Gatorade Triathlon Series - Race 1 - TriathlonSprint

Was worried about calf but it seemed to ease up within 500m. Stuck to about a 5min/km pace

Not race with an injured calf

T1 was ok since it was really just swapping shoes and putting on helmet. Was pretty tired after run so I walked through T1

The headwind was totally intense - slowed down to about 20 in headwind and sped up to about 35 in tailwind.

Thought r. calf was ok but on last 3 - 4 kms it started hurting - really hurting.

Took powerbar at 14km mark. Don't know if/when it kicked in.
Mount was really quick - faster than a couple of guys in front of me. Dismount was hard due to calf.

At T2 I couldn't stand on it at all. Limped back and forth for probably 10 minutes thinking that there's no sensible way I should do the run, but quitting was a worse alternative. Stupid - really, really, REALLY stupid. But hey, I'm a male. It's a competition. I don't quit. (Ok, I would have but there was no way to quietly slip away without being spotted).

Speed-wise, I kept to 7min K's as a tradeoff between the limping gait and a walk. Was very slow considering it's only 5kms but it was about doing it, not doing it well. I was expecting to walk most of the way but the calf didn't get any worse although I heavily favoured the left leg.

Speed wasn't bad, considering.

It was stupid to run with such an injury. After the race it started seizing up and by the time I got home I couldn't walk. Probably the worst injury to date.

Calf, fitness


It was smart that they cancelled the swim - the chop was huge and they couldn't have safely spotted any floundering. I wasn't prepared for the replacement 2km run - I'd planned on using the swim to loosen up the calves.
There were probably 30 guys in my age group. I did ok on the initial run, but the cycling let me down again - just don't have the strength to power through things like headwinds. The final run, ignoring the injury, was ok - I had my Garmin set up properly this time and set and kept to a pace that didn't race my heart or burn me out.