Maumee Bay Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Overall a fairly decent swim, early in I was in a mess of swimmers which is something that I am not used to. I normally put myself to the outside of everyone to stay clear, but this time I went straight up the middle and actually fought for some space. There were a few times where I was hit in the head, but nit really enough to throw me off. There were also a few occasions where the chop or splashing caused some issues with my breathing a I sucked down water, I had to pull back at this point and catch my breath.

overall my sighting was dead on again! I went straight for the buoy and never found my self off track. On the way back to the beach I had a little trouble finding something to sight off of so I just went with the group hoping they were headed in the right direction.

Swim more, this is the section that is keeping me off the podium and it is about time I fix it! I was 3 minutes behind coming out of the water and that is just too much to be making up.

Not sure where the time went, everything went fairly smooth even with the decision to wear socks.

Effort on the bike was just about red-line the entire time. Watching my HR it never really dropped below 150 and at several points it was over 160. I had targeted 150 prior to the race so seems to have worked out well. The wind played a factor into almost the entire course as it seemed it was always in your face, because of this I decided to stay out of the big gear and use a higher cadence to keep from burning up my legs. Even with this plan I still felt a lot of discomfort in my thighs almost the entire race, I pushed myself to the edge and hung on.

overall the ride was uneventful! I caught several in my AG early on (dang swimmers) and was only passed by one person in my AG about half way through the course. This was actually the motivation I needed as I was stating to slide a bit. I pushed the effort back up and held this to the entire end. The rider that had passed me earlier had put a pretty good gap on me, but he faded and I caught him towards the end of the ride. But instead of passing him I figured it was a wasted effort and came off the bike about 20s behind him. This became the motivation for the run.

1 Lap = 3 miles

Lap 1: 8:29 @ 21.2 mph 154bpm

Lap 2: 8:52 @ 20.3 mph 151bpm

Lap 3: 8:43 @ 20.6 mph 150bpm

Lap 4: 8:02 @ 22.4 mph 150bpm

Lap 5: 3:31 @ 21.3 mph 148bpm. (1.25 miles)

Not much, really not sure there was much more effort I could have out into the bike. Maybe next time try to hold a HR up around 160 but that seems excessive.

This felt quick, but still came in at almost a minute. No major issues, this was the 1st time I used the pull strings for my shoes and that was nice not having to worry about tying them. Just slipped them in and took off.

Holy cow, this run was Fun! As soon as I parked my bike and took off I knew it was going to be a good run. I felt almost no affect front the bike (maybe I didn't ride hard enough) and quickly settled into a good pace. Coming out of transition I fell in behind the AG guy that passed me on the bike. I thought I would just run behind him and see how things went, this lasted for maybe 1/4 mile. I then realized that he was just too slow (at a even 7m pace) and hit another gear. I passed him and just kept going. I was running hard, but it didn't really feel like it. My breathing was under control, HR rate was under control and my legs just kept churning. At mile 1 the time came in at 7:02 and I figured if I could hold that pace I would be happy, so I pushed harder to make sure I did not drop off. At this point I started passing a lot of runners, a few that were in my AG and every time this happened it just renewed my motivation, I continued to push harder. One thing that was different is the lack of time I spent looking at my watch, a few times I would check my HR but not really paying attention to it until the mile 2 alert went off. Look down and it showed a 6:55 for mile 2, holy crap I dropped 7s off my pace from the 1st mile. At this point I finally started to feel the effort of the run, HR started to climb and I could feel the slug in my chest growing and a little bit of doubt of being able to hold pace crept in. I continued to pass more runners and I kept pushing. I made it to the 2.5 mark and was really starting to hurt. At this point I fell back on self motivation. I have a playlist I use on intervals that breaks into a Army Cadence, that includes the chant "work, work". I think it is the same one they use in the shoe commercial, it also shows up in the wretched video with 2 guys yelling at you, and surprisingly it actually helped. I continued with the push, felt the mile 3 alert go off on the watch and I knew I was close to the end, I found yet another gear to push to the end. Finally found the finish line and once stopped I had to hold onto the rail because I felt I was going to pass out.

Mile 1: 7:02 158bpm
mile 2: 6:55 164bpm
Mile 3: 6:52 167bpm

What could be done differently, this effort was through the roof, and considering I came with-in 10s of beating my standalone 5k PR it was pretty amazing. Later when I checked the mile splits and found the mile 3 came in at 6:52 and was the fastest mile I was completely shocked. I don't think I have ever ran a 5k where each Mile was quicker than the previous mile.

Sat on a chair and attempted to pull myself together, I was completely wasted.


Lack of swim training


This race was probably the best race I have put together to date. Normally I have something I am salty about, but this time I am satisfied with my effort. There no thoughts of I should of done, or I should of pushed harder. One. Thing to note, this race coincided with day 200 of my running streak. I have ran at least 1 mile everyday since thanksgiving day. I can't help to think that all of the consistency is starting to pay off.

p> the final point for this race! I checked previous years results and thought that I had an outside chance at a podium spot, everything would have to go perfect but an outside chance none the less. After seeing the results it shows even more how much I need to work on swimming. I came out of the water 3 minutes behind the guys that wound up in the top 3 spots. On the bike I held strong, gave up a minute to the 2nd place guy, held even with the eventual winner and made up over a minute on the 3rd place finisher. Then came the run, the AG winner was definitely a runner as he turned in a 19:36, but I made up another minute on the 2nd place guy and 1:30 on the 3rd place guy. The lesson learned? I finished 20s off of a podium spot after spotting them 3 minutes! I need to swim more, 20 freaking seconds!