Island Lake Triathlon, Summer - Sprint Course - TriathlonSprint

Not bad since I never, ever train for the swim. If I just put in a little training I know I could improve. I'd say I did about 75% crawl and the rest on my back, kicking and doing a little flip with my hands - not a backstroke. Worked OK.......again.

Train. I was happy to be out of the water in under 20 minutes.

Shoes clipped in with rubber bands, no shirt so transition is easy for me; take off goggles and cap, slip on sunglasses and helmet and go!
I did have trouble again slipping my feet in to my shoes. I need a good straight stretch with no hills to execute and at Island Lake that isn't until you get past the entrance booth to the park. I tried it before there and failed.

Be patient to slip my feet in to the shoes. Other than that, I had a very fast transition.

I felt really good on the bike. Since I was in the 5th wave I got to pass ALOT of people. I had a few "almost incidents" One was some jackass on a mountain bike with an Ipod riding about 3' from the double yellow at about 15mph. I must have yelled "on your left" 3 or 4 times before realizing he couldn't hear me. I passed to the right, gave him "the look" and swerved over quickly in front of him....like you would to that idiot that drives in the left lane at 55. The other happened near the end, when you make the right heading back passing the toll booth. There must have been about 20 people all riding in a pack. I waited and waited behind the ones on the left but they weren't passing so I yelled "would somebody move it!". I finally gave up and shot through the middle of all of them, yelling "coming through!" the entire way. Really annoying. I don't think they had any marshalls out there at all.
My goal was to average 22 but I fell short, I think part of it was the shoe failure and the other was I didn't push as hard because I wanted to have some legs for the run.
Need to train a bit more. Playing hockey twice a week and coaching for my daughter's team another couple times a week keeps me in "bike shape". I have ridden my bike for training about 6 or 7 times this Summer. Again, if I put more effort into triathlon training, I could do better. I was happy with this time though.

Train

I was happy with this time since I had to put socks on. The last tri (7/15) I went sockless at the last minute and paid the price with blisters....not this time. I was feeling pretty good running out of transition.

Nothing

Last tri (7/15) I failed after the bike and couldn't run well. This time, 2 weeks before this event, I decided to train a bit. I ran 7 out of the 14 days leading up to it including a couple bricks to be sure. I did feel much better coming off the bike than earlier this Summer.
I did have a little cramping in the calves at about 1/2 mile because I don't think I drank enough on the bike (1/2 bottle) and had to stop and stretch it out for 45 seconds or so.
Again, I don't realy train for the run. I run maybe once a week on the average 3 or 4 miles to keep in some kind of running shape. I did do a stand alone 5k at the end of July and had a 25:18 so I was hoping for about a 26:30 split here. Oh well. Need to train. Love the layout though, especially the finish along the shoreline.

Train

Hugged my little girl as she was waiting at the finish line for me (with my mother-in-law), grabbed a bottle of water and a piece of sandwich, stretched out a bit and waited for my wife to finish.


Train, train, train. I have to quit saying after every one of these that I will train more. I believe with the times I am posting, a little more training is going to allow me to podium at these smaller venues. I wouldn't mind bringing home a little hardware! 2:45 kept me from the podium......


Need marshalls for the reasons listed above. Other than that, good event. Will do them next year.............faster!