Carmel Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

The pool was crowded, but the starter did his best to keep the traffic down. I accidentally pulled the straps on my goggles just before I was about to start and I thought I had it fixed before I jumped in, but half way down the lane water started to seep into my right eye. I remember not to panic and just decided to go with it instead of stopping and fixing them.
I passed a lot of people on the swim. I originally put in a faster time, but changed my mind because I didn't want to be the one holding up traffic. I was swimming 4 wide at one point. I swam right under one person after pushing off the third wall. I finally got some open water with about a 100m left. With the lack of space and my right eye filled with water, my form was pretty crappy. I didn't use my legs like I wanted to, I kept kicking from the knees instead of the hips like I just practiced. Old habits die hard I guess. On the other hand, getting out of the pool was no problem and my legs were really fresh for the bike.

Seed myself faster to hopefully avoid some of the congestion, but the pool still looked crowded when I was watching the higher seed people as I was waiting for my flight to start. I have to practice using my legs more appropriately. I liked how my legs were fresh, but I could have picked up a few seconds if I would have kicked better. Lastly, not mess with my goggles before starting.

It was cold and windy, so I decided to put on a windbreaker and gloves. Coming to transition, I grabbed my towel and started to dry off my arms and head. I didn't do very well with my hands that kept getting stuck. I got my socks on fairly quickly, but I should have stood up to put my shoes on as it took me awhile to get those on and strapped. I got my glasses and helmet on just fine and unracked my bike pretty well. I was able to run fairly easily through transition and probably should have picked it up a bit.

I should have taken the five seconds to towel off better so that I could have saved the minute that it cost me trying to get my jacket and gloves on. Stand up after putting socks on so I'm better able to get into my shoes. Also put some anti fog on my glasses so that I can see rather than wiping them off on my towel.

I probably took it too easy on the bike. It was hard but I was still able to cheer people on so I must not have been going too hard. The wind was killer and there was nothing blocking it. Most of the race was in the wide open. There were a few times when it was at your back and I was able to really crank up the speed. The roundabouts didn't turn out to be too big of a deal. I was nervous that it was going to be hard to figure out how to go around.
I really should have stayed in the drops more and pushed a little harder. I should have caught my breath around the turns and just kept pressing until the end. I lost my focus and started thinking about other things instead of the clock.
Lastly I committed the cardinal sin of racing, I tried something new that I hadn't tried in training. I thought I needed a little more energy for the ride, so I brought some caffeinated sports drink that I like to put in my water bottle for the ride. Dumb, it has kind of a sour taste to it which didn't work well for quenching my thirst. Stick with what you train with!

I need to watch my cycling computer more and watch my speed. There were too many times that I thought I was going fast only to look down to see that I was slower than a snail. I should have stayed in the drops and stood on the couple small hills to give my back a break. More time in the saddle outdoors will help.

I got to the rack, but somehow instantly forgot how to rack my bike. I almost knocked over the whole rack. I was slow taking off my cycling shoes as I didn't loosen up the strap on the ride in like I practiced. I also debated taking off some of warm weather gear, but eventually decided against it.

I should have been thinking at the end of the bike about what I needed to do in transition. I was so focused on T1 and everything I had to do for that, but totally neglected T2. Next time follow through with the plan.

Man this was horrible. I got off the bike and started out of transition with a slow trot thinking I was going to pick it up at anytime. Nope my legs died on me. I should have practiced more bricks. It is hard to do in the winter for me as I don't have a trainer. My heart was racing and I was totally out of breath coming up the hill. I should have power walked rather than trying to run as I would have gone faster. I eventually had to walk the last bit up the hill and a couple of times in the first half mile to get control of my breathing and legs. I eventually picked out my rabbits and hunted them down. I caught one fairly quickly but the other kept in front of me until just before the finish line where I passed him.

Many more brick workouts in my future. I tried picking up my cadence at the end to get some more blood pumping to my legs, but that didn't work very well. I'll be focusing a lot on bricks this summer while I have good weather. I also need to make sure that I maintain good form when I'm tired. I was heal toe running at the end and that was costing me a lot of time.

I walked around with my family for a little bit and then went inside to grab some food. Definitely should have taken more time to stretch, but the family wanted to go. The food was pretty good.


Need to work on smoother transitions. Bricks. I needed to hydrate better. I tried a new sports drink for the ride and it turned out bad. I should have used what I had been using in training. Also I should have taken my gel a lot earlier in my ride.


I will definitely be back next year, even if it is cold. The whole event was really fun and the people are great. Very well organized and they made my first triathlon a ton of fun!