White Lake International Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

Focused on racing to plan and working in pack as prep for Beach 2 Battleship. Like having to exit water consistent with B2B (ladders).
Stroke wise: started with breathing to only one side, alternating sides on sighting stroke. Clearly I do not track straight when breathing only to one side. Limited kick, per coaches instructions... think this really took some speed off me.
Navigation: Okay, used far shore sighting over buoys to ensure easier to spot. Tint on goggles with Overcast day made it hard to site.
Overall: Started middle front of pack, felt like I stayed there... was good to pass a few in the waves ahead of me and not so good to see a few of the women come RIPPING thru the field... wow they were fish (or mermaids?!?).
Probably held back a little more than I should have due to fear about back bothering me and not sure how it would react to swim.


Push more first and last 500

Long transition from water/dock/run path/transition, made for a long time getting into and out of transition proper. I was lucky to have a great transition spot, end of row and near bike out, so only had a short ways to go once I finally got my bike. I even did the “right” thing and helped one of the 10yr old competitors get his tri top on since he was stuck, yeah it cost me 10 to 20sec, but it was cool to see this kid racing!

Need new bike/tri shoes, more on that later.

Was 12th in transition, the #1 was 1:06... the top to were all sub 1:30...need to practice running right after hard swim....

Bike was okay, a couple of negatives ( finish with the positive ;):
• Brand new road surface for first 1/3 of course require a 3inch lip to be navigated to get up and on to.. I did NOT like doing that thru a turn… nope not at all.
• Power Meter went NUTS! Right out of the bat I was pushing like 600watts, but felt like nothing, so I knew something was wrong. Tried to calibrate watch a couple of times in the first 10mins, but either I was doing 20mph at 5watts or 20mph at >600watts. Finally just set it aside and road by feel and HR…should have done that sooner.. got passed by two guys right there
• Got to feeling bloated towards end, need to change up infinit formula.
• Need to work on my hamstrings and hip flexor or put a spacer back in the bike, after 27miles, by left glut and hipflexor were done and my BACK was SCREAMING! I was not sure I could get off the bike and run…
• Need new tri/bike shoes, lost a time riding up to dismount line and pulling feet out of shoes. Shoes just too stiff and bike oriented to do that..


Positives:
• Brand new road surface was AWESOME! It was paved the day before and felt like riding on a perfect smooth but grippy fast course…
• Riding with Wife’s Zipp Firecrest 404s into the headwind was SICK fast… I notched up nearly every pass going across or into the headwind on the last 2/3.
• Paced fuel consumption perfectly:
o 1 gel 30mins in with Caffeine
o 1 gel with 20mins to go with no Caffeine
o Sip of Intint from Aero bottle on ~10mins (alarmed watch for every 10mins) Initint was 3 scoop mix, might try backing down to 2 scoop
• Love flat windy races.
• Practicing and taking feet out before dismount line was very helpful
• Dismount was MUCH better than last time.


Ensure calibration is done ahead of time (at warmup if weather is crazy humid)...not worry about it on the bike if calibaration is off, focus on breathing (Zen Tri) and HR... go till it hurt then back off just a touch.

AG Top 10 on bike < 1:20 so I was just off a top ten bike
Overall Top 10 on bike < 1:11 so wow! Just wow!

Practice Practice Practice, it paid off.
Great dismount.
Only issue was preT2 in getting feet on top of shoes, need new shoes

Pulled a Cycle Cross move and threw bike on shoulder and ran...swear I am faster that way than pushing stupid bike!

Need new shoes

AG T2 = 5th,
Over all T2 = 50th, top 10 in Overall was < 57sec

The sun came out right as I started the run, first 1 mile was on flat/slight up hill with a white road, so not too bad, hit the 1.2 mile mark and it was all black top till the final mile… OUCH. Black top, 100% and heat index at 86degrees, I was cooking. Looking out at the course, it was wavy heat lines… and I was just thinking this is only a touch of what Kona is like… whew.

Slowed down a bit on the black top but focused on keeping sub 10min miles and easier breathing to hit a sub 3hr race. Hit every aid station (at every mile mark) for water and an iced towel. Drank two sips, poured cup on my head and put towel on top of that, then moved towel to chest then dumped towel. The water and towel really helped cool me off and seemed to be reflected in HR numbers too (have not yet gone back to do analysis).

As I turned back off the blacktop, a woman passed me so I paced to her for a while (thank goodness for pace booty), she slowed at the 1mile to go aid station and I was able to run thru it so I got the advantage. With about .6 mile to go she passed me again, and I stayed with her till about .3 to go then I just dropped the hammer and went… either I was going to flame out and hurl before the line or I was going to go in with her behind me…

I held her off and did not hurl at the line, but I thought I was going to…

Nutrition: Water and a gel at turn around point.

Rebalance the infinit on the bike. When I started running my stomach was too heavy so I had to hold off consuming any calories till halfway point of run. Otherwise it was run harder and faster.

Walked around and cheered in Pete along with other competitors, then went and jumped in the lake to rinse off and cool off before driving several hours to parents.


Training time and learning to suffer...
I will say my diaphragm / bottom of rib cage is sore..way sore and that's a first. Also, both gluteus and hamstrings are very sore.



Loved the venure and great site..