Triathlon - Wake up call

Yesterday I did my second triathlon, the Giant Acorn Sprint Tri at Lake Anna. I was pumped because my first tri went well and I had been training a lot since then. The only difference was that this was my first open water swim. Since it was a sprint the swim was only 750M, the bike 20K, and the run 5K.

The swim was quite possibly the hardest thing I have ever done physically. I was not expecting it to be so much harder than swimming in a pool. Within the first 100M my breathing was already off which really made it difficult. About half way through I was able to get my breath back and get my rhythm back. To my surprise I survived. The whole time I kept telling myself that I would be able to make it up on the bike since cycling is my strong point.

I got out of the water and had a blazing fast T1 (1:29) and hopped on my bike. I was averaging 25-26 mph and felt great. My legs were fresh and the course was mostly flat. Everything was great until mile 5 when my rear tire blew out. My best guess is that I hit a rock. Thankfully my big purchase for the summer was a set of tubular HED3's so I was able to finish w/an average of roughly 17 mph. Not good for the overall time.

For the first time I was able to say the run was the easy part. It didn't feel nearly as long as the 5K at my first tri and I was even able to pull out a PR of just over 24 minutes. I have never considered myself a runner but I'm getting there.

Even though the day started off rough I found some sort of strange inspiration from it all. Now that my season is pretty much over I feel like I have a chance to really improve. I'm 190 so first on my list is to cut back on the weight lifting and focus on getting my run times and swimming times down.

Anyone ever had a rough tri that just made you want to work harder? What kind of training routines will everyone take up over the winter? Any tips for open water swimming? Just thought I'd post my race report and open up some discussion.


Everyone waiting to start the race.


Finishing w/a flat.


Bringing it home.


Somewhat dissapointed but motivated none the less.

My own open water swimming (spring-fed Aquarena Springs) experience, and my first and so-far only tri, was tough for two reasons. The expected one was this: getting kicked and knocked about by other swimmers. Fine, no problem. The real problem, unexpected, was that the water level was a bit low, which brought the hydrilla into play. If you don't know what hydrilla is, it's a nasty, kinda freaky water plant reaching right up to the surface of the water. It was like swimming through slimy green spaghetti in some parts.

Having said all that, the race was the most fun I'd had in many, many months and I'm newly addicted. Can't wait for next season, when I'll have to shave a whole bunch of time off my total.

Good story and cool pics. Thanks for the race report.

Looks good. :D

The best way to get good at open water swimming is to train in open water... :) The only problem is that there are few places to do so (or they're far away). It kinda sucks really. I'm no expert but the best tip i can give you is to not get too "excited" at the beginning and to swim at your own pace. If you're not comfortable in open water it's waaaaay to easy to start pushing yourself to swim faster (either conciously or unconciously) and be worn out on a short swim even though you could easily do double or triple the distance in a pool.

As for me, i'll be hitting the local pool over the winter. No special regimen though my goal is to be able to do a mile in under an hour without being tired. :)

The swim was quite possibly the hardest thing I have ever done physically.

I had the exact same experience this past summer. I was not prepared for people kicking me in the face, not seeing the bottom, having to sight my path and having erractic breathing.

Congrats on a great race and good luck training!!

Thanks for the replies! I read in another thread that doing splits when training for swimming is effective so I've been doing that this week at the pool. I've been swimming 100M splits for an hour or so each time I go, and I'm certainly worn out when I'm done. I'm going to try and get the most out of the next couple of months. I'm hoping to have my 5k as close to 20 min as possible and hopefully below and my 10k around the 40-45 min range. I guess I'll post an update sometime before the spring. Thanks again!