Quarry Ridge Triathlon - Triathlon

Swim felt like it was definitely longer than 400 meters. Breathing was very erratic at beginning.

I've swam a lot of laps in a pool, but never in open water. This led to some additional anxiety over the course of the swim. Will need to make sure I have more practice swimming in open water on my training plan.

Overall, I was happy with this as it was my first time attempting a transition. I definitely need to get better though, as this cost me quite a few spots that I had to make up for in the bike.

Practicing transition prior to race day would have probably helped.

Rode my Cannonade CAAD8 2300 with standard pedals. Had to pass a lot of slower traffic in the beginning (that beat me out of T1), and then got passed by a lot of seasoned riders around mile 7-8.

Great transition, but was faster than most because I biked with my running shoes (this was just before I picked up a pair of Speedplay Zero pedals). Essentially all I had to do was rack my bike, take off my helmet, and put on a hat.

Calf muscles were cramping during first half of the course, and then the humidity really starting getting to me on the second half. I had expected to be able to cruise through this since I've been doing so much running lately, but I wasn't prepared for how I would feel.

BRICK workouts!

Lack of any triathlon-focused training. Been focused on my longer running races this fall, and only biking/swimming once a week for some cross training. Will need to make some adjustments as I get past the Chicago Marathon in October.


This was my first real exposure to participating in a triathlon, which has been something that I wanted to try since I was in high school. I'm confident that I should do pretty well in 2015 as long as I focus on training for each discipline.