This was my second tri, and I intentionally chose a more challenging swim than my first event to force myself to train. My goal was not to tire out and stop or end up getting pulled from the water. I was a little concerned about sighting, because I didn't focus on that as much as on regular form and some endurance training. Really, the only thing that let me improve as much as I did was getting two books and a DVD from Terry Laughlin's Total Immersion website. I actually swam 800 in the pool in 16:37, which would have been unthinkable for me two months ago ... when I tried to swim 500 m in a lake and had to rest on a kayak half way across!

I was still nervous about the ocean ... waves, jellyfish ... but I think it was still a good swim given my experience level. I was much happier with this swim than my first attempt.

I was still pretty tired from the swim, and the transition area was a good hike up the beach, along a boardwalk, and into a parking lot. I covered it pretty slow, but once I got to the transition area I was pretty calm. I did have a guy ask me to help him pull down the back of his bunched up bike jersey, but that only took maybe two seconds.

I should have applied more sunscreen before the event ... I ended up trying to spray on sun screen when dripping wet from the swim, not such a good plan.

Again, my bike was better this time than last, although this course had no monster hills like Buffalo Springs did. I was on my own bike this time, and it was my first race with this bike. Given that I don't have clipless pedals or aerobars, I was happy to get my speed up from 14.5 MPH in my last race to 17.3 MPH this time.

Well, I did have a near catastrophe right after I mounted the bike, because within about fifty feet I felt my right shoelace start wrapping around the crank! Fortunately I was able to get over to the curb and retie my shoes, but this is just another obvious reason to get new pedals and bike shoes. I would have felt terrible if I had caused someone else to wreck for something so stupid.

I went ahead and decided to switch to my Team in Training shirt for the run, especially since I was missing the first day of marathon training group runs in order to do this race. So that slowed me down a tiny bit. My site there is http://www.active.com/donate/tntcfl/JDHunter


Nothing, really.

My legs felt like they were just on the edge of cramping up, but they didn't. My plan was to run steady and slow (ten minute pace), and that's exactly what I did ... though it didn't feel as slow as it had in training. Once again I didn't do any brick workouts to help me run off the bike. Still, this was a big improvement over my 11:45 pace for the 5K of my first tri, given that it was 0.9 miles further.

Probably should have done some brick workouts in training.

Felt great, ate some barbecue and cookies at the party tent. Found my wife and checked out the pictures she had taken of the race.


This time around, I would say a slightly aggressive swim distance for my experience level, a lack of useful upgrades to my cycling equipment (clipless pedals, aerobars), and a lack of brick workouts or intense speedwork in any particular segment of the race. Inexperience and low training volume are still my biggest obstacle, even though my wife and I are doing easy workouts four or five times a week, I haven't really gotten serious about pace yet.


Realistically speaking, given my newness to the sport and moderate training effort and equipment investment, I think this race went almost perfectly, with the exception of the shoelace around the crank. That could have been bad for a lot of people, and I'll correct that before my next race.

Another gorgeous day, and I'm much less embarrassed by my performance here than last time around, especially in the swim and in maintaining pace in the run (even though it was a slow pace!). I was happy to beat SOMEONE in my age group, so beating three people was fun, even though it ain't much to brag about!

Comprehensive race results are here:
http://www.altavistasports.com/results/2006results/sandestintriathl...