Tri in the Buff - Sprint Distance - DuathlonStandard

Hard not to stay cool with the wind. I wanted to be around 25 minutes for this run, I knew I could do that comfortablely and not spend every thing on the first leg.

Not much that I would do differently here. Given the change in the race format I knew doing two 5k's with a 13 mile bike ride with a strong gusty wind was going to be near my limits.

T1 went much better than my previous races. I attached my shoes to the bike in a slightly different manner and had great luck with it. Remembered to do every thing I needed to, well, except to use the lap function on my watch.

Some more practice to get a better flow through the transition. I was pleased with how things went this time as compared to previous events.

Did have any cramps on this ride. Spent too much on the ride though, paid for it on the second run. Disk wheels were outlawed for this race, not that I had to worry about that, but even with standard wheels there were a couple of times when a gust of wind caught the bike and moved it one way or the other.

Given the distance and time it took I should have tried to Gu once I was nearing the last portion of the bike.

Someone with a kickstand decided to park his bike right next to my spot as I was coming in. I sort of said something to him and he relocated to another spot. This sort of took away from my concentration, I had been working through my head as I was coming in off the bike. Take off Bike shoes, take off helmet and then put on running shoes. Well, I forgot the darn helmet, so I lost a few seconds while went back to take it off. Thanks to the nice Announcer to say my number, name and the fact that I still had my helmet on as I was leaving T2. One of these days I'll get so I can take my feet out of my shoes while riding, with the strong wind coming into our faces in the last parts of the ride I didn't want to take any chances on this race, it's not like it would have saved me much time, though maybe I wouldn't have forgotten the helmet if all I had to do was helmet and running shoes.

Practice, Practice, Practice. This is the second time this season that I've missed something during a transition. It's strange because I do a T2 transition at least once a week when I do my bricks. I'll have to think of a better way to go through the progression.

I was spent, I actually had to walk a couple of stretches. I walked twice just before and just after the water stops. Primary reason was to get my heartrate to a point where I knew I could actually finish the run, both times my breathing and heart rate were nearly out of control. I also wanted to make sure I got enough water at the aide stations.

Not much I could do differently. Since there wasn't a swim, we did a 5km as the first leg. This took alot out of many people, I was thinking they'd do something more along the lines of a 1.5-2.0 mile run, which would have been about the same amount of time for an average swimmer at 500m and an average runner for that distance.

Walked around and got some water in me.


Race distance, current fitness level and the Weather.


Given the weather and other changes to the race, the course was very difficult for my current abilities. I have enjoyed this race in the past, but with the change in the bike course as well as some of the road/trail conditions I'm now thinking of not doing it again.