A Clydesdale is born

Yesterday, I did my first sprint triathlon. Here are the results:

Swim: 7:02 - 400 yards
T1: 5:19
Bike 1:02:11 - 14 mile
T2: 1:41
Run: 50:09 - 3.4 mile
Overall 2:06:24

I pretty pleased with my performance and I did what I expected to do. The swim was good, the bike okay (need to train more hills), and the run not so good.

I felt quick on the swim and I was able to draft off several people. I was a bit loopy coming out of the water and I think that effected my T1 time. I kept thinking as I ran out to the bike "Just don't wreck, just don't wreck" . My head cleared pretty quickly once I got on the bike.

The bike went as expected. I kept having to tell myself to keep a lid on things. There was hill in the middle of the course that I was a bit worried about. Its not much of hill by Western WA standards but where I live is mostly flat. I got over the hill okay and then the turn around and back over the hill. My legs were pretty shot by the end of the bike.

With my legs somewhat toasted it took a good portion of the first mile to get my stride. I planned to run for 10min and walk for 2 min, but it turned out to be more like run 5 walk 5. On mile 2 some lady and her friend pass me with a comment "This is where the big guys suffer". I wanted to yell "I'm not suffering!" but that would have taken energy from more important things like breathing and moving forward. The last mile+ I was able to run continuously.

As I passed mile marker 3, I throught "Holy sh*t! I'm gonna finish this!". Tears welled up in my eyes,(I hope it looked like sweat!). When I started training for this eight months ago, my diabetes was out of control, my lipids were skyrocketing and everytime I went to the doctor it seemed like I got nothing but bad news. Now my blood sugars are good, my lipid are better, and I love the way I feel in general.

I wasn't DFL, but was definately BOP, (swimming was MOP tho, woot!). So my goals for next year are:

1. Increase my volume with a long base training period


2. More bricks


3. Work on my running technique


4. Train more hills on the bike

Geoff