Lawrence Triathlon - International Course - Triathlon

I heard some comments after the race about the swim course being long. I think that was probably the case, but my age group and overall placing says that I still had an absolutely terrible swim.

I really don't even know what went wrong. The conditions were fine, and I actually felt alright throughout the swim. My navigation was about the best that it's been in an open water swim, mostly because the water was so calm. The only thing that gave me any indication that I wasn't doing well was that I was basically alone after the first third of the swim. This was the first race I've done without a wetsuit that was longer than a sprint, so my best guess is that my body position was really poor.

At this point, I wish I knew.

I took a little extra time to wipe the big clumps of sand off my feet. I also popped the fairing off my fancy new aero helmet when I was trying to put it on.

Be more careful with the helmet.

This was a bit of a weird ride for me. My heart rate was about where I thought it should be for this distance (mid zone 4), and I THOUGHT I was keeping my power about where I wanted it. I wanted to try to average about 175 watts, with an option to let that slide up around 180 if I was feeling strong.

The first and last 4 miles of the course are relatively flat, but the middle section is a bunch of reasonably steep rollers. There's no way I can keep a constant power on the hills with the low wattage that I push, so I just have to try to adjust the descents based on how hard I pushed climbing.

My average wattage was 153, so I missed my mark by a LOT. I was about 6 minutes off my time from Hy-Vee last year as well. My RPE and HR were about where I thought they should be, though, which leaves me no other conclusion than the fact that my bike fitness isn't close to where it needs to be.

I think I could have given more without jeopardizing the run.

Nothing much to report here. Got in and got out.

I've developed a bad habit of going out way too hard in the run, so I tried to really keep my pace in check for the first lap. I ran completely on RPE and HR, and didn't really concern myself with the pace. I ran 7:45 miles for the first lap, and decided I would wait until around the 5 mile mark to pick up the pace if I felt like it.

I still felt pretty strong as I hit the 5 mile mark, so I decided to push a bit. I ended up running the last mile in about 6:50.

I could have pushed a bit more at the start of the 2nd lap.

Grabbed a water and someone handed me an Ironman Perform that I begrudgingly drank (ick). Most people were making a quick exit, so I packed up my stuff and headed home.


This race was at an odd time for me. I took a bit of an extended recovery after Ironman Kansas and I'm just starting to ramp my training back up for Redman. Regardless, I still had a poor showing.


My only complaint is the spacing of the aid stations on the run. They had a single aid station that you go by twice. 4 aid stations for a 10k is adequate. However, you passed the aid station at mile 2 and mile 2.6 of each lap, which isn't ideal.