CB&I Tri - The Woodlands - TriathlonSprint

We started in the 2nd wave, only one minute after the pros. So we had one minute to get in the water and get our body and face used to the water temperature in one minute. There was no countdown or warning, just a horn, which caught many people off guard. I at least had my goggles on, but I forgot to start my watch. It wasn't on the right said, but I didn't try to fiddle with it. Later waves supposedly got at least one warning and 3-4 minutes.

I think the lack of warning did help to avoid a buildup of nerves. The swim went rather well. I found it easy enough to sight, because I just looking for a mass of people. I was only significantly off course once. The lake was so dark and muddy that it was impossible to find feet to draft off. Battling other swimmers was okay, in a way, fun, except when I got whacked which caused me to stop and look up once.

Two recent pool swims of 500m were 10:46 and 10:52, so my overall time was right in line. The advantage of the wetsuit was negated by not swimming in a straight line and the one quick stop.

I would say just to start my watch early, but I had planned on doing that. We just got no warning.

I also plan on working on stroke cadence. If I can increase and maintain a higher arm turnover rate, I can shave close to a minute.

It was so cold, I was worried about the wind on my wet body when I started biking, so I took the time to put on a skull cap, bike jacket, and gloves. I then tried to start my watch, but it was on the wrong setting and then I was fiddling with it. I had also rolled up my socks so I could put them on easy, but I found myself unrolling one of them. wtf, Chris?

Continue to practice transitions so everything is routine.

I literally passed only one person on a mountain bike. I probably got passed by at least 50 people from all of the slower swimmers in my wave, and the fast folk from the waves behind me.

Despite my slow speed, I was happy to see some improvement. At the super sprint I did in March, I did 6.5 miles at 16.4 mph, so in 5 weeks of training, I improved to do over twice the distance at higher speed.

Nothing but more training. I am going to look into lowering the handlebars on my road bike to improve aerodynamics a little.

My poor T1 time bothered me during the bike, so T2 was as efficient as I could be.

Nothing

I hit a PR on the run! I was faster than my standalone 5k from January. I was expecting to be slower.

I felt like I was running slow, but I knew from a previous bric that I was actually going faster. My watch was giving me some data that was in the 7 minute mile range, but I knew that wasn't true either.

My run time of 8:31/mile was only good enough for 62th percentile of my age group on the run, so that is an indication of the strength of the field. If you ran a 10 min/mile you were in the bottom 10%.

Nothing.

Not enough stretches, then some food, and socializing with some other triathletes that I am acquainted with.


The cold weather which required extra gear to put on in transition. OCD with my watch.

The guy who finished in 48th place was 2 minutes faster than me, so even if I avoided the little errors, I still would have been in 49th place.


Overall the race was well done. There were lots of volunteers; the course was marked with lots of cones and distance markers; plenty of cops blocking intersections. A few suggestions:

1. More porta-potties
2. Have some time requirement other than close of transition to prevent people from getting there so late causing delay.
3. Allow a little bit of time for athletes to get in the water, especially if it is cold.