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Congrats on your first triathlon! That is a very decent time and looks like you are solid on the swim and bike. Put in a good winter of run training and you'll be smashing a sub-90min next year.
For me, this was probably my last triathlon. Swimming just isn't my thing and yesterday I was reminded why rolling swim starts are nicer than mass starts! Despite swimming 3.8km only 2 weeks ago, after about 200m in the docks (disgusting compared to Lake Zurich) I wanted to grab a kayak and drop out of the race. :D
Once the washing machine (as you accurately described it) stopped spinning I finally got into my usual (slow) rhythm and made it through.
Physically and mentally, my heart just wasn't in it. I thought I'd be feeling super strong but I was still feeling weakened from the full Ironman. Still, I'm happy with my performance considering.
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lreilly
@norvegan
Quick write up of today's race if anyone is interested!
Swim - 1.5 km avg 01:55 min/100m 0:28:39
Bike - 40 km avg 36.49 km/h 1:05:47
Run - 10.5 km avg 06:01 min/km 1:03:16
Overall time - 2:44:23
Showed up at the swim assembly feeling confident and ready for my first tri. We jumped in the water and clever me decided to place myself in the very front of the wave. Feeling good, I got my GPS watch ready and before I knew it the horn sounded and mayhem started around me while I was trying to press the "start activity" button on my watch while instead pressing "back". It turns out that my wave was a fast one and all of a sudden I was getting kicked, punched and showed around like in a washing machine. Full panic mode, I decide that the watch will have to wait and in the struggle to keep up with everyone I start hyperventilating and swallowing at least a pint of delicious Thames water. 10 minutes or so into it I start getting into a groove and settle into a nice pace. At 28 minutes I leave the water and run up the ramp feeling seriously disoriented and starting to feel stomach cramps.
T1 goes well and I am finally on the bike ready to put down the hammer. I quickly settle into my goal heart rate of around 160 (which in hindsight was probably too high). Knowing that the run is my weakest discipline, I try to keep up the pace on the bike and gain some time. Besides, riding full aero on closed roads in London was such an awesome feeling I couldn't help giving it my all. On the bike leg I ended up number 381 out of 3355 people with an average speed of 36,5km/h. Super happy!
On to the run and I am still having stomach cramps. I have been drinking mostly energy drinks so far (big mistake) and I was afraid of taking in any more nutrition so I only brought one gel with me on to the run leg. This fell out of my back pocket almost immediately. 3 kilometers in and I realize that 1) I should have done way more bike/run brick sessions before the race and 2) my legs are turning into jello. At this point I am completely scraped of fuel and am desperately looking on the ground for dropped gels. Can't find any. I dig deep and somehow manage to finish without fainting.
All in all, it was a great experience! Total time was 2:44 which put me in the top 30% for the Tower Bridge route which I am super super happy with. I was hoping for around 3h so it was quite a surprise to see the results afterwards! Not sure if I want to repeat it anytime soon but if I do I learnt some valuable lessons :) :D