Lake Mills Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

It looked to me like the best strategy was to start way to the right. Everybody else seemed to go towards the center or even to the left which believe it or not the left side actually looked like might be more of an angle in than a straight shot. A number of peeps went pretty quick and I did somewhat too but due to the short distance I didn't try to draft much. I thought it would just be better to focus on swimming straight and getting the right pace. Rounded first bouy OK and then I actually seemed to be in pretty clear water until about 2/3 of the way to the 2nd buoy when I started catching the prior wave. No big deal though as there was plenty of room to navigate. Really tried to bring pace down halfway through as I didn't want to blow anything up at that point.

The first leg I might have been drifting a little to the right. I suppose drafting could have helped but it's so short that it would be hard to find somebody to draft off of and once you do it's pretty much over. Really pleased with this swim though as the first OWS.

My wetsuit is quite tight on my legs so getting it off over my feet is quite challenging and this might have been worse than normal and maybe wasted about 5-10 seconds. I suppose having a jersey on under my wetsuit instead of having to put a shirt on would save time. I ran from the lake to T1 matt but then I walked to my spot which slows down a bit.

I can't think of too much else to improve on other than having bike shoes clipped in already.

Well, I was certainly passing a number of people in waves ahead of me and got passed a few times. I felt like going much harder than this was really going to trash my run. I actually thought that even this pace might have been too much but I decided to try to maintain it and just hang on as best I could for the run. Bike on the way back seemed like it went by faster than I was expecting. Overall I am really pretty happy averaging close to 20

My training has some pretty decent didtance in it but probably not a ton of speed work so that might be waht is missing for a shorter race.

Yanks are probably something I should still invest in. I thought that I was actually going quicker than this.

Practice?

Alright so I know to all you speed demons out there this isn't a big deal but I gotta say this run rocked for me! As I started the run I wasn't quite sure what the legs were going to be like. I did some bricks in training but not really enough yet at this point in the season. I got onto the trail and just thought keep a high cadence with a short stride especially early to get the legs going. Well, as I did that for a while I got to thinkin' that legs felt pretty decent, in fact, pretty awesome really. Even though the bike was out and back I didn't spot too many donkais as I'm in aero and not paying too much attention. Run is much different though and I saw Morey1, maggyruth, jmwebs and they all looked great! As I got to the Mile 1 sign and looked at my split of 8:42 I'm freakin' out a bit. I'm generally pretty happy at a tri race to be under 10m/m so either my watch is trashed, the mile marker got moved or most likely that even though the course is flat these converted railroad lines have slight inclines/decents that you may not even be aware of. So I'm thinkin' nice mile split, I feel good but be ready to have a harder return in because of the climb.

Got to the turnaround, took a quick drink break and got to thinkin' well, this doesn't seem that much harder. In fact, it doesn't seem really different at all! I got to the 2nd mile marker and holy crap, an 8:53! This just is not happening to me! Well, I felt I could actually pick it up a little bit and not after long I see the lake and could actually hear the finish line and came down the hill well and had a pretty nice clip all the way to the finish. Awesome run for me!

I guess might have been some left in the tank yet which is not usually the case for me. To be passing people and getting the splits I did was really just a thrill. Some people with Garmins said that the course was probably 3.0 even but still, I'll take it! I know, perfect conditions with nice shade on the course, flat, etc. all helped here but this was very encouraging to move like that, still feel good at the end of the race and get a time like that at any point was great fun and that feeling is why I love to race!

Took maybe 2 minutes to catch my breath and then I felt great. Got some water right away, found donkais and chatted. Found the food - breakfast burritos even - awesome along with oranges and bananas.


One of the only races where I can look back and say, I probably could have pushed all three areas and been OK which tells me I might be able to go under 1:20 on that course in the future. Nutrition was good with two gels on the bike and a full bottle of gatorade too. With some work I could probably take 1 minute of my time with better transitions.


This race is very well done. Not crazy about open transition but no harm there. Great food afterwards. Didn't have to wait long to check in. Timing of the waves on the swim got delayed due to the course getting a bit crowded but that was a good decision. My preference would be for the swim to be doubled which gives me a better chance to make up some time.