Post Triathlon (Route 66 Tri) Thoughts…

I did my very first sprint triathlon this past weekend, the Route 66 Tri. I did great, I am very happy with my result for my first ever try. I gave myself the goal of less than 2 hours, and the ultimate goal of less than 1:45. I did it in 1:44:32, so I did what I wanted and more!

Now that I have had a few days to sit and stew on it, and look at my times, I need to work on…

Swim (500 meters), 16:57

  • Being more confident in the water, this was my first ever open water swim. I did well, but need to calm down some. I got a charlie horse in my left calf halfway thru the swim, which caused me to turn to my back and back stroke for a while.
  • I am also going to spend some time in the pool doing push and pull drills to help out, just to help my speed a little.

Transition #1, 3:15

  • Have my stuff setup in a more organized fashion.
  • Run in and run out, I hesitated a bit too much, mostly because I was not sure I was doing it all correctly, next time I’ll know.

Bike (20K), 49:04 

  • Push harder, push thru the pain more.
  • Need a new bike, my mountain bike (Specialized Hardrock, with street tires, not mountain bike tires) is not going to cut it if I want to get more competitive in tri’s
  • Get bike shoes, this will help to push harder.

Transition #2, 0:57

  • Not a ton to work on here, just do that again!

Run (5k), 34:17

  • Most work needed here, which is kind of strange to me, being that I’ve run a half marathon. But, I petered out on the run, which explains my time.
  • I paced myself in the run too much, and ended up walking a few times cause I was beat. In training I am going to do sprint drills and hills to get my run cardio up higher.

My next tri is scheduled for Jun3 13th, it’s a sprint as well, so I have two weeks to get some additional training to fine tune my output.

All-in-all tho, I am already addicted to tri’s … it was SOOOO much fun. I honestly enjoy it more than I do just running, or just biking… it must bode well with my A.D.D.

I still want to do a full marathon, but I think after that I am going to fully concentrate all my efforts on becoming a much better triathlete.