Columbia Triathlon - Triathlon

I can't expect much when I don't start swimming until May. this is about the expected result.
however, this year I am wearing a Garmin 910xt and one thing I noticed is my swim track via gps looks rather angular as opposed to straight lines. in fact it looks like I swam an extra 260 yards! my Garmin says I went 1.08 miles instead of .93. SIGHTING is on my homework list.

swim straight.

dropped my goggles coming out of the water and went back. otherwise pretty smooth.

Got on the bike smoothly and motored out of transition. I had put mu Oakley shades in the back of my shirt as they were all fogged when I came into transition...when I reached back to grab them they were gone. must have shot out in transition...never to be seen again...damnit.

plan was to ride aggressively, particularly on the up hills and I pushed it from the beginning. Gearing was 23 on the back and that was a good call as that's all I needed.

Didn't pay attention to power while riding due to massive fluctuations with the hills, but interesting that my avg power was only 1 watt under my FTP @ 297w. Normalized power was 327w.

Roads were wet and there was some sprinkling, so I took some of the turns and roundabouts a bit more cautiously.

Smooth ride except for more vehicle traffic than normal. at one point I got behind two dump trucks that were impossible to pass without going into the other lane which was not an option with oncoming bike traffic. that stunk, but I used the time for some recovery.

nutrition: 2 Gu Roctanes mixed in my water bottle. picked up a second bottle at the end but didn't really need it.

nothing. I think for the Olympic distance an aggressive bike is good for me and attacking the hills paid off with a split 2+ min faster than my best year here and a top 7% bike split.

good job in T2. my best segment of the day vs the field.

first two miles I was regretting going so hard on the bike and was not sure I was going to make it without walking. those hills are brutal. pretty much resigned myself to a sub par run. but got my rhythm going after that and started to come around and felt ok for the back half.
nutrition: just water and Gatorade.

probably trust my run a bit more in the beginning and go out a bit harder. some bricks in training would have helped as I had not done any this year and pretty much forgot how it feels.

losing weight would really help on the run on this course too.

looked for my Oakleys with no luck.


the night before I predicted I would come in between 2:31 and 2:32 and I was there as expected. unlike that sandbagger Burke who said he'd go 2:35 and then crushed me with a 2:28!!


5th year straight doing this race. I love it. but it looks like they really skimped on the spending this year. fewer portapotties, crappy givaways (compared with last year), food was sub-par, and the new timing company still doesn't have official sortable results up and it is 10 days later. but, the Columbia tri folks sent out a survey and I was happy to provide my feedback..nice to know they are listening. I will be back.