Ludlow Sprint Race report

Well, this was the first triathlon of the season for me. I was not really certain what to expect other than I would give it my all. I am going to use the times and relative placement as a guideline to my fitness going forward this year. Full results are as follows:

Event Time Overall place
Swim .5 m 13:31 118/283
T1 2:09
Bike 14m 37:06 107/283
T2 1:12
Run 4m 34:49 188/283

I'm not real satisfied with the swim, but considering it was to the first open water swim of the season I'm just going to use it as a learning experience. I am fairly certain I could have picked up some time here - I went out too slow and had plenty left at the end. This was not my first mass start event, but it was probably one of the most chaotic that I can remember. People trying to swim right over you, bumping on the left and the right, someone in front swimming slightly slower than my pace (I was boxed in). Everytime I tried to find open water there was someone next to me preventing me from moving. The second half of the swim was better, but I kept almost bumping into people from the first wave that were swimming sidestroke or just not going very fast.

The first transition went pretty well. The wet suit came off with little trouble, probably the best I ever got it off. My positioning in transition was phenomonal - front row! I ran out of transition, mounted my bike and I was off. I pushed hard on the bike. There were a few hills on the course and I mostly stayed seated, but stood on a couple of the steep sections. I stayed aero as much as possible & I just pushed. The one thing I realized is that I do very well on the slight inclines but not necessarily the steep climbs. I did most of my passing on the slight inclines.

I decided not to race with a heart rate monitor. I figured it was more of an impediment than a useful tool in short race like this. I feel positive that I pushed as hard as I could on the bike and the run.

The run still seems to be my achilles heal. Although my overall run result was not great, I feel it was a good run for me. I pushed hard for the whole 4 miles. I had absolutely nothing left at the end (I emptied the tank). My pace was 8:42 which I believe is an improvement over where I was last year. I am confident that it will continue to drop as between the workouts and the diet I am seeing phenomonal gains in fitness.