The Bike - Race Day

Coming out of the water, my legs felt a little wobbly, but after a few meters (it was 75 meters from the water into Transition), I felt much better.  I had to find my transition area first… but I will admit, it was a little disheartening to run in and it be… empty!  Sure, I know I was in the last group, but I expected it to be this bustling hive of activity. There weren’t many people there as I did start 15 minutes after the first wave and while there were many people still left in the water (some from groups that started before me… no, I wasn’t last!), I guess I just expected more people.  Strange, huh?

Anyway, found my area, peeeeeelllleeed out of my wetsuit (easier than I feared), got my shoes and helmet on and grabbed my bike and started the slow jog out of Transition.  I decided long before that I wasn’t going to try any fancy advanced techniques like already having my shoes clipped in or anything.  Nope, nothing like that for me.  And, my T1 time wasn’t all that bad.  I had studied transitions a lot – videos, reading, etc.  I don’t think much can really prepare you for them though other than just experience.  Sure, I was actually REALLY happy with where I placed my gear at set-up and what I brought, but it is shear experience.

So, up the hill to the road.  I could have run faster and could have really pushed it harder.  I will take this more seriously next time.  I mounted my bike really well (for me) and I was off!  Again, best thing I did for this whole tri was have Matt drive me around the bike path before the race.  I understood the route, the turns, where big gravel lay, the hills.  It was really helpful to feel the route beforehand and will do this on every future race – triathlon or running – from here on out.

But, I did come to really feel my inexperience on the bike.  First of all, I do not completely understand the gears and shifting.  I am fully comfortable with one ring on my super uber fancy shmance gear system, but there is a second ring, and one that I don’t even know how to get into. BUT, I did realize that I REALLY NEED IT.  There were many points that I felt I was spinning and spinning my pedals but it wasn’t doing a damn thing.  Luckily most of those times it happened, I hit a hill or something and it ended up being okay.  But the last two miles, I NEEDED THAT TORQUE.  It got so frustrating that I was actually swearing out loud.  I was pissed.  I know 100% I could have made up at least 5-8 minutes on the bike.  And that is frustrating to know, just because!

Second is that I needed water. Desperately. I hadn’t had any after the swim and it was our first truly hot (way over 80 degrees) day in months. And while I have a water bottle and it was full, I was terrified to reach down and grab it for fear of falling.  I could feel that I was totally dry and knew I still had a run, albeit short, coming up.

The third thing is that my girl parts hurt.  Road bikes are not the easiest thing for some girls, me included.  And I Googled on the way home, being in some pretty serious pain, that while on upright bikes (like cyclocross, mountain bikes, etc.), you are supposed to sit on your butt bones, road bikes like mine, you sit forward, right on, well.. yea, you get it.  So, I’m going to try a few things and hopefully figure out a way to alleviate this. I can work through pain, but I don’t want to.

12 miles done, it was a downhill dismount… and I dismounted well!  If you have read, you know my hate-hate relationship with my clips, so this was big.  But WOW!  What crazy legs I had when I got off my bike.  I actually said, “WHOA!”, making the volunteer laugh.  But I “ran” (said lightly) down into the Transition Area, my family cheering, to start T2. 

 

And, I made it through the bike.  Again, HUGE learning experience.  All in all, I really enjoyed the bike and know I can really kick it up where I can do damage to my own time with some pretty simple corrections and things to work on.