Swim cancelled due to lightning. I was disappointed, my expectations were to improve my swim about 1 minute over last year (but given the variances of open water swimming it certainly might not have been observed). However, given that I'm not one of the fishies this was in my favor.

no T1

Wind was from SSE, a slightly odd direction for our part of the world. With the swim cancelled they lined us up for a TT start and sent us off one by one across the timing mat as quick as we could go, I was near the front of the line, couldn't have been more than a couple minutes from the start of the Pros until I got up to the line, actually caught some of the female pros on the bike course. Pacing at the start was interesting, I glanced at the PM a couple times to make sure I wasn't going to blow up right away climbing the hills out of the park, got through the park and onto the dam, reached down and adjusted my front brake a bit which seemed to be rubbing from time to time, looked at the lap average power about 15 minutes in and i was at 285W with the hill at the end of the dam coming up I figured I'd hit 20 minutes at 280+W, a new PR, then I promptly dropped my chain off the small end going up the hill, I was off the gas for 17s and stopped for only 6s to get the chain back on and moving again, got caught by 8 or 10 bikes during my coasting and stop but immediately passed them back with a very unwise 550W for 30s acceleration before getting my head back in the game and backing off to more realistic numbers for the duration of the climb. While stopped I also released the quick-release on the rear brake as it was rubbing my freshly untrued rim (see pre-race routine) as the frame flexed. Both brakes continued to give off the occasional unmistakable sound of brake pad brushing carbon rim pretty much any time I was climbing, passing, or otherwise hammering away, guess someone needs to give his bike a little TLC.

The TT start had no particular order other than pros, elites, then age group and I started near the front of the field so it wasn't crowded, about 10 miles in I actually caught the first of 2 pro women (who would probably have finished the swim about 8 minutes ahead of me, not the handful of seconds they got between the tail end of the pros and the start of the joes AND I'm quite sure they both blew past me on the run) I noticed they went up hill better than me but I had a definite speed advantage on the flats. Speaking of flats, wet roads means lots of people were out walking their bikes, one dude was jogging his bike back barefoot about 8 miles from the transition, I wonder if he got a ride or just kept on running.

Anyway, got back into the park with average power still over 270W, given the downhills on the way to the lake it ended up at 264W. Very happy, i was looking for 250-255W, was hitting 235-240 in Oly distance races last year and had a 260+W sprint but 23+ mph in the wind around Clinton Lake, lets hope I can still run...

Not drop chain, either install a chain catcher or rewire my brain to shift slowly from big to little, if I give the derailleur limit screw another 1/4 turn I can't downshift under power so I'm not sure what else to try. Give bike a tune up, brakes rubbing is just silly.

Also need to work on maintaining focus, specifically on flat terrain, easing up into zone 2 / 3 when I should be sitting close to the top of zone 3 or even in zone 4.

I had my shoes and socks wrapped up in a towel so they would be somewhat dry, so it took a moment to get them upwrapped and everything sorted out. Socks went on wet feet surprisingly well.

nothing

first lap was solid, 7:00, 6:44, 6:51 but quads were cramping after the downhill at the end of the first lap, start of second lap was 7:16 (had the hill again) then a pair of 7:03s, couldn't keep an under 7 pace going on the second lap, I'd sneak a peak at the Garmin and see 7:15 or 7:20, increase the effort for awhile and maybe see under 7 for a bit, then drift back up to 7:20 again. Not too surprising given that I've just been coasting on run training. My bike max heart rate is basically even with my run max HR now, used to be a solid 10-15 bpm difference in the two.

Need to get and stay run healthy and then get in some consistent training, no real complaints though I held together pretty well.

pizza and a stomach ache


minimal run training the last couple months