Music City tri

The bike is awesome.  They close down a major highway in both directions.  It is a two loop course over rolling terrain.  Small climbs but F-A-S-T.

Run definitely sucks.  It is hard.  2-3 substantial climbs.  Overall really good race.  Just hot.

yup i watched the nearly the whole sprint group and the beginning of the Oly group get swept below the upstream bouy forcing them to have to swim back upstream to get around it. i think i aimed about 15ft to the left of the bouy which ended up allowing me to swim straight across. it was still tough though.

If I am not mistaken, I think they slow the current down a day or so before the race. Once I got in the water I never even thought about the current.

I wouldn't worry about getting swept downstream, but there definitely is a current.  Especially on the last turn heading back to the swim exit.  Just look at the MOP swim times and notice how much slower they are compared to a normal Olympic course.

Last year and this year I'm doing a relay.  All I know about is the bike course.  I will say this...On the way out you have a climb that lasts a full 2 miles.  I tried to maintain 20mph up that hill on the first lap and blew myself up.  The down hill that follows is too short for recovery, you turn around, then come back up that hill and it just didn't work.

That hill is too long for that tactic, I'm going to have to maintain a sustainable power level up that hill, at least on the first lap.

So that's my suggestion to you: be prepared for that long incline and work it by effort, not pace.

New bikes are cool!  What do you have?

Sweet.  I have a Speed Concept on my long-term wish list.