Life Time Tri Soma - Triathlon

Swimming is not my strong point. Goal was to keep a good steady cadence, without any pauses in my stroke. Another goal was to bilateral breathing throughout, as that's the way I train. On the swim out to the starting line sucked in a good mouthful of water when I tried to bilateral breath. Mind immediately started messing with me...decided right then to just breath to my right for entire race. I know that this slows me down a bit as I can't get a good body roll, but decided to take the mind games out of the equation. Start went really good. Found a nice area of open water, and stuck to it. No one really tried to drown me, nor did I smack into anyone. I did end up swimming closer to shore than I wanted to, and that was due to the sun in my eyes when sighting. Found it easier to just try to stay a hundered yards or so off the shorline, then angle for the turn buoy. Turn went well, and sighting on the way back was not an issue. Tried to increase the kick for the last 200m, not sure it did me much good. When I got out of the water, I did encounter a quick cramp in my calves, but that quickly disappeared in running to transition.

I've got to get the bilateral breathing down in race conditions. Also, heart rate was pretty elevated when I got on the bike. So, may need to explore ways to control that during swim.

Transition went very smooth. Wetsuit stripper were Awesome! A little bit of cramping in the calves on the run to transition, but that quickly disappeared. Dropped the wetsuit off, put the socks on, grabbed the bike, and away I ran to the mounting line.

Nothing. Happy with the time

Good mounting of bike. Got up to speed after the first turn, and got into my shoes pretty quickly. Right away I noticed that HR was pretty elevated, upwards of 165. My target HR is 145-155. Took almost half of the first lap to get the HR settled into the right zone. Contributing to this is the fact that I got a new bike 1 week prior to the race, and had to figure out the relationship with gearing, effort, and HR. It was really easy to quickly increase the effort on the new bike without really noticing it until the HR started climbing. Good thing? Not sure yet, but I really like the new Cervelo P3. Once I got settled into the groove, the rest of the ride went pretty good. I did fall behind on my nutrition and hydration. I think it's because of all the U-turns and focus you need to apply, that I either forgot, or couldn't, take on the nutrition and hydration at the pre-planned times. Nutrition during my training has been an issue. Finding the right product and amount has been a challenge. What has worked for me is one fig newton every 20 minutes, and one 24 oz bottle of skratch every hour. Got in all the fig newtons, but ended up shorting myself a whole bottle of skratch. Good news is that I didn't have any of the normal gut issues from the past, bad news, it probably affected my run.

Still need to do more work on the nutrition side. Also need to continue working on my power. Would have really liked to see the time and speed a bit quicker.

Good clean dismount and run to the bike. Legs felt a bit tired and of course the mind was starting to mess with me about having to run 13.1 miles now. Quickly racked the bike, put the shoes on, then grabbed running belt and visor and headed on out. Did receive some good encouragement from my coach as I exited T2.

Nothing. Satisfied with time.

Started off the run keeping pace with someone in my age group. First three miles went very well, below target pace. After mile 3, the pace started dropping until mile 6. I think it's because I kept pace with this other age grouper unitl mile 6, where I decided to open it up a bit. Next four miles were right on target pace, with a drop off during the last 3 miles. Did not negative split, which I always find difficult. I like to run steady pacing throughout, and let the results be what they will. I did take one gel at mile 3 and one later at mile 11, which was a mistake as it wasn't enough. I did take water every aid station, and gatorade plus water at every other one. Tried to keep some energy in reserve for the last mile, (failed), but was able to slog through it. As the race was progressing, I felt that I was really slow, so was surprised to see that I averaged a 9:04 pace.

Still need to work on nutrition. Problem I have is getting a too full feeling, or having my stomach feel like there is a rock in it, and unable to take on more nutrition. I would probably try to take one more gel around mile 7. Next training plan, I will probably put more time into the run, and take away from the swim. As the run is my strength, I would like to be able to make better improvements in this area.

After coming out of the finishers area, I tried to cool down in front of the misting system. Worked well, but about 5 minutes later my arms and legs started getting really tingly. Had to sit and lay down in the shade for about 15-20 minutes until it passed. This has been a common problem after all of my races. I don't encounter it on my long training bricks, but only on race day.


Nutrition. New bike, although I did better than last years bike time. Just feel like there is more room for improvement.


A big shout out to all the volunteers. Thanks! I know that I didn't get a chance to say it enough on the course. Plus a shout out to the Police Officer manning the College U-turn. Each lap he was joking it up with everyong.