Bad Swim Positioning

As far as this one goes I’ve been both over-zealous and too humble. Good swim positioning can really help you have an enjoyable race.

First off, over-zealous: Well, I consider myself a pretty good swimmer. I was a competitive swimmer for quite a number of years before I switched to rowing and then Triathlon. But on this particular occasion I really should have hung back a little! What was I THINKING!?

Regardless of what I was thinking (which was obviously that I’m half shark or something), I should have taken into consideration that I had already raced that morning! I was on my second tri of the day in the Chicago Triathlon Triple Challenge[LINK] and was a little zonked to say the least. The gun went off and I felt like one of those guys in “The Running of the Bulls” in Spain that just doesn’t cut it! Needless to say I got bowled over by the fresh guys, who, by the way, were in their late thirties or early forties – can’t remember which age group but, PROPS!

Second, too humble. I think this was on one of my very first triathlons but I was trying to be nice to the crowd around me. So, I positioned myself behind a few people more or less in the middle of the pack. WELL, did I have a lot of ankles to get through that day! I’m pretty ruthless so I apologize to anyone that got in my way that I myself bowled over or yanked at their ankles, but seriously, “swervers” are NOT cool!

Moral of the story: Try to know your strength in the swim. It is a little difficult to tell what the rest of the pack is like but I think generally by the size of the race you can tell how many better swimmers you will find yourself among. It can really suck to be both too far back or too far forward, but hey, if you find yourself in either, challenge yourself to either STAY ahead or GET ahead!

Dehydration

Another “told you so” tip from many fellow athletes, coaches and annoying friends who barely know what they’re talking about, “Make sure you’re WELL hydrated for a race!”

At this tri I felt pretty good coming out of my swim, excellent on the bike (had borrowed some racing wheels, sweet!), but THEN! Man, I really did not realize how thirsty I was on the bike. I sipped a little at a time as usual but was very excited about my speed on those wheels and a little distracted by my timing chip incident (see above!) and didn’t realize the pain about to attack me.

I got to T2, threw on my shoes and sprinted out. I don’t know if that was it or if I was full of water or running especially empty (if you know tell me!), but I don’t think I’ve EVER had such a chainsaw ripping through my side as that stitch. For the first mile and a half at LEAST I could barely manage a limpy shuffle run.

Anyway, moral of the story: Drink plenty of water the day before your race. Make sure your mouth is never dry. Sip constantly and see the difference in your race the next morning. You can thank me then!

Lack of Zzzzzzleep

This kind of goes hand-in-hand with the dehydration thing. Your body just doesn’t do well with lack of sleep. What happened to me was this:

Setting up my transition area took FOREVER! Its amazing how clumsy and forgetful you can get when you’re tired!

At the start I was yawning and kind of scratching my head, distracted by the smallest things.
The gun went off and it was more like an “invitation” into the water instead of the start of a RACE!
Ok, the water woke me up with a SHOCKER but that’s how I should have felt BEFORE entering the water!

Quick moral: Try to get a good night’s rest the day before and two days before your race. Two days before will actually affect you a lot more than the very night before. The morning of the race will get your adrenaline going so it should be pretty easy to wake up at 5am, especially if you’ve been training in the morning!

SPRINT!!

I don’t know if this is as much a mistake as something I think I could have done better, and would recommend to others: Build a good hard sprint into your finish.

For my first few races I committed myself to sprinting all out for the last quarter mile or 400m or so. I think I’ve done this pretty successfully and end up being at 90-100% speed at the finish line. But, almost every time I found that I ended up having enormous reserves left!

My Better Half was standing at the finish line the one day and congratulated me on finishing so beautifully. But then obnoxious energetic Brian decided to pop out and was all “hoppy” and energetic! Cue the rolling eyes.

It might have been post race “runner’s high” but I was SO energetic that I felt like I could have done the race again! Twice!

Moral? Well, as the Oracle in “The Matrix” said; “Temet Nosce.” Know Thyself. Get to know your body and how far and hard you can push it and perhaps you can start running harder for the last mile or even two!

Warm-up

Ok, last one. You absoLUTELY do need to warm up before your race. I’ve made this mistake on several occasions and probably lost a good amount of time because of it.

I’m just gonna skip to the Moral on this one (enough is enough huh?): Well, by warming up you get your blood flowing through your veins, your mind becomes more alert, you become fully awake and aware of your surroundings (and your body!) and you can take some time to visualize your race. I’m sure there are a number more benefits than the ones I’ve mentioned here, but one thing is for certain, you will NOT waste energy by warming up. You’ll probably have a better race actually!

To Warm Up: All you need to do is a little jog to break a sweat. That should be the bare minimum. If you have a trainer, it might be good to get on your bike for a little in transition or even ride down the road a little. Do some kinetic stretches (read Backslaps) for your swim if you can’t get in before your race and just get things moving!

I wish you all the best for your races and hope you can learn from some of my mistakes! If you have any to add I would love to hear about them, especially if they’re comical! Nothing like a good laugh at lessons learned!

For more common mistakes, check out these two articles as well:

Avoid this – Top 10 list of common triathlete mistakes

10 Most Common Multisport Mistakes

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