Yay, I finished my first Olympic distance triathlon last weekend at the Wildflower in south Monterey County. I was really slow (one of my friends beat me by over an hour), but it was inspiring and I’ve signed up for another one in September in Pacific Grove.

Let me state my goals publicly here so I’ll be more likely to stick to it. This race, I came in over 4 hours. Definitely bottom quartile, but hey, it was my first one and I’ve been traveling a lot for work lately. I was in survival mode. I hope to get under 3.5 hours in PG in Sep. Then, next year’s Wildflower, I want to be under 3 hours. Once I get in this range, I can really work on actual racing, which will be really cool.

The toughest parts for me are: 1) the start is basically a cold sprint of swimming with no way to catch your breath after the initial chaos subsides; and, 2) the transition between bike and run wreaks havoc on my leg muscles. I need better technique (in addition to general fitness) to conquer either one. In terms of biggest bang for time improvements, if I can be comfortable with the bike>run transition, I can really push the bike (by far my best leg) and cut serious time by not walking off calf cramps during the run. While the swim will be good to nail, I don’t think I can win more than 10 extra minutes unless I make a serious step change in technique… I’ll save that for next summer.

Triathlon is a great sport!