The Boulder Sprint Triathlon consists of an 800m swim, 17.2
mile bike and a 3.1 mile run. The year
prior, I did a 1:21:50 on this course which placed me 14th overall in
the women’s field including the two professionals that showed up. By no means a
fantastic result, however, I had done the Bailey Hundo the day before which is a
100 mile Mountain Bike Race in Bailey Colorado where I had won my age group; after face planting within the first 25 miles of the race. With all things in
perspective I was quite pleased with my performance last year.
This year, however, was a completely different story. Now that I am being coached by Lee Gardner on team Trismarter, we are being more selective of my races and aiming for faster results! I did a 1:18:37, 3 minutes and 13 seconds
faster than last year’s time. I placed second overall female behind Lisa
Marangon the only professional to show up this year. At first glance it looks
amazing, what an improvement! But, when you recall not having just camped up in
the Mountains, raced a 100 mile MTB race, and crashing, you think to yourself, "Shoot, I better improve even more!" J
Sprint Triathlons are the most difficult distance for me to
do well at. They are just so short that by the time I am getting to the run I
would practically be exiting the water of an Ironman; therefore, sprint tri’s
are more of a warm up then a race in my opinion, an extremely intense warm up
that is! J I
know it wasn't the worst race by any means but it wasn't stellar either. I am
just trying to figure out why I had the result I did so I can learn and grow
from the experience.
I had an uneasy feeling about the swim before the race, I
kept telling myself get out of the water quickly and then it is all downhill
from there. The swim is by far my weakest portion of the triathlon. Well, I did
get out of the water but by no means quickly. I was in 15th place in
my age group and had a lot of time to make up.
My transitions were just off. I just wasn't functioning quickly and I was getting extremely flustered. I know I am quicker than that. I also know my swim split got me upset and then I wasn't focused on the present moment, something I am constantly working on...
I know my bike split could have been so much better. I was
really pushing but I just didn't have any speed. I kept looking down at my
power meter, saying to myself, something has got to be wrong here. My
phenomenal SRM powermeter wasn’t wrong; it was the fact that I had nothing in my legs. I had
just completed a fantastic workout 2 days prior to the race giving me all
the confidence in the world for the bike course. However, some days you have the mojo, and
others you don’t! Today was just one of the days where you struggle to get
through. Feeling this way made me appreciate having the lightest pedals on the market, Exustar. Plus, my bike was shifting super smoothly and riding flawlessly thanks to CafeVelo. It was truly the rider struggling today, I cannot blame it on anything else.
I was ok with the run time but it still needs a ton of
improvement. I had the third fastest run split in my age group alone. Wow, I
would love to get into the low 19 minutes if not the 18 minutes. These girls
are super fast! I can run one speed for a very long time but once I have to
sprint, I die-out very quickly. I would definitely say that a 5k is a sprint distance for me. I do know one thing for sure, my shoes from Colorado Running Company made all the difference in the World!
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