This was a hard swim. It was quite windy and the chop made it hard to sight: I had to pull my head up fairly high to see over the waves, and doing this quite often hampered my ability to get into a good rythmic groove.
The swim wave was very small, not more than 15 swimmers. I lost contact with the group, maybe because I tried not to kill it in the first 100 yds, maybe because I got tangled up a little bit with the first buoy and buoy cable. I had to sight on the widely spaced buoys, not on the other swimmers.
On the last leg, which was into the wind, I finally got into a good swim groove and sighted less. However, I guess I was off course a little because one of the kayaks had to herd me over. My pacing must have been somewhat ok because by this time I was passing a number of swimmers.
Even though the conditions were hard for everyone, most did better than me; I was only on the 24th %ile of all women, much worse than ranking for the whole race.
I was moderately tired when I exited the water, but had enough zip left to trot up the 29 steps to the T area. Got my wetsuit pulled down to my waist before I reached my bike but forgot to remove my earplugs. Didn't notice until I was done with my run.

At this venue, where the buoys are few & far between, it would be worth it to burn a match to stay with the group for sighting purposes, whether or not I could catch a draft.
I'd also allow a little more space to go around the turn buoy in order to avoid the cable, especially In windy conditions.
In choppy water, try to time my sighting with sensing when I'm on the crest of a wave. I probably didn't have to sight as often as I did either, but I was nervous about going off course which I have done in the past in this race.

It must've been pretty good, my time was 6th fastest among all women, even with a suit hangup on the chip strap . My method of downing a quick 100 calories is to use a small flask with gel dissolved 50/50 with water. I can squirt one gel's worth down my throat in about a second and leave another serving in the flask for the run.

This timing company is using a new type of chip strap; it's made of foam and kind of puffy. Even though I wore it under my wetsuit leg, it slipped down during the swim and then my wetsuit got hung up on it when I was stripping the leg.
Later I learned that they are throw-away items so next time I encounter this type I'll take one home and experiment & practice to see how to prevent that from happening.

I was trying to pace this race by power, with the first half at 90-95% ftp and the second half at 95-100% ftp. This was hard to gauge as I rode because the course was nothing but ups and downs, although not major hills. Keeping this in mind generally had me pedaling not as hard on the uphills as I might otherwise. I generally work pretty briskly on the downhills anyway, but it's difficult to work it hard enough, and if it's a faster hill I need to keep my eye on the road anyway, not the Garmin. The average power for both halves was nearly the same, at about 93%, although I did feel like I was working harder during the second part.
Nutrition: about 100 calories (Heed) in one water bottle; part of another water bottle, plus a couple of Endurolyte caps.
Rank was 66th %ile of all women, so by time alone it was the strongest part of my race. I don't think I could have gone any harder without negatively impacting my run.

There is a short steep road leading to transition which is enforced as a "no-pedaling zone" for safety. Because I had slowed just before reaching the top of that in order to get my feet out of my shoes, it seemed to me that I had to coast down that zone at a very slow speed. Next time I'll get my feet out well in advance and then pick up some speed again pedaling with my feet on top of my shoes. It might gain me just a few seconds, but still...
Beyond that, keep training with the power meter, especially on hills.

All good. Slipped my (no-tie) shoes on, grabbed my number, small water bottle, gel flask, & ran.
17th among all women. There will always be more women beating me in T2 because some don't change shoes.

Nothing.

I was a bit knackered when I started and noticed that my HR was immediately higher up in zone 4 than I wanted. Walked 15 paces and it came down a few beats; then when I resumed running it rose a bit more gradually which felt better. Then I was able to have a good HR progression, and splits which were close to negative. I ran hard, wanting to quit but calling on all my inspirational models and mantras. I thought I would die when it came time for the kick and had only a little more to give.
My time was 12 seconds slower than last year, but my place among all women, 46th %ile, was 1% better.

I had my second serving of gel in my flask in my pocket, but forgot about it. Maybe if I'd have drunk it I would have felt better. Or worse.

Walked 10 minutes. Then I got my recovery drink & recovery bar and took them down to the water, where I sat with my knees & ankles submerged in lieu of icing. It felt plenty cold, but I should have submerged my butt as well because it was a bit sore later.


I hadn't practiced or thought about sighting enough.
My training was interrupted during the last week before the race because I hurt my back the Monday prior and had to skip or water down several workouts.


Although my overall time was almost 4 minutes slower than the same race last year (altogether due to the swim) my rank among all women was much improved: 53rd %ile as opposed to 45%ile last year. That means I was faster than more than half of all women, the vast majority of whom are 20 years younger than me. This makes me feel as if my hard work is paying off.
The weather forecast was for rain all day, with thunderstorms starting at 9:00 or 9:30. Before entering the water we were given emphatic instructions on how the kayakers would signal us to get out of the water, and how if we saw lightning on the bike we should "find shelter" and wait to be picked up. Given all of that, I was not optimistic about doing a complete race and started thinking of it as just practice. Amazingly, we had no thunderstorm and even the serious rain waited until everyone was done.