July 26, 2015 - TriBoulder Sprint Triathlon

 

Just like last year, I really enjoyed TriBoulder.  The event is really well organized and Boulder Reservior is a fun place to hang out and do a Triathlon.  There were 3 other people from the Arvada Tri Club there as well as my friend Jeff Nielsen.  My finish time (1:47:24) wasn't fast but overall I am satisfied since I really didn't have much time to train for the event due to the broken foot.

My friend Jeff and I arrived at Boulder Reservior around 615am, 1 hour and 30 minutes before my wave started.  That gave us plenty of time to relax and do everything we needed before the race.  As I  walked towards transition they stopped me for body marking.   The wonders of someone writing numbers on you with magic marker.  Is it just me or does that stuff take a day to two to wear off?  Anyway once the marking was complete, I found my transition spot.  It actually wasn't too bad. Fairly close to the bike start/stop but not to the swim/run start/stop.  We were grouped together with our age groupers so I was with the 55-59 year old dudes.  Everyone was really friendly and there was plenty of room for our stuff.

I setup up my transition area, which included making sure my bike shoes were unlatched!  Anyone that reads my blog will understand why I highlight that.  Once everything was laid out I gooped up and put the wetsuit on.  I used plastic King Sooper bags on my feet to slip into my wetsuit.   I learned this trick from one of our Tri Club activities and it worked great.  This was my first time wearing my new one piece triathlon suit under the wetsuit.  It was a little tight but not horrible.

We headed down to the water about 725am and swam around a little waiting for our wave to start.  The sun was right in our face so I knew sighting was gonna be tough.  I'm not very good at swimming in a straight line and this didn't help.  I didn't wear my Garmin 910XT but would guess my swim was not very straight.  This race had a running start into the water.  I stayed back and walked into the water as all the crazy folks ran and dived.  Not sure how much it helped as there was lots of kicking, slapping, and bumping from the get-go.

Top left, I am leaning into the water

My swim was slow but came within my expectations.  I swam the whole way without stopping and  was excited because I had the opportunity at the buoys to try out a new turning technique. It made turning much easier and efficient.  Coming out of the water I was tuckered out.  I slowly grabbed my wetsuit strap and pulled it down while walking to transition (see below).  I then then took off the goggles, ear plugs, and swim cap and rolled them into one of the sleeves as I pulled the wetsuit over my arms. The swim time included the walk to transition.

  
Once I arrived at transition, all effort was placed into taking the wetsuit off and getting onto the bike and back out of transition as quick as possible.  My transition (T1) time was not fast but quite acceptable to me.  The toughest part was getting the wetsuit off.  I also wanted to take a gel on the bike ride with me but couldn't get the gel into the triathlon-suit pocket.  This was frustrating and meant I held it in my hand the entire bike ride. 

 

The bike pictures of me are kinda embarrassing.  I can see my stomach pouch, my form is sad and it shows how much work I still need to do.  Beyond that I was thrilled with the bike time!  I beat last years time my almost a minute and had a blast on the ride. Some of the uphills were challenging but this can be attributed to being out of shape.  On the downhill and flats I adjusted my seat into aero position, leaned forward and away I went.  I passed quite a few people on the bike and felt really good! 

 

I was slightly disoriented coming into T2 and had a little trouble finding my transition spot but was only 11 seconds over my goal of 1:30.  T2 included putting my bike away, taking off the helmet and bike shoes, and then putting on my run shoes, run hat, sunglasses and race number and then running out of transition.  

 The run was just plain hard for me.  The foot did OK but I just couldn't seem to get my breathing right.  The first mile wasn't too bad at a 9:11 pace but I walked some in the second (10:11 pace) and third (9:58 pace) mile.  I was disappointed in the run but was also somewhat satisfied to average around a 9:46 pace. 

Overall I was thrilled to be back out there competing!  I have many areas that need improvement right now.  I have my eyes set on another Sprint Triathlon in late August.  Hopefully I can improve enough to be more competitive there.

My official time:
Swim:  19.16.1  (2:34/100)     : Slightly slower than my goal of 19 minutes
T1: 2:24                                   : Slightly faster than my goal of 2:30
Bike: 53:44.9  (19:31 mph)     : Much faster than my goal of 60 minutes
T2: 1:41                                   : Slightly slower than my goal of 1:30
Run: 30.17.8  (9:46 per mile)  :  Slightly slower than my goal of 30 minutes
Total:  1.47.24.2                       : Almost 6 minutes faster than my goal of 1:53

105th out of 254 Total Finishers
74th out of 122 Male Finishers
5th out of 8 Finishers in M55-59 Age Group

What's next for me:

• Increase my run distance 1 mile per week.  Next week = 5 mile run
• August 30, My Way or The Tri Way Sprint Triathlon