San Jose International Triathalon - TriathlonOlympic

This is my first Olympic distance Tri. After reading so much about starting in the back to avoid the frantic flurry at the start, I decided to stay at the back. The problem is that there are a lot of really slow people at the back, and I ended up fighting through them. I think I would have done better in the middle of the pack where the pace would have been closer to mine, but off to one of the far sides. I never got into much of a rhythm and my sighting was terrible initially. I actually ended up near the right shore during the initial stretch. The good news is that I didn't have to work very hard and spent a lot of time gliding through the water. Figured I'd save my enegery for later.

My bouyancy is much easier with a wetsuit, and this affects my stroke and direction, so I should have practiced more in a wetsuit. Rather than taking 10 strokes and sighting, perhaps I should have gone with 5 strokes and sighted. Still not sure what the right formula is other than more practice time in wetsuit & open water, and starting closer to middle of the pack. If I'm gonna get pummeled anyways, might as well do it going faster.

Socks slowed my down a lot. didn't run as fast as I could have, which was a mistake. also forgot aero water bottle yellow sponge that prevents water from spilling, so had to ration water from the get-go.

No socks. Try putting shoes onto pedals in advanced with rubberband.

I noticed that keeping my head way down in the aero position made a huge difference as I could feel the wind rushing over my back. Pop my head up and that same wind would be hitting my helmet. This definitely caused a bit of strain on the neck.

Could have gone a bit harder, but didn't want to put the hammer down not knowing what to expect from my body on the run. Crotch area was sore, so should use body glide next time?

Had to think about everything. Nothing was natural. Shoes were hard to put on. Also forgot to grab my gel. But I did grab my water bottle which helped tremendously to rehydrate during the first half mile.

More practice. Perhaps loosen Yankz shoelaces or use vaseline to allow shoes to slip in faster? Rack position wasn't optimal, but that's what I get for not being there early.

My legs never felt so heavy and tight before. I didn't feel like I was moving very fast. Tried to stay relaxed on top and eventually picked up a good rhythm. Unfortunately, I was chicken about pulling a muscle so I didn't really push hard until about 1/4 mi to go, and definitely had stuff left in the tank at the finish, whereas in the Sprint Tri I did I knew I couldn't run another step. But maybe an Olympic distance is supposed to feel different when you finish?

Should start to push really hard with 3 miles to go?

Drank and ate a lot.


Swimming strategy.


Very fun race. Learned a lot about racing and about myself. The BT training program I used (10 week intermediate Oly Tri) was definitely valuable!