I'm not trying to sound cocky but I knew I would have one of the faster swim times of my age group from looking at past results. Knowing that I got up front at the start so all I had was open pond ahead of me. When the air horn went off so did I. I could tell that I was jumping ahead of most of my AG right off the bat, now the trick was going to be to keep it up and stay on target. Rounding the first bouy I was already passing the wave ahead of me and was the only one in my AG when I saw a guy to my right, I breathe left almost always. We were neck and neck there and into rounding the second bouy. Then he showed he was more fish than I and shot ahead, I tried to draft him as much as possible. Rest of the swim was uneventful he finished about 30 sec ahead of me so good on him, he also won the AG.

Nothing, good swim.

SLOW!! I need to get better at streamlining my transitions. The suit didn't get stuck but I didn't prep my shoes so had to un-velcro the straps and get the 910 on the watch mount, just wasn't smooth. Maybe if I actually practiced transitions once in a while...

Tri top might be a good idea. Need to learn the whole flying mount with shoes already clipped in, I have the handling skills, that is how we always mount/dismount bike at work.

Windy, strong winds 19+ sustained and gusts higher. Felt like almost always a cross or head wind. My plan had been to hammer the bike with a hoped for speed of 21+ and hope I had something left for the run but with only one real tailwind area, which I flew through, it was harder going than I expected. I just stayed in the drops when possible and kept spinning my way through it. Looking at my HR and cadence though not sure how much higher I could have gone.

I'm not the only one looking at the times, no one cracked an hour for total race time. That and the wet roads made me a bit more cautios than I would otherwise be, I don't ride in bad weather I get enough of that at work. I'll jump on the trainer or go swim instead so inexperience came into play.

Figure out where the wind is coming from pre-race, I could have used it to my advantage if I had figured out exactly where it was coming from before the turn around where I discovered where it was coming from...

I need to practice transitions, not even sure where the 1:23 came from. I ran in, racked the bike helmet was off while running grab race belt switch shoes and went. Confused.

get my shoes off before dismount line and put race belt on while running out of transition area.

I am super stoked about my run time, I know a 27 min 5k isn't breaking the sound barrier but it really shows, me at least, how much I have improved. This time last year was my first triathlon, also a sprint and my 5k time was over three minutes slower and I had to walk on several occasions. So I am improving and I think a podium at this race series might be possible in the future like 2013, I'd need to knock 9-10 min off total time so not out of the question I think.

The course was 2 loops of the park and with the morning rain and cooler temps it was a great time to be running. I left the park with one other person who basically sprinted out. I said nay nay I will take it easy- I have a plan good sir! I had the virtual partner set to 9:30 min/mile and that was my goal time, also not to walk the run. First mile popped up at 8:36 I thought ok I can DO this! Mile 2 at 9:12 and I was still feeling good. Kept going just kept going, if I started to feel tired and wanted to walk I would just slow my pace but keep running/jogging. I did walk the aid stations just to get the water into me and a quick breather. Came around the last turn and tried to keep the pace up high and finish strong.

More running, since I have really only been running again since late April after the HM in January I am happy that I had an improvement in my run time and a PR on my race so more morning runs with Slammer.

Walked had a banana grabed my stuff and came home to see the pup.


Run training, I need more of it.


Had a blast will be back in July for the warm weather race...