Culpeper Sprint Triathlon

The Culpeper Sprint Triathlon was a fun event, but I was not prepared for the hilly course. I took the swim at an easy pace, placing second out of the Clydesdales. I had a solid bike, but would do much better with actual bike training. I walked over half the run due to thigh cramps, but finished it running. My transitions were not very fast because I didn't get there early enough to aquaint myself with the layout. At 200 lbs, this is probably my last Clydesdale event!

We stayed at the Warrenton Hampton Inn (35 minutes from the course), which was excellent.

Times/Places:

Age	Total	Swim	T1	Bike	T2	Run
28	1:56:08	13:04	2:11	1:02:36	1:39	36:40

Overall: 246/336 s:26/b:215/r:320
Clydesdale: 22/35 s:2/b:19/r:31

My swim was excellent. As my general fitness increases I should be able to hold back less for the bike and run and probably cut a minute or two. To improve my biking I need to train on a real road outside of a gym, and occasionally do interval and hill training. I should switch to spinning bikes in the gym and get really good at that this winter. For running, I need to become comfortable with a 5K or further, and also need to do interval and pace training. My bike can be improved, but my poor run prevents be from being competitive. If I could have run this whole race I would have easily cut 6 minutes. If I could run it like an athlete, I could cut more. I should also consider a polar heart rate monitor that hooks into my computer. As a post race analysis, I could easily determine if there were portions in which I was hitting a wall or the opposite.