Three minutes and thirty three seconds! More on that later.
So this past weekend was my 3rd triathlon - the Battle at Midway, in Midway and Soldier Hollow. I entered the lite course distance - 750M swim, 21.5m bike, and 3.6m trail run. I went in to this race feeling great and confident - despite the nagging tendinitis in my knee. I had an extra rest day on Wednesday and a questionable trail run on Thursday that left me a little sore (and beat up from falling down at one point on the trail.. gah!), but I don't feel unprepared at all.
Swim: All the athletes were instructed to enter the water in waves for the in-water start - basically we all cross a chip mat, everyone lumps together near the start buoys, and they fire off this loud-ass cannon. Now I've done open-water swimming before, and cold open-water swimming, and hundreds of thousands of meters in the pool, but this was a little shock to the system. I started off head-up freestyle to try to get acclimated quicker and warm up some, and within a minute or two I felt better. There's one thing I've learned about myself, and that is I can't swim a straight line to save my soul. I was pulling right, breathing right, and veering - yup - right. A few quick course adjustments, and I was back on line. I wasn't shattering any speed records, but I was doing OK. At around the first buoy, I was feeling a bit hypoxic (couldn't get enough oxygen to match my exertion level), so I flipped over and did some backstroke to catch my breath. Total - I think I ended up doing a few hundred yards backstroke and maybe 50 breast + head-up free. Looking back, the swim was a near-disaster compared to how well I can do in training and pool racing. The cold water really affected my ability to breath comfortably more than I wanted to admit, so I have that to take away. Total swim time was 13:58 - which was a shocker considering how much time I spent backstroking and veering off-course.
T1: Pretty uneventful - the suit came off easy like I was an old pro - goggles and cap tucked into the sleeves like I was supposed to, and slid off quick and stuffed in the bag. I was pretty warm at this point, but I opted to throw on my wick long-sleeve top for the bike - I'm glad I did even tho it cost me a few seconds. Total T1 time was 2:05 - which I think I could've shaved a few seconds off, but I digress..
Bike: This I felt was the strongest leg of my race. I was out fast, had a very strong push up to Midway the first 6 or 7 miles, and moderate climbs. I cornered like a mad-man, and rode pretty straight lines where I could. The frustrating part (if there was any) was constantly getting passed by TT bikes rode by Oly athletes. They better watch out - I'll be a TT bike owner at some point and I'll be the one doing the passing! The course pushed us back toward Heber and looped back around into Midway again - this 2nd trip up the long straight north was a little tougher - I could feel my legs tightening up and knew I needed to spin down before the run. I took that opportunity on the fast downhill from Midway to Soldier Hollow sans the last small climb. Total time on the bike was 1:08:16 even tho I felt like I had gone faster (avg 18.96 MPH).
T2: Minus the water bottle rolling down the hill, and strapping on my chopat knee rubber support, T2 was really uneventful. Dismounted well, left the warm top on, and away I went in about 1:12.
Run: If this run course was only 2.5 miles, I would've rocked. Came out of transition feeling so-so - legs were still a tad tight and cold, but I knew a few long strides and some downhill would stretch me out and warm up. It took maybe 200M before I was really feeling good, and I took off. In retrospect, I could've saved some here - I pushed hard those first couple miles and felt great. My run split for the 2 miles was near 16:00, which would've been a stellar time given the course. The last mile turned out to be absolutely brutal - my legs gave out, and my energy faded fast. I knew I had bonked, but I had to push! Total run time was 32:20 (just under 9-minute miles), which left me a tad frustrated. I warm up 9 minute miles! This was a pretty tough run - and looking at the rest of the field finishing run times makes me feel better, but still.
The Good: Great bike, above-average transitions, strong start to the run. Pre-race training and taper were good, and confidence was high. Knee didn't bother me at all the entire race.
The Bad: Disastrous swim - could've made up several minutes here easily, disastrous final mile to the run - lost a ton of time.
I'm extremely happy with my race and full of confidence going in to future races. Some takeaways - GET in the water and get a pre-race warmup to acclimatize and avoid the system shock. Longer training durations - I really need to push the 2-3 hour barrier if I expect to perform all the way to the end of an Oly-distance race. The 90-minute sessions I've been doing were fine for short sprints, but BAM really exposed my training gaps. Trail running - after talking with a few friends post-race, I see the importance now. I was clearly focused too much on flat perfect track running instead of technically difficult and strength-building running. I'll try to incorporate all these into my training schedule from here on out!
The 3:33 thing - yea, so that's what I missed the podium by. 7/11 age-group finish, and the 3rd place AG finisher was just out of reach. How frustrating - but what does that tell me about how well I'm doing, all things considered? I think the 35-39 age group occupied 10 of the top 20 spots in the race, which makes it stupidly competetive. I'll stop now - the goal was to just *finish* the triathlon, and here I am!
