Swim went well for me. It was over 4 mins faster than my time last year, so I was happy with that. Cooled off quickly and got into a decent rhythm, so felt pretty good.

Have to admit though that I felt like I was all over the place vs. going in a straight line. Got caught up in the buoy line twice - luckily, because swimmers were coming straight at me in the opposite direction. I think it's just a case of not paying enough attention to where I was.

Very happy that some of the Pgh Tri Club guys scouted out the seaweed, so I knew where to go to avoid it.

Still lots of room to improve, so will keep plugging away.

T1 was my best yet - mainly because I cut 2" off the legs of my wetsuit the night before. So I was finally able to get it off much easier. Sat down with it right away and had no problem. Only hairbrained thing I did was start to try to lay it out nicely so that it could dry! Then I realized what I was doing, and tossed it on the rack.



Looking at my time, and how the transition area is laid out, I realize that I had a horrible location with a long run/jog in wet grass with the bike in both directions. That's my own fault. Easily lost a minute between T1 and T2.

Beat last year's time by just over a minute. Felt much better going up the hill this year, and was much fresher after reaching the top. This was clearly do to knowing it was there and training for it.

There's about a 1/4 mile downward slope to the turn around, so after going around it headed back up, and then finally to a spot where standing helps. While I was going up, I thought, "boy, my legs are sluggish". Then had a look down and saw I was still in the big ring! Probably didn't hurt my overall time that much, but definitely felt my legs for a while after that.

When I got on the bike at T1, came down on the seat pretty hard, and I felt that for the first couple miles. Haven't done that before. Sore enough that I push back in the seat so I could roll forward and ease the pain somewhat. Position difference actually shows in this year's pic vs. last year's taken in the same spot.

Other than that not a bad ride, but guys who I was riding along with through the first half pulled away from me on the way back. Obviously more work is called for here.

More training!

okay.

Get a better rack placement to cut down on the run times.

One minute and one second faster than a year ago. But still, my running is really my weak spot.

Came out of T2, and my legs were doing pretty well. Felt decent the whole way, and actually passed a couple people. Didn't get overly hot, and was able to finish fairly strong.

But clearly I need to get serious about getting some speed here.

Decent enough for this race, but keep working on speed.

Grabbed a bottle of water and went back out and cheered in my friends and others from the Pgh Tri Club.

Walked around afterwards and had a bunch of fruit, and some bagel slices and cookies, and gatorade, water and hot tea.


Running speed, overall training


This race is put on by Habitat for Humanity, and they do an excellent job! Volunteers are extremely friendly, and the post race buffet is like you walked into a bake sale!

Two comments on other topics -

My friend who drove had a DNF. He came out of the water with a HR over 200 (he's 43 like me, but put on a bunch of weight over the last year). So he sat at T1 for 5 mins, then went ahead on the bike. He had no chance on the hill, so walked it. Finished the bike, and now his HR was 220. Went out on the run, but stopped to talk to the paramedics to confirm, and sure enough they measured 225. So he called it a day.

I saw him after I finished, which was about another 10 mins later, and his HR was still at 180. While we were talking he said, "I suddenly feel better" and just like that his HR dropped to 110.

So he has an appointment with the doc tomorrow. Very important to get yourself checked out, and stay healthy to do this stuff. I don't know exactly what triggered it because it doesn't happen when he trains. Maybe it was the anxiety, and the heat and wetsuit.

The other one was coming down the hill - stay conservative and safe! I was thinking on my way down that although I could go faster, I knew I would arrive in one piece.

Unfortunately one of my friends from the Pgh Tri Club had a major wipe out on it. I've never seen so much skin rash - knees, hands, elbows, shoulders, back... They drove him and his bike in.

So stay safe!