Lake in the Hills Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

I got out to a good start with the lead group from my wave and I swam pretty strong. I definitely drifted to my right on the course and added some yardage. I used to be pretty good at sighting and just haven't had an OWS in a few years so took it for granted. Not beyond the realm of possibility that a better line could have saved me a minute here, which would have translated to 13 or 14 spots overall, and 20 spots on the swim.

Sight better.

T1 was pretty good. I was among the faster people to make it out. I sort of stomped from the waters edge to my spot while I took off the top of my wetsuit, and ran out once I had my bike.

I could have made it out a little faster had I jogged it out from the lake ot my spot.

I rode pretty strong, but probably a little too hard. If someone zips by me on the bike, I'll let them go, but if someone drifts by a little more slowly, I'll tend to try and hang with them (outside the draft zone!) or pass them up again. The road was a little rough in places, but pretty good on the whole. There were some nice rolling hills and the ride was long enough to require a little more strategy and planning that just going for it as you might with a shorter sprint.

I should probably start paying less attention to the other riders and focus on what's going to work best for me to set up a good run. The trouble is that my HR is always running higher on the bike coming out of the water and I lose touch with a good target to gauge my effort. I never feel like I'm working too hard on the bike, but when I start my run, I feel like I'm just hanging on. I need to find a happy medium.

On the whole T2 was pretty smooth. A few people were out in less than 10 seconds (one was out in 5 seconds), which I find kind of hard to fathom. Had I really ran hard with bike and out of T2 I might have shaved :10-:15 seconds, but I think the time on this particular day was better collecting myself at a jog to get ready for the run.

Not much. On a day where I was feeling fresher off the bike, I might have pushed a little harder.

I felt pretty crappy throughout the run. I'm not thrilled with my time, but am glad that I kept moving and pushing myself. Based on how I felt, this could have easily turned into an even slower slog.

Save a little from the bike.

Walked around, ate, drank. Fantastic post-race massage.


Too hard on bike.


This is a great little local race. They manage the 2 different transition areas like pros. Everythign is extraordinarily well-organized. I was very impressed and plan on returning.

On a personal level, I'm a little demoralized. Given how hard I've been working I was hoping to see myself finish a bit higher up. I guess that other than the Racine HIM, this is the only race that I've done that is even a little longer than a really short sprint (pool, 10-11 mile, 5K), so top 3rd (barely) in my AG group isn't bad, I was just expecting a little more out of myself.