Playtri Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Cold! Why didn't I get a wetsuit? The water took by breath away when I got in, and I never got it back. I was just too cold to feel comfortable. I was pretty down on my effort, and more than a little relieved to see I wasn't that bad compared to the competition. I really thought I would be a lot faster. I kept moving the whole time, by at least doing breaststroke. That was the good part. I think it took 300m before I finally got any open water. I was on top of people or they were on top of me until the final stretch home. I'm glad my first competitive OWS is under my belt. Now I know what to expect, but that doesn' mean I'm looking forward to the next one.

My swimming has improved a lot in the last month. Hopefully it will continue to get better and I can worry less about that and more about just dealing with the elements of the race.

As poorly as I felt coming out of the swim, I made myself run through the transition. I felt pretty good that I was able to put it behind me and move forward. I didn't do a great job of getting on the bike and pedaling quickly. I think my brain was still frozen.

Get on the bike faster.

Not too bad. I've still got a lot to learn on the bike. It was a big improvement from the race 6 weeks ago.

My calves were cramping by the end of the bike. I need to figure out why that is happening and stop it. It really hurt me in the first mile of the run.

I couldn't get the bike on the rack. It was only an extra 5 seconds but it was really frustrating. Funnier than anything else. I would get one brake and not the other. Must have done that 4 times. Other than that I kept moving well and got through this fast.

I was in bad shape the first mile. I just couldn't get comfortable. My calves were still cramping coming of the bike. Then I kept feeling the need to throw up. I had to stop and walk several times just to keep things down. I finally started feeling better at the first mile marker. Everything settled down and I was able to get moving. I think I did the first half in 16:30 and the second have in 13:30. I was really moving in the last half mile with a strong kick. However, I did finally throw up within 30 seconds of crossing the finish line. I'm not too worried about that, since I've done that before. It just bothers me that it affected the first mile of the run so much.

I need to find a way to feel better coming of the bike. Maybe I was pushing too hard on the bike and need to ease up. My first mile of the run cost me a good 3 minutes of total time. Maybe I could trade that on the bike and feel a lot better during the race. I'll have to play with it and see.

I thought it was a good race. I think they had some organization problems in the first wave of the swim, but other than that it seemed to go well. Looking at the numbers from all the other events they had, I'm wondering if it was worth it. Maybe next year they can just concentrate on the Sprint and things will be a little less hectic.