when my feet are already dry. Just need to hurry the 'f up.

Did really well on the bike and lapped a lot of people. Got passed by 3 people overall. I thought I would have placed a bit better but I was only 5 minutes down to the 10th best bike time so was in the thick of things. Rode the uphills on my hoods and downhill in the drops so did pretty well for aerodynamics. Back was getting a little stiff on the last uphill. Could have pushed a bit harder but was worried about not having anything left for the run. Had trouble taking in any nutrition as when I drank on the downhill it wanted to come back up on the uphill.

Figure out some way of getting some calories and water into me. Push harder on the uphills and not as hard on the downhills I guess. Get a new TT bike. Train on more hills.

Bike shoes off. Running shoes on. Have a sip of water. Not much to it. T2 time included in run - probably only a minute or two though.

Not stare blankly at my bike trying to figure out what else to do.

The first 1.5 km or so of each loop is uphill and really sucked the life out of me. I haven't done many bricks, and starting off the bike on a huge uphill was not pleasant. Was also hurting a bit from the lack of calories/water. At the top of the major uphill I stopped at the aid station and drank a cup of gatorade standing still which helped. Did the same thing on the second lap. Was getting hot at this stage but most of the run was in the trees. Legs were really dead when I started the second leg and more people were passing me, but overall the two laps were about the same time so not too bad I guess. There was one cruel out and back section that goes uphill about 4km into each lap. Got to encourage the race leaders as they lapped me which was actually pretty fun.

I need to work on running, especially off the bike. Was a hurting unit. Mentally I need to toughen up on the run as well and embrace the pain.

Stretched a bit, ate some watermelon (OK a LOT of watermelon) and some oranges, lay on the grass and watched the other poor souls cross the finish line. One guy moonwalked over the finish which was pretty funny.


Practice T1.
Learn to pace better.
Take in a bit more fuel during the race.
Learn how to frickin run faster and more efficiently.



Nice venue, well organized, pretty low stress environment. Nice race and will probably do it again although the hilly run is a real killer, I'll know what to look for next time!