Heart of the Lakes Triathlon - TriathlonLong Course

I was debating wearing my wetsuit, but decided that since it was a half-mile I would probably gain confidence and enough benefit to wear it. I kept trying to determine how many others were going to wear theirs, and I noticed a good amount, so I felt ok about it.

I was starting in the 9th wave, and right after the 7th wave went into the water more lightning started. The lightning was very close. For those waves who hadn't started (me), we had another 15-20 minute delay.

Starting out, I did not run or dive into the water. I hung to the back of the wave and tried to find some clear water. I don't think this approach worked very well, and I was still in the thick of things. It seemed to me that a lot of the swimmers went out faster than what they could handle, as a lot of swimmers came back to me after about 1/8 mile. My navigation was decent, and I held relatively close to the buoy line. Rounding the buoy at the end of the first 1/4 mile, I actually hit a portion of it with my right arm. I did quite a bit of jostling and banging into other swimmers the entire time.

I ended up breathing on my right the entire way so that my sighting was easier (buoys on right). I think I'm faster when I breathe on my left, so I need to continue working on bilateral to even it out. I maybe should have started on the outside to find clear water.

I had cut some of the length off my wetsuit and used pam on my lower legs, so the suit came off pretty well. I put on my biking shoes (no socks), helmet and sunglasses, grabbed a GU and my bike and headed for the mount line. My rack was rack number 38, and it was a very good jaunt from the rack to the mount line. Also, the run from the beach to the rack was not short.

I should probably continue working on wetsuit removal and also on jumping on my bike.

I really enjoyed this ride. We had gotten very lucky with the weather, and it was remaining overcast. The roads were slightly wet, but it didn't really affect the handling at all. I worked hard to try to maintain my speed as much as possible on the uphills. I usually get passed by so many people on the hills, but I limited that some today. I felt pretty strong the entire ride, but I have a tough time drinking on the bike. I have to practice that more, because when I'm breathing hard, it is very tough to swallow.

I just need to ride more miles and do more hills and intervals as well. It is coming along slowly, but I'm happy with my ride based on how much time I find to bike.

Long run back to rack 38 again. I didn't put on my socks, which made this a better transition.

I could work on taking my bike shoes off on the bike and jumping off.

Felt great! I felt strong the whole way, which was a lot of fun. I didn't get passed at all on the run, and picked off a lot of people who had passed me on the bike. It was so nice to feel good the entire way!

I'm going to start incorporating more speed into my workouts to get ready for the Sprint Tris I have next month.

I found some people I knew and we shared war stories. I ate some of the grub and drank plenty of fluids.


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I really enjoy this race. The volunteers are awesome!