XanGo Echo Challenge - TriathlonOlympic

Due to recent lack of swim training because of my arm injury, I decided to take this nice and easy. I swam straight and non-stop, but didn't push the pace much.

Nothing. I had a good swim for where I'm at right now. I just need to get back at it in the pool again, now that the arm is feeling mostly better.

I wore flipflops to run over the rough ground from the lake to transition in. I had a hard time keeping them on up the gradual hill and while running to transition. I also feel like it took me longer than it should have to get the bike unracked and helmet on.

Pick up the pace a bit.

I started the first 1/2 at a blistering pace, passing like crazy along the way. I was climbing strongly and had a good cadence. I felt like I was gearing correctly. I wasn't breathing heavily at all. On the way back, I was flying downhill until I got to the point where I had 7-8 miles left. This is where I discovered exactly how a tri bike differs from a road bike. The muscles on the rear inside of my thighs cramped up big time. These are muscles I've NEVER had hurt on a bike ride. I went from averaging around 23 mph on the ride to 15-16 through the remainder of the ride. I could barely move the legs to keep pedaling and felt like I was coasting along. People I had blown past were passing me like I was barely moving.

Nothing. Despite the fact that I had not trained on the new bike, I enjoyed riding it. It's going to be FAST once I'm used to it!

I cramped so badly on the bike that I could barely walk my bike into transition. My wife told me after the race that she thought I must have crashed by the way I was limping. Once I got to my transition area, I sat down for a minute or two and tried to recover a bit.

Not much else I could have done here.

I could barely walk into transition after riding the tri bike. I couldn't expect a whole lot more on the run. Basically all of the major muscles used for running felt great, but the muscles that I overworked on the tri bike hurt badly enough to slow me down significantly.

Nothing. The poor run performance was due mostly to the new bike, and I wouldn't change that.

Walked around a bit, then found a little patch of shade to sit in.


I've only been back at the training for 2 weeks at this point. I'm happy to have just finished the race. Also, I finished assembling the new tri bike at about 9:00 the night before the race. I had time to take it for a 1/2 mile ride around the block, and that's it. I'll train on it from here on out.


The course is beautiful, with low traffic. As with all TriUtah events, it was well organized. The only down side is that the spectator area was crowded, dusty and had little shade.