Lake Chaparral Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

Much better race than my first event. My first 200m was good as I stayed with the main pack. There were some guys that stopped or slowed up in front of me that actually slowed me down some. My pace was pretty good, but my sighting was poor at times. I felt I could of swam straighter. Nearing the end a guy kept criss-crossing in front of me and I couldn't pass him, but he was somewhat slowing me down as I was pushing for the final buoy. I really wanted to get a sub-30 minute time but it didn't happen. Too bad.

You know, I've done the start near the back of the pack for my first two events. This time it bit me because I was faster than people in front of me. I may have been able to hit my goal time if I start in the front of the pack. Let people pass me instead of navigating my way through the masses at the beginning. I'm not a strong swimmer, but I'm better than the BOP's so why start there?

Well, I had a great T1. You exit the swim on a boat launch, which is much better than a beach exit where your feet get all sandy. I had my swim cap, goggles and top off before I even got to my bike where I quickly ripped off the bib-john and put my sunglasses, skull cap, helmet and shoes on and was off. I chuckled to myself as the guy down from me was struggling to get his suit off over his ankles while I got my De Soto off so fast your head would spin.

Nothing. I do want to get into pre-clipping my shoes but I don't have the right shoes for it I don't think. The U40 Oly racks were furthest from the mount line so I didn't have much of an option to be closer, but obviously I could of reduced my time if I didn't have to run in my shoes or if I was closer to the mount line.

Well, I was going pretty hard on the bike. Maybe a little too hard, but I can't help but to bust it sometimes. I still get passed by guys on tri-bikes but this time they didn't have as big an advantage because of the hill and all the turns below the hill. I passed lots and lots of people on the bike, especially on the climb. All the hill training I've done clearly made me much stronger on that climb each loop. I'd throw it back into my big ring and push a couple strokes before the top of the climb so I didn't lose any momentum. After seeing how many bikes were gone from the rack when I left for the bike and seeing how many were still out when I got back from the bike was a nice feeling.

I'm very happy with my biking. I just need a tri-bike. I get passed by inferior bikers only because of their equipment. Next year this will not be an issue.

I guess I could do this better. I'm still tieing laces which adds at least 30 seconds in time. I grabbed a Hammer Gel and started running.

Get my feet out of my shoes before the mount line and just run with shoes still clipped in to my rack. Get zip laces.

Terrible run. Just bad. I know I can run this at least 5 minutes faster than I did. I was getting passed by everybody and their mother on the run. I just couldn't go any faster. My HR was at 169 and I just felt exhausted. At this point it was 30 celcius out and I could just feel the heat sucking my energy. This was the slowest run I've done in a long time - bad timing for that.

I also passed a guy in the last 300m or so only to have him kick past me in the final meter before the finish line. Pissed me off as I played that very poorly, strategically. Haha, actually now that I see the official results this same guy that kicked me at the end of the run was also the same guy that was cutting me off in the water near the end. I will remember your name, Troy Lemens, and beat you next time. You and your fancy tri-bike. Just wait until I get mine.

Two factors I believe contributed to my poor run. The main thing was the amount of sun I got the day before. 5 hours at the lake in the sun. I got sunburnt. Next time I'm staying out of the sun the day before completely. The second was the bike may have been too hard. It's hard to tell, but I may slow up a bit on the bike to save the legs for the run.

As for being kicked at the end, next time I won't pass anybody like that. It only motivates them. Instead I'll kick the last 50-100m and pass them then so they don't have a chance.

Ate some fruit and sucked back on some water while stretching under a tree in some shade.


The amount of sun I got the day before. Too much. I think I even had mild sun-stroke after the race.


I didn't hang around too much. I wanted to get home, shower and have a cold beer. There were still lots of people out on the course and I didn't want to hang around for 3 hours for awards and final results.