47 minutes 51 seconds
Well, I've done my first triathlon (a little one anyway) and I did it in under an hour. I came 4th out of 7 in my age group, 18th out of 23 females and 71st out of 80 overall. Things didn't go exactly how I thought they would though.
I thought the swim (300m) would be the easiest but of the three legs of the race, it felt the worst. The water was pretty cold, so I'm not sure if that made a difference. Most people seemed to finish before me. I got out of the water and my legs were like jelly. In training, I try to mostly using my arms for propulsion and just kick gently for balance. I think in the excitement of the race and in worrying about being left behind, I did quite a bit more kicking than usual. From the swim exit, I couldn't even run into transition. I was out of the water after about 4min 45sec, but then the transition took ages. It was hard to put socks and shoes on with such wobbly legs! My official swim split was 7min 17sec.
At least I managed to run out with my bike, and I managed to ride it. I feel now that I could have gone harder on the bike leg (10km). Lots of people passed me, but only two of them weren't on road bikes (and both of them were male). I know from having ridden a road bike once, they go faster than a mountain bike with the same effort. My split was 24min 32sec, which is an average speed of 24.46 km/h. Not too bad.
My second transition was much quicker than the first, because I wore the same shoes for the ride and the run (3km). This may be the reason why I had pins and needles in my feet, which lasted up until about the turn around point (about 1.3km supposedly). I felt like I was running slowly, but that may just be how the legs feel when you get off the bike. My run split was 16min 2sec. This seems a little too good to be true, as that is an average speed of 11.23 km/h (5.20 min/km). I don't see how I could sustain that speed for that distance given what I've done in training. I suspect the course wasn't long enough.
Overall, it was a good experience and I plan to continue training and to do future triathlons (though I was thinking the complete opposite after the swim). The race highlighted a few things:
I thought the swim (300m) would be the easiest but of the three legs of the race, it felt the worst. The water was pretty cold, so I'm not sure if that made a difference. Most people seemed to finish before me. I got out of the water and my legs were like jelly. In training, I try to mostly using my arms for propulsion and just kick gently for balance. I think in the excitement of the race and in worrying about being left behind, I did quite a bit more kicking than usual. From the swim exit, I couldn't even run into transition. I was out of the water after about 4min 45sec, but then the transition took ages. It was hard to put socks and shoes on with such wobbly legs! My official swim split was 7min 17sec.
At least I managed to run out with my bike, and I managed to ride it. I feel now that I could have gone harder on the bike leg (10km). Lots of people passed me, but only two of them weren't on road bikes (and both of them were male). I know from having ridden a road bike once, they go faster than a mountain bike with the same effort. My split was 24min 32sec, which is an average speed of 24.46 km/h. Not too bad.
My second transition was much quicker than the first, because I wore the same shoes for the ride and the run (3km). This may be the reason why I had pins and needles in my feet, which lasted up until about the turn around point (about 1.3km supposedly). I felt like I was running slowly, but that may just be how the legs feel when you get off the bike. My run split was 16min 2sec. This seems a little too good to be true, as that is an average speed of 11.23 km/h (5.20 min/km). I don't see how I could sustain that speed for that distance given what I've done in training. I suspect the course wasn't long enough.
Overall, it was a good experience and I plan to continue training and to do future triathlons (though I was thinking the complete opposite after the swim). The race highlighted a few things:
- I need to do a lot more swimming training if I'm going to do a 1500m swim leg,
- I should get a tri suit so I can skip the putting on shorts step after the swim,
- I need to get a road bike and proper cycling shoes that don't make my feet numb,
- I need to get used to running without socks (I may need to get race shoes).
In short, I need to spend quite a bit of money (and train hard, but that's a given).
Labels: triathlon
3 Comments:
WoO! Congrats Viv!
Watch out, triathlon is addictive :)
Sounds like you got a decent plan of attack to work on.
But as for running without socks and getting a pair of racing flats - screw that, it's a good way to hurt yourself. Just wear your trainers with socks, much better for your feet. Get elastic laces though!
Though the time I spent in transition doesn't suggest it, I did use elastic laces yesterday. It would have taken me a lot longer without them!
Great effort! I marvel at triathletes as running and cycling seem so incompatible from my standpoint as a cyclist! Seems you are on a slippery slope of developing obsession in terms of equipment and training on 3 sports, I find one or two definitely enough.
How did Simon do ?
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