21 July 2019 - TriBoulder Olympic distance triathlon


Joking around with my better half before the race

Its always fun at these event to run into friends

On Sunday,  I completed my second triathlon of the year.  The event was called TriBoulder and was held at Boulder Reservoir in Boulder Colorado.  This was an olympic distance triathlon which  included just under a 1 mile swim, 26.4 mile bike ride and 6.2 mile run.  This race also offered a Long Course (Ironman 70.3 distance), Sprint course and Aquabike (swim and bike only).

We lucked out with the weather as the morning started out about 63 degrees and warmed up to the low/mid 70s for the run.  The sun was beating down pretty good on the run but the temps were definitely not terrible.

My goals for the race were:
  1. Finish the race
  2. Beat the TriDot expectations for me and find out my fitness level
  3. Test my nutrition plan
  4. Do my best and have fun
Overall I was satisfied with my performance.  I always wish I was faster but was the best me I could be for the day.  I accomplished all of my goals except for on the swim.

Ready for the swim

We arrived at the Boulder Reservoir at about 530am.  Transition was pre-assigned based on the race we were doing.  I was very fortunate to be assigned a spot by the bike entry/exit.  I prefer this so as to minimize the amount of running I have to do in bike shoes.  I setup my area, conversed with other racers, familiarized myself with the location, put my wetsuit on, and then headed down to the water about 650am.  This gave me enough time to warmup in the water before my swim wave started at 721am.  The water was 76 degrees and felt great.

The swim:

Sound the alarm, we are entering the water...
Jumping in with the other guppies...

For the swim, we started from the beach and had to run and jump into the water and then start swimming.  This was kinda tricky as you need to follow others into the water and then jump in and start swimming.  There are arms and feet everywhere so it is also a challenge to not get kicked.  My path was towards  the right and worked fairly well.  There was a bit of contact at the start but not horrible.  I knew the bigger problem for me was that we were swimming directly into the sunlight.  I was wearing my mirrored goggles but still could not see the buoys at all.  My strategy became to try and follow the people in front of me until I could see the buoys.  Unfortunately this strategy didn't work too well as I struggled to see the buoys on the entire first half of the swim.  I really thought my swim was going well inspite of this but the problem is that I zig-zagged right and left too much.  My garmin said I ended up swimming 1780 yards (180 yards too far) but not sure I totally trust this.  Overall I was disappointed in how slow my swim was.  TriDot predicted 31:49 for my swim and I actually came in at 36:13.

Out of the water, time to get this wetsuit off...
Ouch.  Barefoot running here hurts..
Much tougher getting the legs out of the wetsuit
Now it's off for a little bike ride...

T1:
Transition 1 went well.  We had a long way to run from the swim entrance into transition to the bike exit.  This distance probably accounted for about 30+ seconds of the time.  My T1 time was 2:48. Not fast but not horrible either.  Overall I was satisfied with this time.





Bike.
The bike ride went fantastic.  I really enjoyed riding the new Cervelo P2 and felt really fast on it.  The uphills tend to be my nemesis but the downhills I usually make up for it.  This course was a bit of each and I was very satisfied with my finish time of 1:19:55.  TriDot predicted I would do 130:24 and I blew this away!  I also feel my saddle height is finally dialed in.  I've been having problems with hamstring and knee pain on the new bike but experienced none of this during the ride.



T2
T2 went OK.  Once again the long run to the "run out" made for about 30+ seconds added on to my T2 time.  My T2 time was 1:55.  Looking back I probably took a bit too long in T2 but I am not totally disappointed with this time.


Run:
Running has just become hard for me lately.  Not sure if it is all the zone 2 running or what.  In the past I was able to run 9 minute miles without pushing too hard.  My run time for this event was 1:02:09.  About a 10 minute pace per mile.  TriDot predicted 1:06:15 so I beat this time easily.


Overall.
TriDot predicted it would take me 3:08:32 to complete this race.  It took me 3:03:03, so I easily beat their prediction.  I really was hoping to come in under 3 hours.  I was really close so can't be too disappointed.  After the race I felt great.  In fact I was right back into my training on Monday with no muscle soreness.  Overall I was satisfied and am well on pace for my Ironman 70.3 in 2 months.

What's next for me:
August 3rd:  Copper Triangle (bike ride with Julie over 3 mountain passes.  About 80 miles)
September 15th:  Ironman 70.3 Atlantic City

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