Topeka Tinman Triathlon - Sprint Course - TriathlonSprint

Swim course was short, way short, advertised as 400m, might have been 300m, also CCW not CW, I hadn't bothered practicing any lefty turns. Nothing against the organizers, they did a great job recovering from the storm, we even started on time.

Started near outside, just a couple guys to my right, focused on long smooth strokes and exhaling underwater at the start, only sighted a couple times to the first turn bouy as I had a good view of the guys to my right when breathing to judge position and heading. Made the turn for the beach and focused on high elbows and keeping turnover up. Got into someones draft a couple of times but never was able to stay in it very long. Hit the beach, and started running, the guy just ahead of me took off up the hill like a rocket and I let him go.

Nothing, a real solid swim.

Solid transition, not overly fast but didn't give up any significant time. Purposly avoided sprinting or running too fast in transition.

maybe be quicker/smoother getting suit off and helmet/glasses on.

Felt a little off coming out of the park, it always takes a little while to get into the groove after the swim. Out of the park and got passed by a couple guys, was able to keep them in sight but not hang with them through the short rolling hills. Once the course straightened out I slowly reeled them back in, we passed back and forth a few times, I think there were 3 or 4, each of us had different strengths so the passing was good and clean, made for a nice ride. I had made it to the front (of this group, 1 guy wasn't playing nice and rode away from us) when we turned back toward the park and into the short rollers I lost a couple spots, made them back in the park and I think we went into T2 pretty much as we came out of T1.

Drank ~50oz, of which 10 was Gatorade G2. 242W, 162 bpm avg, 170 bpm max.

Lose 10 lbs and carry 2 lbs less water, those hills were killing me. Also need to work on the swim to bike transition, maybe it is the transition run, something makes the start of the bike leg really miserable.

Pre-rode into T2 as warmup so knew when to pull my feet out and get ready for the dismount. Nothing notable except I forget to unbuckle my helmet while running in. Put on socks and shoes then removed helmet/glasses uneventfully took off, again same order as out of T1 and into T2.

unbuckle helmet whilst running.

We came out of T2 in a group of 3 and sorted ourselves out within a quarter mile. Got a good look at the places at the turnaround, we were all strung out so there weren't any real challenges going to happen on the run. 164bpm avg, 171 bpm max.

running continues to come along, no hip pain while running, a little tightness afterwards but stretching relieved it. Still 20s/mile or so off the pace from past performances.

walked around, sat in lake, jogged a half mile back to car after awards.


running and weight. Looking forward to the day when running is a relative strength.


very well run event, the course got blasted by the storm and they put it back together and got the event going on time, well done. Liked the transition area layout much better than previous Tinmen events.