Lake Zurich Area Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

This was my best OWS to date. I really, really (really) liked swimming with the Speed Vest. I feel like I had good bouyancy with the bibjohns and didn't have to give up any mobility with the vest. I also didn't overheat and felt comfortable in the water at 78 degrees. After the starting whistle went off, I ran hard into the water and got off 3 or 4 good dolphin dives, after which I swam strong to open up some space. After a minute or so, I eased up a bit and focused on "steady" without giving up too much "strong". Once I settled in and looked around a bit, I was only able to spot a few other green caps. One had already opened up a good gap, and I felt that I had to let that one go. Another was only about 10 yards ahead of me, and I resolved to try and stay close to (or catch) him, which was a good way to work through the swim. My sighting was decent, but I drifted a little "inside" on the leg out; not a big deal as there was a lot of distance to reorient towards the corner bouy. I was a little more zig-zaggy on the back leg (it would be nice if they had more than one bouy in between the corner bouys on the back leg). The final leg into the beach was pretty straight. I got in a little practice drafting as I worked my way through the earlier waves. If I came up on someone more gradually (i.e., I was only going a little bit faster), I hung on their hip for a few strokes and felt like I was able to coast along a bit. It might not have made a huge difference, but I felt like I conserved a little energy and was able to complete the course feeling pretty good.

Not much.

I hadn't totally drained myself swimming and was able to move up the hill to T1 at a good jog while getting out of the vest top. Everything was pretty smooth in the transition area. My one mistake was forgetting to un-velcro the top strap on my shoes after clipping them into my bike before the race. After I hopped on my bike and was getting up to speed, I flipped my right shoe up to slide my foot in and . . . . eerrnnkkk . . . no go. I lost some speed and coasted along for longer than I would have liked while I unfastened each strap before being able to slide my foot in.

Shoe straps!! (see above)

My power was up in the 190s for the first lap, despite my feeling like I wasn't pushing too hard. I've wanted to go a little harder on the bike, but didn't want to overdo it, so I eased back a little on the scond loop (backwards, I know, but that's how it played out). Average cadence was with some coasting at 30+ mph on some of the hills. I feel I like I was spinning at a pretty good rate. The whole ride felt pretty good. Looking back, I feel that there were some periods where I cruising along more than working/maintaining effort and periods where I was working hard in an effort to push the pace a bit. It was not my steadiest ride, but the hills and wind might have factored into that. When I got back to transition, I was surprised at the scarcity of bikes around me. It made me feel like I was putting a solid race toghether.

Not a ton. As described above, my effort throughout probably could have been a little steadier, but I finished up my fastest oly ride to-date and was able to get out on the run course without feeling too tapped out.

Solid T2. No real complaints.

This is the second year I pulled out of my shoes a little early on this course. Not a big deal; just some extra riding on top of my shoes.

I really felt pretty good starting off the run. I was consciously pulling up on the pace during the first mile (7:42), and I think the change in pace from mile 2 (8:23) to mile 3 (8:08) was largely due to the terrian. I tried to open up my stride a little bit after mile 4 and pick up the pace to finish, but after about 2-3 minutes, I got a bad side cramp and was running in a fair amount of distress through the end of race. I felt fine cardiovascularly and, unlike Tower, I didn't see my HR blow up. I just tried to keep moving through it.

Hard to say. The pain in my side came on after I tried to pick up the pace at mile 4. Maybe I could have finished out run at a low/mid 8:00/mile had I just ran steady (instead of pushing the pace a bit faster than that and then dropping to a 9:00+/mile). No way to ever really know. I felt like I had it in me when I made the descision to move a little faster at the end, so I'm not going to second guess it.

I swam about a minute faster than last year (especially with the beach start) and biked about 3 minutes faster. My transitions were a little slower and my run was about 30 seconds slower. I would have liked to have put in a faster run, but it's really hard to guess at the trade-offs between an easier ride and a faster run. Year-over-year was a 3 minute improvement for the entire race in similar conditions. I feel like I've still got room to continue developing my fitness across the board, and can conitnue to make gains while I seek the right balance of riding/running intensity.

Ice pack on neck. Cold water bottle. Misting tent. This race know how to take care of its triathletes!


Not much.


This is a great race.