First swim with a full wetsuit. I should have gotten one a long time ago! Hit the ladder in 39:25. I was 4 minutes faster than my previous swim and five minutes faster than last year. Some of that is getting better. Some of it is the suit. I was on top of the water and felt fast.

work on navigation.

need to work on getting out of the suit quicker, but that will come. Overall a few seconds faster than last year.

get out the suit faster and learn to start with the shoes on the bike.

Like everyone else, the wind got me. First 10 miles was done in 28 minutes. First 20 in 58 minutes. The last 36 took 2:02. I think you can see where the wind came in. Legs never felt bad. The strongest bike I have had in one of these races in the sense that I never felt bad. I could have staid on the bike for a while. So that is good. Despite my relatively slow time (see where I fell in the groups) this ride killed my run.

1)Train more and harder on the bike. Also get back in the weight room to get the legs stronger. To get to my time goals the bike must be faster and the run must not suffer becuase of it.
2) use more self control. I liken this to playing golf. When you hear the wind blow through your ears your instinct is to grip the club tighter and swing harder when what you should do is relax and swing easy. Same thing Saturday. I could hear that wind and I was bound and determined to make my time goal. I had an ongoing conversation with myself to ease off and not kill the run. The problem was that my legs felt great. My heart was not going 200 bpm, so I lost that argument. If I had slowed down 10 minutes, I might have picked up 15 on the run and still been 5 minutes faster.

not bad. stopped to drain the last bottle off the bike. that might have cost me 5 seconds, but it was probably worth doing.

nothing

This run was disappointing but not devastating like last year. First 1/2 of the run was 58 minutes. Second half was 69 minutes. I took advantage of the first port a potty I came to, so I feel like I was sufficiently hydrated on the bike and most of the run. Walked every other aid station on the first 1.5 loops of the run. Left glut and the small of my back started cramping on the second 1/2 of the run and that forced me to walk. The towels were wonderful. Actually the wind was wonderful on the run. Without it we would have been toast. Several people were throwing up and having heat related issues on the run. At the aid stations that I used I took some coke with salt tabs and at one I had a piece of a hammer bar.

I think the shortcomings of the run can be traced back to the bike. More training and harder training on the bike is necessary before November. Also, I have now seen Terah's pictures and it appears that I need to work on my run form. I am still heel striking. So, we are going to be doing lots of technique drills, no matter how funny they are, to get faster.

sat in the lake and drank my recovery drink. Waited for Wade, Mandy and Edde to come in. Saw Edded come in, but missed Wade and Mandy. Rode the bike back to the hotel and had some beer.


bike fitness, wind.
I can't be but so upset. To hit 5:30 I needed to swim in 40 minutes, ride in 3 hours and run a 1:45 1/2. I hit 2 out of 3, but the second one killed the third. Even with that, I was off by 22 minutes and ran the fastest race yet for me. So, the improvement was there and there is plenty of places to improve. I guess that's a good balance. Need to make better decisions during the race and believe in those choices.


I did not have the issues others did with water stations on the bike except for having to dodge people stopping to get water. One of the blessings of carrying all your nutrition on the bike.