Manatees Dooo Eeeet!!! (Page 35)

Eek! Sorry to hear about the computer woes   No fun at all.

Woo Hoo, a race! Have fun and don't freeze!!

So, no 5 million dollar ransom paid by your court system?   It's amazing how stuck we are without computers, hope everything is fixed soon!

Ha ha ha, they announced today's water temp was just under 60*F, like 58-59.  It might hit 60 by race day but regardless I will be squishing myself into my wetsuit.  They took out the 3 mile race and it will only be 1 or 2 miles (I'm doing the 1 miler for this race) and changed the course to be a little safer (read: shorter - 1/4 mile out and back done as many times as needed for your distance) in case they do need to rescue someone racers aren't as spread out and far from shore.  They held a nice athlete briefing on FB Live last night.

Here is my Steelman Open Water Classic race report. It was cold, but not as cold as a Scottish Loch, Robin!

On the Facebook group for Chatt 70.3 I saw the forecast for raceday: thank HEAVENS I deferred!  Heat and I are not friends while racing.

haha, saw it too! That is pretty much the weather we had in 2019 for the 70.3. It may have been a bit warmer for the full in 2018. Thankfully for me, Florida.

Amen!!  Cue horrible flashbacks to my hot Muncie 70.3...that was an ugly day.  And yes, jellyfish are also on my scared-of list.  Wretched stings.

But downstream swim... 

(well, not in 2018...)

thats why I chose Choo, but the no swim in 2018 is also why in the back of my head I know I haven’t actually done an IM!

You've got this, Jim!

When are you heading to Tulsa?

PSA: The IM tracker has Tulsa loaded but I don't think the participants have been loaded into the tracker yet.  Plan to track Jim this weekend!

You've done and IM. Trust us.

(not sure why my comments didn't make it the first time.)

So, I raced over the weekend.  It was my first Triathlon in 21-months (although I did four (4) Duathlons is that time).  It was a 300-yd swim, 14-mile bike, and 3-mile run. 

There were some Junior Elite teams at the race and they dominated the podium.  I noticed that their transition times were between 10-15 seconds and the faster AG transition times were 25-45 seconds with the average transition times at about a minute.  So how much time and training do you think is required to get my 40-second transitions down to a 10-second transition?  What are people's tips for speeding up the transition?  

What other tips do people have for Sprint Triathlons?  I am doing more and more of the short races and have been successful at them, but when you race against people that really know what they are doing It shows how little you actually know.

P.S.  I overheard the coach of one of the Elite teams giving her pre-race motivation speech.  She told them on the run to go out hard then to ease up.  I was thinking to myself that she was giving them terrible advice. Well, I will just say that my first mile was my slowest one and that my last mile was my fastest one.  I went out easy and finished hard.  What are your pacing strategies for Sprint Triathlons for the swim, bike, run?  

I believe IM has the 2018 race listed as a duathlon!

That was USAT and they don't know what they are talking about.

My transitions are slow - especially T1 so I can't be much help! But, one thing that helps a bit is I don't use socks for short course triathlons. As far as pacing, I go as fast as I can the entire time and find my splits are pretty even.  I have to do this bc my swim sucks so much that I am playing catch up on the bike and run. Thankfully, that strategy has been fairly successful for me. 

Thanks, Ann-Marie & Karen!

Saturday was my first triathlon that I went sockless.  I had tried to go sockless in training and hated it.  My feet slide around in the bike shoes and never got comfortable in the running shoes.  In the race I learned that wet feet stick to the inside of your shoes.  So, no sliding around in the bike shoes.  I did get hot spots that caused blisters on the run, but I get hot spots with sock sometimes too so the sockless worked just fine and I will definitely go that way again.

I use the walkable bike shoes and put them on in T1 and run to the mount line in them and back to the bike rack in T2.  I have had compliments on how smooth I mount the bike at the mount line so learning the Flying Squirrel mount has been a big hesitation for me, but not putting shoes on in Transition I am sure would speed them up (although I would not be able to clip in and out as fast as I do with the shoes already on). 

I have been prone to go out too fast for my entire career as an athlete.  From junior high all the way up to races post-college I have built a steady string of races that have turned into disasters because that easy fast effort at the beginning of the race turned into an impossibly difficult effort that almost completely shut me down before I finish the race.  Pacing is not something that comes naturally to me.  I want to go full steam all the time but can't.  Going easy at the beginning of the run is the only chance I have of not blowing up before I finish. If I get to a negative split I am always excited about how much discipline I had at the beginning of the run (or how focused I was at the end of the run to not slow down when things got difficult).   

I use Zoot running shoes for short course tris bc they are made to be worn without socks. They used to be as expensive as any other running shoe, but now you can pick them up very cheaply. I assume that means at some point you won't be able to buy them anymore! (note to self: buy a few extra pairs!)

I'll chime in a bit late on the transition discussion, since I only did short course when I was doing tris. For me and my slow swim and run, transition was one place I could "make up" time. I tried to set up my little spot the same at every race and made sure that everything was ready to go. Run stuff together in one place. Helmet hanging on handlebars with the glasses in them. My T1 looked like this: Shoes clipped in on the bike, rubber bands holding them in place. I did socks, but if you are truly pushing it, no socks. Take everything off that you can take off during run in, drop it all, helmet/sunglasses on and get out. Postman start at the mount line, never stopping. I found the postman start was more controllable then the flying start, less hurty, and simply quicker for me. Feet into shoes as you went away from the start. Coming into T2, the feet came out of the shoes, rolling dismount, helmet off during run in. Bike went on the rack, shoes on feet, grab whatever else was needed and get out fast. Elastic laces on the shoes were a must. 

I actually set aside a couple of practice sessions after my first or second event to practice this. It helped, although if I'm honest, I probably could have sped it up with a little less dawdle and a little more effort.