15 minutes and a new PB

Report on the Tel Aviv Olympic Triathlon

The bottom line is that I dropped 15 minutes off my PB time for the Olympic Distance in a month, now it only my second Oly tri distance but taking it down from 2:56 to 2:41 is good and my challenge now for the next Oly distance is to go sub 2:30. So how did it break down and how can I improve.

Leg #1 - 1500m swim, now everyone who has been reading my blog knows that I have only just started to swim freestyle after being a breaststroker only for all my life. I was confident of swimming the distance as my training in open water group classes has been going well. I am one of those people who prefer swimming in open water to doing laps of a pool.
The horn went off just before 7 am on the beach and we had a long sand bar wade to get to a depth we could swim in, and the course was two loops. I started well on the side hoping for clear water, but for the first time in three triathlons I was well and truly in the washing machine. Hey I even enjoyed sort on contact swimming BUT i was going backwards and was not passing anyone in fact I realised that even with my freestyle breast strokers started passing me.
I had been determined to swim the 1500m freestyle, but the reality of racing made me rethink my race strategy, I was determined to do at least the first loop freestyle and as I came back onto the beach for the second loop I made the decision to switch to breaststroke for the second loop and on the second loop I was in fact two minutes quicker.
I came out of the swim after 33 minutes , happy with my time but I knew that I had been slower than I hoped, the run back to the T1 was a long way thru the Part and took 3 minutes 40 barefoot thru sand and on concrete, it was not worth having running shoes for such a short distance the time to put then on would be negated by the advantage.
My T1 time was 1 minute 16 seconds , the training had paid off
The bike was 40 km and drafting was allowed so the aim was to find a fast group and work together it took a good 5 km's to work up to a fast pack and get the drafting in full swing , Over the course I rode with various riders and we were moving my average speed over the course was above 35 km/h . With 3 km's to go my b.....y computer fell off the handlebars and it was either forget about it and stay with the draft or stop go back and get my computer (Velo Cat eye) I stopped cursed and picked up the computer , the same one that fell down the elevator shaft a week ago. And refocused on the course, I had no one to draft and fought hard against the wind, finally picking up a draft pack with a km to go. Now I thought fast transition get out of your shoes coming into T2 , bending down I managed to twist the shoe off the pedal and had to carry it in my hand , something to work on LOL
T2 was even better exactly 1 minute and I was out and running , it was now close to 30 degrees C around 90 F so it was hard but keeping focused I did the 10 km in 53:20 and probably put more cold water over my head than I actually drank.




So total time 2:41:27 by my watch , my nutrition was probably not the best as I did not eat enough during the race, but my pre race nutrition included a plain no fat yoghurt and gel at 4:30 am and another gel 20 minutes before the start.
I recommend mixing yoghurt and gel makes the gel taste better

Hope you enjoyed the read , was great race
Tri Harder
Mal