10:00 pool swim. I was unlucky enough to situate myself (wish I'd noticed sooner!) right next to the guy who had gotten in the warm-up pool next to me, sprinted two fifties with lots of rest between, and got out. When they blew the whistle, he sprinted off the wall, churning up unnecessary amounts of water with a stroke that could have been much more efficient. I took it out hard (not sprinting) and stayed right on his shoulder for the first four laps, despite him doing open turns and taking way more strokes per lap than me. By lap 5, I started pulling away and eventually, toward the end, lost him (I knew from the beginning that his pace were unsustainable with his stroke). I ended up finishing 700 yards before they blew the whistle. It felt pretty good throughout, though I definitely felt the cold I've been fighting through. My muscles just felt a little draggy.

There were two things holding me back: the cold I've had for the past few days and having to avoid the other lady in my lane, who swerved onto my side several times. Even with those things, I think it went really well.

Ten minutes to change in the locker room. I had plenty of time. I took an extra locker just for my transition stuff, so it was easy to figure out what I needed, and there was plenty of space in the locker room. I got up to the bikes with a few minutes to spare. Since I have no experience with spin bikes, I let the guy who worked there set mine up.

Nothing. Maybe run a brush through my hair, which was all over the place (I glanced in the mirror when I ran to the bathroom and tried to finger-comb it, but didn't help much).

It was interesting to bike for the first time with HRM (the bike unit also picked up the signal, so I didn't really need to look at my Garmin). Generally, when I get on the bike during a tri, I spend the first ten minutes (at least) trying to calm down, not throw up, and get into a rhythm. Today was not that different, despite the longer transition time, and so it was interesting to see that my HR started in the 160s, at the higher end of zone 4. I tried to calm it down, but I also didn't want to SLOW down, so I ended up staying in zones 4-5 (HR 160-175) the entire time. It was a tough effort (and boring as hell on a stationary bike), but not impossible.

I will be working on better training on the bike, esp with HR zones, over the next few months, which should help improve my fitness for this transition. For my current fitness level, I think I killed it.

Five minutes to walk across the room from the stationary bikes to the treadmills. I tried stretching my knotty right calf a bit beforehand. It wasn't as tight as expected, so I was hopeful for the run.

Nothing. Not much to do.

I started myself off at 5.3 mph to see how things felt. Within the first minute, it felt like my right foot was landing on knives. I dialed back the pace to a fast walk, then to a moderate walk, then a slow walk (bottoming out at 2 mph). I wasn't even sure if that was a good idea, because the sharp throbbing pains on the outside of my right foot didn't stop. Eventually, though, they died down and the calf felt ok, so I dialed it back up slowly. At least the first ten minutes were at a walk, but I eventually felt tentatively confident enough to try running again. I went back up to 5 mph for a minute or two, felt ok, and so dialed it slowly back up, reaching 6.5 mph at my peak. I slowed down again during the last two minutes because my leg just didn't feel right (no sharp pains again, but I was no longer confident in the running). At least I was able to put up a slightly more respectable number than I was heading toward at the start.

Not injure myself the day before a race? Not sure I had control over that, though.

Walked around a bit, packed up my stuff, had an Organic Valley protein drink, and drove home. Hot bath and iced my foot.


The cold I've had since Thursday and the sharp pains in my foot that started yesterday afternoon.

Had I been able to run, it looks pretty clear that I would have placed in this one :(


It was an ok race. It was nice to have an event to look forward to in the winter. Ultimately, though, it felt like we were just working out at the facility more than participating in a race. Some of the volunteers tried to be enthusiastic, but most were just doing their jobs and talking to one another. The atmosphere that makes triathlon fun was largely missing.