First race of the season and turning weaknesses into strengths

The race report for the Perth Triathlon is up. I had a good time and did okay. I didn't execute the race I wanted but the result was still good. Perth was my first actual triathlon back in 2015, and I've come a long way since then in terms of my fitness. Having not done the race last year (it was cancelled), comparing the two performances reveals some significant variations.

Here's my first ever triathlon.

2015	Time	Rank	Percentile
Swim + T1	0:10:33	25	26.88%
Bike	0:27:07	4	4.30%
T2 + Run	0:15:14	34	36.56%
	0:52:52	9	9.68%
	Participants	93
	% of winning time	117%

A performance I was pretty happy with, especially my bike time, finishing in the top 10%, and getting the AG win. I had about 6 months of swimming in me, and was just starting to develop my running ability amidst constant knee problems. The ranking of each discipline reflect this and I was far from a balanced athlete.

And here's me two years later.

2017	Time	Rank	Percentile
Swim	0:08:30	9	17.31%
T1 + Bike	0:27:10	3	5.77%
T2 + Run	0:14:03	2	3.85%
Total	0:49:43	3	5.77%
	Participants	52
	% of winning time	105%

The real standout is my running ability - from top 37th percentile to top 4th percentile is a huge jump. I'm not reading too much into time, since the run course was different this year and my Garmin has the new one as long by a few hundred meters. Also of note I actually did worse, percentile-wise, on the bike, though I was slightly faster in terms of time. Details on that in the race report. The swim rankings are always a little off in Perth, since it's a Stingrays fundraiser, they get a lot of "real" swimmers. If I average out the top 3 finishing times for 2015, I lost 2:26 to those guys on the swim, whereas in 2017 (when I was actually in the top 3) I only lost 2 seconds, since 1st swam a minute slower than me and second swam a minute faster than me.

So not only have I developed into a much more complete triathlete (something I noticed over the course of last season), but I've turned my biggest weakness into, at least in this race, my biggest strength. It's hard not to be disappointed with my lack of progress on the bike this year, but it's more important to work on your weaknesses than your strengths, and this result clearly shows that payoff.

When there's a discipline that's a point of pride for you, it becomes part of your self-image:"I am a strong cyclist." You don't want to let go of that. Being good at something builds confidence. I used to look forward to getting on the bike and chasing people down (just as I'd then run in fear since I knew many of those same people would pass me back). I knew I wasn't contending for an overall podium spot, but I was at the pointy end in terms of bike splits. That was my victory.

But triathlon is about who gets to the finish line first, and time invested into biking was not going to yield the same ROI as time invested in my dismal run. There was simply a lot more low-hanging fruit there. This result proves, to me anyways, that training to your weaknesses pays real dividends.