Tie-Dye Tri - TriathlonSprint

This was a 500 yard pool swim with a 15 sec staggered start. During registration we had to guess our swim times so they could line us up fastest to slowest to try to make it unnecessary to pass. I was spot on with my guess, as I registered with a 9:45 (plus 30 seconds to run 50 yards to the transition area). Unfortunately, many of those in front of me greatly over estimated their swimming speed as I had to pass 5 people in the pool. Some were already swimming side stroke on the 3rd out of 10 laps. I felt I swam great and was at a very comfortable pace. I probably could have gone faster if I had more room to pass people.

I would probably guess a faster swim time to get ahead of some of those who weren't prepared for what they were doing. I would also like to learn how to do flip turns for future pool swims.

First transtion went well except for getting on my socks. It was cool that early in the morning and I didn't realize how hard it was to get socks onto wet feet.

dry off my feet better with the towel

I thought the bike would be a strong point for me during my first triathlon, but the wind had other plans. The course was laid out like a triangle with one side that included a loop to be done twice. The wind was out of the north and blowing about 20mph. It was bitter cold. The loop included 2 laps headed directly into the wind and slowed me down to a crawl. I had to ride in a much lower gear than what I normally do just to keep going without totally wasting my legs. It was nice however for the little bit with the wind at your back.

Well, as much as I would like to change the weather, I need to get stronger at pushing through difficult wind. Aero bars would probably help some. Even though the course was almost perfectly flat, I should do more work on hills.

T2 was fast. Rack the bike back in, helmet off, on to the run. No shoe change because i biked in my running shoes.

nothing

The run was a trial of perserverance. The wind on the bike killed my legs and caused my run to be a little slower than I would have liked. In my training, I used the run/walk method, trying to run 300 steps for every 50 walked. During this run, my legs didn't want to run for more than 150 steps at a time. I ended up walking a lot more than I would have liked, but still ended up with a decent time.

Longer training runs to get more used to pushing through when my legs are toast.

walked around a little bit to try to get my legs feeling normal and drank lots of gatorade. Met my wife at the transition area as she was starting her run, and then walked out to the run course to cheer her on. I jogged the last km again with her.


the wind and I need to run more and longer


The race was great for a first time tri-er. It was close to home and almost entirely flat. The other athletes were great to meet before during and after the race. The wind was killer, but thats Oklahoma. When I started training in May, I said that I wanted to finish in under 1:30, so I beat my goal by 41 seconds. Great experience for my first triathlon, and I am looking forward to more next year.