Finger Lakes - TriathlonOlympic

What is it about Oly distance swims? I felt good about this going into the water. I've been doing my best swimming ever the last few weeks. I've practiced in this very lake a number of times this year. My last two sprint swims in similar conditions went well. I had a plan for the swim which was to take it easy for the first few hundred yards.

I started slow (I thought) and within 100 yds I was dying. There was an onshore wind, so the chop was coming at us, I was swallowing tons of water, my HR was high, and my arms felt like lead. I was starting to feel panicky. Spent about 1/3 of the first half on my back or breast stroking. Got kicked in the head and got water in my goggles. Started to feel short of breath and constricted in the chest from the wetsuit. I had a side stitch for most of the first half which was new for me while swimming. I remember thinking "I'm finishing this if I have to do it doggy paddling". I even asked a kayaker to keep an eye on me.

Once I made it to the turn around it got better, I was able to keep my head down, swim, and put some focus on technique. Getting to that turnaround was freaking hard. I was actually telling myself "you will not DNF, you will not DNF".

What a crappy swim. There was no reason for this to be over 30 minutes.

Warm up. Go out much slower. Drink less of the lake. Do a lot more open water training. Not suck.

Drank half my gel/water mix. Put on socks which takes a few extra seconds, but it's worth it to me. We were being cautioned against running with the bikes. The 'stop and mount' went well as did clipping into the pedals.

10/24 in my AG

Run a little harder from the water. Don't put on socks here. Riding sockless doesn't bother my feet and it would probably be easier to put socks on after the bike rather than the swim.

This was a fun ride. My kind of course, hilly but not mountainous. I had one bottle of diluted Accelerade and remembered to drink almost all of it at regular intervals.

Random things:
- I passed a Mennonite family in their horse and carriage which was cool.
- Don't hit small potholes when going 24mph with one arm in the bars and drinking with the other. It's a little unsettling.
- While going 30 mph, a bug bounced off my forehead, ricocheted behind my glasses and stuck on the inside of the right lens.
- I got passed a couple of times near the beginning and then I passed people. This happened less and less as the race went on which makes sense.
- Once the Sprint and Oly courses merged on a mostly flat section I was passing lots of Sprint entrants. This was great psychologically as I was trying to drop the hammer (a small 8 oz finish hammer, but a hammer nonetheless). These were BOP people in the Sprint and it was incredibly inspiring to see these people. Most of them were working really hard. The determination and pride on their faces was awesome.
- Etiquette and sportsmanship on the bike course ruled the day. I only saw one instance of blocking and it was unintentional. I saw NO drafting. Very cool.

Quad implants? Otherwise not much. I raced the plan given to me by Mike Ricci and it worked well.

In and out. Drank the rest of the gel/water mix. Actually took my feet out of my shoes about 1/4 mile out and ran in my socks rather than bike shoes which saved a few seconds and was a mental boost. Pretty efficient T2 for me.

14 overall, 3rd in my AG. That's a good transition. cool.

Not much.

Followed the plan and it worked. Eased into the run, cruised the first half, punched it the second half and I started to feel like I was going to hurl with about .5 mile left which was encouraging.

I passed Julie about .5 mile in. Chatted and pulled away. We passed each other twice on the switchbacks and high fived which just completely made the day.

Something that helped me to maintain a high effort at the end was not only the desire to "leave it all out on the course" but the desire to end my season with my absolute best effort.

Push harder the second half. I just have this idea that if I'm able to stand at the finish line, I didn't give it everything. This is probably not a good mindset for a man in his 40's with a family history of heart disease.

Hung out, talked with folks. Drank water, ate a bit. We knew quite a few people there which was great. Met Chris' (tolefanjh) family.


Bad swimming. Not great cycling fitness. Low pain threshold on the run.
Still, I'm really happy that once my feet hit dry land I was able to completely leave the problems I had on the swim in the water, get on my bike and start racing to the best of my ability. The swim didn't occur to me once for the rest of the race, but it still has the rest of my life to haunt me which is nice for it I suppose.

I may have been able to put more into the bike and still have a good run, but I think the pacing of those two segments worked out well.

And when all is said and done, I finished in the top 33% of my AG, I set a new Oly PR, Julie did her first tri, we got to spend the morning together doing something fun and I raised money for a great cause.

A good race.


Mostly on time. The start was a little behind, but not too much. The morning was kindo of chaotic and disorganized which is unusual for a Score-This! run event. Well run, a very good goodie bag for this area, long sleeve T-shirts which is nice. Jeff Henderson was really funny race announcer as usual.