West Point Lake Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

I knew I wasn't having a good day while I was out there, but geesh I didn't realize it was this bad. I'm glad I didn't look at my watch when I got out of the water. My arms were burning the first 200 meters and I felt like I was working really hard, but I still felt like I was doing okay. Then I fell to pieces. Stroke was nonexistent, especially with my left arm. It was dead weight so to speak. Not really doing any work. I tried a few times to focus on what I know and get into some kind of rythm but it just didn't happen. Interestingly my split at the turn buoy was 17:40..if that was half way I have no idea what happened on the 2nd half. Obviously, it wasn't good.

The problem is I don't know. I definitely need to gain strength and that will help my swim overall. I think I also need more practice in OW because my swim times in the pool are never this bad, nor do I ever feel this bad in the pool.

I had a little trouble with this transition getting my socks and shoes on. It was so tight on the rack..the girl next to me racked her bike super close and threw all her stuff just around her bike. There was no order. So I was stepping all over her stuff. Anyway, this could have been faster.

I think I need to revisit where I set my area up..not so much how.

My legs were on fire at the beginning of this event. I took a gel about 5 miles in and that seemed to help..I also drank an entire aero bottle of HEED before mile 8. I think I was a little depleted on the hydration. My legs were doing pretty good pushing up little hills and rollers not losing too much speed. Being so far behind getting out of the water there aren't too many people around me on the bike. I pick people out in front of me and go after them and basically play catch up the whole way. Seeing Kate right before the turn around was a morale boost..I love seeing friends out on the course. It's a reminder of why this is so much fun. I looked at my watch with 10 minutes to the 2 hour mark with about 4 miles to go and knew I would have to step it up in order to reach T2 with enough time to come in under 3 hours.

I know I can push harder on the bike. I just need to learn how to race better on the bike and I think that will come with more racing and time. Not run out of fluids. I ran out around mile 19 and I was conserving because I knew I didn't have enough. I was obviously not hydrated enough before the race.

eh. I try to be quick (Obviously) but it just seems I can never get in under a minute. I always get hung up with racking my bike. I need to practice that more.

not much on that day. see above.

I left T2 knowing I had about 52 minutes to run. So I knew it was possible as I've done it before. I started out feeling like I normally do..trying to get my running legs but it wasn't holding me back from keeping a good pace. Around mile 1 I started getting really bad side cramps and it was hard to take a deep breathe but I knew it would eventually go away. I got to the damn and I slowed down a little to try and get the pain to go away. This is when 2 people passed me, a man and a lady. The man took off and there was no catching him. But the woman I kept in my sights and steadily worked my way back to her and finally caught back up to her right after the turn around. I was feeling really good then so I picked my pace up more and was picking people in front of me to catch and so on..until I got another side cramp. Geesh. I felt like the whole run my side hurt. It was very hard to take a breathe at times but I ran through it because the only way to get a side cramp to stop is for you to stop and well that's just not an option. With about 2 miles left I looked at my watch and saw I had a little less than 20 minutes to finish under 3 hours. I pushed myself as fast as I could to the finish with a side busting cramp. But I did it so my pain can eat that :)

Drink more prior to the race and on the bike. Intervals, intervals, intervals. I could feel my lack of racing and speed work on this run.

None.


OMG..that swim is horrible. If I could just improve my swim to an average MOPer I would be under 3 hours on a regular. Race more, not have 6 weeks between races.


Swim 13/13
Run 3/13

Is it obvious what my weakness is? :) Great race as I got a PR but that's my second worst swim time ever! The course was nice although I didn't really like the bike course too much.