As is my way, I had a plan "A"--what would happen if everything went perfectly--and a plan "B"--the minimum performance that I should be capable of no matter what. Here was the plan for the swim:

Plan A: 32 minutes.
Plan B: 35 minutes (accounting for choppy water).

Fortunately, the choppy water was absent today. The lake was nice and flat, and clear of course. So, I seeded myself near the front and to the side, as usual. That was a mistake this time, though. Right before the start, some dude crept up in front of me, and I was like "whatever I don't care" but then he was real slow. And what was worse, the people around me were pointing a bit right, when we needed to go left, toward the buoys. So, the first few minutes of the swim were a bit tricky as I tried to work my way back inside and up to speed. I think if I stayed in the front row I would have been able to break inside without anyone in my way.

After I got to my desired position, I just kept it steady. I drafted a bit on the way out, but not much. After the turn (it was out and back), I spent more time drafting, because at this point the HIM swimmers and Olympic swimmers merge together. I got behind a big guy and basically relied on him to lead me through the Olympic field. It worked well, and I just zipped right through it. I was surprised to see later that I was 5th out of the water. Not too shabby.

My only issue was that my goggles were leaky. I stopped two or three times to empty them, and lost just a few seconds in the process. Maybe next time I'll use watertight goggles.

Actually I had the 4th fastest T1. That's kind of nuts.

The transition was standard. Rip off the wetsuit, clean the feet, and put on shoes, glasses and a helmet. Ta-da!

Well, I should have left my sunglasses behind. They fogged up so I put them in my pocket for the rest of the race, then obsessed about what they were doing to my aerodynamics in there.

Plan A: 2:33 (22 mph) and 196 W
Plan B: 2:40 (21 mph)

The bike course was very flat, and the run was extremely hilly, so my plan was to hit the bike hard. It seemed any savings for the run wouldn't get a good return.

My little plans were way off though. Actually, my training for this race consisted of 4 weeks of "crash" training, and the 3rd week gave me too much fatigue. My legs and shoulders were tired for all of the 4th week and on race day. Right when I started the bike I could tell I was not going to do as good as I hoped. My quads were really aching, and it was mile zero!

Right away there was a pretty steep hill, and when climbing it I swear I had a heart attack. My heart was beating harder than it ever has before--I guarantee I was over 200 bpm. And my chest hurt so bad. It was like something I have never felt. I limped up the hill at 7 or 8 mph, standing in the 39x25 and seriously considering stopping and trying to get some medical help. After ascending the hill my chest hurt for about 30 minutes longer, and I had a lot of trouble getting into any kind of racing rhythm.

I remember seeing 4 riders ahead of me after getting up the hill. So I was like, "sweet, I might be in 5th place." Over the course of first 20 miles or so, I was continuously knocked back. 6th, 7th, 8th,...but that's okay, I was still in the top 10. And then finally someone picked me off and knocked me into 11th place. Dang! I looked behind me and there was no one, so I was determined to at least pace off of the person ahead of me. If she (yes, I was chicked!) got away from me I might have gotten lazy and let the pace slip even more. Unfortunately it was not easy to stay near this person. I was trying to drink, but my hands were frozen from the wind (the temperature was in the upper 50s) and I couldn't open the nozzle thing on my bottles. So I'm sitting up out of the aerobars messing with that, swerving all over the road. And I was putting sunscreen on my face, and trying to eat a banana that I had taped to my top tube and now couldn't remove. And meanwhile the person ahead of me never EVER got out of the aerobars, never took a drink or a bite of anything for miles, and just kept drifting further and further away. I looked at my average speed. It was down around 19 mph. I looked at my power. It was 187 and dropping. This was not looking good!

Then some kind of miracle occurred. At about mile 25 we hit a section that went gradually uphill, and I suddenly found my legs. The 10th place person was about 1/4 mile up the road--built up over several miles--and I closed the gap completely during that uphill. The 9th place guy wasn't too far beyond her, so I got him too. And then I just kept cranking at about 230 W for the next 5 miles. It was just one long interval, ultimately putting me into what I thought was 8th place.

After that the bike ride was quite easy, despite a few attempts at re-chicking. I kept my power above 200 and gradually got further from the people I had passed. Every time a hill came I gained a little more ground. My average power slowly climbed from 187, one tiny watt at a time, until it hit 196. That was sweet, because that was my goal! But my speed most definitely was not 22 mph. Maybe I'm not as aerodynamic as I thought.

Oh well, once I was at 196 W, I kept it there and ate and drank as much as I could to prepare for the run. My bike time of 2:45:27 was way beyond what I planned, but I was happy that I at least put out the power that I wanted.

I think my problems for the first 20-25 miles were related to not warming up. Or maybe the swim took out more than I thought. I definitely have to get bottles that are easy to open with frozen fingers.

An excellent transition. I did a flying dismount and ran my little bike in. No problems.

12th fastest T2.

Plan A: 1:35:00 (7:15/mile)
Plan B: 1:40:00 (7:38/mile)

Pretty good run. Muscular fatigue limited me, so it wasn't too much of a cardiovascular workout. I held back the entire time, because with the giant hills I couldn't tell how much I would need to leave in the tank for later.

I caught up with a woman doing the relay and ran with her for about half the race. I'm lucky I was with her too, because otherwise I would have gone off course. I was feeling strong on "Frank's killer hill" in the second half of the race, so I went ahead and did the rest by myself. It was actually a pretty uneventful run, which is a good thing. The only thing worth noting is that at mile 10 I decided to stop drinking at aid stations, and then by mile 12 my arms started tingling, so I had to drink again. Dehydration comes on quickly I guess.

So, in the end, my swim and run were both better than plan "A" and my bike was worse than plan "B." I'll take it.

Well I should have pushed a bit harder, but I suppose winning my age group by only 40 minutes will have to do :)

Jumped back in Lake Geneva and swam around for like 15 minutes. Then I found a bar of soap at the bottom of the lake and decided it would be real funny if I washed up with it. So I lathered my whole body up with this mystery soap and had a nice little bath in front of some really creeped out beach-goers.

Then I cruised into a nearby restaurant for a burger and some beer (finally!).


I was working on tired legs. And--oh yeah--I had a heart attack.