Black Diamond Olympic Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

Two loop triangle course, probably a minute long. Well, I'm officially over with my fear of wetsuit swimming; unfortunately, I totally pussed out and didn't push myself at all. Waves were well enough constructed that we didn't run into many of the other events; I just kind of moved along, and didn't push myself at all for fear of hyperventilation. My legs started cramping up on the second loop, but I should've just stroked harder. Blah. Swim is the most disappointing part of my triathlon season; haven't really had a great one, period.

Swim hard. Because, well, it's a race, ya know?

Terrible. Absolutely terrible. Everything that went wrong went wrong. Watch got stuck when taking wetsuit off, wetsuit got caught on heels, lost goggles, got lost in the transition zone, had to stretch out a charlie horse, etc. AT LEAST a minute and a half lost. Terrible.

EVERYTHING.

Greatest bike ride I've ever had. My previous PR on the bike was a 1:09, and needless to say, that got crushed. My legs were cramping badly coming out of T1, and of course we began by riding up a false flat for the first three miles; I couldn't figure out why I couldn't break 20, and kept on hammering, passing a ton of people in the process.

Eventually, the course leveled out, and we got some downhill to match that false flat uphill; I really, really started passing people now. Hit 27-28 for a couple miles straight. Of course, all good things must end, and I crashed going into the first sharp turn, an entrance to a 2.5 mile out and back. After being shaken up, I quickly jumped back on my bike, and saw I had been repassed by something like 4-5 people, and I set on recapturing my position. Saw my buddy David on the out-and-back, about 2 miles in front of me, and knew I wasn't going to catch him; turns out (I found out later) he had gone a 19:46 in the (long) swim.

Passed everybody who had passed me, and then set myself up well, passing another 5-6 people going up hills (How?). Forced myself to take Gatorade at the turnarounds, and took them very, very easily, to ensure that I wouldn't crash again. Really clear I need a new cassette that's not an 11-23. Had to mash my legs, which were already cramping. Once I got to the top of the hills that were coming at me,the course went onto the false flat that we had started on; I smoked this part of the course, and came into transition; took it very easily so as to not crash again.

Happy with nutrition; had taken a gel in T1, and forced about 150 calories of Gatorade in 12-15 ounces into me, and felt much better than at the Lake Meridian tri.

Don't crash. I probably lost 50 seconds from the crash itself, and another 20 getting back up to speed. I could've had a top-3 bike split, at sub-1:04, maybe closer to 1:03:30. So happy with my bike ride and fitness... goal is to break 1:00 next year.

Not bad; need to get stretch laces, and didn't want to take my feet out for fear of sliding out. Can get 20-30 seconds faster with practice. Watch band was a little tricky to get on, might have lost 5-10 seconds doing that.

Get stretchable laces, so no shoe-tying, and get my feet out before dismounting, as opposed to unclipping and running with shoes on. Those two things would probably save me a half minute

Fun course; 2.4 miles to a turnaround, going back, and then 1.4 on a trail. Coming out of transition, my shoes came untied twice, and that just pissed me off. More reason to get stretchable laces. Other than that, race was straight forward, and I was rocking 6:30s until 5 miles in. Legs had been progressively getting tighter, clear evidence of a lack of run training, which I've been putting in about 15-20mpw for the last three months. Happy with the overall split, though I think I should be able to go 3 minutes faster with run fitness; wasn't my aerobic fitness that was challeneged, but rather my leg strength. I had to walk up one of the last hills, as my quads were toast, and I didn't want to blow myself up so close from the finish line, where a big PR was waiting for me. Hydration leading up to the race would also help.

Run more. Going to focus on run and bike this winter, and better hydrate and take care of myself in the days leading up to the race. I pushed myself to the point where I could barely walk anymore, so there's not much more I could do.

After refueling and waiting for splits, David and I biked back to his vehicle to pack up. He ended up getting 3rd overall, with the 3rd fastest swim (19:46 on a long course) and the 7th fastest run (38:42)... absolutely amazing. Of course, I held my bike split over him :)


Training. I've held since I started this season that this was a learning season, and I wouldn't put pressure on myself. Now that I've learned what this is all about, its time to set some goals.


Great race and course, lots of volunteers. Would recommend for anybody looking for a late season race.