YMCA Colonial Beach International Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

Oh the water was soooo much calmer than yesterday! But we were a little crowded heading out and through the first corner buoy. After the first turn, someone drafting me kept hitting my feet (there is practically no visibility). I didn't really mind being drafted off, but I was afraid he'd knock my timing chip off, so I treaded water for a bit to make him pass me.

I think I should start a little closer to the front - my swimming confidence is really coming along and my times are in the BOFOP/FOMOP-ish arena.

While I grabbed a Hammer Gel packet to throw in my pocket I knocked my sunglasses to the ground. Threw on the glasses and my helmet and took off running to the mount line. The time is the same as yesterday, so the slight mishap didn't really affect me.
AG Rank: 2
OA Rank: 11

Put on the sunglasses first!

Missed first in AG by 20 seconds! I wasn't sure how my legs were going to hold up as I've been doing a lot of riding recently, and didn't taper at all for this weekend's races, but I felt pretty good right from the start and by the time we got to the hills, I wasn't even thinking about fatigue.
On the way out, I was going back and forth (passing and being passed) with one rider, and by the turn around, we caught a handful of riders who were basically out for a group ride. I didn't want to risk a penalty, so I let the group pull away and stayed about 30 seconds back. They pretty much rode in two columns the whole way back.
One section of the rolling hills is a pretty severe down-and-up followed by a long downhill - if you push through the uphill, you have a decent amount of time to recover. As I was attempting to pick up speed on the short downhill, a car decided to try to pass me and the "group" ahead of me, but couldn't get cleanly by because they were riding two-abreast and because of the bike and car traffic coming the other way. On the short uphill part, I caught up to the car and actually had to break before cresting the hill.

Get an aero helmet.

I tried to go faster today than yesterday and actually shaved off 4 seconds!
AG Rank: 9
OA Rank: 50

I'm still not really sure how to cut more time off - I don't know how everyone else is so much faster than me.

I made quite an improvement over last year's pace (9:18), but I think the hard bike pace and yesterday's tri was finally catching up to me. I was able to keep a constant pace for the whole race and didn't peter out like I did last year. I walked the water stations to drink the heed mix and dump water on my head. Between all the water running down my legs and the resident's sprinklers and hoses, I got a couple blisters that started bothering me with about 2 miles left. I enjoyed saying hi to my son, who was working a water station with his cross country team. Overall, I'm really pleased with how my run is progressing this year.

I've been running with no socks lately to help in T2, but this was my first 10K sockless (and with wet shoes). I need to get some longer sockless runs in to toughen up my feet some more.

Not much, mainly just walking around. It was really hot in the sun and much, much nicer in the shade. I didn't notice how hot it was getting during the run, so I guess the water cups on the head really helped. The developing / rupturing blisters also probably helped me keep my mind off the heat.


No taper and the Sprint Tri yesterday.


Beautiful day for a race! Well run and supported event.