Dutchman Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

We were to keep the bouys on our right the entire way so I started to far left out side. When we started it was sort of anti climatic just put your head in the water and swim. I wanted to go real easy and I guess I accomplished that. I never felt tired not once, this was definately my stroll through the park pace. I have been in my sprints very fast on the swim (top 10-20%) this was not the case here. Once we made the turn coming back straight into the sun was tuff, I will be wearing the darker goggles for Steelhead. When I hit the beach I started to jog towards transition, and decided that I could walk and keep my heart rate down.

I could have jogged and made up 30-50 seconds, who cares. This is usualy a strength for me, but I held back knowing that there were going to be some hills that I am not used to riding. I need to work on some better pacing I should have done the swim at least 6 minutes faster and still been pretty fresh, I just don't seem to be able to pace very well in water.

We were right by the bike out and there was a little gravel, so I decide to not do the flying mount and just walk out and get on the bike, it probably hurt my bike average a bit but again not that big a deal.

Not much

As mentioned earlier there were some hills on this course, they might not be for most people but doing most of my riding on a trail that would make a pool table jealous there were hills. My goal here was to try and ride the first 5 miles below the top of zone 2 (154) and then open it up a bit to zone 3 (161) and then for the final 4.85 miles let it rip. With the hills my other plan was to more or less spin up and coast down or at least pedal easy down. This was pretty much exactly how it went except my HR was about 5 BPM higher, but I felt pretty darn good the entire time. I also managed to get through the better part of two bottles (one accelerade and one water). Out of the shoot I was passed by two people (one in my age group) and then I realed in some my self. I am a bit disappointed in the standings but I love my execution

This was about as good as I could hope for this day, in the future I will be adding more hills and have a little more confidence in my ability to ride the hills, but that is next time.

I was a bit out of sorts coming into transition, I hadn't really thought about the plan, and as such I sort of winged it, might have been able to save 20-40 seconds here but being a bit more organized.

So the run was a bit hilly as well. I didn't factor those into the plan I just knew what I wanted to do effort wise. The plan was to try and get HR into zone 2 for the first mile zone 3 for mile 2-3 and let it rip for the final 3. Again I executed beautifuly. After the first aid station I had my HR in the mid 160s which was close enough, but I was also having some stomach issues which I think had to do with the amount that I drank on the bike and at the first aid station. So I worked on getting rid of the side stich and continued running I was passed by 3 people on the run and cannot remember how many I passed but it was definately more than 3. At the top of the hill was the turn around and that meant it was time to go for it. I ran really well for the next three miles and then rounded a corner and one of the officals said something like "50 meters left" just as I heard foot steps from behind (the first threat since mile 2) so I hit the finish button, problem was that he must have said something more like 200 or 300 meters and the legs just didn't have much left and the steps were now even with me. I looked over and it was a kid in an ISU uniform and a 21 on his calf, I quickly reasoned that I was 3 minutes ahead of him (earlier wave) and besides that I was shot.

Beat the ISU kid (go Hawks). The run was a little slower than I would have liked but then again I have only run about 4 times in the last 4 weeks (bum achilies) so I think that with some work I should be looking at a solid time for Steelhead. I am really stoked about this race, it was my first Olympic and I think I gave it a very solid effort. The field strikes me as having been very experienced and good. I try not to care about overall placings but I do and would have like to have been better. Next year.

Walked around grabbed some food and watched the last of the finishers.


pacing on the swim, lack of hill work on the bike and lack of and real running


Great race, great volunteers, only real complaint was that as sweetie finished they were just starting the awards and all of the "good" athletes and fans were crowding the finsh area so that she could barely get accross the line, I will be sending a comment to the RD on that one. What a great time though.