Health First Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

For all the crap I put up with in the water, I'm suprised I finished first out of the water in my AG. I expected to do a sub 8min .25 miles but I quickly found out that a lot of the swimmers around me had no real baring. About 100 yards out from the start I got a solid slap in the face followed by me swimming straight into someone else's thigh. I came up thinking I had somehow turned off course but it was actually the other guy who was swimming the wrong way. This swimming into others swimmers' bodies happened at least 3-4 times and every single time it was the other guy losing his baring. Annoying? Yes, but it's something we have to deal with as triathletes. I lost a lot of time dealing with bodies, but overall I'm just happen I kept my cool and ended up with a decent time.

Nothing except take more peaks out of the water to look for stray bodies. I kept my cool and kept my breathing and form steady. Maybe I should strive to start the swim out front to keep from hitting those in front of me.

I still don't have clipless pedals, so I throw on my socks and running shoes during T1. Even took a second to wash my face off and take a swig of water from my transition water bottle. My bike took a few extra seconds to get lose but I was out of there at a decent pace.

Nothing, I took my time and made sure I didn't forget anything.

Where do I start... Winds had picked up to 15-20mph. Pineapple-US1-Pineda were all pretty rough with the wind. I tried to hold 17-18mph on those roads but it was fairly tough. Pineda was especially brutal with the headwinds + bridge inclines. The first bridge was kicking my butt and then I just gutted it out and pushed hard on the second bridge. I had a sizable number of good bikers pass me (with a few Carvelo P3's with duel Zipps going by at around ~25mph AGAINST the wind). Big hit to my ego, but I just stuck with my race and kept at a comfortable pace. On S. Patrick I kicked it up a gear and tried to hold between 19-20mph. I almost hit a biker with a flat at one point. Last Causeway I pushed hard and hit ~35mph on the way down.

Train more, harder, faster. I'm still fairly new to the bike world and need some more miles under my feet. I would love to come back to this thing next year and ride a 20mph+ average on the bike. Winds were a factor, but thats no excuse.

On the gear side, there are a few things I need to purchase this off season to help out. Clipless pedals are a must, and I may end up replacing my chain and old gear set. Again, it's more the motor than the car itself, but every little bit helps.

Nothing special hear. Already had my running shoes on. Just needed to drop the bike off and get my helmet off / running belt on.

Nothing.

I'm looking at my run time and pace and either the run course was over 3.1 miles or I was going way slower than I thought. I was going to try and hold around an 8 minute pace but it looks like I fell well short of that mark. In fact, looking at it now if I had hit my mark I would have ended up in 3rd! I'm still not sure what happened here but I think I was worried about my knee and just ran at a slower pace for some random reason. No excuses though, I just need to grind it out next time.

Kept better track of my run time at each mile. After mile one I should have seen where I was at and increased my speed accordingly.

Ate a few granola bars, drank some water and stretched. My wife, sister and I went to Bizarro's on beach side after they let us grab my gear and I ate some delicious NY style pizza. Nothing better than a post race lunch involved big greasy pizza.


Training, sickness from last week, lack of mental preparation on the run. I know I'm capable of much more than what I did. 5th in AG is OK, but I guess I wasn't as ready as I thought I would be. Also, looking back at the run now I know I didn't push for my LT and just run my brains out. Instead I think my legs told my brain "sorry bud, not today." And I listened. The key is I'm feeling good physically and all I want to do now is push for a much faster time next year. TRAIN MORE, BE BETTER PREPARED!


Good race. I was impressed with the amount of county Sheriff's out on the bike course helping us get some room to work with. Good pre/post race music too. Nothing too much else to say because my father works for Health First and I refuse to bad mouth the company or any races they sponsor! :)