kaburns1214 and UHCoog's Mentor Group-Closed (Page 41)

I don't wear gloves ever really.  The only people I know that do are people who have torn their hands up crashing.

Looks like there are a minimum of 4 bottle hand ups on the Eagleman course.  If you plan on pitching bottles than either buy a Gatorade with a sports top, dump it and refill with what you want, or put a bottle in that slot that you don't mind pitching.  Pulling over to fill is fine.  Please do it at the end of the aid station out of the way.  I had people just stop right in front of me at IMTX and I had to lock up my wheels.

Like Jen said just race your race.  Go in with a plan and execute it to the best of your ability.  Don't get frazzled if say you come out of the water slower than you thought and try to make up time on the bike.  Just continue to execute.

Todd, Jen, sounds like y'all both had good races, way to go!.  Mine went pretty well.  

The water temp was high enough it wasn't wetsuit legal.  The swim was a lot more challenging than I expected.  I took y'alls and a few other's advice, when the horn went off I waited a few seconds for the area to clear up a lil before setting off.  As I caught up with some of the swimmers that are just a little slower than me the jostling began.  The visibility was horrible, I couldn't even see my arms/hands in front of me while swimming.  Even with using the snorkel I was constantly pausing to catch my breath, switching to side stroke, or just treading water for a second.  The Sprint swim was parallel to the shore and we had the current with us so that helped, plus the fact that it was 5' of water so if all else failed, just stand up.  The chop was pushing us towards shore, and either I'm a lot stronger of a puller with my left than I know, or I was way overcompensating because I was constantly having to re-correct my direction.  Even with all that I still pulled a 10:22 which is just a little above my 100/m average.

The bike felt really good.  The adjustments the fitter did earlier in the week really opened my body up and I was able to stay on the aero bars for pretty much the whole race.  Putting the water bottle on the aero bars definitely reminded me to drink as well.  My chiropractor mentioned that the knee problem I was experiencing during my last two races probably was as a result of my pedaling style so I focused on that.  Keeping the legs straight, feet flat, and pulling as well as pushing.  A nice smooth circle with my feet parallel to the bike.  

I struggled a bit on the run.  Coming out of transition I took it easy this time.  The past two events I started out at my regular pace and quickly found myself out of breath and needing to walk for a bit to let myself adjust.  This time though there was no need for that.  Eased into my pace, no twinges in my knee as I stepped up the pace a bit, but then side/stomach cramping reared it's ugly head.  As a result the run was a constant mix of run/walk in order to let the cramps subside.  Not sure whether it is my breathing or maybe with the better access to water I drank too much on the bike.  During the first half of the run I had to deal with cramping more, but during the 2nd half it started to clear up.  

Still happy with the result despite the difficulties.  Like Jen, I'm rather sun burned today.  I applied prior to the swim, but opted not to spend time in transition re-applying.  The bike had a decent amount of shade, but the run had none at all.

My next race is a mini sprint this weekend.  Since it's local my wife will actually be able to come out and cheer me on so I'm looking forward to that.