My first sprint- so excited!

[MCAP]

I have 10 days until my first sprint tri. I'm just so excited about it. I feel ready to rock. It's the Omaha Women's Triathlon (omahawomenstri.com).

There is an open water swim practice at the lake were the tri is being held tomorrow night. There is another next Thursday. The race is on Sunday May 22. I got my wetsuit rental in the mail and am really excited to try it on in the water. My pool swims have been going well. I was struggling not that long ago to go 500m at a time freestyle, but just Friday I was able to comfortably swim 1500m freestyle with no breaks. I'm pretty excited about that. I should be able to push a little bit in the race.

The bike course plays to my strengths. I'm a good climber and descender. The course has a hill from transition, then a 1/2 mile descent, then flat (over an old brick road, ick) then up a long hill, descent, up a short steep hill, then flatish to the turnaround. The long climb back up to transition is a bit killer, but I'll be fine.

The run is the hardest part for me, but I know I can do it. I've practiced the bike/run courses once with a group of gals I cycle with. We're supposed to do it again tonight assuming the current storm blows through.

I've put together a goal time for completion in 1:42.

Swim- 19 minutes
T1- 1 minute
Bike- 49 minutes
T2- 2 minutes
Run- 31 minutes

Here's hoping I can meet my goal!

[GLC1968]

Awesome! I hope you have a great time!

[colby]

Good luck! Practice on the course is a major boon that not everyone gets. It's a huge confidence boost. You'll do great!

[Bike Chick]

Good luck on your race. Having a practice course for the open water swim is such a bonus. How nice of them to do that. You can do it!

[MCAP]

The open water swim practice was awesome last night! It was about 700 meters (the real course is 750) and it took me about 17:30 to complete. I'm so excited for the tri next week!

But first, I have a 172 mile tri-state bicycle relay race tomorrow. :-)

[MCAP]

My triathlon was yesterday. It was my first USAT sanctioned triathlon, sprint distance.

It went great! DH and I got roped into helping so I not only completed the race, I also volunteered. DH has a fishing boat so he and I set up the big buoys and measured out the swim course Saturday. During the race DH had an EMT and lifeguard out in the boat to watch the swimmers. After the race we went out and picked up all the buoys. It made for a long morning!

The race was excellent. I finished in 1:39:57. It was a 750m lake swim, 20k bike, and 5k run. I'm totally hooked on triathlon. It's a great sport. Everyone was really encouraging each other out there today. It was really neat to be a part of. I finished 36th 214 people.

Here are my splits:
Time: 1:39:57 (goal time was 1:42)
Overall Place: 36 of 214
Place in Gender: 36 of 214
Place in Division F2529: 12 of 39

Swim: 18:45 Rate: 2:18 Place: 75 (goal time was 19:00)
Trn1: 1:28 (goal time was 1:00, got tangled in my wetsuit!)
Bike: 45:46 Rate: 16.4 Place: 13 (goal time was 49:00)
Trn2: 1:57 (goal time was 2:00)
Run : 32:03 Pace: 10:19 Place: 106 (goal time was 31:00, but I knew that was agressive for me)

I need to improve my run time, that's for sure. I'm confident that as I build a better run base and get in better shape overall and lose more weight that I'll improve. The bike is obviously my best event. I actually didn't have that great of a ride yesterday so I know I can improve on that. I've ridden that course with an average speed of 18 before, it just didn't happen in the race. That's okay. The swim went well. It was very rough and choppy because of wind and all of the swimmers so I got wopped in the face with waves a lot and had to breaststroke to catch my breath a few times. The water was 64 degrees, but I had on a full wetsuit so it was okay.

I'm hoping that I can improve my run times over the summer. I need to focus on the run more. But, considering that in November I couldn't even run 1/4 mile without heaving and bad shin and knee pain I'm pretty stoked that I was able to complete the entire run (no walking) and come into the finish strong.

It was a blast. I'm looking forward to the next one. I have two sprints on back to back weekends in July and an Olympic (Chicago) in August. Yay!