I recently returned from the USAT National Triathlon Championships in Milwaukee where I competed in the Olympic (.9 mile swim, 24.6 mile bike, and 6.2 mile run) and Sprint (.4 mile swim, 12.4 mile bike, 3.1 mile run) races. I only had three weeks to prepare for the races after the World Sprint & Mixed Relay Championships in Hamburg, Germany, where I finished 5^th in the Sprint and our team earned the bronze medal in the Mixed Relay. Nonetheless, my coach, Dr. Greg Rhodes, was once again masterful in balancing the volume, intensity, and recovery needed for me to feel both physically and mentally prepared to race my fastest.

Though objectively I knew that I was fit enough for an Olympic, I wasn’t entirely confident because I hadn’t raced that distance so far this season. Plus, I confess that once again I had created some outcome expectations for the races in Milwaukee (when will I learn?!?!), specifically, a podium in both races. Here’s why. I thought I knew all the fast guys in my age group from last year’s Nationals and my racing at Multisport Nationals and Worlds earlier this year, and none would be in Milwaukee. I also assumed that my successes at the Sprint and Super-sprint, and Mixed Relay distances would translate to Olympic-distance speed (how wrong I was; more on that shortly). My expectations were tempered by knowing that Tony Schiller, who has dominated my age group for almost 20 years (he’s won both events at Nationals multiple times) was returning after missing last year’s races due to knee surgery. Given that he crushed me in 2021, I took another national title off the expectational table.

Olympic Distance

I felt good the morning of the race, though a bit nervous due to my expectations. But I did my usual race-morning routine and began the race in a good state of mind and body.

I stayed positive for the entirety of what felt like a very long swim (a challenge for me). I focused on pulling hard every stroke and keeping my stroke rate up.

I had a smooth and fast T1 (thanks to lots of imagery leading up to race). I’ve really focused on improving my transitions this year and it shows. I’m routinely among the fastest in my age group and those margins have been the difference in placings in a number of races.

From the start of the bike, I wasn’t feeling it. My wattage was way down, and my legs burned  whenever I tried to push the pace. Surprisingly, no one passed me for a long time, but, by the middle of the bike, four guys in my age group went by me at warp speed and, though I tried to increase my pace to keep up, my legs just didn’t want to cooperate. I continued to stay positive and focus on pushing the pace as hard as I could. I also made sure I fueled and hydrated well in preparation for the run. But there was no denying that I wasn’t having a good day on the bike.

My T2 was a bit slower than usual because I had decided to add a few more items to the transition. Usually, I would put on my shoes quickly, grab my hat, sunglasses, and number belt, and put them all on while I ran out of the transition area. But, due to the heat, humidity, and distance of the race, I decided to carry a water-bottle waist pack and down a gel for a bit more energy on the run, thus having too many things to carry to start out of T2. So, I dealt with each of the five items in T2 rather than on the run, thus adding another ten seconds or so to my T2 time.

As I began the run, my legs didn’t feel bad and my initial focus was on controlling my pace the first mile, so I still would have legs at the end of the race. But by mile 2, my legs were feeling heavy and heading toward cramping. Then, at about mile 3, my left hamstring cramped. Fortunately, I only had to walk for about ten seconds, during which I chugged from the bottle I was carrying. I began to run again, and the good news was that I didn’t cramp the remainder of the run. The bad news was that my legs felt like lead pipes and so my goal shifted to just maintaining my stride and finishing the best I could.

Post-race

Shortly after I finished, I learned that I finished 7^th (out of 67 competitors in my age group) and I was really disappointed thanks to the expectations I had burdened myself with before the race. At the same time, as happened in the Sprint event at the World Championships in Hamburg, once I was able to step back from the results of my race and look at my time, my pace in each leg of the race, and how I fared against my competitors, I began to feel a bit better about my performance, though I am still rather conflicted about the race.

On a less positive note, perhaps the most disappointing aspect of my effort was my power output on the bike. I had put in a ton of work increasing my FTP in the off-season and I had seen a big increase in my Normalized Power in my earlier races. But my wattage during the bike in Milwaukee way down. Plus, my body just didn’t feel good on the bike and run.

On a more positive note, I felt that I executed my race plan well. I also left everything I had on the course; I couldn’t have gone any faster. Additionally, I was either faster than or around the same time in my race compared to my times in the swim, bike, and run in 2021 and 2022. What was interesting about this was the disconnect between how I felt (mostly terrible!) and how I performed (actually very well). At my age, the fact that I’m as fast or faster in all three events than I was two years ago speaks volumes to my training program (again, thanks to my coach Dr. Greg Rhodes!).

Also, gratifyingly, when I compared myself to Tony Schiller (who won again!), while he beat me by 16 minutes in 2021, I cut his advantage in half to around an eight-minute deficit. And I beat him on the run; pretty amazing as he was a 2:18, Olympic Trials marathoner and a former pro triathlete. I figure if I keep cutting my deficit in half each year, I’ll beat him within the next ten years!

But what struck me as most unsettling about my Olympic-distance experience was that I really didn’t enjoy myself at all. Though I kept a mostly positive attitude during the race, after I finished, it felt like a huge struggle physically from start to finish, feeling like it was just too long to have much fun. And this from a guy who has done two Ironmans and a bunch of 70.3s!

More on that in my upcoming Part II about my experience at the USAT Nationals.