Three Final Lake Marion Triathlon Things

• ONE: My increase in bike milage (although it lacked a lot of speedwork) helped me at the tri. I think this was my 2nd fastest split in a triathlon ever, and my only better split was at the 2010 Liberty Oly (when I was biking even more than now). I was thrilled with my 22.0 split last weekend. This helps prove that (at least for me) MORE MILES are always a good thing, even if the SPEED isn't there during training. Here's what the course looked like:

Some rollers near the middle, a climb near the end, and then 35 mph back down the hill.
(That final downhill was where I passed that leap-frogging 17-year-old for the last time.)

• TWO: My run wasn't what I hoped. I've FINALLY been running more since being injured, but my speed and endurance are both lacking right now. (In May and June COMBINED, I ran under 5 miles. Then 39 in July, and 54 so far in August.) I'm not really that bummed about my slower run because I had just biked so well. Oh, there's also this nasty short climb at the turn-around. Here's my Garmin pace data:

I can't explain that dip just before mile 3. We just went into a bunch of trees, so
maybe that screwed it up? I did not slow up at that point. But I DID at the hill in the middle!


Close-up of the nasty hill in the middle. Slowing to 9:20 pace during a race? Yikes.

• THREE: Matt's sweaty ass photo could have been worse. Here's the photo I'm referencing from my race report:

I captioned it: That "O" on Matt's calf doesn't stand for "Olympic." It's stands for
"OH GOD! HOW MUCH SALT DID YOU SWEAT OUT OF YOUR ASS?!? SERIOUSLY!"

I talked to Matt the next day, and he had no idea his butt looked like that. He says that explains why he felt a little crappy that afternoon (lacking electrolytes probably?). A blog reader from Germany sent me an e-mail about that photo (thanks Pete!), and said that things "could have been worse" for Matt:

Man, he's just resting on that machine? What if someone else wants to use it? What a dick.

... or this:

I shared this photo a while back on my tumblr page.

Lots of race photos just turned up, so check back shortly for some great photos of me and my gang racing last weekend. And if you missed it, here was my Lake Marion Triathlon race report where I was near the front for the first time ever in a tri! Hellava fun way to spend a weekend!