Blue Lake Olympic Triathlon - Triathlon

this was the very first Oly swim - so finishing it feeling solid was most important - made mistake of being in front of pack at start and got run over and tossed in the washing machine until the first buoy


start out in back of pack or more to the side - really just need more time in the water to build technique in the swim
should have done some w/u swim
felt strangely calm before the gun, do think that as was first time and never done this swim, goal was not speed

actually felt really good getting out of suit this time - hung up on rt foot a bit but with peeling off ankle with hands was okay
race chip timer messed up and didn't get precise swim and T1 times, but my HRM recorded swim as 30:47 so think the official time is accurate (going by HRM time only adds 1 second to the swim split) - comparing official sport times, T2 and HRM times, my T1 time was actually 3:00 exactly

solid bike - first one in DA4 - picked up the speed on way back after 205 underpass @ mile 15, avg speed for rest of bike around 22 mph - had some issues with 2 other cyclists in front regarding potential drafts, couldn't push past but they were around same speed
neck was sore due to lack of time in aero, right shoulder a bit stuff but overall felt comfortable on the ride, tried to push cadence in higher gear

try to push pace in middle section of the race, this is where I slowed down the most

left calf cramped hard when getting out of shoe, felt that a bit through the run but was able to fight it off

try to strecth calves before un-shoeing to prevent cramps

Official split time 7:21 min/mi
run felt great - felt focused and solid through the entire course, had enough at the end of a kick in the last 100 yards for a strong finish - took gel around mile 2
manual split times: mile 1 - 7:20, mile 2 - 7:18, mile 3-4 (avg) - 7:23, mile 5 - 7:41, mile 6 - 7:12
felt the remnants of cramps in left calf, also felt it in 2nd half of run in right quads

slowed down at one aid station to drink, maybe try to run through that better, but overall felt this was my absolute best MS run I've yet done

walk around, hydrate


swimming still weakest point and work in progress, but biggest limitation was that this was the fiirst Oly Tri so didn't know what to expect - length of swim was a big unknown, also first race on new bike


quads felt sore, particularlly top right of left knee muscles, left calf sore from cramping at race