PHILADELPHIA TRIATHLON - Give it the Ol' Philly Tri - TriathlonSprint

first tri... so was a little nervous at the start of the swim. after the initial stress of bumping into all kinds of other people for the first 50-100 yards, settled into a nice rhythm. concentrated on keeping my HR down to a manageable level and work on breathing and going straight. had to swim to the right to get around one of the buoys in the turn, but other than that was fairly straight.

improve on swimming in a straight line, maybe push it a little harder in the swim... felt like HR could have been a good bit higher, which woulda improved my time.

was hoping for under 2 min for first T1 attempt... but had to wrestle a little bit getting my bike jersey on, then gforgot to put on my HR monitor... so had to do that after. also, put on socks/ shoes and race belt on the ground, then jogged with bike.

get a tri suit, and swim with HRM on. perhaps practice bike mount with shoes in pedals.

felt good on the bike... met my goal of 22+ average. rode in 53x19 most of the ride and did not get out of the saddle once, to maximize efficiency.

perhaps get a tri bike, or at least a new road bike and turn my current road bike into a TT bike with cowhorns/ aerobars. would have probably gained 1-2 mph of speed with a more aero rig.

as far as riding effort/ performance... right on par.

felt pretty quick in T2. surprized to see my time... seems slower than i'd like.

i took my HRM band off the bike to wear during the run... would wear it on my wrist for the whole race next time, to save time. also need to work on flying dismount... but legs were pretty whooped and i didn't want to try it and bail in front of a couple hundred people.

first time actually doing an all out bike - run switch in race cnditions... hamms were super tight! wasn't sure if i'd even be able to do the run. was told to use short strides and go easy at first... heeded that advice and worked through it. felt pretty good, but felt i could have pushed a little harder, but the heat was a limiting factor... super hot and pretty muggy by run time. could have been more water stops... for cooling off purposes... i was adequately hydrated so used just about all available water to dump on myself.

go a little harder from the get-go to work through the tightness... try to get pace up by 10-20 sec/ mile. had too much gas left at the finish.

walked a lot, and drank drank drank.


the heat, and my weight. goal is to lose 26 lbs by end of year. (206 now)


first event i've done, so my ratings may not be on par with those of others.