Another Triathlon at Rocky Hill

Last month I completed another Sprint distance triathlon. While I was looking forward to racing in the scenic Sierra foothills, I was a bit apprehensive on the Swim. I had prepared for the race adequately, especially focusing on the swim and focused to remain positive while driving down to Exeter a day before. I have not been much of a swimmer but with focused attention, I had developed quite a few water skills in the near past including backstroke, improved my breathing technique, front-crawl stroke and kick. I also attended a Swim workshop couple months back and that was very helpful to understand what I was doing wrong or could improve upon. There were swim video shots of the athletes and seeing myself in the water helped drive home the areas of improvement esp. related to the form and the technique of swim.

On the D-day, I got up early, warmed up with stretching and headed to the venue. The event started with the Swim and oh boy, what a mad scramble it was in the swim lanes. The athletes were on the toes of each other and I got tapped number of times knowingly/unknowingly, losing my form quite a few times and had to adjust my front-crawl time and again. As I finished the swim and headed to the transition area, I was glad that water portion was over.

The bike route started with climbing uphill and it was taxing to do so just after finishing the swim. I made a mental note of doing more hills on my bike later on. The exertion of it was worth it totally, with the scenic setting of it all (see pic above). After the uphill climb for almost half the total distance, the subsequent half was quite a breeze with downhill descent. The wind blowing in the face drying up the sweat and legs steady on the pedal I could finally relax for a bit on the bike.

The run portion was again uphill and I could muster strength to keep at it, finally finishing with a racer medal. I was glad I could complete it without much feeling the strain. But I did realize that I could improve on my swim and of course, uphill biking. Perhaps I need a race bike, as mountain bike that I race on currently is little more taxing and slower compared to road bike. Let’s see …