Beaver Freezer Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Based on this race and a couple of others I have done with pool swims vice open water swims the pool swims are more frustrating. Everyone including myself was in everyone else’s feet. We were all pushing of f the wall at different speeds, there was little spacing. It was hard to get a good rhythm going. It felt like coming off the wall someone was immediately in your feet. I would stop at the wall to turn around and the swimmer was a decent distance back. Everyone probably could have been faster with a little spacing. I timed myself at a minute faster on Tuesday swimming the same distance.

After finishing my race I watched the last 3 swim heats at the pool and it was good to see how it is supposed to be done. A far cry from how we interacted in our lane. They were well spaced and using Flip turns it was very cool to watch.

I am trying to be objective; if my other 3 lap buddies read this I am blaming my self also.


I would have much preferred to be the first person in the lane, go out fast and not have to mess with the other swimmers. Since we were given the order we had to swim all that can be done is have the courage to discuss spacing with strangers and hope they were open to it. This is a classic example of newbie’s versus experienced racers.

It had started raining while I was in the pool area. When I came out my clothes were between damp and wet. It made it a little tuff to get my Polypro shirt. It was warm however so I didn’t need to fuss with gloves. Socks were OK to get on.

I need to learn to have my shoes in the cleats and run barefoot (socks). This is probably the next biggest step in getting faster at T1.

I thought it was a nice ride nothing special. A couple of people passed me on the bike leg but I believe I got them back in the last three miles. I wasn’t looking to really push myself but I didn’t want to make it a fun ride either. I felt that I could have done a 2nd lap and had about the same time.

Since I wasn’t really trying to punish myself this race I wouldn’t do a whole lot different. Without riding at a higher hear rate level I guess I would say ride more aerodynamically. Concentrate on my form more thoroughly and maybe try a higher cadence.

Long running stretch from the dismount to the bike racks. I got into my running gear pretty quickly. Everything was soaked. Because my gear was sitting at a low spot in the parking lot and everything was sitting in an inch of water in a puddle. I dropped from 164/242 in T1 to 180/242. No excuses just bad execution.

How to get faster 1) Elastic laces for the running shoes. 2) running barefoot with my bike shoes in the cleats and 3) practice..practice.. practice.

First lap I watched my heart beat very closely, second lap I worked on my form and 3rd lap I tried to pick up the pace a little bit. Maybe it was because of good training or maybe it was because I didn’t kill myself on the bike but for whatever reason I didn’t have the brick legs I often get after the bike run transition.

Work on turnover and picking up my knees higher.

Once again I needed to get home quickly due to my wife planning another party (This is the 2nd time she has done this to me this year) so I cut the warm down short and went in and watched the last three swimming heats.


As I stated above I was just try to see where I am at. I treated the race more as a fast 90 minute workout than a race. I was 15 minutes behind the nearest age grouper. To make up that kind of speed I will need to get serious about swimming, lose some weight and learn to get real uncomfortable on the bike. Losing weight and getting better on the bike should carry over to faster runs.


Really happy with the race. I got wet but had it not rained I probably would have been cold. The support people were great, the facilities were good. My only issue is that I missed the awards ceremony because I had to leave in a rush. I certainly would do this race again next year.