Bluff Creek Olympic Race Report

We arrived in Ogden, IA for the Bluff Creek Oly Triathlon on Saturday afternoon and found a great camping spot about 2 miles from the transition area. My wife, eldest daughter, and I were fortunate enough to ride up with my parents in the RV so we weren’t exactly ‘roughing it’.   I pulled out the bike and did a quick 4 mile hard effort and 1 mile run off to get the blood flowing before the race.  The rest of the evening was spent eating dinner and relaxing before the first triathlon of the season.

Race morning started off with almond butter on pita bread and a banana.  I rode my bike down to the transition and set up.  I was feeling really relaxed and didn’t have pent up energy that I usually have before a race which I thought was strange, but passed it off as nothing.  I headed down to the bus that takes us to the swim start so I could test out the waters.  The Oly swim had been cut short to only 500 meters due to the cold water temps of 52 degrees.  I’ve swam in similar conditions before so I knew it would help to get in and get somewhat acclimated to the temperature before the start of the race.

Swim

It was a short swim with a small amount of people in my wave so it was pretty uneventful.  I found a few draft lines but my main goal here was just to catch my breath and make it to shore.  The cold water literally took my breath away and I just wanted to push through it and get out of the water.  After reaching shore there was about a 2-300 meter run up to the transition zone.  Total time: 12:40

T1

I had some trouble getting my wet suit off and kind of jacked around a little bit in T1 before I was finally off on the bike.   Total time: 2:07

Bike

Starting off on the bike felt great with a tailwind, but after 3 miles we were in a strong crosswind or a headwind.  At about mile 10 one of my aero bar pads fell off.  I knew it was cracked before the race but I thought I could get away with it, I was obviously wrong.  For the rest of the race I was not able to ride aero and relied on the horns to get me through the rest of the bike.  I dropped my water bottle and failed an attempt to grab another bottle at the water station and had trouble getting my Gu packet to open so I bailed on that attempt.  Long story short, no hydration or nutrition on the bike.  I didn’t feel very strong on the bike and felt like I was missing the power and speed that I’ve developed during the off-season.  Total time: 1:25:40, 17.5 mph avg

T2

I spent 2.5 minutes in T2 – I have no idea why I was in there so long, probably jacking around like I did in T1

Run

I headed out on the run with heavy legs and in need of hydration.  My legs felt better after the 2^nd mile but I was never able to find my rhythm throughout the entire run.  I was able to push through and reach the finish line.  Total time 53:22/8:36 per mile pace

I was pretty down after this race due to my performance and I had some time to think through it on my run Tuesday.  Here’s what I came up with:

-          Focus – I didn’t focus on what I was doing during the race and my mind wandered outside of what I was doing.  Losing focus takes you away from watching your form, harnessing your strength, keeping race strategy in tact, and pushing through the pain
-          Drive – I didn’t have much drive when I lined up at the start line.  I think I can attribute this to my focus being on IM CDA in a month and this was more of a “tune up” for the big race. 

Lots of mental mistakes during this race which inhibited my performance.  It’s the first race of the year so I’m not going to invest too much stock in the results and chalk it up to a learning experience.  I was able to take away some things to work on before my 1^st ‘A’ race of the year and dive back into training with more focus and drive.