Oh lord, what a crappy swim this was. I obviously knew that altitude would affect my swim, but I fell apart on this one. I didn't even make it to the first bouy before I was having problems catching my breath. Along the course I had to stop several times and rest. I did every type of swim stroke imaginable to keep my face above the water and even made a few up along the way. I could see the pack thin out very quickly along the swim and even saw a few stragglers from the previous wave along the way. The course was allegedly 200m long, so that didn't help anything. I had a few moments of light-headedness and felt like I might throw up at one point. I hadn't strayed from my usual pre-race food, so I think I can blame this on the altitude and my inefficient swim technique. Sadly, I was DFL out of the water in my AG.

Try to get in a little OWS practice at altitude prior to the race. I've biked and run in Flagstaff over the summer, but this was my first swim up there and it killed me. Time for some real swimming lessons I think.

Having had a super crappy swim, I had a super crappy T1. I dropped my goggles on the way up the boat ramp. I don't normally walk in transition, but I made an exception today. After I crossed the timing mat and was walking to my rack, I had a quick dry heave and was then okay. Took forever to get my wetsuit off and into my shoes and socks.

Not have a crappy swim before hand.

A couple of weeks prior to the race I rode the route a couple of times to get the feel of it. It's kind of deceptive as it's downhill on the way out in a few places, but the winds tend to blow from the South, so when you hit those downhills, you're still having to work to go downhill. I recovered from my crappy swim pretty fast and managed to pass several people that had beaten me out of the water. Got to the turn around point feeling pretty good and headed back in. Cross winds started kicking in shortly after I popped out of the trees my Mormon Lake. On the way back I was hoping to hit 40mph on the one big hill that was there and according to my Garmin, I just missed it at 39.7mph. A few miles from transition, I got passed by the first of the HIM athletes that started their swim 37 minutes before us. Whaaah...I got out of my shoes before getting to transition and was feeling pretty decent about that ride.

Lap Time Distance Pace/Speed
1 03m 58s 1.00 miles 15.12 mph
2 03m 30s 1.00 miles 17.14 mph
3 03m 15s 1.00 miles 18.46 mph
4 03m 30s 1.00 miles 17.14 mph
5 02m 49s 1.00 miles 21.30 mph
6 03m 26s 1.00 miles 17.47 mph
7 04m 12s 1.00 miles 14.28 mph
8 06m 14s 1.00 miles 9.62 mph
9 06m 01s 1.00 miles 9.97 mph
10 03m 16s 1.00 miles 18.36 mph
11 04m 42s 1.00 miles 12.76 mph
12 03m 16s 1.00 miles 18.36 mph
13 03m 23s 1.00 miles 17.73 mph
14 03m 36s 1.00 miles 16.66 mph
15 02m 32s 1.00 miles 23.68 mph
16 03m 35s 1.00 miles 16.74 mph
17 02m 09s 1.00 miles 27.90 mph
18 02m 02s 1.00 miles 29.50 mph
19 02m 36s 1.00 miles 23.07 mph
20 03m 02s 1.00 miles 19.78 mph
21 03m 56s 1.00 miles 15.25 mph
22 03m 21s 1.00 miles 17.91 mph
23 03m 26s 1.00 miles 17.47 mph
24 03m 21s 1.00 miles 17.91 mph
25 01m 42s 0.57 miles 20.23 mph


Not much.

Much better T2 than T1! I flubbed up on tying one of my shoes, but otherwise it went okay. It helped to have my feet out of the shoes before getting to transition. Ran out of T2 while putting on my race belt.

Nothing.

Not the most amazing run of my life, but considering the altitude, the crappy start to my race and the sweet hill climb on the run course, it wasn't too bad. I wasn't entirely prepared for the climb on the hill, but I kept running the whole time and was still passing people right up to the end of the race.

Lap Time Distance Pace/Speed
1 09m 38s 1.00 miles 09m 38s /mile
2 10m 55s 1.00 miles 10m 55s /mile
3 11m 40s 1.00 miles 11m 40s /mile
4 10m 05s 1.00 miles 10m 05s /mile
5 09m 09s 1.00 miles 09m 09s /mile
6 09m 56s 1.00 miles 09m 56s /mile
7 03m 33s 0.37 miles 09m 32s /mile


Keep an eye on my pace and push myself a bit harder, knowing what I'm capable of running.

Walked around a bit and grabbed some watermelon, etc.


Altitude mostly and as always train more.


I was pretty disappointed with my overall time. I think I gave away at least 10 minutes on the swim and several more in T1. However, I think the bike was pretty solid compared to my performance at Tempe Town Lake races. This bike course didn't have much in the way of technical turns, etc, but had more significant hills and the road is pretty rough in some places, making you want to ride on the road (which isn't closed to traffic). This whole race is so much more challenging than a Tempe race and I'm glad I did it. I'll do it again next year to hopefully redeem myself in the water.

Photos:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2070768&id=1125210883&l=77a42...