Triathlon at Retirement

Should you use socks in your shoes during triathlons? You come out of the swim barefoot, putting on socks takes time. Is it worth it? For sprint competitions, I skip the socks, every second counts. For Olympic distance and longer, I use socks because I am worried about getting blisters on the run and a bad blister can impact the performance. In cold weather, I always wear long socks in order to protect my achilleas tendons.

Rain and thunderstorms in the forecast for this Fort Worth Olympic distance triathlon. I had misgivings while driving five hours the day before; maybe the event would be canceled due to weather. But I had signed up, I had paid and I went. Good job, I did. It was a gray day, but hardly a drop of rain!  For the 1500m lake swim, I positioned myself in the middle of the field. I am not a great swimmer, and often I take a humble position in the back only to find that people are slow and blocking my progress. This time, I was not the slowest in my group, probably most people were faster. It made me feel like I had a bad swim when people passed, but I did what I am good at; swallowing my pride and push on. I could not believe my eyes when I came out of the water; clock said 33 minutes! That is fast for me.  Transition 1 included a long uphill, I ran all the way and started to peel off the wetsuit. The bike leg consisted of two loops of about 12.5 miles, I had almost the same time on ...