I love doing Experience Triathlon (ET) events. Coach Joe, the entire staff and all of the volunteers do such a great job with the events. I wish I’d been able to do the other two ET indoor triathlons, but the timing just didn’t work.
Going into this event, I had definite numbers that I wanted to hit on each of the disciplines. Not only would it be a good progress test to see where I was at, but also a chance to find/work out flaws. Even though I didn’t hit those numbers, it was still a good day and I found several things to work out prior to the outdoor season.
Specifically –
Swim: Managing torpedo kicks and breathing. One of the torpedo kicks was so strong that I ended up gliding under the lane lines. Not a huge issue since there was an open lane, but it would be in any of the outdoor races. While my breathing is getting better, I still need to work on it for mid to late race to make sure I can finish strong. During this swim, I couldn’t get enough of the CO2 out and was struggling in the last 6-7 lengths to get it done. I’ve already talked with my head coach on the breathing and am working out several things with that.
Bike: Being able to more easily clip in and making sure that I’m pushing harder in the first several minutes when my body is trying to recover from the swim. I thought I was going faster than I actually was during that first 8 min or so until Todd told me what I was at. Hopefully the tandem derailer will get put back on and I’ll get the loaner upright soon so I can get a lot more clip practice in.
Run: Making sure that a sports drink is in my water bottle instead of just plain water. I had Tailwind in there and it helped a lot. I am going to be trying a couple others during training, and go with whichever works best. Having that extra burst meant that I only had to walk once for about 30 seconds. That’s about in line with the Turkey Trot from last fall, which was my most consistent 5K.
It was back to training after this race as I continue to push towards the spring season.
And for any of you who have these as open dates, I would STRONGLY recommend signing up for the following:
ET Batavia – 6/11/17
ET Lake Zurich – 7/9/17
ET Naperville – 8/6/17
