Pleasant Prairie Triathlon - International Course - TriathlonOlympic

Despite being one of the slowest swimmers on the course, this was a great swim for me. I was anticipating 40 minutes and I ended up doing just under 35. Wowza! No idea where that came from. Probably the wetsuit, although my swims in the lake have been much slower, even with the wetsuit. Anyway, I'm SUPER pleased with this leg. I had one moment of sheer panic just before the 1st buoy... I felt like I couldn't breathe, I was sucking down water, and my suit felt so tight around my neck. I briefly considered just ending the race there, but instead flipped onto my back for a second, reoriented myself, and reminded myself that I know how to swim and everybody has swimmer panic stories. I focused on breathing and just kept going. And as soon as I rounded that first buoy I was fine.

Despite my best efforts to look up and sight, I seriously could not see anything. I don't know if my goggles were foggy or just too dark or what, but I could never see the orange turning buoys on the course, only the yellow course markers. I think next time I will need to REALLY spend some time looking at the course and making mental notes so that doesn't happen again.

About a minute longer than my previous Olympic T1 but I wasn't wearing a wetsuit last time.

Not sure.

My goal here was to stay around 16 minute miles. And I did. On some parts of the course I was flying - my top speed was 23 mph! But... alas, I am a weak rider. My "hills" were awful, and around the last 5 miles my hamstring was hurting... it wouldn't push anymore, which was weird. I think I strained it a little somehow during the swim because I remember thinking it was feeling funky in the water but I chalked it up to my wetsuit at the time.

I'm a little disheartened with my bike performance. I've been working on my biking so much this year and I actually got marginally slower vs. getting faster. I guess the answer is more training and better gear and more training, but I just don't seem to be making any progress here. I did have some problems with my chain slipping throughout the race, and in the beginning it got stuck, need to take it in for a tune up. I just don't have much time in the saddle compared to my racing compadres, and building bike speed takes time.

OMG, I LOST MY RACK. Ran past it with my bike three times before I saw it. Darn.

Not lose my rack.

Slower by a couple mins than I wanted to be. I'm not sure why. I know I was pacing at 10 minute miles for the first 3 miles, then on miles 4 and 5 I was just slower. Mile 6 was better/faster, but I just wasn't moving so fast in the middle. I had to use my inhaler because I was having a hard time breathing, and ears kept popping.

Hmmm. Tough to say. There are so many variables leading up to the run that it's hard to say. My back and my hamstrings were VERY sore after the race, so I might have been a little strained. I'd also had a terrible week with allergies and sinuses leading up to the race, so that probably affected my breathing too.

None.


I'm just slow. I can live with this.


Wish the bike course was a little more spread out. It got pretty crowded at times, with super fast guys passing me on the left AND right even though I was way over to the right already. But, that was due to the construction and there probably wasn't much the organizers could do about it. Hopefully the construction will be done for next year's race!