There Went Everything

2:02:52. 37th place.

I did accomplish my two main goals; I broke 20 min on the swim and 40 min on the run. I had a hard time on the bike, so I had to back off the gas a little in order to save my run. It worked for the most part. There was nothing catastrophic about the race, no cramps, blisters, mechanical failures, etc. I didn't get the result I was looking for, but that just means I'll have to get faster!

My splits were;
18:42 swim
1:02:35 bike
39:23 run

Looking at the long term, I'd say I need to focus on my run. I had a bad day on the bike, normally it is by far my strength. The swim was good, I don't think I'll be making leaps and bounds in that area. However, I think I can take a good 4 minutes off my run time.

Before I get ahead of myself, it's time to hunker down and get ready for final exams and get as much rest as possible. I'm worn out!

Here Goes Everything

I'm packed, I'm rested, I'm ready to go. All that's left to do is swim 1.5k, bike 40k, and run 10k as fast as I can. Not too bad. Right now the hardest thing I'm facing is keeping my cool and staying relaxed in the days before the race. I feel like I have a constant adrenaline rush, which tends to wear me out. I leave tomorrow at 4:00am and 14 hours later I will arrive at the hotel in Tuscaloosa, 7:00pm.

Deep breaths.




I get to have lunch with my mom on the way to Tuscaloosa because I conveniently have a 3 hour layover in Houston.


The race course in Tuscaloosa.

9 days, 11 hours. Time to Taper

I had my last hard workout going into Collegiate Nationals tonight. It was a track workout, 2x1k followed by 10x200. I think I was able to push a little harder than usual on the 200s knowing that it was the last demanding workout before the race. Now it's time for a full length taper to get me to peak for Saturday, April 21st. I'm looking forward to resting up, lots of yoga, and nonstop transition practice. Bedtime is 10pm sharp!

Taper also means the grocery bill goes up. Nothing but fresh, wholesome foods, and the dairy gets cut almost completely out. It's a perfect excuse to eat really good food.


I did a Google image search for "taper" and just by chance I found a picture of a "Morse Taper Shank" on the first page of results...

12 days, 16 hours

The countdown to Collegiate Nationals begins! I have one more week of fine tuning and hard workouts, then it will be time to TAPER! I need to practice my transitions, I'm a little rusty and they're a little slow. Transition practice is probably my favorite type of triathlon training. It's like dropping 20 seconds off your time for no effort, time or money invested.

I did a practice triathlon yesterday, though it wasn't very helpful in terms of getting ready for a real race. The weather was horrible, so we had to do the bike indoors on trainers and scrapped the timed transitions. Basically it was a 1650y swim, 45 min ride on the rollers, then a 4 mile run outside. My pacing was off on the swim (too slow to start) and the run (too fast to start). Though I was dissapointed with both my swim and run times, it let me know that sub 20 min swim and sub 40 min run are pretty much in the bag. The bike split depends on the course, of course, but from the elevation profile posted online and from what I've been told by the local tri-kids in AL, it looks pretty flat. Regardless, I'm looking for a top 3 bike split.

Time to start putting everything together!


Dripping sweat all over my new rollers