Rev3 Anderson - Olympic Rev - TriathlonOlympic

I'll give you the bad news first: I had some navigation issues. Not major ones, just getting ever so slightly off course or taking the longer, more irritating, not-so-straight line. On the plus side, it was significantly less of an issue than my first Olympic tri (and first tri ever, back in August).

The wetsuit was comfortable and made me feel like a sea lion. I had previously doubted how light it would make me feel, but it did make a difference. I know it wasn't very cold, but everyone else was wearing them and I wanted to wear mine at least once this season...so I jumped on the bandwagon.


I was proud of this swim because it was my best yet, but there are still a lot of ways I know I could improve.
- synchrony of kicking
-sighting more efficiently; i.e. maybe less regularly but with more purpose?

A major goal for this race was to conquer mental fatigue. Well, not conquer (not sure if that;s totally possible!), but I am of the opinion that "effort" is as much mental/emotional as it is muscular. And I've been known to have problems self-motivating or keeping my focus during long, repetitive activities. So I experimented with positive self talk, singing in my head, counting, and pacing. And evidently there was immense improvement.

I don't know what I was doing. I was huffing and puffing and feeling kind of light-headed and shocked by the cold air coming out of the water. Whenever I come out of the swim, it always feels kind of surreal to me. Like, is this really happening? Where am I? What do I do next? How do I use my legs on land?

I was rushing, but couldn't seem to get my hands to stop shaking. Maneuvering my bike, my shoes, my wetsuit zippers...I feel like I could go faster, but I just had a whole lot of other stuff on my mind and I didn't want to forget anything.This is average for me, but again, I know there is much room for improvement here.

The bike is my favorite, but I felt a little off today. I felt like I pushed hard on the swim and then it took a while to adjust to the bike. Plus there was a very steep, long hill right out of T1! I almost let it get the best of me--telling myself that it was an off day, that I wouldn't be able to race my normal pace. But I again practiced controlling my thinking and anxiety and even though I still felt off, I finished within my personal time "allowances".

I'm not sure. I really want to try to road race in the spring, but today's performance left me a little uncertain of my ability. Rev3 Anderson was the site of the SEC collegiate championships, and the best of the best were out. But what about pure cyclists? I'm certain I'll get dropped immediately and everyone will laugh if I try to race in the spring.

I'm a grad student and teaching assistant. I already have trouble juggling my school responsibilities with low volume workouts for tris. I just wonder if I will ever have the time or energy to train intensely enough to get to a point where I can place in any race, tri or road bike. Then again, why can't I just do it for fun and focus on PRs? I hate being a perfectionist sometimes.

Some dude with a camera kept chasing our team around in the transition area and asking us stupid questions like, "Who is the most promising athlete on your team?" and "Who are you targeting?" (as in what school did we want to beat the most). Do you really think we are that narcissistic? I should have mooned him.

I should also note (for my own record-keeping purposes) that I consumed one Gu coming out of the swim, one 3/4 of the way through the bike, and one before the run. I also kept one in my tri suit pocket for mid-run fatigue. This seemed to work well.

I had to pee so badly the entire run. And yet my body was still telling me that it needed hydration.

The run is my weakest leg, and so this is where my mental training really came in handy. That last bit was rough because I thought I was at the 6 mile mark, but it turned out to be only the 5 mile mark. Got a tad too hopeful. Anyway, I did a GREAT job pacing myself. My run goal was to simply run 5 of the 6.2 miles, and I ran all 6.2! Yes, my pace was barely sub-10, BUT the hell with it! I close my eyes a lot during the run and try to think of a song with a beat that matches my pace. Sometimes I count steps. And at each mile I told myself, "You've come this far, you're doing so much better than last time, your pacing is awesome. Who cares if people are passing you? This is YOUR best yet and you are learning a lot! Only X more miles to go!"

Train more. I'm getting there. Maybe someday in the near future I will come to enjoy running. I've found that running magazines are kind of motivational.

Stumbling around like a person who just got a lobotomy towards the food table.


Some lapses in concentration during the last half of the swim, the first half of the bike, and the last 2 miles of the run. Also I am not training as much as I "should" if I "want" to be an elite athlete. But the question is, do I really want that?


I have to give a shout-out to the volunteers. The Rev3 folks must have gone out and hand-picked the most caring, friendly, and upbeat people in the world to volunteer at this event. The volunteers pretty much made the race, I kid you not. I can't wait to give back and be a super helpful volunteer at Iron Man in Panama City Beach later this month!