I Practice Putting On Shoes

Transition 1 Practice

Today I practiced my first transition, which is going from the swim to the bike. This will be the slower of the two transitions and its good to get some runs at it in. Below I list the times for each attempt. Stitches, Team Dirtbag's official Nutritionist/Sexy Wife/Honey-Can-You-Time-Me-While-I-Put-On-Shoes Person, took the times. This transition entails going from barefoot to shoes, glasses, helmet, mounted, clipped-in, pedaling.
For the first three I ran up to my shoes, picked up one and put it on, then the other. Then glasses, helmet, bike, clip, go.

1) 31.56
2) 34.87
3) 31.85

Here is where you ask me, "Dirtbag, is that good?" and I reply, "I have no idea, I've never done this before." But Stitches and I did notice one thing: putting on shoes this way is hard. I kept almost falling over. Tired from a swim, my balance will be worse. I new way needed to be found.
So for the next four I pried the shoes as far open as I could (thanking my lucky stars and my mom for having bought the slightly more expensive but more efficient shoes with a big velcro strap instead of many straps or clips or anything like that), left the shoes on the ground, grabbed the tap and the heel, and slid my foot in. In practice this felt faster and smoother. Let's see how it worked out.

4) 24.09
5) 26.47
6) 30.22
7) 26.72

So much the better! Six was a pedal fail, which is why its so much slower than the other three of the second grouping. But even with the pedal fail it was still faster than the first three. Pretty sure four was the fastest because I wasn't thinking about it nearly as much.
Happy that I got those done. Once on the bike I got a few hard strokes in to get used to getting on and going. Next Monday I practice transition 2, and in two weeks I go over both transitions. It's getting close now.