Just got f'in pummelled in the swim. Last wk was on the LH side as arrived late and never thought about it. This week I wanted to be more to the RH side but in hindsight I didn't go far enough to the R and ended up in the middle. I think about 80 people swam over me, zagged across in front of me or generally sandwiched me. Realised after a while that getting pummelled is wicked tiring and I never had time once to think about my stroke. Reached the beach about 15 secs slower than last week and just drained. Had to stop and breaststroke a couple times after pummelling/swishing to find clear water.

I'm not swim training so I guess I have to accept that I'm not going to tear it up on the swim or have the speed and power to swim through the masses. Try lining up on the far, far RH side after all it's a training race and it's perfect to experiment. I might swim further this way but going wider might give me clearer water and then I'll be able to swim smoother. I haven't been wearing a wetsuit as it's only 1/4 mile swim and I was figuring if it takes me maybe 1 minute to get it off it might not save me a minute on the swim. But I guess if it's a training race I should experiment with that and give it at least a try one week. If anything it might mean I enter T1 less tired?

Still put the socks on :-D. But seemed faster as just put feet into shoes and didn't fasten them. They have neoprene lining so they stay on really well. Put sunglasses under helmet straps.
Time at T1 at the top of the beach was 8:42 and exiting T1 was ~9:41 so approx. 1 minute for socks, shoes, helmet, glasses on and run with bike. I always remember it as a fast blur and then the T1 time always seems slow. Maybe next week I'll try the wetsuit?

Not much.

Scrabbled a little bit to get shoes done but slipping them on and fastening them when I'm on the trail works better as at least I was moving. Felt smoother with a better flow on the course this week. Passed people on technical sections and the "big" climb (I was psyched with that). Lines around sandy sections were good - just all in all better to have ridden it last week in the sufferfest. Judging by the results I passed 10 or so people on the bike.

Now I know where to put the rachet strap on my shoes as fumbled a bit with that. Fitness doesn't allow me to hammer too much but maybe get out of the saddle a little more as the roots make it pretty bouncy.

Undid racet strap on mtb shoes as I approached T2 and that helped. I could just whip the shoes off at the heel but need to learn that when I take my mtb shoe off instead of putting my foot on the ground, I need to put it straight into my running shoe. Good transition was probably ~:25 - :30 secs. Plopped helmet off my head as last thing which I could do with sunglasses tucked under straps - nice!

Step straight into my running shoes.

This run starts level for about 100yds and then goes up a steep short rise then goes up for a while. Immediately, I noticed that legs felt much better than past 3 times (all the races I've done this year). Caught a guy immediately then the uphill at the beginning had me thinking about last week's death march. Then a young kid (teen) came flying by. But then it levelled out and I carried on working and I realized that I was catching the kid. Then I had the eureka moment where I realized that my legs felt really good and I was catching the kid and 2 women up the trail. So I tried to focus on running well - it was so nice to not have heavy legs. I still had tired/legs tightening on the uphills but I tried to use the downhills to lengthen out my stride again. I even saw the mile markers this week! last week I was too out of it in the crazy heat. Started catching another gal at the end and then heard rapid footsteps appraoching over my shoulder. It sounded like a fast guy but a wisp of a gal ran by me (I was a bit bummed to be passed) so I tried to tuck in behind her. I quickly realized I couldn't hold her pace but tried to use her to tow me up to the other woman who I passed. We were maybe 200-400m from the finish and I just couldn't hold speedy gal and had to let her go. But overall it was such an enjoyable run and hopefully a break thru' for my legs. Looking at the race results almost all my gains over last week's time came on the run (3:09 faster on the run leg and 3:36 faster overall.)

Focus more at the start as to how legs feel. I am so used to the death march/spastic legs that I wonder if my legs felt good earlier than I noticed. I was aware that I had a very fast short stride at the beginning and I wonder if that helped. And it would be nice if sometime I could stay with that speedy gal and sprint at the finish. :-)

Wanted to go dunk in the lake but had to high tail it out of there. Walk to the car.


Training and getting pummelled in the swim. I made huge leaps in the bike and the run over last week. Eventually (by the time the series ends Aug 21st) I'd like to go sub-1 hour on this course that is the ultimate goal.


This race has a great casual summer vibe - it's a training race - and there's a good mix of people and a nice relaxed - go as fast or as slow as you wish feeling. 2 racers had birthdays and one brought cookies for everyone and one brought popsicles for everybody for post-race. Also met Kristen and Brett who organize the races at Lake Compounce - they have a sprint tri Sept 23rd that I'd like to do. I had read comments about Lake T being crowded and there were at least 10-15 first time folks here at this race and wondered if maybe some of the Lake T'ers came here in stead. Field was maybe 120?