Los Alamos Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Okay this format is hard. You get off a huge bike ride, and my legs are solid, pumped full of blood. I jump in the pool, deep end, come to the top, push off the wall and my arms feel dead. All the blood in my legs took about 200m to get to my arms. I passed 2 people (weird) and was passed by 3. I had a huge gap between me and the next person on the bike in my wave but was being caught by the fast guys in the second wave. Swim was normal for me, slow, slower than normal because of the format. Definitely a challenge I didn't expect.

Practice bike to swim bricks for this race.

T1 is Bike to swim. Got Bike shoes and socks off quick, grabbed goggles and jogged to the pool. It's a long jog tot he pool on asphalt. I am a tenderfoot, I wear shoes in the house. Next time flippy floppys will be in order.

Flippy Floppys

I started near the front and as the pack broke away I settled into the the rear of I guess the 2nd pack. There was probably 1-2 minutes between me and the next rider after the turn. The bike is tough, it starts with a huge climb and you step down tot he turn and since you are riding rollers you get the false sense it will be the same on the way back but the steps up on the way back are more difficult. I had a hard time maintaining speed on the way back through the rollers but still averaged a good pace. I stayed in the saddle for the most part and aero for more than 1/2 the ride but was sitting up on the cat3 climb and decent. Applied brakes around 40mph, near intersections on open course. Traffic control was good.

I probably could have climbed a little harder but I don't think it would have paid off. I was high z4 on the bike climbs and I just need more time on the bike.

This was Swim to Run. Got out of pool and went sock-less for the run. I had practiced this so wasn't concerned. Had about 1/2 a cliff shot and a swig of water, put on the number belt and took off. Seemed like it took longer than it should have.

yanks

After pumping all that blood up to the upper body for the swim now it's time to pump it all back down for the run. The whole race except the bike felt dead. Had a decent run high z4 or low z5 so I pushed hard. I kicked a little too early at the end and struggled to the finish. Some friends said I looked strong coming in but didn't feel that way, I think they were being nice!

Keep up the run training, I finally feel like I can run 2 times a week without hurting.

Walked around packed up transitions and checked times. I came in 3rd for the clydes so stayed for awards but they only gave out awards for 1st place in the Clydesdales. Oh well.


Format. I didn't think changing up the format would make that much of a difference but it does.


Great race swag. Small logo'ed transition bag, long sleeve race tee. The race is well run, I didn't like the later start for the 1st wave and 2nd wave on time, overall wasn't that big of a deal. I think the race director was first time and there was confusion in several categories for the awards. Chasing3 timed the event and I think they do a great job.

Even though the format is different it is a challenge and a fun race.