Looking for Bright Spots 

I competed in the Lake Mills Triathlon yesterday... and despite a couple of showers, still have the remnants of my race number and wave number written on me. My results are here if you're interested. I did about 3 minutes last worse than last year's which has me pissed off. I've been going over the race in my head, and looking at the splits to see where I went wrong, and of course it's plainly obvious now.

The Swim: I can't put off serious swim training any more. This was my worse swim leg ever, and I don't think I can simply blame it on cold water this time. In fact, I built up the cold water so much in my mind before the race, that when I got in, it wasn't that bad. I was cut off by at least 3 people which broke my pace, but I could have done a lot better. This has also convinced me that I need to put off doing an olympic distance race until I've trained more here.

The Bike: I lost about 4 minutes here... which was purely due to my lack of effort now that I look back on it. I really didn't kick it into gear until the back third... and I should have done a lot better.

The Run: This was one of the bright spots. I had a very strong run. It's not so much reflected in my time (although it's one of my best)... it's more in how I felt during. I just felt really good during the run. With that said, had I put in more effort in the bike, my run could have been weaker. That's part of the give and take that occurs during a multisport event.

Transitions: My transition times were the best I ever had which surprised me a little. They had setup the transition area a lot differently this time, and I didn't take any time before the race to walk it through. However, I somehow managed to have a smooth, mistake free transition.

I learned a lot of things this race, and hopefully I can use that during my next race to really kick out a good time. I'll post pictures when I see some.