Green Bay Triathlon 2011 Part 2

Ok so now it was Sunday and my turn for the Green Bay Triathlon. It had been kind of a crazy few day leading up to it. My new bike came in on Friday and was the right size. I got my fitting done on it and had only managed to put about 15 miles on it on Sat. I was a little worried about it but everything felt ok.

I was doing the Olmpic Distance which is a 800 yard swim, a 29 mile bike ride and then a 10K. I went with my wetsuit for the swim as it seems to help me go a little faster. Here is a picture before the swim:

Swim:

 I had a weird start. The 3 waves before us they staged them and gave about 5 mins between. Then they moved my wave up to the start and i was getting ready knowing i had 5 mins..and not 10 seconds later they said GO..i was totally off guard. No big deal. Wore my mp3 swim player which keeps me calm. The dolphin divers maybe gained a few seconds on me running/ wading. Some people did it in there cycling shorts and top. I will not bore you with all the times but i came out of there 5th out of 10 in my Division so not too bad. I got my suit off to my waist as i ran to transition and i stepped out of it easy.

T1: Aggghhh SLOW! 3:05
I really need to make improvements here. It was warm so no need for arm warmers or anything.

I need Triathlon bike shoes so i dont have the sock hassle. I put glide on my ankles and that helped my suit come off. I put my team cycling jersey on over my tri suit. I think i should of worn it under my wetsuit.
Helmet on while i step out of my suit would help.
I did put baby powder in my socks but its time to get tri shoes. My next Triathlon my whole goal will be to get this T1 time down. I was 7th out of 10.

Bike:
My new bike was fast. I improved from last year and ended up 5th out of 10. Not much to say really. Would aero bars make me faster? Maybe but not by much. I averaged just over 20mph and there were some good hills.

T2:
faster T2, i am going to need to maybe practice running no socks? scary.

I did race all the way to where i had to get off the bike. sometime in the past ive slowed down too much anticipating the dismount.


Run:
CRAZY!!! I didnt know i could run this fast. I completely went for it. I puked up during the run and just kept going. I had huge strides. I really hurt myself running like this and im not doing it again. Was NOT fun.
I wanted to place but at what cost? I am not going to do this again was way too crazy and much to dangerous for me. Nearly fainted at the end. Awesome mtime but i PAID for it big time

Overall i had a great race and alot of fun. I learned i need to speed up my T1

Green Bay Triathlon 2011

Green Bay Triathlon,

Yes i owe you some reports so i will get you caught up as quickly as possible.

Well to start with my 11yr old Daughter did her first ever Triathlon. For me this was more important than my Triathlon this weekend. She was fantastic! She was a little nervous to start with. I took her up on Sat and she loved having all the attention on her. She kept saying over and over again 'thanks for doing this for me Daddy, i feel so special'.

I spent some time explaining to her that it does not matter if you come last. Most of the kids this was not their first Triathlon so i just wanted her to concentrate on finishing. We got her body marked and all of her things set up in transition. I really tried to make her feel like a superstar. The weather was really nice this day as well which really helped.

Before the race she spent some time splashing in the water to get used to it.

I told her as she gets out of the water things can seem confusing and she might have trouble finding her bike so while she was playing in the water i used the sidewalk chalk i had brought with me to help her:



She really seemed to like this idea. So here she is getting ready for the short swim, i managed to get a shoot of her just as she looked back:

And her she is on the way back in after the swim:

Then she was off to the bike. She had a little trouble getting her socks on and looked a bit worried but i cheered her on and told her everything was normal and OK and she would be fine. OK off to the bike part:

She made it the two laps around the park just great and then she was off to the 1/2 mile run. She was doing great. At one point she said i cant get my breathe but i told her it was normal to be out of breathe. I think she was worried something was wrong but i was glad i was there to keep her calm.
I was a little worried she would quit but no way! she was determined. At points i could tell she was hurting and i wanted to do it for her (typical Dad) but i knew this would help her confidence to get through it.
Here she is on the run and then over the finish line.

She did awesome! She was really pleased with herself. I didn't make her do this event it was something she wanted to do herself. There were a few kids with road bikes and all the gear but i told her just not to worry and she would only be racing herself. I had an awesome day with my Emily and i will not forget it. I hope she remembers it too!

Afterwards i took her over to Panera Bread and got her a tread for breakfast, she wore her medal pretty much the whole time. It just me and her that day and if your a parent thinking about doing this i would recommend it!

Ok next report: My GB Triathlon. But Emilys was way more fun!!!

Midweek

Hello Blog friends!
Hope you had an enjoyable long weekend. Now we are past memorial day everything here in Wisconsin goes crazy for a while. It seems every weekend there is something to do finally.
This weekend i have Green Bay Triathlon on my schedule and my 11 year old daughter is going to try the kids Triathlon.
My kids at first had this theory in their heads that if they are not the best at a sport why do it? It has taken me a little while to get this out of them. I think they are starting to understand that just taking part is where the fun comes from and not winning. After all not everyone can win, it is just not mathematically possible.

I got back some pictures and videos of the Full Marathon i did in May and they look great. Looking back at the event it took me about 4 days to be fully recovered and not do the shuffle every morning.

I will see what i can do about getting some pictures this weekend of the first Triathlon of the year.