The 2 loop course was a last minute change, I had some concerns but was looking at it as a good opportunity. They changed it for safety reasons, stay out of the heavier chop and current in the main lake, increased density of boats and lifeguards, have a bailout opportunity half way through, etc. What concerned me was my heat was scheduled to start 12 minutes after the first wave, M34 and under. Figuring that 12 minutes is the front end of the main pack starting their second loop coinciding with the start of my heat could make for some congestion. Additionally, they would be coming in from the left and I prefer to start and swim on the left of the pack. The upside was a doubling of drafting opportunities with the likelihood of having slightly faster swimmers coming up from behind on their second loop. Gave strong consideration to starting on the right side of the pack and breathing left, figured I'd end up breathing left anyway given the wind direction and then could ride the waves and current back on course but given the large separation of looping traffic from the start and the way the wind and waves were breaking up the packs I decided to stick with the tried and true approach.

Just before the wave ahead of mine went off the first guy from the lead wave came through for his second loop, given the 3 minute stagger that indicated a sub 9 minute first loop, 'AWESOME' I thought, SHORT COURSE. (I suspect this was the guy I saw doing some fly and later sprinting into dolphin dives during warmups, showoff)

Lap #1: The horn went off, everybody sprinted, I tried to remain calm and go steady but got a little caught up in the moment as well, things quickly spread out, went through the transition from starting excitement to sustainable steady-state reasonably well (AKA the panic zone). Switched over the the left side once we got out into the lake a little ways and found myself swimming comfortably but pretty strong with the waves. Couple times I sighted and found myself way off course/direction, actually had to do a couple breast strokes once to figure out where the bouys were: current, wind: and zigzag swimming. Swimmers were spread out really as far as I could see in both directions, kayaks were paddling around kind of like little kids trying to herd a flock of cats around. Finally hit the shore for lap #1 and saw my split of 13:45, so on pace for 27:30, hmm, the course is not short today.

Lap #2, more of the same, I was swimming nice & steady, switching breathing sides as dictated by the waves, felt comfortable the whole time, noticed the sun coming out for a couple minutes towards the end of my last leg and I could feel the heat through my wetsuit, rolled over and pulled my neck down to get a slug of cold water through the suit and was rewarded with a couple of brief leg cramps, like both legs, everywhere what the heck's been going on with my hamstrings the last week? The cramps went away and I was real careful standing up to get out of the water.

Only real gigs were the occasional form break, need to work on the mental discipline to maintain form, or swim enough that it forms via muscle memory. It was widely acknowledged that this swim was long and obviously the conditions were challenging (the race officials estimated the course was set about 150m long). Given that all 6 bouys blew away over night and they had to find and reset them, it is understandable.

In any case, looking at some good swimmer's results the course and conditions look about 3-4 minutes long, which puts me right where I expected to be.

Note sure about the first wave guy coming through his first lap in under 9 minutes, they probably were not sending the waves off at the planned 3 minutes intervals, if they hit 4 minutes intervals that would give him an 11:something first lap, which looks reasonable.

19 OA, 2 AG

Suit stuck on heels and I took the time to throw my wetsuit on the fence rather than under the bikes to be trampled, in transition seconds seem like minutes, not a big deal.

Despite practicing with my Garmin yesterday, I still can't seem to properly operate the dang thing in a race. Yes, triathlon's 6th disciple, training device operation continues to elude me. Stopped the recording coming out of the lake and knew that I'd screwed it up when I was running with my bike, waited until I was up to speed on the bike course before straightening it out.

Might cut my wetsuits foot openings, even standing on the leg just below my foot and pulling straight upward the suit just stretches and my foot doesn't come out, need to stick a finger in there and pry it through.

Winds at 15 to 20 mph steady gusting to 30, nice day for a bike ride. Pretty uneventful ride, took all the 180s easy as the roads had some residual wetness. Don't recall anyone passing me, of course being a relatively slow swimmer in the second to last wave, that'll happen. Just before the 2nd time up Sheerer hill I noticed a new bike appear in my field of vision, bright orange helmet just like mine, given how quickly he appeared I figured I'd catch him on the climb but he took off and the gap didn't close much, then I thought I'd get him once we hit the flat ground on the way back to transition, again, didn't happen, I was pretty sure it was Bullins at this point and saw that it was in transition.

Heading into this race, biking was my biggest concern and unknown. Had switched to a ~6 week run focus leading into a HM and recovery from that took a little longer than expected before I could get much quality on the bike, then life and weather conspired, and I've been struggling to hit numbers in training that were easy back in March.

I adjusted my bike position 2 or 3 weeks ago, dropped the bars another 10mm, enough that I had to lower to TV in front of my trainer so I imaging there is an adjustment period from that too, might help explain my recent constant hamstring tightness.

Average power for an OLY was down 10-15 Watts from the past couple years but speed was still good given the extreme wind today, I think that's a sign of aero improvement. Only had 3 shorts periods where 30s average power went over 300W, not sure if that speaks more to fitness or pacing, VI was 1.04. Basically handled the pace by feel, tried pushing the pace a little bit starting a few miles in but quickly decided that wasn't going to workout well, I ended up at exactly 90% of my current FTP estimate.

Need more time in the saddle.

29 OA, 4th AG

Bike was at the run-out end of transition, that was a long way to run barefoot. Fumbled just a bit with one of my socks, I'm sure it cost me 1s, maybe 2.

nothing

Started out still maybe 10s or so behind Bullins and he increased the gap for the first mile or so, which went by in 6:30. At about mile 1.5 I timed the gap at 15s and decided to run my race for a few miles and if we're still close at the finish we can worry about it then. Mile 2 went by in 6:25 and shortly after the gap seemed to close and I caught him around mile 2.5 or so, third mile down in 6:26 and onto the second loop as the clock ticked over 20 minutes. A 6:35 for the 4th mile which is strange as that put my 2 slowest miles on the same stretch of pavement with a strong tailwind and only a couple little hills but then brought it home with a couple 6:2 somethings and a solid finish kick to finish the 10k in just under 40 minutes, sweet.

nothing

standing around and BSing.


I didn't feel prepared on the bike but think I faked it pretty well.

From a purely time goal perspective, I really wanted to go under 2:20 as I hadn't done that yet in a legit Oly distance race and really feel that 2:15 is possible in good conditions on a good day, something always prevented it: heat, floating bouys, the KC tri is a tough course with the 180s and hills, had some digestive issues at Hyvee, etc. etc. I was racing today blissfully unaware of my overall time due to earlier watch SNAFU and had pretty much written off a fast time due to high winds and long swim course so was really pleased to see my finish time comfortably under 2:20


Here's my only gripe with the race, finish line beverages: flavored water and beer, I figure they cancel each other out so it's not really a gripe but I was unaware of any normal water being available at the finish, weird. Everything else was superb.