Stone Harbor Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

This is probably the best swim that i've had in a race so far. I did not have to breast stroke at all. I started just behind the front of the pack for the first time and experienced a lot of banging on the way to the first buoy which I was ok with. I went hard early on but then had to slow down a bit about halfway through in order to get my breathing under control. At the next to last buoy I picked up the pace again. On the way to the finish, I was in a group of swimmers racing to get to the doc as there were only two ladders to exit the swim. When I got to the ladder I was surprised that the swim was over already. I was very happy when I looked at my watch as I crossed over the timing mat. I was off to a good start.

Continue to work on sprinting in swim training now that I have a decent base so that I can hold a quicker pace for longer periods of time.

T1 was pretty smooth and quick. I had a long run with my wetsuit on around the Yacht club to my transition area, which was near the exit. My wetsuit came off easily then bike shoes and helmet were on and I was over the mat to start the bike.

Nothing

Took the first 1/2 mile out to the 3 loop course easy to catch my breath from the swim and T1. Once I hit the oval there was a headwind on the way out. I only used 2 gears on the course and dropped down 1 while riding into the wind then went back up one gear with the wind on my way back in. Bike time was a little slower than I had hoped but the number of technical turns on the course brought my avg. speed down as I did not take the turns agressively at all due to a lack of experience. I also wasted a small amount of time not knowing where the exit was back to the transition area then going over the wrong mat and having to go back over the correct one once I got to the transition area. Overall though, not a bad ride considering I just started to focus on speed or Sprint training in the last 2 weeks due to the base aerobic build up for Eagleman which also took me some time to recover from.

Take the turns better/a little more aggressively. More of a speed focus on training rides. Drink more fluids as nearly all of my gatorade was left in my aero bottle when finished although I didn't really notice any negative effects from that probably because of the shorter distance. Lastly, know the course before the race starts!

Again, pretty quick transition considering I had to circle the entire Yacht club running with my bike and bike shoes on. Once I was at my transition area my bike was racked, bike shoes and helmet were off quickly and run shoes were on. I grabbed my hat and race belt and put them on as I began running over the mat to start the run.

Not much.

Took the first mile to get my legs under me but over the next 2 miles I was able to pick up the pace as I began to feel stronger. Passed a decent amount of people and drank a small amount of water at the 2 aid stations while pouring the remainder over my head as it was starting to warm up. As I got within a 1/4 mile of the finish line I came up on a guy that jumped right on my heels and I realized then that I was going to be in a race to the finish. With about 25 yards to go I was in an all out sprint and I pulled away just enough to edge him at finish line. I was happy to have enough in the tank to pull out the foot race at the end. Again, this was a good run time and overall I feel like I put together a solid race. I would have liked to finish with a 1:05 handle but there will always be room for improvement as I am rarely satisfied with my performance at the outcome of a race.

Not much. I'm looking forward to the next Sprint race in a few weeks and also the speed focused training ahead that will hopefully enable me to improve my times further.

I saw my wife and a friend of mine at the finish line and spoke with them while waiting for 2 friends of mine to finish the race. Physically I felt fine after finishing and when my 2 buddies came in we talked about how we all had a good race and how we were all ready to head into the Yacht club for the breakfast buffet, which was great.


Lack of Sprint or speed focused training.


This was my first time doing the Stone Harbor race and it was a lot of fun. I will definitely do it again.