Gatorade Triathlon Series: Race 2 - Elwood - TriathlonSprint

The wind off the water was horrible. Salty ocean spray in your face is not fun. As for the running, I burned rubber, baby. I'm very happy with that pace.

Nothing. I had a great run.

I was surprised when I saw my T1 time. I honestly thought it'd be around 2:40mins because I felt like a total gumby fumbling with my helmet and shoes! And I was breathing so hard I thought my lungs might burst. The two women either side of me got in after me and left before me. How quick were they!

I still need to quicken this up considering there was no wetsuit involved. But I think running hard before T1 contributed to my clumsiness.

They moved the mount line further out, so had to run further. Not happy with that. The wind was a crazy strong southerly, so for the outbound leg, I had a super tailwind - we're talking I averaged 35kph on that part of the course. The downside was that it was a headwind on the way back, so I was averaging 25kph. There were parts where we had a crosswind that was just pushy pushy and it was tough to keep a straight line. I found that I was overtaking a lot of people and, of course, being overtaken as well. I find it so frustrating when people who overtake cut back into my line almost before their back wheel has cleared my front one! Nasty potential, that. Got overtaken by the elite men - boy do they move. And then by the elite women who had a hanger-on - some old dude who seemed to be enjoying the draft quite nicely!

I really did hammer the legs but there was just no other way. I had this tussle with a fellow Athena who just wouldn't let me pass, then we played leapfrog for a bit before she cut me off at one of the turns, so I dug deep and put her behind me for good.

Again, surprised with the time but I didn't feel as uncoordinated as I did in T1.

Really want to learn proper mount/dismount.

The run hurt. A lot. Apart from the headwind on the return leg, I couldn't workout why until I saw my pace (total distance was 5.15k). Yep, sub 5 min pace will hurt. I just had to keep pushing, there was 1 Athena ahead of me (she overtook me in T2). Once I put her behind me, I could focus on just finishing. The first 2.5k were fine because there was a tailwind. The second half was just gruelling.

I notice that I push quite hard straight off the bike, so I usually start with really quick splits and then they slow as I tick off the kms. I wonder if I can train myself to turn that around and start out a bit slower so I can bring it home fast? Easier said than done, methinks.

Walking. Lots of walking. And stretching. And sitting around on soft, cushy green grass :)


Wind - but there's not a lot I can do about the actual wind, only how I deal with it in my head. My attitude toward the ugly weather was quite positive and I think that's becaue I expected it.


The overall race organisation was excellent. SuperSprint were on the ball in terms of contingency plans and what not, so I was pretty impressed. I had a really good race and was suitably stuffed afterward. I still want to improve my speed on the bike though. The aerobars helped heaps and maybe a new set of wheels in the distant future are on the cards, but we're talking distant right now. Changing workplaces in 2012 is going to help because there are a couple of colleagues who want to train together, and there are better facilities there (running track!) so I think I can do some interval work to help out the running. Anyway, I had a good day and I'm looking forward to a swim at Brighton in Jan!