Chain of Lakes Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

The four of us were all pretty much the same speed, so it was a 4 person chain. I think the pool drafting made it easier than it should have ... have not experienced that before as I don't swim with others very often.

In a pool swim: get in number two position instead of four, in order to be able to break out of the pack, if needed. With four of us, I was in the back and passing is tough with four in the lane.

Took my time to dry off since I am a cold wimp (and I live in ND, why again?). Had to put on a long sleeve compression shirt since I had no other suitable cycling jersey (that time went against the swim portion, so my T1 REALLY stunk). Tough to get on ...

Everything else went ok, except I got a little flustered on where I could get on the bike, not thinking clearly.

Would like to get one strap cycling shoes, with a good liner, so I can keep the shoes on the bike and not wear socks. This would have been a tough race to not wear socks though, with the cold/wind.

Windy and cold. Wind/temp was around 20mph/38deg when I started the bike (probably around 10:30am?). thighs were frozen for the first 10 minutes. Decision to wear the long-sleeve compression shirt helped as I didn't get cold.

I did not know the lay of the land very well, which was dumb on my part. Took it way too easy on the first stretch ... was expecting more hills on that stretch. Got into good rhythm on the bike trail and the road on the following turn. Then hit 17 with the cross-wind and slight grade ... slowed my fat butt down to a crawl.

need to try and drive/review the course before hand.
Control the weather so I can ride more than 3x outside before the next event ;)

Do better job at warming up the muscle groups. Hammies and glutes were a little strained ... Could have been due to the cold weather and not being adequately warmmed up/stretched.

Left cycle shoes on. Got out decent, except for taking time to grab the Garmin for the run. Also, left race belt/number at T2, whoops. Started to run back to get it, but scratched that after second thought.

Get out of shoes before T2 (in line with the one strap shoe purchase plan). Maybe run without socks for these shorter 4 mile and less runs.

Legs were totally stiff and didn't feel like they wanted to move ... the normal after bike feeling, but worse. Most likely due to not biking much yet this year.

My heart rate seemed to stay lower than my perceived effort level. Tried to get it back up ... usually run at 162 in training and don't think my running rate ever got higher than 155. Biking heart rate was 160-168 ... this was flip-flopped from my usual experience. Does this mean my cardio is getting better in the run, but my legs were just burnt by the bike?

Bricks
Start speed work
Lose 10lbs (to low 180s)

stretch out the calves, ouch!



weight


Nice to have an early event for motivation Also good to see where you are at early on.