Triathlon

This past weekend I competed in my first Triathlon over in Cambridge New York. It was a traditional Olympic distance triathlon, swim bike run. I think most people feel like the swim is their weakest leg in a tri, and I am no exception. My roommate from school is on the swim team. This spring he helped me work on swimming technique, however I have not swan for a workout since I left school. Needless to say, I was not really expecting much out of the swim, my goal was just to make it out of the water. The swim consisted of one half mile loop that was to be done twice. I started near the end of the pack (with the like 5 other people who weren’t wetsuits, I thought that was kind of funny) and focused on trying to breathe right and have “good technique.” I tried to follow people in front of me because I cannot swim in a straight line. I know you are not allowed to draft in a tri, I don’t really know if you can draft in swimming anyway, regardless, it didn’t help me to go much faster anyway. The second lap I had some trouble in the final 200m, I was swimming by myself and ended up in the middle of no where and I kind of panicked. I ended up taking my goggles off to see where I was, bad idea. I swam/drank pond water/doggy paddled in the last bit and was thankful I was back on land. I finished the swim just under 30 minutes (the fastest swim time was under 18) which was good for 45th place… out of 58 men.

The transition went fairly smooth, I had a little trouble getting my bike jersey on, but nothing too time costly. Although I have not biked much this summer (probably only like 5 times) and I had never done a bike race before, I knew the bike couldn’t be worse than the swim. The only think that was sweet about doing poorly in the swim was now I could pass a lot of people. The bike was sweet, I felt really good and it was fun going fast. Overall, the ride was pretty uneventful except for my battle with the woman’s race leader. She had caught me on the swim (after starting 5 minutes behind me) and started the bike a little in front of me. I caught her quickly as the bike started up a fairly good sized hill; uphills are apparently my strong point of a bike. However, on the following downhill she flew by me. I was pedaling hard and she was in a tuck. The battle continued throughout the entire bike, every significant uphill I would pass her and every downhill she blew past me. I guess that’s what happens when your riding a $500 used road bike and she’s on a top of the line tri bike. I averaged 20.5 mph according to my computer on my bike but on the results it said I averaged 21.9, hopefully the speed on the results is more accurate. My exact time was 1:08:17 for 24.something miles, good for a 14th place overall split.

After what I considered a great bike ride, I was pretty pumped to see how I would do on the run; I thought this would be my best leg. I rode into the transition area and slipped on my shoes ditched my bike and was off after a really smooth transition. As soon as I took one stride I knew my run was not going to be fast. I felt like I was running 8 minute miles with my heart rate in the high 180s, it was a very strange feeling. My legs were like jello, they were tight, and they were not moving fast, it’s a strange feeling to describe. I told myself my legs would loosen up and they did a little after 3 miles or so. The run was deadly though. Although I was still passing a lot of people it hurt really badly and I was not going very fast. The little timing chip band on my leg gave me a pretty nasty blister too. The last mile of the race was the most difficult; you could see the finish across the lake which kind of sucked. I got a cramp in my quad, which was weird as I have never gotten a muscle cramp before. I was afraid that I had ripped a muscle or something. I staggered to the line, actually getting passed by one person, the only person to pass me on the run or bike. My time in the run was 42:22 which is pretty slow for a regular 10k but apparently its okay for a triathlon, as my split was the 10th fastest overall. My final time for the tri was 2:20:37, 18th place overall. I’m not really sure how good that time is but I’m pretty pumped that I did it, it was a sweet experience. I’m definitely going to try and do more of them. This weekend I think I’m going to go up with Zach and meet up with incoming freshman Adam Terko to do one of the nensa roller ski races, should be a good time.