This was my first time doing a pool tri. Swimming seems to be a strength of mine, at least as compared to other triathletes. Being in the pool allowed me to go all out as I was in the comfort zone of being in the pool. I estimated my swim time when I signed up was 5:20 and I ended up swimming a time of 4:59. It felt great to do the whole swim in under 5 minutes.

Because of the way the swim was set up, I was able to watch pretty much every swimmer with a better time than me for almost 20 minutes before it was my time to go. Other than using a "dolphin" flip turn, I was surprised how many people did not use the pool to their advantage. After each time kicking off the wall most everyone didn't hold their arms in front of them and make the longest, most hydro-dynamic shape they could. They pretty much were at the surface within 10 feet stroking. I think this gave me a huge advantage over those in front of me. I think this allowed me to overcome my lack of a solid rotation of my upper body. Something that is a real weakness in my swim form.

There was one instance of an athlete GROSSLY over estimating their swim time. This athlete stated a time that was in the top 40 of the entire field. However,when she started her swim she literally did not know how to swim! She held her head completely out of the water the entire time she swam. About 5 meters before she completed her first lap she was forced to cling to the lane divider, exhausted. I felt bad for her because I'm sure she just made an honest mistake and didn't realized what time she needed to put down. I hope this didn't end up being a horrible experience and keep her from taking part in the sport in the future. Hopefully next time with proper training. I also felt bad for all the other athletes. Pretty much every one of them had to come out of their swim stroke when they ran into her. She really made a big obstacle for the really top group of athletes. To her credit she didn't give up and made it out for the rest of the race. I never saw her again but hope she finished.

Not really sure here. I suppose that if I decide to do more pool tris learning to flip turn would be to my advantage.

This transition was allot better than my last one (3:35). So for at least that I was pleased. Still the guy, bib No. 114, I passed in the water beat me out of transition so I definitely have room for improvement.

Somethings that stood out:

I arrived very early, about 4:45 and had my pick of where on the rack I wanted to be. Great idea. I will always do that if I can. It was nice being right at the end of the rack. On the down side. The guy next to me racked his bike in a way that they got tangled together. I was out of the water first and when I went to take my bike off the rack his fell over and knocked down two other bikes sitting next to him. I felt really bad and I caught them as best I could do. I stood there a second wondering what to do them I kicked myself. I'm racing, what happened sucks but there's a race on and I got to go. I was glad to have met up with him afterwords. I explained what happened and apologized. He seemed to think it was OK.

When I set my space that morning I put my visor for my run on my aero-bars and forgot about them. I didn't remember them until later when I was running with my bike out of transition. I just thru it on the ground so I ended up not having a hat to wear for the run. I did find it again after the race. At least I didn't lose it.

This was also my first time racing in clip-in pedals. I was a little bit concerned about running in those pedals. Maybe I would trip and slip down. But it turned out to be very much a non-issue. I was able to run pretty effectively in my clip-ins. So much so that I see no reason at this point in learning to do "flying mounting".

2 minutes in T1 is just too long. They say transition is the fourth discipline. Perhaps it's time to start treating it with a more serious attitude. I think a goal of getting my T1 down to about 1:30 is a good one.

Organize my space a little bit better. I brought a towel to dry myself off with. I never used it. During the race I don't have time and after the race transition is closed so that towel was pretty useless.

A good tri style back-pack would be awesome.

I started out well enough, then about halfway out I started getting some very slight nausea. I think it had a little to do with racing in chlorinated water and then biking. That is something I had not done to this point. I don't know how much this effected me other than it kept me from drinking as much water as I think I needed. (Edit: I started thinking later that I may simply have been dehydrated. I really didn't drink much that morning or the night before.)

I think I am a little bit more cautious when making turn then I probably need to be. I had some idol thoughts about trying to improve in this, but then I doubt I am losing much time here and I feel better not taking to much risk when I see gravel on the road and I am about to take a sharp 90 degree turn.

After thinking about it a bit more I think the main reason for my nausea was that I was dehydrated. I have to focus on getting plenty of fluids in me starting 12 hours before race time.

Of the three disciplines this is the one that I seem to be slacking in my training. I think that if I could be more consistent with my training in this regard I could pick up 2 or 3 minutes here. Other than that I don't much I could do to improve in this area.

Of course I could always buy better equipment. I race in the OEM training wheels. I wonder what kind of improvement I would see with a good set of ZIPPs.

I think a goal of getting my time for this distance down to about 32 minutes isn't an unreasonable one.

I haven't felt the need to learn to do that Flying mount/dismount with the cycle shoes already locked in the pedals. In fact there was an instance it made another ride slower. There was a girl ahead of me during the last little stretch before the transition area. When she started worrying about getting her feet out of her cycle shoes I was able to keep pushing hard and pass her before transition. I then un-clipped and stopped right at the dismount line. Would I have been faster if I did a flying dismount? Perhaps, but more likely I would have been like that girl worrying about getting my feet out of those shoes during the last little straight-a-way instead of pushing hard til the end. I think unless a great deal of time is devoted to learning and then practicing flying mounting then it is probably faster just to clip the normal way.

Pretty much everything else about his transition went smoothly. I passed number 114 out on the bike course but again he passed me in transition. I happened to know him and we had a chance to do some friendly jabing with each other while in transition. He's a great runner so he was gone after that. I didn't see him again til the after-race celebration.

I guess it really boils down to practice, practice, practice. I think if I just spent a day a couple of weekends before any race my transitions will improve.

I find it ironic that of all the disciplines, I train for the run more than any of them. For all that training, my run is always the weakest element as compared to my peers. The case was the same today. 5th in the swim, 6th in the bike, and then 12th in the run. I really am gonna have to improve here if I hope to get higher against my age-groupers.

Coming out of T2 my legs were quite a bit wobbly, but I expected this and it didn't bother me too much. After about the first mile my legs started feeling better and I was able to start attacking the course more aggressively. At around the 3/4 mile mark the nausea I felt on the bike started hitting me again. I knew my fluids were down as I wasn't able to drink like I wanted during the bike for that reason. Luckily right about that time I hit the water station. I grabbed an ice water, drank a nice gulp and poured the rest on my head. That really helped. So much so that when I came back from the turn around I stopped running for a second at that station to get a second drink in before continuing on. That really hit the spot and from then on I was able to get stronger and stronger.

By the time I got back from he road portion and started my loop around the lake I really had a nice stride going. At least a nice stride for me. When I crossed the finished line I was really moving and thought I could have gone for a 10k that morning.

I think it is time I focused on getting faster in the run. whatever it takes interval or speed drills would definitely help.

My weight also doesn't help. During the swim and bike I can hide that fact that I am about 10-15lbs heavier than I should be. It is so much harder to hide that extra weight when I've got to lug it around the run course. Here's a thought, how about better eating habits? WOW what a concept!

Another thing I need to do better is to study the run course the night before. As I was returning form the first out I re-entered the park and saw the finish line and I thought I was almost done. As I went out around the lake I kept looking for that turn around instead of focusing on lengthening my stride. Mentally I think the let down that I was only about half as far as I thought I was kept me from doing better

I ice cold towel on my head and a bee line to the beer keg.


I definitely see a lot of areas I can get better. Especially the run and transition. But looking back at my 4 years in the sport. 2005 I was just glad to finish. 2006 and 2007 I was a solid "back of the packer". 2008 I turned it up a notch and finished 16th of 57 at Lonestar. Finally this year I have this 9th place age group finish. I can definitely see a steady rise in ability as each season goes by. I'm at the point that I am wondering if I might have a top three age-group finish in me somewhere. That is an awesome thought to consider.


Not sure how they could do this, but next year it would be nice to not have to worry about automobile traffic during the bike and run courses.