Greater Nashua Y Tri - TriathlonSprint

Came in #107 of 289 in the swim. I am happy at how much better I performed in this OWS compared to my first OWS ever at last year's Concord Y Tri. I had a little trouble starting off due to choking/inhaling water from the turbulence created by the other swimmers, who I deliberately let go ahead of me. I had trouble initially freestyle swimming and began to feel a repeat of the panic I had last year where I couldn't catch my breath and had to struggle the entire OWS. I forced myself to slow down and calm down and began freestyle swimming focusing on proper form and my usual 3-stroke/breath cadence. I then had a great swim and only had to use the breast stroke about four times to re-sync my breathing. This was a MAJOR improvement over last year!

Calm down/slow down much sooner and force myself to get into the proper stroke and cadence from the get go--I need to learn to freestyle swim within a group of people at the start of a race. I tried starting with freestyle but quickly resorted to breast due to inhaling water. I could not get my head down initially in the freestyle either.

The run from the swim to the Transition area was about 800'. I was a bit tired from the swim and needed to catch my breath so I only ran about 1/2 of the 800's. Wetsuit stripper made my day--I had no idea they were there. I had to put on a long-sleeve shirt due to cold weather and put on socks for my shoes (can't run w/o socks). I also had to fuss with riding gloves due to the chilly temp. My gear bag was in the way due to lack of space in racks, and my bike for some reason no longer slid under the rack (I mounted it rear wheel in via the seat) and I had to fuss to get the bike out. Walked quickly but carefully through bumpy terrain (knees hurt a bit) and had only minor issues getting cleats into pedals. I remembered to have my bike in the granny gear this time.

Better conditioning will allow me not to have to catch my breath as much post-swim.

Was #140 of 289 in the bike. Overall, I'm disappointed in the time. I thought I was much quicker than I actually was. I passed a lot of people and only a handful of the real Tri guys passed me. I only consumed about 1/4 of the bike's water bottle and the course had only small rolling hills. I really liked the bike course and I loved my new Felt S32 for this race. It performed fantastic.

I need more conditioning and especially need more hill training.

A good T2 but I lost time due to having to stretch my calves, hamstrings, and quads.

Not much I can do. I tried stretching my calves while on my bike and I lost some time on the bike because of it. The stretching is a must though, I can't seem to get around that. My legs simply are much too tight otherwise.

I was #265 out of 289 on the run. The run was pathetic and I expected a dismal performance. I've had work done on both knees (needle procedures, Graston PT) in the last six months, one minor broken ankle (left), and sprained my right ankle three times since March. I've had almost no pre-race running except for a few 1.5 mile runs. The first 1/4 mile was tough as I felt a lot of tightness in my calves and some in my quads. I had to stop and stretch my calves because to not do so would have further hampered my run. The first mile took forever due to catching breath and muscle tightness, the second went much better because it was a nice, long slight downhill, and mile three was the slowest as I constantly stopped to walk.

I simply need more conditioning and I need more bike/run brick workouts.

None


Lack of training due to injuries


I can't wait for next year. Great race!