This was my slowest swim pace this season. My swim problems were more mental than physical. I kept thinking "I can't wait for this swim to be over so I can ride my bike". I lost focus. Also, the first bouy was about 700 meters away. Everytime I sighted, the bouy looked so far away. This was a bit discouraging. Overall, not a good swim.

More training. I haven't trained much during July. Moving to a new job and city has disrupted my training.

My wetsuit got stuck on my heels. I was struggling with it for what seemed like hours. In fact, one guy came into transition just after me and left before me.

Practice removing the wetsuit.

After the swim and T1, I was really happy to be on my bike. I blasted out of T1 and immediately started passing people; especially on the uphill climbs. The 12.5 miles out was a constant climb with a few small downhills. There was one long (~2 miles) climb. None of the climbs were extremely steep; Buffalo Springs' climbs were steeper, but this was a constant climb for 12.5 miles. After the turn around, it was all downhill to T2. This was a blast. Big chain ring and more passing people.

I looked at the overall results posted at the race site. I gained 30 places during the bike. I went from 93rd after the swim to 63rd after the bike. Of course, I gave some of that back during the run!

Not much. Maybe ride harder, but I knew I had to run so I kept my HR in z3-4. Or tried to!.

Now this was a quick transition. Bike racked perfectly on my Saddle Wing. I replaced my running shoe laces with elastic laces; no more tieing shoe laces. Hat on, sun glasses on, Gu in pocket and out to the run course.

Nothing. The only thing that would have made this faster is riding with my feet on top of my shoes and doing a flying dismount. Haven't practiced that stuff, yet.

This was good run for me. The pace is about the same as all of my other races, but I felt good during this run. I never felt like I needed to walk and didn't get a side stitch. I also paced myself better than previous runs. And, I even had something left for a kick during the last 2 miles.

Not much except train more and put speed work into my training. You can always say run harder, but I don't think I could have run harder. I was spent at the finish line, as in couldn't talk. Just bent over and tried to catch my breath.

Walked around, drank a bottle of water and ate some great brownies.


A poor swim and T1. A better swim and T1 and I would have beaten my times at the Buffman.


This was a great event. It was small but the course, the organization, and the volunteers made the event fun. It was very low key and laid back. No music blairing over the PA, etc. The event site is Storrie Lake park. There were lots of athletes camping at the park. It is very senic with the lake nestled up to the mountains.