One of my goals was to take full advantage of drafting, and I did so the entire first half (surely annoying the heck out of the woman whose heels I kept touching). However the splits in the second half, shown on my new Garmin 920xt, were faster. Maybe because on the way out there was a headwind, although it wasn't especially choppy.. Sighting was not an issue: there's an actual line with large & small buoys all the way out, and I was just swimming pretty close to it. I was getting kind of tired in the second half, but not reallt distressed. I did notice that, with no line below to look at, as in a swim lane, I don't always rotate my head fully back to neutral. This has been one of my stroke flaws unless I focus on it. I didn't feel myself snaking but maybe it has an effect.
By looking at where Garmin picks up HR when I'm out of the water, it looks like the swim itself was about 1770 yards, with the time at that point 42:43. Who knows what is really accurate?
My time was 2:36 faster than last year, which is good. However, it ranked only 64 of all 78 women whereas for the entire race I ranked 48. This tells me my swim still has huge room for improvement.

I just have to swim faster?

Everything went smoothly, although I had to use my hand to get the suit off my feet. Often it comes right off when I step on the suit leg and pull my leg up vigorously. Maybe that tells me the swim tired me out a little. But my time was the third fastest among all the women, so it wasn't too bad. Took in a quick 100 calories in a diluted gel.

Nothing.

This course starts right out with 300' of elevation gain in the first 2 miles, and then it's all up & down hill from there. My main concern on those climbs is to keep the power down so as not to burn myself out for later. Actually, in looking at the data now, it seems like I didn't do too badly in this, but it's just not possible to get up those hills without burning some matches.
The route is straight on a rural highway until mile 9, when it drops down (and I do mean DOWN) into a cute little lakeshore residential area. It's just so mind-blowingly lovely that you might forget to pedal.
Then of course you have to go back UP to the highway, and after 10 miles of rollers you get to go back DOWN that first big hill. If you keep your nerve and pedal (I do) you can go really fast --39.2mph, but I don't dare look while I'm riding it.
With all the ups & downs, it was hard to tell what my average power had been, but I could see at the midway point that my average speed was only about 15 mph. That spurred me on to push myself more & try really hard on the second half, and I did bring my speed up considerably. (The second half, while it had its climbs, has more downhills.)
When I got home & looked at the data, I could see that the average power for the first half was 132 watts (85%) and the second part was 132.5 watts. If I remember correctly, my targets were 80-83% for the first part and 85% for the second part.
Although I'm happy with the bike split, which was 5 minutes faster than the same race last year, I think I pushed it too hard in the first part. I never felt good on the run and my position relative to the whole group was so much better on the bike than on the run.
Nutrition: Heed in 1 water bottle, water in the other. 1 Perpetuem Solid every 15 minutes, but I quit eating them after 4 because I felt too stuffed. I just focused on finishing my liquids. Endurolyte cap every 1/2 hour.

Since this race I've figured out a way to monitor my power in real time: I have the autolap setting on my Garmin 510 set at 2 miles, and I have added a display field that shows my average watts for the current lap. I also have current watts displayed, and I am much more able to stay at my power targets with these two numbers to look at.
Now in my training I've been just eating 1 Solid every 20 minutes instead of 15. This works better; they take a long time to chew & swallow.
Also, I just need to become stronger.

All good. Tied for 11th place among all 78 women

Nothing.

Although I took 2 minutes off my last year's time, I wasn't happy about this run.I did not feel in good shape after the bike and felt the long slow early upgrade of this run sucking the soul right out of me. I walked up all the sharp little upgrades, even over the bridge, and pretty much felt like crap much of the time.
My goal had been to run the 1st 3 km in high zone 2; the 2nd 3km in zone 3; the next 3km in high 3 moving into z4. In fact, I couldn't get much above mid z3 until the last km.
Also, I lost a few seconds at the turn-around where you repeat the course. There's a little loop that I should have remembered but didn't, and the volunteers confused me a little.
Nutrition: I had 1 diluted gel at the halfway point, and the 12 oz of water in my hand-held.

Maybe look at my watch less and spend the 1st third of the run relaxing and getting into a good stride.
Put some Heed into my hand-held.

Got my recovery drink & bar & went to the lake & lay down in the nice cool water. Walked around a LONG time looking for Gail's car to put some stuff in it, but couldn't actually remember what it looked like!
Had fun at the awards ceremony with my friends that I don't see often enough. Ate the excellent race lunch.
Rolled, stretched & iced after I got home.


I took 10 minutes total off my time from the same race last year, which is outstanding; but I just need to get faster at everything to compete well at Nationals next year.


This is just one of the most scenic, best run races around, with really excellent food. I've concluded though that with its long hard climb at the front end of the bike, it's one of the hardest to pace correctly. Maybe part of the reason I do relatively well on the bike (I did do better, time-wise, than HALF of the women, all younger than me) is that I have learned to at least try to limit the matches I burn on that segment; although I don't have it down to my satisfaction I can't say that the second half of my ride suffered. Others may go too gung-ho up that first hill and lose out later in their ride.