Greenfield Lightlife Triathlon - International Dis - TriathlonOlympic

I really should've taken a few warmup strokes and staked out a better place on the start line. I got stuck behind slow swimmers, had to dodge people wading at the shallow side/end of the line. I've never had to stand up and do dolphin dives in a swim before, but did today! It was very frustrating to feel like only in the last 500m did I really have water/space/time to myself.

Time was slower on the clock than it felt during the race.

Get feet clean and into shoes more quickly!

Just didn't feel much power in the pedals yesterday, and coasted too much when I could've been pedaling more through downhills

A lot -- getting the cyclocomputer hooked up again would help. Not eating PizzaHut the night before might help, too. I did have a cinn/raisin bagel with CC this morning, but it didn't seem to be in the tank. Mentally I was just a little too tuned out. I wanted this race to count for my team and to best my time last year, but I slipped into 'cruise control' mode too often for that to happen. I didn't catch any other Athenas on the bike, and I should have. I have to dig deeper, plain and simple.

Fine transition, but again, slower than I thought it should be. I lost my running hat again and had to dig around my stuff to find it --grrr.

Keep the dang hat on top of my shoes, not let it get lost or trampled under my wetsuit, cap, etc.

In hindsight, I ran a fair race but the drive to really best myself wasn't in me that day. I got to the first hill and instead of bouncing up it, I walked it. I resolved to not walk again till the covered bridge, but then walked through water stop #2 and #3. Quickly resuming pace is good, but I can't just walk through to win. Seeing no one ahead "to catch" discouraged me. I felt like I was one of the last 10 runners out on the course. Truth be told, I was like #12 from DFL, and that hurt when I saw it on the standings. Not good, not good at all.

Lots!!
*Resolve to run, not jog
*Resolve to drink on the run, not walk
*Really open up my stride and quit babying myself
*Put up a performance I can really say was my "everything" and my best

Walking, standing, sitting in the shade to eat with teammates from Wheelworks, chatting and acting happy (well, it was nice to be done) but really feeling crappy for having had such a lack-luster race performance. I realized I'd raced it as if I were just adding training miles, and that's not OK with me.


Mental toughness and willingness to push myself just wasn't there yeseterday, and I didn't really know why at the time. I know better now. Mental perspective is everything -- I have to decide and dedicate myself to the race, period.


I raced it last year and loved it, so I don't know why my performance felt so mediocre this year, but I'm sure it had nothing to do with the race itself. It was all nicely done.