Very choppy for a lake swim. I had tried to change from the open wave to the ag wave about a week ago in the hopes that I would just swim with people of similar ability and maybe I could get on some feet as opposed to being at the back of the open wave. Well b/c I started the NC series in open I have to stay there for the duration so open wave it was. Going into the race I really was looking to swim low 27 and if I had a good one I thought just under 27 was still somewhat realistic. Once I saw the water I knew I would not go that quick, but I would still think I should be at least 29 mid. Waiting for the start I did a few strokes and it felt ok and I thought I would go well, but once we start it was like I was not swimming. Not sure if I get worked up b/c everybody swims away from me so quick and then I stress out and flap around and take on water etc etc. I have never been freaked in ows before. Besides the fact that I was swimming like I was wearing concrete flippers I also had some extra distance to work with. I was basically going from sight buoy to sight buoy. After the final turn I locked onto the next buoy and started heading towards it. I sighted and I was like crap this thing is still miles away, kept going. Sighted again and it still seemed far away for being spaced every 100yds. I thought maybe they skipped a buoy. I then heard a noise in the water and it was a boat engine. I look up and the buoy I was sighting on had broken loose and was drifting away and the boat was coming to save it. I look to my right and the course buoy line is about 150yds to my right. So I have been swimming in a direction that is like 120deg off from the finish. Having a crap swim and heading in the wrong direction does not make for a very fast swim.

take up duathlons

T1 was not very fast. A problem with the bad swim is that it got me really down and deflated. While swimming I actually thought to myself that screw this I am not even going to get on the bike. Needless to say I did not come sprinting up the dock. I also struggled a bit with the suit and sat down to pull it off.

Not lose focus on race and not let the swim get m eso down

I obv got over feeling sorry for myself and got on the bike. Starting out my legs were tired. The quads were feeling it. I hoped it was just from a long swim and trying to get up to power a little to quick and that they would come around. They never really got to a point that I felt good on the bike, but they did not really get any worse than when I started. Big headwind for the 1st 12mi. At about 6mi I just had my head down trying to grind it out and I rode straight off the shoulder of the road into the long grass. Got myself back on the asphalt and my powermeter went dead. So no data on this ride. For that first 6mi I was not hitting the power number I wanted so I am pretty certain that I never got it up there for this ride. I am thinking this was more along the lines of what I hope to do Raleigh 70.3 at. 10th OA bike split, so at the end of the day it was not a awful ride, but it was most definitely not what I had hoped for. By the end of the ride I was tired and I had worked really hard. I just did not have good sensations today on the bike. I guess if I was to find a silver lining it would be that I can sort of ride based on RPE and not 100% have to rely on power data. I do think that seeing data helps me b/c as a newer cyclist I tend to slip into a comfy zone on the bike where I am not working as hard as I should. This happened today after I lost power. at around 10mi I got passed by a guy I know is very strong on the bike and it sort of gave me a kick in the pants and woke me up that I was just going along and I was not really working hard enough.

nothng on day

Coming in off the bike I was a little iffy about the run. I felt I had worked hard on the 2nd half of the bike and I was feeling it. I felt tired.

Knew I had to go out relaxed but not too easy. Got going and felt in control but felt like I was going pretty fast. Saw 6:37 at 1mi and thought it felt way quicker than that. I did not think it was to fast but I thought it was way faster than 6:37. Had people spaced out every 200yds or so ahead of me so I was always working on passing the next one. Got to the turnaround just past 3mi and I felt like I was going well and that it was sustainable for the duration. Saw that the guy who passed me on the bike was about 300yds ahead so I worked on catching him. Got him with just less than a mile to run and I went by hard and just kept it going. so I split 19:01 and by my calculation 17:38 coming back.

I had gone into the race with the goal of going sub 38, so I had a very good run. Overall I had 3rd fastest run so not to bad to be out running the whole field as a master, even with a very limited running year behind me.

nada

sat on a wall


swim was awful