Started out hard near the front and to the outside. Like last year, I had trouble catching my breath and getting into a rythm for the first 500-750m. I had to slow down several time and do breast stroke to catch my breath. Had the usual feelings of "what am I doing here?" but knew that I just had to push throughit. I then found a good draft for the next 750m or so. From the midpoint on, I started to catch a lot of the swimmers that passed me at the beginning; I even caught some people from 2 waves infront of me. My draft was a little slow and I was feeling good, so I continued with a steady pace till the end. Swim ended being my PB.

A better warm up and try to start out steady which will probably still be a hard effort.

I forgot to have my helmet loosened :(
I also had trouble putting on my Garmin wrist strap.

Have towel over wheel of bike to keep it out of the dirt.

Only water for first 20 min. 300 cal Infinit/hr and 1 salt tab every hour due to the heat.
Went out moderately hard for the first lap, not too much attention to HR but more to perceived effort. Back was a little sore on second loop; started to feel some twitches in the lats, so I took an extra salt tab. Felt great and passed a lot of people. For the second lap I kept a steady pace; worked hard going up the hills and recovered on the down hills (easy effort till my HR got back to mid zone 2)

I found out that I have a 12-23 cassette; a 12-25 or a 12-27 would have been nice!

Good transition

Nutrition plan was to have 270 cals/hr of infinit. I alternated infinit with water and defizzed pepsi at the aid stations. This worked well and meant that I had no issues when I lost one of my fuel bottles.
Felt great running off of the bike; no back issues. Had to consciously hold pace back at the beginning. The heat and hills were tough and I wasn't able to pick up the pace the second loop as soon as I had hoped. Heat and perceived effort had me trying to hold a steady pace. Picked up the pace slightly for the last 5K.

stood in lake to cool down (it felt GREAT!)


ME for the hills, not having easy enough gearing on the bike.


PB by 15min
Nutrition plan worked great. Pacing plan was good; had to adjust due to the heat. I'm learning to use perceived effort in conjunction with HR.

Great support and volunteers. It would have been even better if we didn't have a 9hr drive home!