Giant Acorn International - TriathlonOlympic

I registered like 2 weeks ago, and being so late didn't have time to look around before the start. I missed the briefing and had to figure out the swim course as we went. Normally I consider just staying on course a victory. This time I was in a pack of swimmers the whole time. I feel like it took until the very end to catch the 2 waves ahead of us, Usually it's more like half way.

Get there early so I have some idea of where to head in the water. The strategy of just staying w/ everyone else works at super short distances like this. But the longer the race the more everyone spreads out. I need to actually learn to navigate for myself. Oh yeah, and Join masters. HOURS of pure distance is great for endurance, but saps any speed. I only have one gear! I need to learn to sprint for the short distances in tris.

Still JUST learning to use the bike shoes. Heck, I'm still BORROWING bike shoes that don't actually fit. My feet get a bit number after about 12 miles on the bike. I feel like my first tri last year had better transition times than I've ever had since then. Then again, I did that on the bare minimum of equipment and have acquired more stuff to deal w/ during transitions since then.

I have a friend who's a pure cyclist, he keeps trying to convince me that it's a matter of skills & technique (to learn about shifting and hills) rather than fitness/endurance. Maybe he's right. He keeps saying to take the winter, borrow his trainer and learn that stuff. But I REALLY need to use the winter to work on my run, & build swim milage for my longer open water swims in the spring.

Maybe spend more time of my bike training learning that technical stuff. But starting in the Spring when swimming winds down to just tris for the rest of the year.

I felt HORRIBLE coming off the bike. Not the jelly legs everyone needs to do bricks to get over, but my back. I felt all tight, cramped, & sort of stuck hunched over from the position on the bike. I'm planning a full, expensive bike fit, new saddle, my own shoes, & the pedals to go w/ them w/ my tax money at the beginning of next spring.

Try all the equipment changes I just mentioned. If that doesn work, I need to SAVE for a new bike all together. I like mine, and wouldn't be looking for a super spiffy, expensive tri bike. Just whatever would fit perfectly, if after the fitting that turns out to be something other than I currently have.

What I do could BARELY be called running at the best of times. But I AM capable of doing a 10K in something less than 1:20 despite the run time on the 2 Oly's I did this season. But this course was harder than I was prepared for. I had to walk the hills, and the trial in the woods. Besides slow I'm also uncooordinated and was terrifeid of breaking an ankle on all the tree roots!!

Work on it all winter. Like I said I would last winter, then completely quit after new Year's til about March. I wasn't wearing my heart rate monitor, so I can't be sure; but I think was probably using the hills/tree roots as an excuse not to push as hard as I could have.

I jumped back in the Lake!! We also thre the one dog (of the 3 we had w/ us) off the dock. She swims, and had been VERY patient all day about staying out of the water during the race.


Hills on the run course. Not drinking enough water that morning or on the bike. Arriving late. All totally w/in my control and my own fault for screwing up. But I'm glad I got one more race in this season.


I DEFINITELY Like the smaller races better. Nations was overwhelming!! This was fun, I just wish I had been mroe prepared.