Fort Lewis Triple Threat Triathlon Series - Race # - TriathlonSprint

Well, I hit two out of the five goals I set going into this race...I am not doing well with OWSs. I am timid, I can not breath properly (just can't exhale well underwater for some reason....learned to do it in the pool, can't apply it here), and I am in a state of near panic the entire time. It is still working out that I want to finish more than I want to just get out of the water, but the longer distance had me on edge the entire time. There is no way that our swim was a complete 400m last week...This looked long, it felt long, and my time reflects that either I am totally mental during the swim and got really scared today, or there is no possible way that I finished with an average of under 2 minutes per 100 last weekend. I can come close in the pool with shorter distances and I put into my mind that maybe the wetsuit helped that much, but today was more of the same over a longer distance....much longer in every way!!!! I have got to get some help or serious practice in this department, I felt the extra distance and what I felt was a harder effort in every other event on the day. Goal one was completely unrealistic, but based on the previous week it should have been cake. At least I did not drown or quit.

I don't exactly know where to start....this swim hurt me both mentally and physically the entire race. I started in the pool completely out of my element and got better, I am feeling the same despiration now in open water...I need to find a way to improve, or it may be on to Dualathons(sp) before too long. I have another shot at this course in two weeks. I do not expect huge gains here, but it has to be something. I had a thousand of tri related things that I wanted for my upcoming birthday before and have narrowed it down to two...either swim lessons or gills(and some aero-bars).

T1 time was included with the bike, but computer put the bike leg at 44.00. Was not allowed to run out of the transition area and heard about it over the speaker system. I would like to get out of straight road shoes, there is no way that I could try to get a running start and get into these shoes on the bike...another day of stopping at the mount line and trying to clip in (they also have the extra buckle which has to be cranked down at the ankle).

Went pretty quick despite trying to get my mental and physical funtions to work again after my swim. Wetsuit comes off well with the bodyglide. Not riding in socks helps as well. Very happy here...back to getting on track.

Good ride, took a while to get into a groove, as the swim once again owned me. Pushed for an average speed of 20mph or better and thought I was in trouble when my right calf clinched up with a cramp about 4 miles in. I stayed pretty dehydrated all day compared to last race, don't know why I wasn't taking in more water the night prior. My calf let me know it was there, but let me ride as long as I didn't pull much on the up-stroke. I managed to run down a lot of folks on the bike leg again this week and was not caught by anyone (I may be a bit depressed when I learn to swim and I do get caught here). Pushed pretty hard in the last two miles to keep my speed at my goal. Managed to beat goal by 1 minute or so depending on the time that I took in T1. I think the constant feedback from the bike computer keeps me more focused on the bike compared to my run which has been all by feel (my mind likes to tell me that I don't have any more to give).

Drink more prior to race day, I didn't take in much water on the course either and really felt it. Aero bars!!! Ordered them last night and can't wait to try them. I am in a straight road set-up and never got a proper fitting, so I imagine that the change with proper fit will take some getting used to. Get up a gear and drop the cadence...didn't feel like working it seems...way too much time above 100rpm.

T2 is included with the run time. Either I did not hit either goal, or I was pretty slow in one of the two here. I would not be surprised if it was all on the run because it felt pretty bad. I felt like I was faster here than last week and really should have been because I skipped the socks and my wheels stayed on. I do know that I was pretty darn tired regardless.

Not sure, I focused on improving this area because of the slow times last week...I wish we had the timing chip so I could say something constructive.

Legs didn't want to go this time...hitting an uphill start was just enough to cause my mind to agree with my legs that we wanted to go slow. It took getting passed to finally cause me to pick it up a bit. Walked through the water station at the halfway point and the start from there was back up hill. Picked pace up at about mile 2 or so and maintained that back to the first road we came out on. Passed a few people during this time and was able to keep them behind me. My mind decided that we had picked up the pace too early and I eased off a bit. Coasted down the hill that we ran up at the start and kicked it towards the finish line until I saw my wife with the camera. Slowed down for her and smiled for the camera since I looked too serious in all of my photos from my first race. Finished up and sucked wind for a while to recover...felt much fresher at the end last week. Not enough water and too hard of a bike leg?

RUN!!! I am letting myself coast too much. I did not start my watch at the beginning of the race and forgot to start it anytime later, so I went off of my perceived effort...my mind lies and I listen. I haven't had a strong run in weeks now besides my last tri since we have been doing formation runs at work (military). I can't get out of these runs and they are way slow...I think it is helping to make me lazy, but I have a hard time getting myself to run twice in one day. I am going to mix up my events so that I am doing my own run on days that we are not doing a group run and working the others in on top of group physical training.

Drank a bit of water which I needed and then drank some more since my wife got on me about it. Ate some fruit and hung around for a while. Probably wouldn't have hurt to stretch as the ride home let everything really get tight on me.


Hydration, inexperience, and a lazy mind. The open water swim still owns me. I get two more trys at this course in the next two months, I am really hoping to improve.


This race was well ran as it has been done now for 15 years. I only have one other race to compare it to and they were both good in thier own ways. I loved the fact that they had so many people on the course to ensure that people were going the right way. Not many people to watch this one and the support for the later finishers was poor compared to my last...may have been the participants more than anything else as there were a lot of military including myself. The finish line was pretty far away from where everything else was set up and that probably played into this as well.