Greenville Triathlon Sprint Report

This race was a mixed bag of feelings before and after. On the one hand, 7 weeks earlier I pulled my groin so bad that I thought I was done for the year...so just to be racing was a great high. On the other hand, I was "supposed" to be really starting to peak for the year by the end of this month and next and I wanted to kill this course. So I was both excited and disappointed all at once with the day.


I rolled out of bed at 5:00am and had everything ready to rock. Drank some coffee and Powerade and ate some oatmeal. I got to the race site about 5:45am. I got everything setup and had time to run just a bit and get in the pool and swim a little.


Swim: 400m pool swim (50m pool). I turned in a time that was about 10% faster than I thought I would go because the last two years I turned in actual times and had to pass multiple people before getting boxed in behind several folks by the end. This year was just about right. My lane partner and I finished together and we were passed by one person and passed one other. I was swimming blind because my right goggle was completely full of water from the start and the left one fogged up after about 200m. This caused me to slow some, but not too bad. 7:00 with a 50m run to the timing mat. 7th AG, 48th OA.

T1: My T1 is usually longer than T2 but this time, my helmet strap wouldn't stay buckled and I got held up too long. Time of 1:15...should be about 45-50sec.

Bike: 14.4mi bike course moderately hilly. I was really hoping to go about 22mph on the course. I started out pretty good and thought I might pull it off, but the two hilly sections sucked the wind out of me and I slowed way too much on the hills to keep the avg speed up. I made up some ground near the end of the ride and was able to go about 21mph for the course. My time was 41:03 for 6th AG, 51 OA.


T2: I was careful coming off the bike not to aggravate my groin and I jogged carefully through transition. My time was a little slow since I was taking it easy, but it wasn't terrible. 0:48.



Run: I had a great run here last year, but with the iffy groin and the fact that I had only run about 5 times in the last two months, I wasn't expecting any PRs. I used the first 0.5mi to try and get up to speed and see how my leg felt. The legs felt good, but the HR and lungs were not all there. Mile 1 was about 6:20. Mile 2 was not fun and I slowed to somewhere around 6:35. Mile 3 is always the fastest since I can taste the finish and really lay it all out. I think it was somewhere around 6:10ish. I ended up running a 19:19 that was 3rd AG, 16th OA.

I finished in 1:09:23 which was 5th in AG and 30th OA. That was 2 min faster than last year which was basically all on the bike. Again, I can't complain too much, but I think I could have been at least 1 minute faster on the run and maybe 2 minutes faster on the bike if not more. I guess that's what next year is for! I did have a great time after the race hanging out with the FCAe folks and catching up with some of them.

I'm Back!!!

I'm finally back to some decent training from almost 6 weeks down with a nasty groin pull. On Saturday I rode about 27 miles at a decent effort. No real issues there. Sunday evening I did a 5K run in just under 23min. Both of these efforts were with significantly higher HR levels compared to before the injury, so I've definitely lost fitness!! UGH! Good swims Monday and this morning, with a 5 mile run on Tues. I'm going to try a brick tomorrow afternoon.

Overall, I'm happy where I'm at right now. Honestly, when I got hurt, I thought I might be done for the rest of the season. The rest and physical therapy was well executed and I was actually patient with the recovery. I'm going to race Greenville in two weeks and hopefully Tugaloo Olympic and the SC HIM. I know my speed will not be where I hoped to be at this point in the year, but at least I'll be out there!