Steelman Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

Started off good, felt smooth going into it. Was getting a few face-fulls of water but wasn't panicking. Navigation good, considering the course felt kind of zig-zaggy (I would be at the buouy and had to redirect because it didn't feel straight to me) and there was some sunglare. About 3/4 of the way through my hip started hurting and got progressively worse as I went on.

Swim at least once prior to the race? I hadn't gotten in water since June for the Philly tri, and it showed. It wasn't a disaster, but it sure wasn't pretty.

Oh yeah, I also didn't put my new cleats on until the night before. They were tight snapping in, so I had some difficulty getting clipped and moving. And running in them on the asphalt was like running on ice skates.

Not much, the time was okay for this transition, about on par with my others.

As in the swim (and the run too), I wasn't surprised at the times I had. I just wasn't happy with them. But I didn't put in the work, and it showed. It was a miserable slog out there, legs felt like lead. I had a few moments of okay feeling, but overall I was getting passed, was feeling low energy, and just blah. I wanted to end the race there, but just kept going. What was I going to do, go to a support vehicle and tell them I was tired and didn't want to race? Right.

I don't know why I got burned out on my training, but I think if I had kept training I would have been better. I did a few rides in the weeks prior, but overall had too much other-life stuff that was taking over. It sounds like I'm making excuses, and I am, but basically I guess next time I would try and put more energy into my training.

Had a hard time running back in my cleats, I felt like I was going to fall, but luckily didn't.

Not much, pretty happy with this section.

I started off feeling okay, but almost immediately felt hip pain. I struggled to make it through mile 1 and had to stop and walk thereafter. Which was a shame, because I don't think my legs were too tired, nor my lungs. The loop was shady, which kept me cool, and I only walked a bit, a hundred yards every mile from 2-5 i guess. The water stations were awesome, I never felt thirsty and the water was always cold.

I need to figure out this hip thing, because this is twice now!

Got some pizza and a massage (there were no lines!) and then stood around for awards. Ran into a guy from my Masters class, glad to see that he's doing well after a work-related burn injury, and back to competing. Headed home before the rain and decided to get in an accident on my drive home from Gwen's. What a great way to end a great race day!

What limited your ability to perform faster:

My training, and the injury too. I didn't take this seriously. And I didn't care. I just wasn't feeling it, I wanted it to be over most of the time, and I just felt overall blah about the thing. I need a good rest and some recovery for my hip, then maybe some serious investigation into why I'm having these injuries. Then next year, I think I need to re-evaluate my training and try for something more structured.

Event comments:

This was a good race, so different from the big Philly tri's I've done before, and it had a really cool vibe, more laidback and chill than the others. The swim started about 10 minutes late, but I understand there was some traffic, so maybe that was why. I got to transition at 5 so I guess I missed the traffic. Overall, I guess I'd like to do this again when I was in better headspace.