Heritage Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Felt like I got off to a decent start. I could see I was in the back of the leadpack. But after a couple minutes, I could see them drifting away. It was like a breakaway forming in road racing, and I couldn't close the gap. And even worse, I was leading the chase group. Just before the second turn, som guy passed me. So I drafted off him to the finish. I thought he was somebody on our tri team, but his jersey just looked similar.

Start swimming more than once a week! I was swimming 3 times per week before Four States, and I got out of the water fairly close to the leaders. Today, they already had 3 minutes on me...

I don't have my shoes with velcro anymore since I bought some new shoes with the ratchet. And I can't get in them on the bike. So I sat down and put my shoes on, ratcheting them tight. Lost a TON of time here. And it's always tough to speculate, but this is where I lost a podium spot in my opinion. If I had 30" off this time, I catch Elliot on the bike and start the run before him. Then it's a completely different race I think.

Take the cleats off my current shoes and put them on my old tri shoes when racing sprints. I can't give 45 seconds up in transition to the leaders like this. Embarassing...

Hooray, I'm on the bike! I was thinking about it the whole swim. Started off sluggish. Hammering at LT without warming up the legs just feels like poo. Made several passes early, and I was kind of upset at how far back I was coming out of transition. This bike leg is so much different than Four States. Four States you just find the gear that I can roll a cadence of 90 at a HR around 170 and go with it. You just can't do that on hills. I found myself pushing 175 uphill, and recovering down into the low 160's on the downhill. Felt comfortably hard, so I felt pretty good about it.

At the turnaround, I knew that the leader and second were too far away to be caught. But I thought I could reel in Elliot in 3rd. Passed 4th place as we flew down the dam. I saw Elliot climbing the dam hill in the distance, and didn't think I could get him. But I must've made up some ground on the dam hill, because he was right there when I got up it. I was on his heels when we turned downhill into transition. I thought about passing him, but I let up because everything was kind of tight and I didn't want to cause choas right in front of transition. So I strolled in to T2 a couple seconds behind him.

Nothing. Nobody has broken 40 minutes on this course since 2006. So to go under 40 minutes with the 2nd fastest split about 90 seconds behind makes me very happy.

Another bad transition. Couldn't get out of my shoes. Not sure why I didn't get out of them on the bike. I like to give away free time apparently!

Get out of my shoes on the bike. Embarassing...

Started the run in 4th, and I had probably 20 seconds on the guy in 5th. I looked back at the first turnaround, and he was still there about the same distance. Elliot was also maintaining about the same distance (probably 45"), which in my head was too far to catch. So I tried to just keep the guy behind me away. I was hurting pretty bad, and I don't like throwing water on me but it was just too hot that I didn't care. All I could think about was how much I would rather be racing my bike than running. Right before the 3 mile mark the guy behind me passed me. I couldn't hang on to him, and he beat me by less than 10 seconds. Pleased with 5th overall.

Actually train for running. I haven't run more than 10 miles in a week in probably 6 weeks now.

Took awhile to catch my breath. Watched everybody come in. Awesome to see Steve and Nancy. Chatted it up while waiting for awards. Then I had a 90 minute base ride back to the house from the race site with Townsend.


I train for road racing. I don't train for triathlon. Pretty simple. Also, I'm about 5 pounds heavier than I was at Four States.


Another 1st in my AG at Jefferson! I've never received anything else! But for these local races I think I should be getting top 3. Jefferson is always fun, especially with so many people I know racing. I hope it continues on.