Sep23 , 2018 was the date of my second olympic distance triathlon.
1.5Km Swim , 40 Km Cycle , 10Km Run. I managed to finish in 3 Hours and 15 mins. Its still a slow time placing me in the bottom quarter of the field. And close to one of the slowest in my age group.
Slow or not. I loved the experience. I was feeling a bit under the weather and had a stomach upset in the morning. Was feeling very under-confident.
Basically the week before I was dealing with some signs of over-training. Reason – I had done two massive brick workouts 10 days prior to the race. This was a bad idea. I over-taxed my legs, and felt it all the way to race day.
In all, I improved considerably compared to my half-moon bay performance from 5 months ago. I improved in ALL the events. In total I shaved 36 minutes . So, I was very happy.
There was one glitch. 10 minutes before my wave was supposed to go out. I broke my swim goggles. Which led to a 10 minute long jog/run back to transition that finished with me missing my wave.
As soon as I hit the water, I was shocked and couldn’t breath. I stopped swimming and went on my back and waited a few breaths to catch my breath. Then slowly tried to get into the rhythm of swimming. I had better results with sighting. But starting behind the group, made it difficult. There were no intermediate bouys either.
I used my newly bought BlueSeventy swim cap that helped a bit with my disorientation I face when I come out of the water.
The bike leg went very well. The run went as planned.
It was a beautiful day and it was all very exciting. Finally I will use this race to set the targets for my next year.
The key takeaway were:
- I need to run a LOT more. I need to start getting into the 9min/Mile.
- I need to learn swim technique. I am way too inefficient in the water.
My target for next year is :
Swim: 35 Mins.
Bike: 1H:15Mins
Run: 55 Mins.
A second chance? 