Mountain Man - Olympic - TriathlonOlympic

Very good swim for me. Either the course was short or the new wetsuit made me 10 seconds/100 yards faster than in training. I didn't swim out as far as last year. By the time I got to the first buoy I had plenty of room around me. Drafted off one woman for a few minutes but it was so hard to see in the murky water that looking up all the time to follow her slowed me down more and broke my rhythm. So, I went off to the side and just did my thing. A few times I felt someone's hand on my feet so I figured I had company...

Not a thing. That's about as fast as this old woman is ever going to swim--without anything but long straight swims in training. :)

Much faster than in my previous races. Wetsuit came right off. Long run with the bike out of transition is included.

Nothing.

Good bike, considering that I've pretty much neglected the bike training this spring due to weather and my focus on running. I haven't been able to get nice long rides in more than once a week, if at all.

My HR stayed pretty high most of the time so I think I should have slowed down a bit more.

Fast for me.

I was doing well out of T2, took it slow. By the time I got to the bottom of the hill (after 1.5 miles) I still felt good to run about 1/3 of the uphill, then I walked the rest. No surprises here. Then we got to the flatter dirt road on top of the mesa and I was looking forward to picking up some speed on the downhill. My goal was to beat 3:00 overall and I knew I was on target.

But about 100 yards into the downhill the stitches started in the bottom left, then the bottom right. I wasn't even going fast, just trying to relax the legs. I have no idea why they came on. I had to stop for a couple of minutes and bend over. A couple of people stopped to make sure I was okay. How nice! Then I walked most of the downhill with my right hand pressed into my side. This really sucked, so many people just blew by me... I was mad! Then as soon as I got to the bottom of the hill and turned back onto flat Lake Mary Rd the stitches were gone! WTF? So I slowly shuffled into the finish.

I wonder if the different stride on the downhill did it? Maybe I did go too fast on the bike (but then why did the stitches go away at the bottom of the hill?)

--> More run training!

Got my recovery drink and hobbled around a bit in transition. Then packed up my stuff and brought it to the car because the clouds were getting darker by the minute.


The run, as usual. More bike base training might have also helped save energy for the run. Or, like I already said, maybe I should have taken the bike slower. But somehow I always think during a race that whatever chances at doing well I have, will happen on the swim and bike. In training, I run around a 9:30 pace on road surfaces, i.e. not that much faster... But then again, had I been able to run even just a 10:00 pace today I would have placed 2nd in my AG, that much of a lead I squandered...


Mountain Man was my first tri last year (sprint) and is a wonderful race in a beautiful location--which also happens to be my training area. So I love this one! It helps to live at this altitude too.

The weather was great (overcast and cool) until just after most Olympians were done. Then a huge storm hit and soaked the poor HIM folks out on the run.