Angels Camp Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

This swim was way longer than it was supposed to be. It was an out and back, circling around a buoy that was supposed to be 500 yards out, giving a total of 1000. But the buoy was drifting away and the longer you took to reach it, the farther you had to swim. The slowest swimmers probably had the greatest distances. My GPS said .98 miles, but I had a few spots where I zigged and zagged. It was easily 1500y. I don't know about you but I swam 1650 y.

The water was also colder than billed. Probably 60-62 degrees. The first few times I dunked my face in it I got ice cream headache. Face no like.

In spite of having to breaststroke the first 200 yards before my face would accept being held in the water, and having problems with goggles fogging up, this time was not bad for me for swimming a mile. After starting dead last I came out with maybe 3-5 people still in the water.

Get in the water for 1-200 slow yards before the pre race meeting.
Bring a full suit if the water is likely to be cold.
Continue practicing on my form so I don't hook left so much in open water.

Walked up the boat ramp to the bike. Fortunately the wet winter this year has raised the water level so the ramp is shorter than in past. Suit came off without much trouble. Put on a shirt, socks, shoes, helmet etc. and hit the bike course.


Could probably do the whole tri-shirt, tri-shoes, no socks thing to save time but will probably save that until I'm doing more than 1-2 tri per year.

Enjoyed the road. Picked people off the whole way. Pushed fairly hard. Kept heart rate between 165-175 most of the way. Thought I'd be able to catch my breath on the mostly downhill final 1/3 of the course.


Only had plain water on the bike. Would have benefitted from something with some sugar, caffeine, etc. Not just on the bike but on the run.

Not bad. Small transition area. 75 seconds. Wasted a few seconds when I found my missing clif bar inside my right shoe while trying to jam my foot into it. Removed bar. Inserted foot. Jogged away on unfamiliar legs.


Not much.

Calves were very tight. They loosened up but I felt like my gas tank was on E the whole way. No power for hills. Even walked a few. Trail was very nice but I wasn't seeing much but the ground in front of me. Plodded it out. The last half mile or so was downhill so I opened up the stride and tried to hang on as the heart rate soared. Sprinted to the finish to pass one last person who I later found out was the number one AG woman in the 60-69 bracket. Looks like my fitness is not allowed to slip one bit for the next 20 years.


Get a visor instead of a baseball cap if there is sun on the run. Head was overheating a bit and I wound up carrying the hat.
Bike-run bricks.c
Figure out some kind of palatable pre-race nutrition. Will probably try liquid only next. Frappucino in a can? How long is that line for the porta potty again?

Suppressed powerful urge to vomit until it passed a few moments later.

Walked around. Cleaned up my spot at the rack. At the clif bar that had stowed away in my shoe.



Didn't really train much specifically fo a tri. Except that individual swim/bike/run workouts are things I do.
Lack of running in the last 9 months. The break allowed my knees to recover from over use, but the loss in run-specific fitness is easy to notice.
Lack of depth of swim expertise was no suprise. There's plenty of room to improve there. Pulling off a mile without having planned for it was a boost.



Constructive criticism is good right?

Being over by 50% on the swim is a bit of a safety risk.
The bike course was short. Reservoir height varies so if the swim distance is not consistent from year to year that is understandable, but the bike course is fixed. It should be accurate.
There were only two porta potties to support the whole event.
The caterers at the BBQ were pretty mediocre.
Mother's Day is a tough sell for a lot of potential entrants. If entries went up there might be more funds for more lifeguards and more porta potties.

In the constructive praise department:

Good location for an event. The reservoir seemed pretty clean, the bike course was fun (where was the 60mph downhill we were promised?) and the run trail was scenic.
Good t-shirt too.
Now all of us folks who thought we were qualified for a long sprint can be confident we can do an olympic swim, because we just did one.