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09-16-08, 10:20 PM
My first triathlon was Sunday. I've been running and biking for some time now but I'm a total neophyte at swimming. I only started swimming about 4 weeks ago and was not progressing well. Last week something clicked. I did 3x 300m repeats last Tuesday and then did a mile straight last Thursday. Having done a mile gave me a lot of confidence going into the race.
In the triathlon swim, I didn't do too well technique wise but I made it through with a 7:19 time for 300 meters. I know I can do better. It seems like going faster helps me level out in the water so if I can develop a little more endurance I think it will have a major payoff in speed. As it is, I was going slow enough that I didn't feel winded at all when I got out of the pool. In the first transition, I got my jersey on quickly but spent a lot of time trying to get my socks onto my wet feet. I may try going sockless next time.
Once I got on the bike course I was pretty fast. I ended up with an average speed of 21.9 mph. I got confused about the course coming in to the park and slowed down to make sure I wasn't making a wrong turn, and if I hadn't done that I think I could have eeked out a 22 mph average. I didn't get passed on the bike leg. In fact I was almost constantly passing someone. My only problem was that there were tons of people riding so far to the left that they were hard to pass. There were a lot of younger kids in the race and they seemed particularly bad about blocking. Also there were some folks on mountain bikes who seemed to have trouble holding a line. I have to confess that I did cross the center line a couple of times passing people but luckily I didn't get any penalties. Once there was a car that would not pass a slow cyclist even though there was no one coming so I passed them both on the left.
I felt great going into the run. Even though I had a PR pace on the bike I had stayed solidly within myself. My weekly group ride is a more intense effort than I used on the bike leg of the event. My legs felt solid, but for some reason I immediately developed a lot of pressure and burning in my abdomen that made me feel like vomiting was imminent. It wasn't anything like the "puke from exertion" feeling that I sometimes get during intensive exercise. This limited my pace considerably to around an 8:30 mile, which is much slower than my usual training pace of 7:55 and my race pace of about 7:15. It was odd because I wasn't out of breath or suffering from much fatigue. I had shared a pizza with another race participant the night before and she was having some of the same problems, so I wonder if that's the explanation. Also I find that I have to burp a lot after swimming so that could be it as well. I ended up with a 26 minute run time where I am capable of a 21 to 22 minute time.
I ended up coming in 71st out of 247 men and 6th out of 16 in my age group. If I could have run at my usual pace, I would have finished in the top 25 / 3rd place in my age group even with my slow swim. With faster transitions....
Basically the event was a blast. It was a good learning experience. I know what I need to work on to do better next time. Needless to say, I am addicted to triathlon already and I hate that the season is over!
Here's the summary:
Swim (300m, pool) 7:19, place 188 / 247 (men)
Transition 1 3:09
Bike (12 miles, mild rolling hills) 33:01, place 15 / 247, avg speed 21.9 mph
Transition 2 1:20
Run (5k, rolling hills) 26:27, place 92 / 247, pace 8:32 / mile
Total time 1:11:14
In the triathlon swim, I didn't do too well technique wise but I made it through with a 7:19 time for 300 meters. I know I can do better. It seems like going faster helps me level out in the water so if I can develop a little more endurance I think it will have a major payoff in speed. As it is, I was going slow enough that I didn't feel winded at all when I got out of the pool. In the first transition, I got my jersey on quickly but spent a lot of time trying to get my socks onto my wet feet. I may try going sockless next time.
Once I got on the bike course I was pretty fast. I ended up with an average speed of 21.9 mph. I got confused about the course coming in to the park and slowed down to make sure I wasn't making a wrong turn, and if I hadn't done that I think I could have eeked out a 22 mph average. I didn't get passed on the bike leg. In fact I was almost constantly passing someone. My only problem was that there were tons of people riding so far to the left that they were hard to pass. There were a lot of younger kids in the race and they seemed particularly bad about blocking. Also there were some folks on mountain bikes who seemed to have trouble holding a line. I have to confess that I did cross the center line a couple of times passing people but luckily I didn't get any penalties. Once there was a car that would not pass a slow cyclist even though there was no one coming so I passed them both on the left.
I felt great going into the run. Even though I had a PR pace on the bike I had stayed solidly within myself. My weekly group ride is a more intense effort than I used on the bike leg of the event. My legs felt solid, but for some reason I immediately developed a lot of pressure and burning in my abdomen that made me feel like vomiting was imminent. It wasn't anything like the "puke from exertion" feeling that I sometimes get during intensive exercise. This limited my pace considerably to around an 8:30 mile, which is much slower than my usual training pace of 7:55 and my race pace of about 7:15. It was odd because I wasn't out of breath or suffering from much fatigue. I had shared a pizza with another race participant the night before and she was having some of the same problems, so I wonder if that's the explanation. Also I find that I have to burp a lot after swimming so that could be it as well. I ended up with a 26 minute run time where I am capable of a 21 to 22 minute time.
I ended up coming in 71st out of 247 men and 6th out of 16 in my age group. If I could have run at my usual pace, I would have finished in the top 25 / 3rd place in my age group even with my slow swim. With faster transitions....
Basically the event was a blast. It was a good learning experience. I know what I need to work on to do better next time. Needless to say, I am addicted to triathlon already and I hate that the season is over!
Here's the summary:
Swim (300m, pool) 7:19, place 188 / 247 (men)
Transition 1 3:09
Bike (12 miles, mild rolling hills) 33:01, place 15 / 247, avg speed 21.9 mph
Transition 2 1:20
Run (5k, rolling hills) 26:27, place 92 / 247, pace 8:32 / mile
Total time 1:11:14