Niijima Triathlon 2010

Bicycle training is apparently not necessary in order to achieve a respectable Olympic Distance triathlon time.  I finished the Niijima triathlon this weekend in 2:31:23 despite essentially zero training on my bike.  

I finished the course 3 minutes slower than last year: 

             2010                           2009

Swim  26:09   (58^th)      26:28  (93rd)         

Bike  1:24:49 (100^th)   1:22:05 (76th)  

Run    40:25   (8^th)         39:42 (4th)

Total  2:31:23 (44^th)    2:28:15 (39th)

* 44th out of 242  /  39th out of 170 finishers

Going into the weekend I was very stressed about my lack of bike training. Though maybe I was even more stressed about sleeping in the bowels of a boat and then waking up and doing a triathlon swim in the cold Pacific Ocean. 

 The boat turned out to be a charming adventure again this year though - there is something inherently exotic about embarking on an overnight boat trip to a remote island with 21 fellow athletes.  And the triathlon went well -  

Swim - The ocean water was really, really cold.  The first moment jumping into the water was not at all pleasant.  But as usual the worst part was the anticipation of the cold water.  Once we started swimming, the water temperature was simply a non-issue.  Still I struggled at the start 

making the adjustment from a winter of training in a

 calm, warm swimming pool.  My first lap was 13:15, while my second was 12:45 as I got into a rhythm and I begun passing other swimmers.  My time is only 19 seconds faster than last year, but I think I did swim much faster as indicated by my much higher place this year.   

Bike - I thought I was in really big trouble when after only 500 meters of cycling my muscles started screaming with surprise.  What an unfamiliar activity.  But somehow the long-term muscle memory from decades of bicycling across the

 United States and around Seattle and San Francisco kicked

 in a bit. I was able to ride in my aero bars and push the bigger gears for a good percentage of the rolling course and enjoyed the sunshine and scenery.

Run – The lack of bicycle training seemed to manifest itself more once the ride was over and I started running. The uphill coming out of the bike to run transition was an ordeal. I could see teammates ahead of me on the turnaround sections, but I just did not have the strength this year to make up the huge lead they had established.

Though my Niijima time was "respectable" considering my lack of bicycle training, I do hope to improve on this by mid-summer.