DQ Triathlon at Marlton Lakes - TriathlonSprint

I had an awesome swim (despite having been out of the water for a month). I went pretty hard at the start, trying to break away from the pack, unsuccessfully. I got stuck in a small group that kept bashing into each other. However, I was the only one of the group who could actually keep up the pace, so they all eventually dropped off and left me alone. I was pretty sure I was first in my wave, but it turns out that some chick was about 30 seconds ahead of me. Either way, I think I did a nice job of navigating and keeping a solid pace. And I beat my time from last year by 15 seconds.

This was perfect. The only thing that could improve it would actually be training in the pool. And honestly, that's the least of my problems. Even hardcore swim workouts would improve my time by maybe a minute, while working the bike, like I have been, will drop my time by a few minutes pretty easily.

My T1 is much slower than it has to be. I waste a lot of time just putzing around. I still think of transitions (while I'm in there at least) as a break. I really need to get down to business, especially in T1. That being said, it could have been worse.

Stay on task and stop doing silly things like cleaning my feet off multiple times and rummaging through my bags for unnecessary items.

This was my best bike leg ever, and it felt like it! I felt like I was actually in the race. I was able to pass a bunch of people (including three at a time!) rather than just having everyone whizz by me. I was able to keep a really nice pace most of the race, only slowing down on a few upgrades (not really hills). The biggest problem I had was turning. A few of the turns were a bit sharp, and I'm clearly not used to turning at these speeds. On one of them I kinda went off the road and almost ended up in an enormous pothole - my front tire barely missed it and I think my back skipped through it. I'm lucky I didn't fall. I also could have fallen toward the end of the race when I dropped my water bottle (I was putting it back and it kinda shot out of my hand) in the way of my rear tire. But these are both things I can work on. I can't complain too much - I dropped seven and a half minutes from last year.

The bike tune-up was clearly awesome. That had been holding me back. The next purchase I need to make is cages for my pedals, to help me on the hills. Otherwise, this was awesome. I finally feel like I performed to my potential.

A bit slower than it could have been, but not too bad. I couldn't get my shirt on in T1 because I was too wet, so I stopped and put it on here, which added a few seconds. The race belt was awesome, though. That was $6 well spent.

Nothing major.

Oy. My running really sucks lately. This is a few minutes slower than last year. I'm not sure if it's because my body has just been running slow lately or because I'm expending more energy on the bike now, which takes more out of my legs. But seriously - a 10:15 pace? At least it felt better than at King's Grant. This time I felt my body loosen up most of the way through the first mile. I just couldn't get it going.

I need to change up my training, and maybe do more speed work. I also should try a 5K sometime soon to see how fast my running pace is on its own, to see how much the bike is taking out of my legs.

Wandered around, ate some food. Nice bath at home and lots of ice.


I felt really good today, unlike King's Grant. I made sure I had good nutrition this week leading up to the race and I think it paid off. The bike tune-up also really paid off. The biggest limitation I have now are all the injuries I'm nursing that prevent me from training the run as hard as I used to (at least, I like to keep telling myself that's the problem).


This is the race I use to track my progress. It was my first race two years ago. Looking back at previous results, I did a fantastic job this year. Five minutes faster than 2007, seventeen minutes faster than 2006. Today was the best race I've ever had (even beat my King's Grant time from three weeks ago, and that's a shorter race!). I am disappointed in the bad run, but I've been struggling with that for three or four months now - it was probably the best I could do right now. Overall I'm really happy, and I've never enjoyed the bike so much during a race.