Athleta Iron Girl Lake Las Vegas Women's Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

I seeded myself way at the front because I knew that I would be slowish on the swim, and rather have a bunch of people pass me then pass them on the bike. :-) I actually was slightly nervous this time because last year I got hit in the head on my implant site and it ruined the day for me, so in a way I wanted to avoid all the slower swimmers. Good plan actually!

Every 4 seconds two girls went. I got in the water the same time as the Overall winner, that was cool.

Took my time, and told myself just swim the best you can, and deal with the fact you'll be slow. I hardly wasn't expecting anything. However, what I wasn't expecting was my POOR navigation skills. WOW...I must be one drunk swimmer. It was awful...definitely one of the worst swim at trying to sight the monstrous buoys, and there was many! What the heck?! Took my dear time, and before I knew it, I was ready to come out of the water. This was one of my better swims I've done endurance-wise, and I did it with only three stops to check where the heck I'm going. "Oh, the buoy is that way!" Sheesh! Controlled my breathing perfectly. My strokes were okay, my pulls were a little poor.

Ran out, and prepared for my long ass T1.

Same as Rage. Need to get in more swims, seriously. LOL! OH yeah...sight better?!

Shockingly - this is my PR for all three Irongirls...by 10 seconds. I am surprised that my overall placement is higher than expected.

LONG Transition. They changed it a bit from last year, I think it's a little longer, depending on where you're racked. 0.4 miles. I was kind of hoping to get a PR here. I pretty much jogged the entire time, so I'm glad I did that. Arrived to my bike, and tried to take off the wetsuit. For the FIRST time, the wetsuit got stuck around my ankle. I don't know what I did differently. I believe it's because I tried to yank my foot out a little bit, but then sat down and started cursing, and the leg part just kind of rolled into each other causing issues. Finally yanked my foot out, then did the other one. Had a little bit difficulty putting the socks on. This was probably my biggest mistake of the day...I used ankle socks instead of ankle-less(?) socks that I never have issues with putting on wet feet. I had a bit of hard time putting those socks on. I would have practiced riding and running sockless, but nothing new on race day! I want to try though. My HIM race, I'm not going sockless that's for sure.

Anyhoo - cursed for taking so long, then ran to mount line and got out there. Had to tell a girl to MOVE when she was pedaling so slowly up the first hill. It's not my fault that these people are putting their bikes in the hard gear. D'oh.

Don't use those socks, use your TRUSTY race socks!! If there's a mix-match, who cares! I couldn't find the matching twin, hence I went with the one I wore today!

The first few minutes were slow going because of trying to weave pass a couple girls that were ahead of me and trying to decide on whether to just pass more girls or just stay to avoid penalty.

First big hill was a doozy. Took my time to climb out of that one, and passed a few of girls (they passed me on the swim easily...since I was 4th in the water, but definitely not the top 20 on getting out of the water!).

When I got to the top of Lake Las Vegas before the turn onto Lake Mead Pwky, I looked at my time, and was a little disappointed because I did much better last week.
Kept going, and passed a couple more girls on downhill and uphill. Got to the flat area, and started to question myself on whether I should have put on my race wheels. It was NOT windy at all...until the turnaround. :-) However, my cassette on the race wheels is a bit old and will ruin my new chain, so I decided against it. I'm not sure if it would have helped, but my mind was playing a bit of a mental game.

At turn around, I did it so sharply that I've gotten a few whistles from the cops. I was awesome. Nice lean...any more, I'll be kissing asphalt!

Suddenly, I was hit with hard headwind. I literally screamed out loud, "F*CK YOU!!!" no lie. It made me work harder, but I KICKED Wind God's A$$! Took me 28 min to turn around, and 22 min back...with serious headwind on my way back. 19mph avg baby...in the wind. Can't beat that.

Saw my watch when I got near to Westin, and I just exclaimed, "Holy $hit!" Can I make it sub-50? I came really close though!!

SUPER happy with my bike performance!
Hydration was spot on this time!

Push it a little bit more on the flats. Other than that, it was a great bike.

Great transition, but I think when I started my run out, I slowed down a little too much. I did better last year.

Do more transition runs. My transition with racking the bike, and putting running shoes on is great, but it's the getting there and leaving that I need to work on.

Walked the first few mins. It's straight uphill, and HR was already a bit high. Jogged a bit, walked a bit, jogged some more, sped downhill, saw some half naked men at Aid station (whoo wee!), got to turn around, and kicked butt. No idea my splits, but I felt like I hit the 8:20-:30 pace downhill.

Felt like I maintained a good pace throughout, with exception on uphill. I slowed down a little bit on the downhill in fear of blowing myself up. Looking back, I could have pushed it a little bit more, but I'm happy regardless.

I didn't like the course much, because it's a little hillier than what I'm used to.

Course may have been a little short by .4 mi.

Interesting enough, I PR'd on Triathlon 5K exactly 1 minute. I do have room for improvement. :-) But not sure if it really counts because course could be a little short.

Nothing really. I sipped a little water to get rid of dry mouth. Train more on hills.

Walked around a bit, found my friends, ate a bagel (and I was pretty hungry at this point!), a couple of oranges, stretched and talked about my race with other people in my tri club.

***After the race, I went to pick up my bike and stuff. I was stopped by a volunteer saying, "Is this your bike?" I just said, "Yes it is", and double checked to make sure that it is indeed my bike. I asked why did you ask? The numbers on my arm doesn't match the number of the bike. How embarrassing! That's actually MY fault. I told David (SWIM2Live) 142. I have NO idea why I said 142....I'm 162! Had to prove the guy with my wristband number and bib that it is indeed my bike. Luckily, he was very nice about it and his daughter is going to school to be an audiologist and learning sign language. I told her that it is the most awesome thing that you can do because there's a lot of Deaf people that get upset when their audiologist don't signs. I wished her luck, and went on my way.

Got home, had my chocolate milk recovery drink, put on my calf sleeves (just in case!), and reeled in the day.



Lack of swim, and hill runs.


It's Irongirl! One of the better races I've ever done. LOTS of variety in food, that was awesome. Took home some tea bags. Shhh!