STAMFORD KIC IT TRIATHLON - TriathlonOlympic

The water was colder than expected. They were guessing 70-ish, but since had 3 weeks of rain, the water was ~64/65. Its cool though, no way you were going to overheat!

I was in the first wave to go off and I stayed towards the back getting in. I went @ my pace. The sighting was good, but I kept drifting left even though I was aiming straight for the bouys. Otherwise, I wasn't zigzagging, just drifting. Current?

I felt comfortable by focusing on one bouy @ a time to break the race up. I felt sorta fast, figuring I would put in a 30 min-ish swim. There were no timers coming out of the water and I wasn't wearing a watch, so I just went with it. I had a good solid swim.

The crazy part was near the last bouy these 3-4 green caps of swimmers behind me were like a freight train just buzzing through water. They hauling!! It was inspiring actually.

Then a woman caught me @ the last bouy. She smoked a LOT of people by a good 8 mins. I think she took 3rd overall for the womens that day and 2nd overall @ tri ridgefield. Another inspiring thing to see someone swim SO fast.

Keep swimming 2500-3000 yards each swim workout! Boy does that yardage pay off!

Because of the 2 seperate transitions of this race, I had to pack all of my swim stuff into a bag, which meant extra time. I did this as fast as I could and got outa there onto the bike ASAP.

Nuttin really...

This was a MUCH better bike than @ ridgefield. I took it easier on the first part of the course to let the legs loosen up in anticipation for the hills.

I was yo-yo ing and getting passed on the flats, but on the hills, I would fly past people. Why do people think that because its a race that you have to big ring it up a hill? I would love for everyone to do that and waste their legs so that I can kick their butts on the hill, but seriously! Swallow your pride and realize that you are gonna go faster in a small ring spinning than mashing some hard gear while wasting your legs.

I yo-yo ed with this guy for about half the course and he was clearly faster than me on the flats, but after the final (and steepest) hill I just easliy spun past him and I never saw him again.

I averaged 206 watts, also my best yet which is great since this is a longer course. My threshold is 220, so I almost hit it!

I like this course a LOT better than Westchester. More uninterupted opportunities to get into the aero position and just grind it out in a big ring. Of course, at ~mile 20 my lower back was starting to hurt and @ one point I just couldnt take it any longer and had to sit up and stretch it out. I think that moment right there and then cost me .02 mph difference. haha!

Felt great coming off of the bike.

Ride more! Need to ride more consistently.

Had a spot right @ the entrance, so very little running in bike shoes.

Flying dismounts.

I had no idea how my legs were gonna react coming off of the bike. Of course they had the usual peg like feeling, but I felt FAST. By mile 1 I was still hurting and it wasnt until about mile 1.5 to mile 2 that that switch went off. The run course was a 2 looper, so it was pretty cool to be buzzing by people who were just starting their 1st loop.

By the time I was hitting ~mile 4 the sun finally came out and it baked me for about 20 seconds, then went away. Oh man, had that sun not gone away, I think the last 2.2 miles would have been sheer torture!

At mile 5 the anticipation of finishing was starting to kill me. I just couldn't take it anymore!!! I started thinking of anything that could keep my mind occupied and not focus on the run. Fortunately I was coming back into downtown and the buildings and people started to distract me. Finally saw the mile 6 marker and dreaded the last .2 miles. But as soon as I rounded a corner there was the finish! I sprinted for it, saw the timer @ 2:31 and I mumbled sorta under my breath "Holy SHIT!!!" since I was expecting to finish in the 2:40:00 range and not almost break 2:30:00 on my 2nd over Olympic.

Run more and run longer.

So in other words, I completely surprised myself and put in the best performance of my life in a multi-sport race!