Troika Half Iron Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

This wasn't my best swim ever. Waded in late as usual but ended up with lots of contact and had to stop several times to figure out where we were going. I had a tough time seeing the buoys and navigation was terrible. I did get to draft for a while which was GREAT! Had someone on my feet who kept hitting me, very distracting. Got run over by the fast women a few times. This is probably the most contact I've had since I started the sport. Not scary but distracting on a poor swim day. I was tired and technique was falling apart by the last 400 yds. Oh well, I was out there and it was still fun.

Get more sleep!!! Keep up on the training.

A average transiton for me, only one leg stuck on the wetsuit, I did run all the way to the bike mount line with one of those dumb cafe cleats on my shoe so had to stop, get it off and put in my pocket.

Make sure no cafe cleats on shoes! More body glide! I got chafed this time something awful.

This time I tried hard to "stick to the plan" and ride my pace and not "race the bike" In the past I've gotten sucked into passing people because its so much fun and always pay for it on the run. I got passed quite a bit this time but kept my pace like in training, ok, well a little more. Felt pretty good the whole way, back and neck started to hurt with 10 mi to go.

More bike time

This is a great transition, there are bike catchers and bag holders and all you have to do is ride to one of them, they grab your bike, you take off helmet and shoes and anything you don't want to run with, throw it in the open bag and go, a volunteer handed me my run bag, put on shoes and hat and off we go!

This is just a beautiful run along the Spokane river most of the way and it's really pretty. MY big "off we go!" didn't last long though and I ended up walking and running the whole thing, started out walking the aid stations and running between but my walks got longer and the runs shorter. Just didn't feel strong this time.

Get more sleep! Train more in the heat.

Walk around, watch C-cic finish only 40 secs behind me on the run, another mile and she would have passed me! Shared high 5's and hugs with the other members. Drink some water and go get the bike.


Lack of rest mostly, I've got to get that figured out.


This race is a blast! I PR'ed this year in spite of everything, mostly because I ran faster than last year. Everything is right on time, the volunteers are just great and the finish sandwich is really yummy. I did the whole race on InfiniT for the 1st time and it worked really well. I used a concentrate on the ride with a bit more protein and on the run, used the short distance formula with less protein and my system tolerated this really well. I'll stick with it for sure. I'll volunteer next year for sure. And the sweatshirts are zip up hoodies in bright blue, the best ever!