Pretty bad swim. When the gun went off I got out quick...I was like 4th in the water. But the waves made it difficult for a long time. It was hard to spot the first buoy because there was always a wave in my way. I swam on instinct though and I managed to stay pretty pointed the right way. More importantly the waves made getting any kind of rhythm impossible. The worst part was right after a wave passed, because I would fall down on the other side and wind up underwater. That's when I always tried to breathe, too, and I kept getting mouthfuls of water since I wasn't on top anymore.

I never did get any kind of rhythm, even though after the first turn the waves were less of a problem. The waves scattered everyone, so drafting was out of the question. I liked that everyone was scattered because it meant I didn't have to worry about running into anyone.

I didn't work as hard as usual, but I did the usual dolphin diving at the exit. I realize now that no matter how easy or hard I do the swim, when I break out the dolphin dives it becomes very exhausting. That might explain why the run always feels bad afterward.

I wound up about 3 minutes slower than I would have been in flat water. Yikes. However it looks like everyone was affected. The last race I went 13:21 and ranked 20th, so that is about the same as my 22nd rank today.

I guess I need to practice in waves.

In the results it says I did this in 11 seconds, making my transition faster than everyone else. But it was just an error because my spot was close to the exit -- the mat must have detected me.

But, 32 seconds is just what I would hope for. It was actually 7th overall. This was a good T1.

Not a great run. I always have trouble running in aquathons, particularly because they are evening races. My stomach is never empty enough. I thought I would have a good run because I wasn't pushing the swim as hard as usual. But instead this run was pretty similar to previous ones.

I had a good first mile (6:09). Normally I come out of T1 like a bat out of hell, but this time I was taking it easy. Apparently I wasn't taking it as easy as I thought, so either this means I am getting fitter and faster running doesn't feel so bad or it means that I'm no fitter and I only felt better because of the easy swim.

The second mile was crappy, as usual (7:07). This mile's crappiness never makes sense to me, because it is a flat mile. My stomach hurt a bit, and my breathing was really labored, but otherwise I felt fine. I was pacing off of someone whom I wanted to beat, so the pace didn't really matter to me as long as I shadowed him. I passed him late in this mile but he then started shadowing me.

The third mile was good again (6:07). I executed my usual strategy, which is to push very hard on the long uphill about a half mile from the finish. This was enough to lose the guy behind me. Actually he didn't lag by much on the uphill, but then fell way behind when we went down the other side, so maybe the hill broke him. I almost tried to kick down a guy ahead of me, but I just didn't have the will today. Attacking on the hill took everything out of me, so I just cruised to the finish.

My final rank in the 5-race series is 10th overall and 8th in my age group. Stupid talented age group...

That second mile...

I went for a 30-minute easy run, along with some pickups (not to be confused with strides), afterward. I should have done some 200-yard sprints to get a few more minutes of quality work in. I can't lose a training day for a race!


Waves in the swim, and mental weakness in the run.