Route 66 Olympic Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

Swim wasn't bad. I need to focus AGAIN and remember that I'm racing. On this swim, I got about 1/2 way into it and was just kind of going along, not really swimming hard etc. Would stop and breast stroke or side stroke for a while and catch my breath and look around etc. That could have cost me a minute or more on the swim. I kind of realized it on the last leg in and picked it up. I did the "rolling start" thing again, where I lined up at the front, but about 5 feet or so behind the bouys. When Don Garret said Ready, I started swimming so when he fired the shotgun, I was right at the starting line and already swimming. My swim this year was about 3 and 1/2 minutes faster than last year.

FOCUS FOCUS FOCUS...

Very Slow T1. Put on socks because I was worried about the longer ride / run. That ate up time. Putting on the Garmin eats time too, but got to have it.

Maybe no socks for the bike, and socks on in T2???

The bike just seemed hard today. I don't know if I was tired from yesterday, or didn't re-fuel properly (I could have done better) or if it was a combination, but I'd be in my small ring up front and 21 on the back (I ride an 11 / 23 on the back right now) and I'd feel like I was mashing on the pedals and only going like 15 or something. It just felt like I was putting out a lot of effort and not getting anything out of it. Still though, my ride was almost 11 minutes faster this year than last year.

I don't know, because I don't know exactly what the problem was...

Okay, I'm Lemony Snickets and here was my series of unfortunate events in T2. Flying dismount is going great. Hop off, sprint across the mount / dismount line, and I'm holding my bike by the left horn, not by the neck. So, the front wheel turns, and the bike tries to get away from me as I'm sprinting down the transition aisle, and I lose my bike. So, I've got to stop and pick it up. Then, I can't find my rack!!! I know I was near the snow fence, and I'm #167. I see bike # 170 and I don't recognize it from before the race at all. I think maybe it's mis racked so I'm looking at the stickers (we had assigned racks) trying to find my slot. It was on the rack behind me. I rack my stuff and grab my visor and running shirt. Throw on the running shoes, flip the Garmin from bike to running and head out. Once across the mat, I unzip my tri top, pull the top part down and throw on my tri okc running shirt.

Well, I need to practice dismounting and grabbing the neck of my bike. Also, I've never had a problem finding my rack before. But I need to do something to fix that. Maybe a balloon around my rack is a good idea.

On the first loop, I tried to pace and keep my HR in check. The second lap I let my HR rise, and at about mile 3.9 according to my Garmin Software, my HR started rising w/o any improvement in my speed. I'd walk aid stations and just take in water on the run. No calories from anything. I'd pour water on my head, neck and arms. My run was 20 minutes faster this year than last year on the same course, so that's really awesome. Also, I was 11th of 16 clydesdales on the run, which made the run my strongest event of all of the parts of the race today.

Maybe Gu or gel or something for nutrition on the run? But I don't know if I took stuff in on the run if it would be available before the run was over or not...

Drank some water, had a slim fast, tore down transition


TRANSITION TRANSITION TRANSITION. My transition times probably knocked me down 2 spots in clydesdale...


Overall, it's hard to be to upset. I did PR the oly distance by 25 minutes, and beat my time at this course last year by a little over 30 minutes. That's really good. Overall, a good day racing.