Swim
Comments: I took it easy on purpose, but I know I still could have done a better job with sighting. I got way off of some of the buoys at one point and probably had to swim an extra couple hundred yards throughout the whole swim. What would you do differently?: Sight better, maybe push myself a little better. I really need to get in the pool and get someone to look at my stroke efficiency this off-season too. Transition 1
Comments: The timing chip was huge, and I *still* wasn't completely warmed up from the swim, so I was a little tight with my flexibility during transition. My suit got stuck around the timing chip, and then we also had to stuff our things inside a swim bag since it was a point-to-point race, making things even slower. Additionally, it was a long way through transition to the mount line. What would you do differently?: Practice this transition more. Get triathlon shoes so I don't have to put on my shoes in transition. Bike
Comments: I *still* wasn't completely warmed up until part-way through on the bike. And I think I had this mental block about my IT Band blowing up on the run, and I could feel the tightness in both of my legs on the bike, so I didn't push it as hard as I know I could have, especially on some of the hills. I stayed in the saddle for most of the hills instead of pushing myself like I know I could have... What would you do differently?: If I had been in better shape and training, I would have really pushed myself on the bike a lot harder. But I was managing injury. :( Transition 2
Comments: T2 was tough to do the flying dismount just because we finished climbing the hill and then all of a sudden, we were in transition, so I didn't really have time to get my feet out beforehand. So I did a traditional dismount and ran with my bike shoes to my run bag. Grabbed a gel out of my bento box, took a sip of water from my bike, put on my run shoes, and hobbled out of the transition area to the run. What would you do differently?: Ride the course beforehand and practice the flying dismount into T2. Run
Comments: My legs barely held up for the run. I had to walk through a couple of aid stations - my longest walk was at the Olympic course turnaround at 3.1 miles where there was an aid station. I forced myself to run through my ever-tightening IT Band the whole last 5K. The only thing that really kept me going were all the other LA Tri people cheering me on and yelling at me. What would you do differently?: Not train for a marathon and injure myself before this triathlon. :) Post race
Warm down: I got a crappy (but free) massage for my IT Band where the girl didn't push hard enough. But it was okay. Drank LOTS of fluids. I was pretty dehydrated by the end of the race. What limited your ability to perform faster: Injury. It kept me tentative on the bike, and it really slowed down my run. I was surprised I was able to break 10:00 min/mi on the run. I was hobbling the whole way, and I can barely walk today (the day after). See pictures for my awesome sub-10:00 min/mi hobble... :) Event comments: I like the hilly bike course, but the run was pretty boring. The lake swim was nice. Last updated: 2008-09-18 12:00 AM
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United States
BBSC Endurance Sports
Sunny
Overall Rank = 265/378
Age Group = M 25-29
Age Group Rank = 17/24
My first ever Olympic distance race. Unfortunately, I've been injured with IT Band issues, and this was also USAT Club National Championships, so I showed up with a couple hundred other LA Tri Club peeps. Woke up at 4:30am, showered, ate a protein bar, and dumped the contents of my all-you-can-eat sushi dinner the night before into the toilet. Drove the 30+ minutes out from Vegas to Boulder City and Lake Mead. Found my bike which had been transported by truck from LA, and set up my area. Kept hydrating and stretching. It was a little chilly and I found it tough to stay loose and my IT Band and muscles were already tight from the injuries the past few weeks.
Swam a few hundred yards in the water before my starting wave went off.