As sherry main put it in her tweet, I finally put the “tri” in “triadamlete”. Today I finished my first Olympic tri, the San Diego Olympic Tri in Point Loma. It was awesome!

My goal time was 2 hours, 45 minutes.  My final time was 2 hours, 22 minutes, 11 seconds. I was stoked. The winning time was 1:51:02 (how would I ever pick up 30 minutes???).   They haven’t posted splits yet, but I know I came in about 100^th overall and 14^th in my age group (30-34, out of 39 people). Out of my goals, I think I accomplished everything I wanted to.  I overcame my open water fear and got comfortable with swimming in crowds. Despite my transition mistakes, I learned how to do it quickly.  I learned what my strengths and weaknesses were. I learned to eat during the workout. I figured out how to bike in a race (e.g. passing, staying to the right, being vocal).  Most importantly, I got hooked on the triathlon and how awesome the tri community is. I had fun!

My splits are below. I was pretty stoked with my numbers, but I do think the run was a little less than 10k distance. I actually didn’t think these times were possible heading into the race, but given my heart rate and how comfortable I was on the run, I think I could do much better. I could probably improve transitions a minute, and I know there is a lot more I can do on the bike.

Here’s a quick synopsis of my race and some of the things I’ve learned about triathlons:

• Pre-Race 
  • I was nervous: 5 bathroom trips before the race – beat my previous best of four before my second San Francisco marathon
  • Transition was on grass, and I used a balloon to mark my place. I was the only one with a balloon. Several athletes around me thanked me for helping them locate their bike J very surprised with how few people do this. Business opportunity at expos?
  • I need to drink more water before I race, especially with that many bathroom trips
• Swim (00:24:04)
  • No pauses on the swim.  Had a little trouble sighting, but I followed the bubbles (thanks Rod).
  • Shoulders were very tired and I need to work on my endurance.
  • Heart rate of 175 by the time I got on my bike. Kinda crazy
• T1 (00:02:13)
  • Wetsuit half off on the way to bike – slipped right off when I got there. Thanks Rod for the Pam suggestion (spray legs before putting on wetsuit)
  • Quick drink of water, grabbed my bike, and I was gone
  • Improvement: run faster to bike, don’t take time for water, improve flexibility J
• Bike (1:16:08)
  • Slipped feet into clipped in shoes, buckled in during first mile
  • Drank a lot on the first leg, especially during the first 2 miles to makeup for my lack of drinking during the swim
  • Took a few miles to catch my breath, but I eventually lowered my heart rate and felt comfortable
  • .75 miles at about 8% grade – BRUTAL, especially on the second loop
  • BEAUTIFUL views through the naval base on top of the cliffs. Downtown San Diego on the left, Pacific Ocean on the right. Advantage of having no headphones: I definitely took in the views more.  There was a military graveyard next to the road at the top of one cliff, and it was a bone chilling feeling to ride by that in the overcast weather.
  • After the cliff, there were several miles downhill – going about 35 mph in aero. Fun but a little nerve racking
  • Ate GU for the first time in a race. No stomach issues
  • Making turn near dismount, pulled feet out of shoes to get ready for dismount. Then told that wasn’t dismount area and had another 3 miles, so I had to put my feet back in.  Definitely wasted some time here. I could really feel the loss of power without the clip-ins (riding on top of the shoes)
  • About 200 feet from dismount, pulled feed out and rode on top of my shoes
• T2 (00:01:06)
  • Dismounted barefoot and ran bike to my position (easily discovered by balloon)
  • Flipped on running shoes, took off
  • Got out of transition and down the straight away and realized my helmet was still on
  • Sprinted back and dropped off helmet. Probably lost 30 seconds here. I think this got lumped in with my run time though since I passed the T1 chip reader
  • Took off running
• Run (00:38:40 – 5.55 miles, 6:58/mile)
  • Average 6:14 miles for 10k – I believe the run was about .3 miles to short, but nice after the marathons I run that are 26.7 miles
  • They miscalculated the distance – notified in a follow up email; race distance was 5.55 miles
  • Legs felt heavy for first half mile, but great after that
  • I’ve been working on my running cadence, taking shorter strides but more of them.  It really helped in this race as my legs never really hurt after the first half-mile.
  • Didn’t push it all during race except to keep a steady heart rate (155-163) and steady pace. Heart rate was much higher than I expected, but my heart rate on the bike was the highest it has ever been (150-170), so it was tough to bring it down on the run. Plus, I felt good and went with it
  • Did not sprint finish to save legs for marathon in a few weeks

That is my first triathlon. I had awesome support from my girlfriend Adrienne and my parents, Mike and Mary (you can see them in my Flickr pictures).  It was such a great feeling to complete this race, have fun, and feel good after the race. I’m happy with my level of fitness and training.  I realized that the science of sport that I’ve been studying has a lot of value, and I’ll continue to research and work hard at it.  Based on my

Me with the pit crew

performance and splits, here are the things I need to work on:

1. Swimming endurance
2. Bike force
3. Bike muscular endurance
4. Running cadence
5. Expand my triathlon community – everyone I’ve met in this sport is awesome

If you have any tips or questions, please post a comment. I’ll get back to my regular posts this week, especially when it comes to putting together a training schedule and some more on workout impacts and workout variation (volume, intensity and frequency).

Some of my bloopers:

Out of my shoes too soon

Running out of transition with my helmet

Realized it fortunately here, not a mile into the run

Had to run back