Summer Open Sprint Triathon

Triathlon season is finally upon us, no matter what the water temperature says about it. Today's Summer Open went ok, though I had a vague feeling of disappointment at the end. The official water temperature was 61 degrees, 3 degrees colder than last year. I didn't find it too cold, though my feet were numb until around mile 2 of the run. My swim time was 90 seconds faster than last year's Summer Open swim and 30 seconds faster than Oktoberfest. Being the eternal optimist that I am, my first reaction was, "oh, the course was short this year." I did feel like I went fairly conservatively for the first 5 minutes since it was my first open water swim of the season, but I did pick it up by the 1st buoy. Maybe all the swimming I've been doing the last 2 months is paying off. I was ranked in the 29% for women, 10% in my age group.

The bike is where I feel the most disappointed. My time was about 90 seconds slower than Oktoberfest. I felt like more people passed me and I just didn't have it in my legs. But talking to people after, we all agreed that there was a headwind and I don't think there was the last 2 races.



My run was ok. I swear to gawd that I have raced this course 4 times and volunteered once and Every Single Time the turnaround cone has been in a different spot. Today know it was closer than where it was for the Tri Babes race last year (and at that race I even confirmed with the race director the cone was in the right place, as my volunteer spot was right at that cone and I thought it looked too far out). But I think it was at least where it was for last year's Summer Open. Roughly. Who the hell knows. Maybe some day I'll wear my Garmin on the run and test it out. My 5k time was 27:21.



I think the reason why I didn't enjoy this race as much as usual was I felt very alone. I did know 6 others racing, but I only found one before the race start. And post race I did talk to everyone but I didn't feel like I had a group to drink beer with like I did at Oktoberfest. Apparently I like the social aspect of racing.

I was trying to figure out how I had a faster time, but went from 156 overall last year to 171 this year. The answer was, there were 95 more racers this year and apparently 15 of them were faster than me. Last year I was ranked 60% overall and this year 49% overall (and yes, overall does include all those mens.). So even though I was 8th place in my age group, I still did ok.

The final results: 1:19:09. 750 meter swim: 13:28; T1: 1:36; 12.4 mile bike: 35:43; T2: 1:03; Run: 27:21

But to show I'm not all doom and gloom, here's the one bright spot of this race. This picture was taken yesterday at the lake while we were experiencing high winds:



OMG am I glad it wasn't windy like that today. I would have cried, for real life.

...

So this week's training volume was a bit short because I opted out of Saturday's 4 1/2 hour workout in hopes that I would have a good race today.

Weekly Totals:

Swim: 9820 yards
Bike: 70.1 miles
Run: 11.2 miles
Strength: 30 minutes

Total: 10:30