Half Full 70.0 Aquabike - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Nothing. Probably the best feeling swim I have done. I could have done it again at same pace.

I hate long transitions from swim to bike. I have horried feet and have to walk transitions and have to stick on shoes or deck shoes. Delaware DiamondMan has one, Muncy Endurathon has it, this tri has it.

For me, it is "unfair." (I use that term loosely.) I like longer racaes because I can gain 3-10 minutes on biker runners in a 1500 or 1/2IM swim. But if the transition is long, the runner-bike dudes rip along in bare feet and catch me, or gain back time.

Tale of two races or race legs. My swim was as perfect as my bike was horrid. The only good thing about my bike "race" is that I finished and didn't give up. I was disgusted and bummed to ride so slow in my peak race.

First, I was so cold, and didn't get to normal temp until midway through the race. Second, some days you have good legs, some days bad. Today, I had terrible legs. Each time I would push hard into the pedals, my legs would scream "go to hell, nothing here this morning." Third, I was horrid on the steeper hills, partly because my front derailleur wasn't working. I literally got off the bike repeatedly and changed rings by hand.

I never got in a groove. After I warmed up, I would jam along pretty good on the downhills, flats and false flats, feel ok. I felt like I was my normal self biking. Then I would hit the steep hills, hurt like hell, go about 5 miles an hour and just plain s-ck.

My standard bike average speeds in race are 21-24 miles an hour. In my harder training runs, I often average 18-20 miles an hour. For me it is really discouraging to get in a race and average 16 or 17 miles an hour.
I am disgusted with my bike.


1. Pick another, flatter course for my peak race. This would be a great race in preparation for another peak 1/2 IM. Like a month before my peak race, do this complete ball buster as prep, make the peak race seem comparatively easy.

2. Don't taper or rest. I don't race well when I taper or rest. Tapering and resting worked great for me when I ran track in high school and college. But I swim and bike best when I do normal volume the weeks leading to a big tri or aquabike.

3. If I did this same race over, I would have my bike fixed so that I would be able to change chain rings on the steeper hills.

4. In cold weather races like this, a thinking person would have at least one warm drink on their bike. Some chicken broth in a thermos would have raised my core temp.

Great swim. Nightmarish bike. Overall result in aquabike division, disgusting and embarrassing. I train too hard to perform this slowly.