Take on the Heat Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Very slight improvement from my time at the Cooper sprint last month - 12 seconds to be exact! I am still right around bottom 15% territory. It didn't help that some guy with a pretty high number decides to cut in front of me, then proceeds to breast stroke halfway through the first lap. Now I am normally SLOWER than most people's breast stroke, but I actually caught this guy before the first lap was over. I got passed by about 3-4 people with no problems as I kept swimming on the right side of the lane. I also passed 1 other person. Overall, my swim seeding was decent. I finished #259 in the swim, was wearing #288. This is sad but it is actually a PR for my swim!

Now that I've discovered the world of swim video - I've seen where I need to work the most and I'll be spending the next few months working on that. I'll need to do some major improvements on my swim to tackle my next tri - an Olympic distance 1500m swim in about 8 weeks.

It was a much longer run from the indoor pool to the bike rack (and I had one of the shorter runs to my rack) than Cooper. Avoided disaster by NOT falling when I slid on the slippery floor at the lobby on the way out. Zoned out for a brief moment and had to think about where my shoes are (they were on the bike already!) Put on my shades, then helmet and began my long run with my bike to the mount line. I messed up my initial pedal and didn't get enough momentum so I had to put my foot down, stop and get going again. For the first time, I had some major difficulty finding the opening on my shoes while trying to put them on, after I was up to speed. Probably spent a good 30 seconds trying to get my shoes on as some people passed me. It did feel good to finally get them on and then start the bike leg in earnest

Need more practice putting shoes on while on the bike. I also need to start training myself to take off with the right foot forward. I'm so used to having my left foot forward but I haven't found a good way to rubber band my shoes that way.

I was doing ok on the ride but made the mistake of trying to back off near the last 2 miles to get ready for the run. Went from averaging 22mph in first 11 miles to less than 18mph on the last 2 miles. Bad idea since my run wsn't even that great today. This course was faster than Cooper and should be closer to 22mph but just didn't get it done. I am missing my cadence data (probably knocked off the alignment on the sensor by accident) but I suspect my cadence was too low.

Don't back off until the last few hundred meters. Work on keeping a higher cadence.

I'm pretty happy with my T2 for this race. I did a 'real' dismount cyclocross-style and got going pretty quick. However, 2 snafus happened. While I was unrolling my bib number on my racebelt, I accidentally gave it too hard of a tug and ripped one side. That would've been fine until I decided to try and rethread it, even walking a few steps until I finally gave up. What an idiot move - 30 seconds right there!!! The 2nd bonehead move was with my watch. I even had the bright idea of wearing my Garmin 310 from the very beginning (the swim) so I didn't have to worry about taking it off the bike. While switching it to Run Mode, I managed to lock the keys! I've never done that before and I had no clue how to unlock it...so I couldn't see my pace data. I was fiddling with it for the first quarter mile until I finally decided to just try and run by HR (the number was partially obstructed by the "Keys Locked" message that kept flashing on the screen.

Don't fiddle with bib number - if it rips, just tuck it in my shorts and display it at the finish. Learn to operate my Garmin. I need to set it up for "Multi-Sport" (need to read the manual for that) so that it switches through all the sports easier.

This was probably my worst tri 5k (compared to my 2 previous). I didn't get my head into running early and kept fiddling with my watch and it probably would've been better to just forget about it and run using RPE. I thought I was running well since I kept gaining and passing people - I wasn't passed once...but the numbers show otherwise. I finished in over 25 minutes - over a minute over my usual pace. Not proud of this run execution, considering I sacrificed some of my bike time for what I hoped to be a good run considering the course was pretty flat.

Don't keep fiddling with the Garmin and up the pace sooner. I'm so used to training with my cadence and pace data available that when I didn't have it, I was a bit distracted.

Ran over to transition area to get my car keys and run to the car to get the camera.


Probably should've gotten at least another hour of sleep. For the swim - I have a lot of work to do - but the good news is I think it's possible to gain a lot of time over the next 8 weeks if I can figure out my catch/pull. On the bike, I need to do some time trial training. I didn't do that at all and couldn't find a good cadence. On the run, I need to not be distracted and push harder - especially on the last mile. Overall though, I did finish 66th out of 362 - that's within my goal of top 20% overall.


I would rate this race higher except for 3 things - the run from the indoor pool to the bike racks was pretty long and there were slippery sections in the building that can use more carpet; secondly, the bike course roads had a lot of holes/cracks. Would've been nice to fill in the big ones, especially the ones on N. Colony; third thing was the run course on the narrow sidewalks wasn't that great and made passing a bit difficult at times.