Fort Collins Club Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

I lowered my swim training between the May race and this one and focused more on biking and running. I was expecting to swim about the same time. I was 8 seconds off, but passed two people so I felt good about it.

Do a little more swim training to see at least a small improvement.

My transition was much better this time around. I didn't bother with socks, I had cycling shoes (which were already on the pedals) and I didn't put a shirt on. I did fidget around getting my feet into my shoes once I was on my bike. I had rubber bands holding them in place, but when I got on the bike one foot slipped off a shoe and it spun down, scraping the asphalt. Readjusting to get that shoe upright caused my other shoe to do the same. Once both shoes were aligned correctly I got my feet in, but wasted at least 30 seconds which nulled any benefit of having the shoes on the pedals already.

Even with that 30 seconds, my transition was much faster than in May.

I obviously need more practice getting my feet into my shoes. This will not happen again!

I was really hoping my bike would be a lot faster this time around. I had had a few months of training (as opposed to one month) and I felt much faster on my bike. I only dropped 9 seconds, but I did push myself and had a nice back-and-forth race going with #6 which made me feel good about the bike portion even if the time didn't improve much.

A lot of people were complaining about being slower this time (than in May or Sept. last year) and I think the cooler weather affected everybody on the bike. With all that in mind, I made an improvement while others did not which I believe shows that I am indeed faster than I was.

I will be faster next time.

I had another slip up with the shoes. This time I just let the shoe scrape and hopped off my bike.

Keep my feet on the shoes.

This was the most surprising leg of the race for me. I wasn't expecting any improvement here but it ended up being the one leg I dropped the most time: 1min. 16 seconds.

My calves began to cramp (again) as I got out onto the run and persisted longer than in May. I slowed down to catch my breath for the first mile so I could finish strong and I think that worked out really well for me. I didn't hit the splits on my watch, but checking the times it looked like my first mile was around 7:45, which makes my 20:34 all that much more impressive to me since the last two miles would have to have been around 6:10.

I think I could have picked up my pace a little sooner than I did.

Had some water, finished off the LifeWater in my water bottle, put my sweats back on, stretched a little and hung out behind some tress to block the wind and keep warm until some of the times were posted.


I think the overcast weather and cold wind slowed a lot of people on the bike and I don't think I was any exception. Otherwise, nothing.


I still love this race and I can't wait to see my improvement next May after my marathon training for Team In Training (check my signature to donate and help me run to fight Leukemia!)