TOUGHMAN Tupper Lake Tinman - Triathlon

Not a good swim for me today. Using a new wetsuit and this was my 4th swim in it, 3rd in open water. The suit actually didn't feel bad but I just felt like I had no power. They had all women go off together and there were a lot of us so there was a lot of jostling and bumping, someone grabbed my leg and pulled me. My legs were swam over on multiple occasions. I kept trying to get around this one girl who kept zigzagging in front of me. Rounding the buoys went well, no problem there. Heading back into the sun I was thankful for tinted goggles. I caught a wave and inhaled a lot of water causing me to pull up hacking (never happened to me before); my lungs were burning and would burn for the rest of the day.
This swim was 3 minutes slower than last year's swim which was frustrating as I'm putting in a whole lot more yardage this year than last.

I need a few more ows under my belt in the new suit to help build confidence in using it. Maybe some speed work in open water would help. The distance isn't the issue, navigating people and maintaining speed is what I need to work on.

Left wrist got caught on my 920 watch, it took a while to pull it off, also both ankles got caught. I did use Bodyglide. Suit is just new and tight, it'll come.
T1 took a while because they held us to let cars go before letting us cross the street. I probably lost at least 30 seconds standing there. We had quite a queue by the time they let us across.
Oh, and as I ran the bike across the grass it started to get away from me and fall as i ran through a swale, I caught it - need to control that.

work on getting the wetsuit off, other than that and the bike starting to fall over after going through the dip in the grass. I was pretty happy. I'd love to know what my time would have been if I didn't have to wait for traffic.

This was a test of a few things - new/different bike, new helmet, new nutrition that I've tried a few times. Generally I was pretty happy with my hydration and food on the way out to the turn-around. I had probably 1/3 of my Infinit, most of my aero bottle of water and most of one honey stinger waffle. On the way back, not nearly enough. I refilled my aero bottle at the turn-around on the fly and noticed I still had half by the time I got back, also had only taken a few more sips of my Infinit and tried another bite of waffle. I did practice opening my Base Salts container I had taped to the side of my bike and wet a finger, stuck it in and ate it. I definitely need to hydrate more - always been my nemesis.
The other think I was wondering about was my back and how it would hold up. Much of the way back in I was tightening up - to the point I would have to stand up or sit upright in the saddle. I was quite convinced I wouldn't be able to do the run, my back was shot and the pain was enough to make me feel almost dizzy.
You could really feel the heat of the sun over the last 1/4 of the bike in particular. I could feel the backs of my shoulders baking.

I'm thinking I should raise my handlebars/aerobars up to take some pressure off my lower back and neck. It is currently set to the lowest, most aggressive position and it's fine on short distances but not long.
I will have to give the bike a below average due to the back. I know I could have gone faster if I hadn't been standing up a few times or sitting up on some flats.
It actually paid off for me later as it saved some energy for the run.

I can usually do a T2 in under a minute for an Oly or Sprint. With the HIM I decided to wear socks so that took some time to get them on - I'm glad I wore them though with the heat. I also have lock laces which i normally love but they changed the style from a bungy type thing to more of a flat lace with only a little stretch to them - I don't like them at all and will try to find the older version. It was a bit harder to get them on. I forgot to put baby powder in both my running shoes and bike shoes. I also took a bit to try and stretch my back - I could barely get off the bike and walk in. So this was a longer T2 but that's okay, again, it's a training race and I'm learning new things and trying different things out and that's what it's all about.

Not have my back hurt. hahaha. Also baby powder my shoes and go back to the other laces which were awesome; and DEFINITELY get spray on sunscreen!!!!! I coooooooked on the run!! That will be huge next time - spray on sunscreen!!

So I did the run despite my back knowing I could drop at any time. No worries. The back actually loosened up a bit and I felt pretty good so I pressed on! Generally I felt pretty good for it being so hot and that the first two miles were up hill (that was tough). I stuck with my run a mile/walk a minute plan due to the heat and my back. It was working well - my runs were 8:35 and at one point I had to reign it in as I got down to 8:05 - too hot for that. I started putting ice in my shirt around mile 4 - a lifesaver. I passed a lot of people who were having major issues with the heat. I was carrying a vial of Base Salts and offered them to anyone who was having issues. Around miles 9 and 10 there were a few more short hills that I timed it to walk up them to conserve energy.
I did eat a half banana at mile 2 and sipped water at every aid station

Frankly with the heat and the fact that I hadn't run over 10.5 miles yet in training I was pretty happy with a 2:07 half marathon. I haven't run that far in two years due to knee and back issues.
Not let those 2 from my age group pass me with 2 miles to go. hahaha

water and shade. I got very, very sunburned on the back of my shoulders. My stomach wasn't quite right but I didn't feel horrible, just didn't want to eat right away - finally had a half banana about 45 minutes later.


This was a training race to help prep for IMMT in which I was testing out a few new things over a long distance. I learned a ton about a lot of things and that I can handle the heat if managed properly. I do need to hydrate and fuel more on the bike - I think I let the hills prevent me from doing that and then on the flats I just wanted to go fast. This just takes practice. The run I was happy with, less so with the swim and bike.
I did have a bike crash last Monday so I was still sore from that and a bad, panicked swim on Wednesday so that may have played into my swim issues as well.


I did the Aquabike there last year and the HIM there this year and the numbers were up 30% from last year! I didn't do the run last year so I don't know if there were changes in terms of the aid stations, but i was very happy with the offerings they had. They also have a new bike path for part of the run which I felt was nice - had crushed gravel, nicer on the legs. The volunteers are lovely and I tried to thank every one of them along with the police officers. Post race they have a chicken dinner (I had it last year but couldn't stomach anything this year), they give out plaques to the top 3 in each age group. It's a really nice sort of grass-roots triathlon with Sprint, Oly, Relay, Aquabike, and HIM offerings (Oly was new this year). They've done a good job with trying to keep the prices reasonable and offer good support. It is a good, tough course and humbles me every time. There are not many spectators so it's a good mental strength building race. Cheer yourself on! Well done, Toughman.