NJ State Triathlon

Wow I have had these blogs done forever and forgot to publish! Catching up....
Rise and shine! 4:10am on a Sunday morning....My mom and I were out the door just after 4:30. I said to her I hated getting up for swim meets so early in the morning, I used to sleep in my bathing suit the night before, why do I do this to myself?! I guess because I love it so much! Arrived at Mercer County Park at 5:38, a few minutes before transition opened because Im so tired of having to rush rush rush. I headed over to the packet pickup tent and got all of my stuff, had my wristband put on and headed to transition to get a good spot on a bike rack...First of all as the morning started to warm up my skin started to expand a little and that wristband started getting tighter and tighter. I finally had to get a new one because my skin was bulging from around the sides of it! Secondly I had no idea I had signed myself up for the elite wave way back when I registered so when I racked my bike I racked it with my number where its 7 bikes per rack not on the elite rack where its 4 and you have much more room. Lucky enough my numbered bike rack was the one right behind the elite rack so I was in the same area, no big deal. I get everything all set up in transition and head out for a mile warm up run. After I am all ready I head to the start line. Some swim chords to warm up the arms without having to get in the water was what I felt the best way to go. The announcer for the race told us the water was at a very warm 89 degrees. After I am all warmed up, I look around, still not realizing I had signed myself up for the elite wave and everyone else in my age group has a white cap! WHAT THE HECK!? So the green caps (me) started heading into the water, I said I guess Ill go since there are no green caps left for another wave. So in the water and off we went. Then it all clicked.  I must have signed myself up for this heat and not realized it! Duh.
The swim was HOT but surprisingly I was comfortable. The water was dirty, not with garbage but just with dirt. The First Responder wave (which they always do for firefighters, policemen etc) and the elite wave were the same so I had a few manly men breastroking and weaving back and forth in front of me until I was able to fight my way around them. Finally out in more open water and I have this big dude drafting off my left side. I found myself getting angry, every time I took a breath to my right I could feel the water flinging off his hand onto my face. I then realized he's a drifter. He drifts to the right. I cut in the left forcing him right and finally I was free!!! I began closing on those in front of me. All of a sudden I hear a loud clicking under water, something was down there. I swam my butt off to get away from that area. My right calf got a little tight in the water, after all you are sweating in 90 degree water and unable to drink.
Out of the swim and into transition. I get to my spot and the guy next to me is sitting down getting ready pretty much in front of my area. My thoughts were: WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING!? I get around him and get myself together, pull my bike off the rack and run the long run to the road to mount the bike. Id say it was 100-150meter run with the bike to the mount line. On the bike and my legs were ok but not fully there. 2 loops of the same course, a portion of which had a lot of turns. Once I went through it once I felt more comfortable the second time and was able to hammer away even through the turns. I had one girl ahead of me out of the swim and on the bike and had another girl pass me on the bike. I felt 10x better on the second loop, my legs came around and I was feeling really good! I averaged over 22 on the bike which was a big goal of mine even with all the turning. The girls ahead had about a 2 minute lead off the bike.
Back into transition and onto the run in just over 41 seconds. The course is 3 out and backs which may be a little boring but its great because you can see your competition. I felt good on the first out and back, decent on the second and pretty good on the third. I grabbed a bag of ice they were handing out and shoved it down the back of my suit. I then took it out and held it to try and cool my body a little and then I started drinking it to get in as much fluids as I could. At the last turn around both girls still had a decent lead on me, Id say just over 1 minute. I continued with my pace and I could see her way ahead of me still. Once I got to the top of a small incline I could tell she was starting to fade. With each step I got a little closer and with about 4-600 meters to go I was able to close in and pass her. Finished in just over 2:08.

My transitions were good. My first one could have been faster but the dude sitting in front of my bike didnt help the process. Nothing I can do about that, its just another unexpected part of triathlon. Transition #2 was 41 seconds. Very happy with that one. My swim is getting faster but still need to get the time down a bit more. My bike was good but I need to keep getting faster on that as well! The turns in the course were great for me. I am just getting used to my new TT bike and learning how aggressive I can be on it. I have improved over the past year which is very nice to see. So hopefully that will keep moving in the right direction and my run wasn't as fast as it should have been. I was hoping for sub 40 but with the swim being so hot and pulling a calf muscle on the run I guess I did the best I could! I have a few different sophisticated workouts up my sleeve to incorporate into the next couple of weeks so I can make sure I am ready for transitioning from swim to bike and bike to run before I head out to Wisconsin to race Age Group Nationals.

Train Happy
Caitlin