Mussleman AquaBike - Aquabike

I started off on the outside and in the 2nd row, there was a little shoving going on in the first row before the start. Right after the start I was able to weave between a couple of swimmers to get into open water, only getting kicked and my arms tangled a few times. It was the first open water swim that I started from the far outside, I like not having the crowds.

I sighted the buoy with no trouble and cought some of the first wave before going around the first turn. There was 1 or 2 purple caps in front of me but most of what I saw was pink caps. I felt great in the water and kept telling myself not to push the swim too hard. (I wish I could get the bagpipes out of my head though)

Rounding the first buoy into the second leg went fine until I looked up to sight the next buoys and saw the sun. Uh oh! This is going to be fun. The wind started to pick up during the second leg and I kept getting blown off course and having to correct slightly. I passed by a large group of pink caps and sighted the second buoy.

I rounded the second buoy and felt great. After about 10 strokes I looked up to spot the finish and saw the starting stairs and to my suprise, NO PINK CAPS! I stopped, looked around and saw all of the pink caps to my right. THERE ARE 2 MORE BUOYS LEFT YOU DORK!!! Turned right and caught back up with that crowd that I just passed. This leg went on forever! I went by another group of pink caps after the 2nd turn and saw I was right next to a guy in a purple cap.

I went by the purple cap guy and for the next couple hundred yards I felt him tapping my toes. I hope he enjoyed the ride. :-) I kicked it up a notch and dropped him. I swam until my hands were touching the bottom and stood up to run in. I still had a football field or more to go! I thought, why waste my legs running through water, I put my goggles back on and swam until my chest was just about touching the bottom. That was a better choice.

Try to find someone to draft off and don't make any wrong turns!!

One thing about wearing the wetsuit for the first time is no practice taking it off. Heels got stuck and had to sit down, take a breath and peel it off. Got my helmet on, shoes on, took a good swig of Gatorade and a gel pack. The bout with the wetsuit threw my plan off a bit and I forgot to put my Cliff Bar, salt tabs and 3rd gel flask in my jersey. Oh well, I'm off!!

Practice removing my wetsuit!

Getting on to the bike felt good. My computer was not working so all I had to go on was my RPE and HR. My plan was to keep my HR in or around the 160's. When I headed out of the transition area onto the road it was 172, I backed off and was able to keep it in the 160's the whole ride.

The 1st 1/2 of the ride was uphill and in to a 15 mph headwind. I got passed by a few guys with the whole disc wheel set-up. (Those things sound really cool going by) One guy kept standing at the top of every hill and I noticed by staying in the aero position and shifting down a gear I gained quite a bit on every hill. (Mental note to self, stay in aero position when riding into a headwind!!)

Turning onto 414 and into a tailwind was like heaven. Talk about a turbo boost of energy!! There was a long stretch of strait road on 414 that I must have been going 32 or 33 mph, felt almost like flying.

My HR was always in the 150's when I checked coming back into Geneva. The stretch along Cayuga Lake was great, seeing the flags blow in the right direction was music to my ears. (Speaking of music, I got the bagpipers out of my head and somehow the Smurf theme song got into it!!)

With about 5 miles left I passed the guy who was standing on every hill. I almost crashed crossing one of the roads that the State Troopers had blocked off. My back tire almost slid out from under me when I hit the uneven road at 25 to 30 mph. Both calfs started to cramp before I made the turn onto 96, I resisted the urge to coast and stretch and shifted into a lower gear to increase my cadence and the cramps went away. Whew!! I went back and forth with the "standing" guy a couple of times before I passed him the last time with about 2 miles to go.

I came into the turn before the transition area and heard mtimofeeff and Jeannie there with their cowbell. Made it into the transition area, racked my bike and realized that "Hey, I'm done"



Get a wired computer. Other than that I was very happy with the result!

Walked around a bit, stretched a bit, ate a lot and loved the ice cream!!


A disc wheel perhaps.


Great race, can't wait to do the whole thing next year!!