Well not quite true of course but I did do my first Olympic distance triathlon today and I finished the race and even finished strong. I have just done sprint tri’s so far and the my big worry was the run – I really don’t know how hard I can bike and still have power left for the bike without cramping up.

This race really started three weeks ago when I did a long hard brick workout with the ProClub tri team where we biked 40 miles over the 7 hills of Kirkland course and then a 10k run. I managed to run 7k before my legs started cramping so something was wrong with my nutrition or speed on bike or run. The bike was really tough so my guess is that I just didn’t have fuel left in my legs and Coach Michael told me I should tri some salt tablets to keep the cramp away.

Time for Finish Strong Olympic Triathlon in Monroe, Washington

345 AM – what is going on, who is calling middle of the night, can somebody please answer that phone and turn off that sound … after a good oatmeal with bananas breakfast I packed the last things into the car and out Alan’s and my bike on the bike rack. Alan dropped by yesterday to drop of his gear so we could get a good start in the morning. We got up to Monroe at 530, right when registration and transition opened and it was totally dark but we could see that the lake was covered in a thick fog. Race was delayed 15 minutes to let the fog clear and when wave 1 started Alan and I together with another 25 guys supposed to start in Wave 2 were left on the beach as all men apparently started at the same time …

Swim course was a bit odd and actually must have been a little shorter than 1500 meters as after struggling a bit with astma and having to breaststroke to get air a minute or so I finished the swim in 19:25 which is maybe 4-5 minutes less than what I had expected on 1500. Lake was shallow and really warm and I thought I was going to strand as a big whale a few times during the swim as all in a sudden my hands hit the bottom. My swim was ranked 36th which is a bit disappointing but given that I was still holding my goggles waiting for next wave at the start. It was a good experience swimming through, over, under the crowd. T1 went good and with a couple of breathers with the astma inhalator I was as good as new and exited transition at 1:43.

I felt strong getting out on the little longer bike ride which I knew was going to pretty flat. Olympic distance should be 26 miles but this was 28. The bike race went ok and I felt good all the way .. too good actually, probably could have pushed a bit harder as I finished in 1:29 with average of just under 19mph on this flat course. I was worried about leaving enough juice in my legs for the run so took it easy.. next time I will push it more. During the bike I managed to get the right amount of nutrition with Gu Gel and salt tablets plus plenty of water.

Transition to Run was good at 1:08 and I started my run a bit fast as usual but quickly managed to control my tempo to a 8.30-8.45 minutes per mile tempo which I knew I could do over 6 miles. Legs felt fantastic and I really need to get some more cardio work done as my run tempo is limited by my lungs… off season work is going to so much fun. When I went through the goal/transition are for the second 5K the sun really started to heat up but the cheering from the crowd really helped. I stayed at a steady tempo and at 4 miles I heard a familiar sound behind me, Alan had caught me which I expected would happen during the run .. he is really fast on the run. I felt ok all through the run and managed to speed up a bit on the last mile to finish in 52.25 which probably is my fastest 10k. Next time I think I will run without having my speed and pace visible on my watch as I think I will run faster.

During the whole race it was great to see other ProClub Tri team athletes on the course and of course Denise cheering us on during the run after she rocked the sprint race. During the run I put up a minor goal to finish my first 5k before Jason H in the ProClub team (5th overall with 2.17) finished his second and last 5K …he passed me 100 yards before the 5K turn.

I finished the race in about 2.44:33 and according to Jason and others the total time for them was similar to a normal Olympic as the swim was a bit short and the bike was longer. Longer swim is better for me… I am really happy that I felt ok throughout the race and I know I left a few minutes on the course. New olympic race in three weeks and then I will decide in a couple of days if I will do the Black Diamond half ironman last weekend of September or just stick with another olympic.

Times compared to other races (swim distance this weekend is 0.75 in the table as I don’t know how long it actually was.). Link to the full results from this weekend on buduracing.com.

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// Brjann

I had my eyes set on the Enumclaw Olympic tri on 8/7 but that race was cancelled so I looked around for other race and found Whidbey Island Sprint Tri. Great race to do instead of the Olympic as the swim distance at this spring was .5 miles instead of the .25 many other sprints have. Thanks Cody and the boot campers, my running is getting much better but the four week vacation away from my bike didn’t really help on the hills. Big thanks also to the team at Mr Crampy’s and the experienced triathletes that help out at the swim clinics at Beaver Lake as these really help newbies like me getting used to the triathlon specifics of an open swim.  Like their page on Facebook and join the clinics for some fun.

It was a 9 am start but I needed to catch the 6 am ferry to have time to check in and then set up my two different transition stations since this was a point to point race with Swim at Goss Lake and then the run started and finished at Community Park. The organizers really did a good job managing the transportation between the transition stations that are 7 miles apart and overall this was a well managed event and even if the first transition is really odd it was a great day on beautiful Whidbey Island.

The swim was in Goss Lake in 70+ degrees and I though about wearing the wetsuit or not but given that I have only done open water swimming in the suit I opted to use it.

Started the swim at the front right side and quickly found a couple of bubble makers to draft off but for some reason I lost them a couple of minutes into the swim so I continued in a good tempo and I didn’t realize I was going the wrong direction until it was too late… oh that is why I lost those feet   I excited the swim at just over 14 minutes which is a bit slow for me but I had just done an extra 100 meters or so.. The transition is really odd, you run up and change in to your bike gear which is stuffed into a plastic bag before the race and then you run to your bike in other place in T1.

Bike ride started with a hill and luckily I had heard about that so had my bike set on low gear and was able to get a good start. Just a 10 minutes into the ride my legs were on fire, pulse was way up after the swim and due to the hills in the first few miles. The cheering from the locals really helped me getting into the zone and my second time around was better and I felt ok even if I was passed by many on the long hills but but happy to say that my downhill and flat riding is fairly fast so I was able to catch up and pass a few as well. The hills weren’t steep but long and I think I should do some more Hollywood hill training rides..

All in all the bike was ok and I’m really thankful to one of my fellow riders who took time to let me know that the first part of the run would be all uphill. I fueled up and tried to flush my legs on the last mile. Transition 2 went well , found my shoes and hat and left my bike and gear at T2 and headed into the dark forest on Whidbey Island. Run started up up up for about a mile through a really nice trail through the forest ending on a soccer field and after that it was all flat or downhill so even if my first mile was just over 9 minutes I was able to finish the run in just under 8 min per mile which is basically my goal for these runs.

How did it go? When I crossed the finish line I was happy to see that it was under 2 hours and I wasn’t totally out of breath so maybe I didn’t quite go all out on the run..

Official Results where you can see that the winner was in my age group and was “only” 25 minutes before me Whidbey Island 2011 Triathlon Results and that my different splits except the swim were all ranked around 75th and my swim ranked 30th.

Net Time: 01:54:14
Swim (1/2 mile) : 00:14:05
T1: 00:02:48
Bike (19.5 miles): 01:07:08
T2: Not recorded so estimated to 1 min in table below
Run (3.8 miles): 00:30:12

I finished 67th overall out of 219 and 5th out of 11 in my age group which is a really nice improvement from the first sprint and if you read my blog after that race you might remember that my goal at next sprint was to get into the top 50%. The Cottage Lake sprint wasn’t as competitive as the other two so placement is a bit misleading. Swim and run shows improvement in pace but the Whidbey bike ride was much harder.