4 Final Things from the LTF Triathlon (including where I think my bike speed came from)

• FIRST: My Finishing Video:
Kris Swarthout (one of the announcers at the LTF Mpls Triathlon) confessed something funny over the P.A. system as I finished the race 2 weeks ago. Here's the video from Brightroom:

Direct Link: http://youtu.be/laAhAT30_FQ


• SECOND: My Post-Race Feet:
Just a few hours after finishing the race, I took a photo of my feet. This is how beautiful they were:

That's a pus-filled blister with a broken blister on top of it at the bottom, a big callous on the far right side of my big toe, a torn blister on the left side (and bottom) of my big toe, and little "pit marks" all over from walking around barefoot for so long pre-race. Super.


• THIRD: Appearance on the LTF Blog:
The Life Time Fitness Blog used a small chunk of my race report in a post about a "newbie" triathlete at their race. Check it out.


• FOURTH: Surprising Bike Speed:
At the LTF Mpls Triathlon, I was surprised with how fast I was biking. I'm not a fast biker, and I haven't been "putting in the miles" lately, so when I was seeing a 21+ mph average on a "technical" course, I was thrilled. I ended up taking over 4 minutes off my bike split at the MPLS Tri from 4 years prior (taking me from around 19.7 mph average to 21.2 mph average).

There are a few small reasons for that, and 1 big one:
- Small reason #1: riding with a ZIPP front wheel.
- Small reason #2: more triathlon experience since then.
- Small reason #3: more "hard riding" experience (a few TTs).

But I think the biggest reason for that faster-than-expected bike time is the way I've been training. In the past, I'd do a lot of 26-30 mile rides. In my mind, that was far enough to help me cover the distance of a 24.8 mile ride in an Olympic Distance triathlon. It was my "go to" bike workout - I'd just do a bunch of kinda hard 27 mile rides.

Lately, I've been biking LESS, but the way I've been biking has changed. Earlier this month, I posted about my long July 4th bike ride of 43 miles. That was my longest ride in over 2 years. It wasn't super fast, but it was a lot of miles (for me). I need to stop doing those 85% effort 27 mile rides. Those don't help much while training for an Olympic Distance triathlon. Recently, I've been doing shorter, harder rides when I just have an hour. Or longer, easier rides when I have more time. I need to work on SPEED on the short rides, and ENDURANCE on the long rides. I can't hope for every ride to work on both aspects. And THAT new manner of training has helped my overall bike speed. This idea is nothing new to most people, but I'm just FINALLY figuring it out on my own. I feel like such a big boy!

Biking at the LTF Mpls Triathlon.

- Click here for my 2012 LTF Mpls Tri race report.
- Click here for more photos and my "virtual race."
- Click here for my official LTF photos.

Back with a "sherpa report" from Pharmie's Waseca Triathlon tomorrow!