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 Swim
Comments: So my pool swimming has been going pretty well, so I was interested to see what I could do here. Sure enough the sun came out as soon as I got to the beach, so I kmew I was going to burn pretty good. I really struggled to breathe in the cold water, but settled in after a few hundred yards. The start was a little rough, I got beat up pretty good in this one. The last 200 or so I was boxed in around some slower swimmers, so that slowed me down a little. I think the timing mat was up by transition, so there was a good 30 sec. run included in the swim time. Pretty good effort all things considered. What would you do differently?: Not sure, navigate traffic a little better I suppose. Go harder at the start to get out in front of the fray.  Transition 1
Comments: Nothing too eventful here, the wetsuit did get stuck on the timing chip though, and that cost me a few seconds. My first toss of the wetsuit onto the bike rack missed, so I had to pick it up and try again. Again a few seconds loss. I really need to improve here... What would you do differently?: See above wetsuit issues.  Bike
Comments: So I was flying blind here, no heart rate or pace information to go off of. Luckily it was a sprint, so I figured go as hard as possible sounded good. I could tell we were flying on the out portion of the bike course, so I assumed there was a pretty strong tailwind. So I thought, crap this is going to suck on the way back. I kept hammering and passed a good 10-15 people. Hit the turnaround and holy crap the wind! I would guess my pace was 15 mph or so with a pretty high effort level. I just toughened up and did the best I could. It was tough, but I passed a few more on the way back to transition. I didn't hydrate enough on the bike, it was getting pretty warm and humid and I was really sweating quite a bit. That's something I really struggle with, my body just does not like the heat. I did the flying dismount thing for the first time in a race. It went flawlessly, I pretty much practice at the end of every ride so that's been well worth it. What would you do differently?: Nothing, this was pretty much all I could do at my current fitness level. I need to improve on hills at the moment. Transition 2
Comments: This was a pretty quick T2 for me, nothing eventful, just got it done and got out quickly. What would you do differently?: Nothing  Run
Comments: Exiting transition there was a short stretch of grass trail winding through the woods, mostly uphill to the exit on the road. Again, no heartrate data so it was balls out all the way. Got to the road and ran a flat stretch for a while, then down a steep long hill that I knew would suck on the way back. Grabbed a water at the aide station drank a little and dumped the rest on my head to cool off. I was pretty much overheating at that point. Up another hill and down to the turnaround, and started on the way back. I was happy to see the nearest competitor was about 30 sec. back, so I figured I would be ok to the finish. I kept chugging along, grinded up the big hill which did in fact suck. Back on the trail and downhill to the finish line. What would you do differently?: Try to stay cool better, not sure how to go about that. Run hills more often. Get a haircut so my head wasn't so freaking hot. Post race
Warm down: Walked around, slammed a few waters and gatorade, had some bagel pieces and candy bars. Waited a good hour or so for transition to open to pack up, then another half hour to get my age group hardware. What limited your ability to perform faster: Heat and humidity, wind, genetics, laziness, work schedule... Event comments: This was a well run race, the logistics of the swim make it difficult to get the swim start on time. Maybe changing transition close time to 7:30 or having 2 buses would help. It was a good time though! Last updated: 2010-03-17 12:00 AM
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United States
85F / 29C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 8/208
Age Group = Male 25-29
Age Group Rank = 3/21
First tri of the year for me, so I was pretty excited to get back out there. I drove down to Ames Saturday afternoon to do packet pickup. Had some pretty awesome pizza at Great Plains pizza on the recommendation of some people from work. I drank a few caffeinated drinks which I definitely should not have done. I got to bed around 10:30, but absolutely could not get to sleep. I almost never drink caffeine so I have to think that was it. I probably slept a total of 2 hours that night. Got up at 5:30 and took a quick shower to get rid of the tired feeling, made a pb and honey bagel for breakfast at the hotel, and hit the road for the race site. It was another 35-40 min drive there, made longer by the extra long train I got stuck behind on the way into the park. Figures...I finally got to the race site around 7:00. Got the race wheels pumped up and started the long walk with my gear to the transition area and got things set up pretty quickly. So then I turn my Garmin 305 on to link up to the satellite, and it immediately takes a dump on me. I realized later that the battery was just dead, I charged it the night before, but something must have bumped the power button in my bag and turned it on. So I would be flying completely blind in this race, because I realized my bike speed sensor wasn't working with the race wheels on. It was very overcast in the morning so I didn't put sunscreen on. Dumb. Got in line for the bus at 7:30 and headed over to the start. There were a lot of people still waiting at 7:45 so I figured things wouldn't be starting on time.
Got in the water and swam 50 yards or so out from shore and back several times. I'm glad I did too, because the water felt very cold, so it was good to get adjusted.