Triathlon Weekend Recap
Originally published July 2023
This past weekend I finished my first Olympic-distance triathlon. That’s a 1 mile swim, 24 mile bike and 6 mile run. I enjoyed every moment of this new race distance but it was absolutely not easy. I chose to do my first Olympic distance in Wauconda, IL, it is a course I have done before and am familiar with the area.
The super positive takeaway is that I finished the race, felt good about it and would definitely like to do another. With that said I absolutely learned a lot of things to improve upon for the next one.
I went into this race with very little training. At the end of May I had surgery which kept me out of training for a few weeks and then I left for a trip to Southeast Asia, so for the entire month before the race I didn’t really train. I managed to get in a few longer swims when I was back in the country but really could have benefited from longer open water swims.
I have a lot of room for improvement and below as I break down the areas of the race I’ll share what I think went well and where I can improve.
Swim
One big takeaway for me is that the mile distance is more than a doable distance to swim; it is far but absolutely a distance I feel comfortable doing. That being said, I could absolutely prepare better.
Even more so than the sprint swim distance (.5 mile) this race could have benefited from a lot more open water practice. When pool swimming the breaks just come naturally and you don’t think about how those little tiny breaks really help to space up the distance, but going that distance in open water without a real break is a different challenge. As I think about my future race plans I am interesting in getting a coach to help with the swim. While I can do the distance I know there is room to grow and being someone who isn’t knowledgeable in how to train or improve swimming, a coach could offer great insights.
I also realized about 10 minutes from the race that I forgot my goggles but an incredibly kind soul let me borrow a pair. I can say with pretty strong confidence I could not have done the 1 mile without goggles, they were definitely necessary to see the course.
Bike
The bike, my weakest event. Right off the bat I thought only my front tire was half flat but turns out both of my tires were half flat the entire bike course. I made mistakes here that could have been avoided, like triple-checking my tires and finally mounting my pump on my bike. I could have been better prepared. That being said I’m not a strong biker at all and I really need to figure out where it is that I am lacking. I have always thought as the bike being the simple part but as my races and training have shown I have a lot to improve upon.
I really trail on the bike and it’s a little disheartening when so many people are blowing by when I know I’m fit and capable. So the bike was really a challenge but a weird positive was that all the things that typically bother me (my neck, arms, lower back) gave me no problems at all. To improve in the tri I will really need to give the bike some dedicated effort and figure out where I am lacking. I’m not sure where to start quite yet but I will be sharing what I learn as I work on my training.
Run
As expected the run was the easiest part for me. I was a little nervous how 6 miles would go after all that other work but after the first like half mile just getting my legs under me it went super smooth. I held a good pace the entire run course and was able to push the last 2 miles. The course was pretty hilly and I was actually surprised that my run pace was in the low 9 min/mile.
The run is the part of the race that many other athletes neglect and tend to fall back on. What I have found is that one event over the others will be your strongest and when you are in the one push like you know you can. It also helps you to mentally push past those harder events. Passing people on the run helped me feel a little better after such a tough bike.
A few key takeaways…
For the swim and the bike I finished ahead of what I anticipated a realistic finish time would be and yet I was still almost dead last. The people who are doing these races are seriously fast and I’m curious what their training looks like. How are they finishing almost an hour faster. What goes into it that gives that kind of a finish. These are thoughts that were going through my mind almost the whole time on the bike. This goes into how I’m thinking about future training.
Knowing that I am a fit, capable, endurance athlete and seeing so many people pushing it so much faster* I know that I have a lot of room for growth. Instead of putting me down it excited me to find what else I have in me.
*It isn’t about placing or caring that I finish in the end, it is about knowing that I have more in me to give. It is about the personal challenge not some outside pressure or feeling bad about being slow. I know I have more and I want to go find it.
The first Olympic distance tri was a success because I set a new goal for myself and completed it. I learned that I have room for growth and there are many opportunities for me to continue to push myself and improve.
