Amica 19.7 Lake Las Vegas - TriathlonSprint

Just swam a little bit, took some time here to get my arms warmed up a bit since I couldn't touch the bottom of the lake, so we had to wait for a couple minutes, then off we go.

Had the most contact the first 200m or so. Luckily, nothing too severe. Took my time to just go slow and enjoy the swim. I expected to be slow due to the lack of swim training (Sorry Ken!!), and that will change soon.

Just remained a calm slow swim, no pushing it at all.

After about 500m, I was behind someone who I could not see (the water was extremely murky, and barely can see a few inches in front of me), and she was doing a breaststroke and her leg kicked my biceps hard. Which left a nice bruise.

Pushed it harder the last 100m, and jumped up on the ramp, ran across the timing mat and dirt gravel hill to T1.

Stomach did start to have slight issue, felt slightly sick. I blame it on the fact that I forgot to take my normal 1/2 bagel prior to run to absorb any sickly water. Sonofagun. :-)

Luckily, I went easy on the bike, so it didn't affect me at all, took about 10 minutes for that feeling to go away.

Really nothing. My sighting was a lot better this time around, not 100%, but better. I expected to go slow, and I don't care. It wasn't my in my goal plan. Slowest swim ever...I'm so proud. LOL!

Not bad...I'm not sure where I lost time here, but I think it's because the gravel was getting a little stuck on my feet, tried to wipe it down with the towel, then decided not to, and just squirted my water bottle (thank goodness for my Emergency H20!) on my feet, put my shoes on, CI on, glasses, took my bike and off I go. I think this was the first time that I felt like I was not breathless at all, so it was obvious that I didn't work hard for the swim. Also first time that I went sockless for both bike/run. Good thing I put in some practice prior to the race. Didn't think about wet feet, but luckily in the end, I didn't suffer any blisters or anything.

Speed up a little bit? I didn't have my wetsuit, so there really should be no reason why I was a little slower.

Hopped on the bike, and off I go. Spun up the hills, took it easy here. It was slightly a mental game to tell myself to back off the pace a bit! As soon as I got over the first large hill, I got myself down in my aerobars, and I felt SO awesome, and it remained like that for the rest of the race! I could not believe how comfortable I was. Slightly nerve wrecking when I went 35mph without turning the crank...jeez louise...I wonder how fast I would have been if I DID pedal! I did feel a little sick a bit in my stomach, and wished I had something...looked in my Bento box, and saw my Emergency stash; Energy bites, gum, and a gel (which I didn't take in at all for Sprints tri) - I just forgot to remove it prior to the race. I'm glad I left the Bento Box on the bike. Ate my Energy bites, and the sick-to-stomach feeling went away. Whew!

Going out on Lake Mead Pkwy, Keeping my effort in check and just pedaled based on feeling like I'm going easy. I thought it was kind of funny because I was singing some songs (ptth, low effort! LOL!), and just kind of doo dahing along. Passed a bunch of people.

Made a really nice U-Turn, got out of my aerobars for this one (not ready for serious cornering just yet!), and quickly got back down. I even stayed there on the hills, so that was nice. Passed more people on the hills. I think only two people passed me on the entire bike, until the last large hill where a few passed me (I dialed back here on purpose, since it was close to T2).

The official on the motorcycle passed me around mile 10, backed off just enough to make sure that I'm not drafting (he scared the crap out of me! LOL!), then he watched the guy in front of me and told him that he has to hurry up and pass the girl in front of him...which was on pretty big hill. Felt bad for the guy because he had to push hard to pedal. After the passing, official gave him the thumbs up. Nice to see that for the first time.

Then there was this big hill, before a large descent where there was like 6 people in a row, and they all were going slow...so this is where I had to put on my climbing legs, and pedaled faster and a little harder to pass 4 of them, luckily there was a little break between the front 2 and the back 4, then I passed the two people that were front of me on the descent (while in aerobars and not even turning my crank!).

U-Turn here, then back up the hill with the large descent. Took it easy going up the hill, probably Zone 2ish, nothing causing me to be breathless. Shouted a few hellos to some people that passed me...I could carry a conversation, so I know I wasn't going hard. It was mentally a little hard not pushing it harder on this hill as I normally would just get out of my saddle and crank up the hill.

Over this hill, increased my cadence, but maintained same effort all the way to T2 after this hill.

LOVE MY AEROBARS!! Didn't I say that already? LOL! It ain't a tribike, but close enough.

OH - the MOST annoying thing EVER - my race number is so huge on my 44cm frame...that it kept cutting up my leg the entire ride. I felt like I wanted to yank the entire thing off. Lesson learned...if the number is big, CUT IT! There was a lot of "white" space, I could have cut the white space out, and not have to deal with this.

PR'd here from two years ago's Amica Triathlon.

While I definitely could have gone faster here (in fact, there was some areas that I felt like I was going too easy!), but the key goal for this race is to go easier on the bike in order to get better on the run and see how that rolls. Success!

Getting used to the aerobars - Double Success - 95% of the ride was in aero.

Cut the number.

Fastest T2 ever. Sweet! Second fastest in my AG.

Off shoes, off helmet, running shoes on, grabbed the race belt and off I went.

After the timing mat, realized that I forgot my visor. The sun wasn't quite beating down on me, so I'm grateful for that.

Don't forget the visor? Other than that, nothing.

Aid station was there as I was getting out of TA, so that's a nice bonus, took advantage of the water, took two cups, one poured on my head, the other to take small sips, accidentally inhaled some through my nose. Walked a couple steps to do a small snot rocket, and off I went.

Told myself to RUN THE WHOLE THING! Took it slower here. Felt like my HR is high. I had my HR monitor (first time wearing it for a race so I can see how my HR responds for the B/R portions), and saw it was hitting the 175s. Slightly too high, slowed down a bit, then just kept going at that pace. Felt better and settled in. I remember thinking to myself, "Man, does my legs feel like lead bricks!". Realized it's been quite a while since I did a brick. I maintained a 11:30ish pace here. It is slowish for me, and I'm alright with that. That was the whole purpose of this day is to know when to slow down to get any high HR, then push it to the end.

There was a nice big hill after the turnaround on the trail, There was an Aid station here, that I could visit twice, poured water on my head when I passed it. Thank goodness my CI is water resistant! Passed a couple guys here, it took a bit of a mental tug of war here not to WALK. Jogged up the hill, slowly, but surely. More hill workouts will help me run better on the hills.

At the turn around, I picked up speed, but I didn't want to go all out because I didn't want to blow up, then have to walk.

Last mile, I picked up more speed, then much faster as I got towards the finish line. Definitely felt absolute thrilled that I ran the entire thing, and felt like I had quite a bit left in my tank. The first two miles felt like RPE 2-3 then remaining RPE 3-4. Room for improvement. It will take some time to run 5K-10K easily. I ain't a runner!

PR'd here as well. I believe it's my fastest Triathlon 5K. I'll take it, for now!

Do more bricks and doing better/faster at races vs. training runs. I'm much faster during training runs, so I would like to work on that.

Be careful when pouring cup in mouth and breathing in the water? That made me laugh actually.

Walked around a bit, ate some grapes, saw my friends, then went home. Swam in my pool for a little while, took a bath, and headed out to Bunco with my friends, and chatted with a friend until 11pm. No wonder why I was EXHAUSTED. I've been up from 3am-11pm. :-)

The next day, my arms was the only thing that was pretty achy. Blame it on the swim. :-)


Nothing - goals was to work on pacing for bike and run and running the entire 5K. Check and Check!

Extra bonus was using my aerobars for nearly the entire ride including ascents.


There really wasn't much post-race activities since it's a local tri and less than 200 people. I've enjoyed this race. Two years ago, it sucked, but this time there's a lot of improvement, so I'm happy about that. The food was good, the ice towels were great, Volunteers were awesome, and I think the finisher's medal is my favorite. It feels so professionally done compared to my other medals, kind of like an Olympian. I think they should add a Olympic race for next year. It was well done, and way better than two years ago.