Columbia Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

Last year 28:57, so I was :37 faster this year, though my AG position was similarly poor (113th; 677th overall). I have only been to the pool 4 times in the past few months, mostly in the last couple of weeks, due to time constraints. But I have been doing quite a lot of swim cord workouts at home as a partial substitute. That has given me the strength needed to maintain better form for a bit longer. But it's still an understatement that I have a long way to go in the swim. Under the circumstances, the goal for today was to just get through the swim without too much damage. I was able to find clear water for most of the swim, but was less bothered by traffic then in the past. I set a pace that seemed conservative, as I wasn't sure how well I'd handle the distance. Fortunately the swim seemed to go by fairly quickly.

I could perhaps have pushed a little harder. But I was happy with the outcome, given my paltry preparation.

4:01 last year, improved to 3:40 this year. Long run in from the lake. Little difficulty getting the wetsuit off, and I felt unhurried in getting the socks, shoes, race-belt, and helmet fixed.

Need to practice this.

Last year 1:14:02/56th in AG; this year 1:08:43, 13th in AG, 67th overall, for a hilly 41k. This was the part I had been looking forward to, as unlike the swim and run, I've had a good winter of bike training (all indoors, though, for efficiency and control over workouts; 1 outdoor ride in past 7 months). The time difference over last year also owes a lot to the fact that I rode a TT bike this year. I enjoyed the ride a lot. Thanks to my poor swim, I got to pass loads of people, especially on the many climbs. As far as I could tell the only people passing me were the half dozen leading riders in M45-49, which had started a few minutes after my wave. I pushed hard in the approach to each climb, so that momentum would help to get me much of the way up. I knew that I should be eating a little and drinking more than a little, but I didn't really feel like it. I managed to force down a PowerBar, but I couldn't say that I enjoyed it. I didn't bother to pay too much attention to the data on my Garmin or my bike computer, and was mostly riding by feel. The Garmin data shows that my HR was characteristically very high early in the ride (180+), but then gradually fell over the course of the ride, getting into the 150s by the later part of the ride. Based on that, I wonder if I was holding back a little more than I should have. Overall, pretty happy with the ride. It was right around where I wanted it to be.

Very little. Perhaps try to eat something more appetizing.

Last year 1:40, this year 1:36, so not much change. This almost seemed too easy, and I felt that I was standing there thinking: "surely I must be missing something". 609th overall.

I could probably shave off some time if I practiced.

Last year 42:53/12th, this year 41:28/6th. 59th overall. This was the wild card, and it was what almost made me a DNS. Running is my strength, and I had some really good winter training, but I have barely done any run training at all since the start of March, and hadn't run close to 10k since the start of April. This was due to an achilles injury that has subsided somewhat, but that still demands a lot of respect. I had no idea what to expect, but decided that I would set out at a comfortable pace and simply hope for the best. My hope was to squeeze under 7 min/mile. The Columbia run course is brutal, with about 7 serious hills, and a host of smaller inclines to deal with. The plan worked out much better than expected. By setting out in an unhurried fashion I was able to get comfortable quite quickly. I'm not sure that I felt any of the normal 'bike legs' feeling. The hills were always tough, but they seemed to be tougher on everybody else. I think I was passed by one person on the run (the winner of M20-24), and reeled in many in my AG. I was surprised how easy 6:45 felt in the first mile, especially given the steep climb, and then was even more surprised that I mostly felt better as the run progressed. The pace fluctuated a bit based on elevation, but the death march feeling that I had last year never set in. It was only in the last couple of miles that it dawned on me that I might actually beat last year's run split. The last mile is all downhill or flat (well, almost all), and I really enjoyed it. In the last half mile I spotted a couple of runners some distance ahead, and thought I wouldn't manage to catch them. But then I made out a "43" on the leg of one of them, and this motivated me to pick up the pace further, bringing it home at sub-6 pace. At the finish I was certainly quite tired, but also felt pumped at how much better the morning had gone than expected. And just as excited that my body wasn't instantly tight and cramping, as had happened in most of my other races this year.

Train. Not be injured for 3 months preceding the race.

Wandered around, streched, refueled a little, but I wasn't really ready to eat and so the bagel tasted horrible. Waited around for a free massage, which turned out to be really not worth waiting for.


I'll start by saying that this race re-kindled my enthusiasm for triathlon, which I had been starting to doubt. I love biking, and I really love running, but swimming is a taste that I'm still in the process of acquiring, and tri events are logistically so much more complex than single-sport events. But this event reminded me why tris are a different kind of fun, especially with all of the different details to geek out about. With that in mind, there are a bunch of things that I could do to improve.

-- Swim. I need to not be so pathetic in the water. I give up so much time. If I was merely moderately ok in the swim, I'd make up a bunch of places. That would require actually going to the pool, and perhaps even getting some decent technique instruction. But I'm sold on also continuing the regular dry-land swimming, as a way of getting additional swim fitness in less time.
-- Transitions. Oh yeah, I should actually practice.
-- Bike. training is going well. A couple of minutes could probably be had via continued training plus some efficient aero investment (e.g., wheel covers?).
-- Run. I just need to get un-injured, so that I can actually get back into training again. And work on losing the few pounds that I put on while sidelined from running.



This is a race that I hope to come back to every year. Fantastic organization. Tough course that brings out a really strong AG field. There's a good reason that it has been going strong for almost 30 years now.