Lesson learned after my first tri yesterday

Originally posted by DaniD

I completed my first sprint tri yesterday and didn't did as "good" as i though i was going to do which made me rethink a couple things:
- I DO NOT need a new bike (I can believe i am saying this),as much as would like a new one my 2011 trek 1.1 will do fine for a while, for my "tri-level" getting ~20mph is enough...for now.
- I DO NOT need any of the fancy stuff i keep looking for in the internet.
- I need to pay more attention to what i eat, especially race day/week.
- I need to do a little more structured running rather than "just run"
- I need to swim more, a lot more, best thing I've ever done was going from two days a week to three.
- 400 meters swim doesn't sound like a lot until you are freaking out and out breath after the first 100, I've never been happier to get out of a pool in my life.
- Check to venue prior to race day, some of those hills were not a pleasant surprise.
- Mental preparation is a "real thing" I never doubted i was going to be able to complete the tri until the race started.
- Things will go wrong on race day, both of my GPS watches decided to take the day off.

Thanks for all your posts these last few years, I look forward to keep learning from you guys and gals.

Congratulations on your first race. Welcome to the family of Triathletes and we all had lessons learned from our first few races.

Good idea to use current bike for a while.
Some good training plans on BT that will give you structured work outs.
The swim catches a lot of people off guard on their first race unless they are a well trained swimmer. I would guess that you went too fast on the first 100 and/or didn't warm up prior to race.
If possible, I will do a training ride on the bike course prior to the race. If that is not possible then I will drive the course on race morning to get idea of what to expect.
As far as GPS watch. I don't even race with my watch on Sprint races. One less thing to worry about in the short race.