BANG! Was totally caught off guard when the cannon went off. Was talking to Craig about the PHL tri a couple years ago that had a strong current and next thing you know we are swimming. We started just to the right of the bouy line (far right was a mess) in the 2nd/3rd row of ppl.

I increased my swimming volume to ~12k/wk for the last ~6wks and I was in the best swim shape of my life. I knew I had a shot at 1hr if things went well. I pushed it slightly to start but generally went at a comfortably hard effort. Got hit a couple times, but generally a clean swim.

Only issue I had was on the return leg. I saw this orange buoy above the water. I thought at first it was on the bridge but later realized it was on an upper platform of a boat. What I didn't realize (nor dozens of others) was this boat was WAY inside the actual buoy line. As I approach with those around me I hear a kayaker yelling and motioning us to the right. Ugh. Prob cost me 30s-1m.

Had no idea on time until I exited. Was happy to see 1:02.

Minus the bouy mishap, all was good.

Slow. Wetsuit strippers were so close to water exit, that I just had time to get cap and google off, but my suit was still zipped by the time i got to them. Prob would have been faster had I skipped them.

I changed outside to avoid the growing crowd and to have better lighting (those tents are so dark). Besides that I swam without a shirt as I wanted to start the bike dry on top. Putting on a tight top while wet isn't fun, even after I toweled off.

Skip the wetsuit strippers and suck it up and wear my tri top for the swim.

My plan was to target an IF of .70 to .72. If things went well I would target 195-200, 200-205 and 205-210 watts for the three loops.

Loop 1: 1:45:16 202/205
I got into a nice rhythm pretty quickly. I just tried to focus on keeping the power at my target range and to get nutrition started. I was a cpl minutes late taking nutrition a few times but nothing bad. The wind was from the south and was generally a tail/cross wind as you climbed up the Beeline. After the turn-around you had a head/cross wind. I was mentally prepared for the wind as the forecast showed the wind picking up throughout the morning. I had told myself that I was a better than avg cyclist with a better than avg position and the wind would help be relatively compared to others...it still hurts though. I did have to make one bathroom break around mile 25. Found a port-o-potty with no line. Including slowing down, stopping and getting back up to speed...it cost me about a minute. Well worth it. Wind was tough when you were headind due south on McClintock Dr. Saw my Dad and Sissy as I got back into town. Power ended up being a bit high.

Loop 2: 1:43:17 (194/197)
I continued to stayed focus on my watts and nutrition. After going out a tad too hard on lap 1, I just tried to maintain the effort since my lap 1 power was my target for lap 2. I made a quick stop at special needs (around mile 62) to pick up my second speed bottle of nutrition. The volunteers there were great. I was prob only stopped for 10s as they had my bag ready. Maybe lost 20-30s total with slow down and getting back up to speed. Winds were largely the same: from the south. I decided to ditch my armwarmers around mile 70 (there were pulled up and I was still warm) and no lie, within 5min it started raining. It was on and off for the rest of the loop and even included a short bit of hail.

Loop 3: 1:45:21 (185/190)
I took all the turns heading out to the Beeline cautiously as some of the intersections were slick. After the storm came through the winds picked up. Course was getting crowded as I was passing a ton of those on their 2nd loop. I tried to pick up the power but was largely just focusing on maintaining after I got 5mi into the loop. Then came the move of the day...by Nate. I totally missed him as I passed him. I am prob going 26-27mph with a tail/cross wind on the Beeline and here comes Nate passing me back, unbeknownst to me, and screams "On your left!". I just laughed and we chatted briefly. Hopefully he wasn't hurting too bad after that effort as he still had ~50mi to go. On the out portion of loop 3 I avg'd an insane 23.9mph with a net uphill on only 193/196 watts. When I saw the quick 1/2 lap time I knew the return trip would be brutal. Power faded quite a bit on the return leg (179/184). By the end I wasn't loving the nutrition either...nothing horrible but I had to force it down a bit.

Overall: 5:13:55 (194/197)
It was nice to see Brad, Laura, K (2x each) and Nate out there. Never saw the big guy, CPJ. Got to see my Dad, Sissy and Brad's fam numerous times as well. I wasn't able to hit my goal for each lap but overall it was a solid ride with a VI of 1.02 (1.01 if you excl coasting into T2.)

NUTRITION:
2x (5 Hammer gel, 5 SE mix (933cal Raspberry, 983cal MT Huckleberry)) 1 sip every 15min. Consumed ~90% of Raspberry (840cal) and ~80% of MT Huck (786cal) = 1626cal/~70oz
Water ~50oz
7x Endurolytes (1 every :45 b/t :15 and 4:45)
TOTAL CALORIES: 311cal/hr. (159lbs = 72.1kg. 1.96cal/lb/hr)

EQUIPMENT:
53/39 w/ 11-23
Hed Jet 60 front
PT with cover rear
Giro Advantage 2

A little slower on that first lap would have helped.

Also in hindsight my nutrition was a bit low. I didn't realize Raspberry was 10cal less per serving than MT Huck.

Used the port-o-potty so T2 was a bit longer. I will say this, coming into T2 in about ~6h20m, you get lots of room in/outside the tent.

Not run partially into the women's tent. The port-o-potty's were in a weird place and after I left them, you had to cut through the tent to exit T2. Strangely the women's volunteers at their tent entrance didn't stay anything as I took a cpl steps in before realizing this was wrong. In their defense, most of the pro women had already passed and only the top AGers were starting to come in.

My run plan was largely contingent on how I felt. If I felt good, I wasn't going to worry about running 8 flat to start. If mid 8s felt good, that was fine as well. My only real goal was to not push it early and try to keep the splits consistent.

Unfortunately, the battery on my Garmin was dead. Only thing I can think of was when I charged it the day before it must of turned on when I took it off the cradle (it does that sometimes). It would have been nice to have it especially in the mid/end portion of the race.

First lap was pretty good. Nutrition was going down smoothly. Effort felt good and pace was ok. Minus the first mile they were all in the 8:20s or 8:30s. Somewhere late in lap 1 or early lap 2 the nutrition became challenging. Around miles 13-14 I was gagging a bit. Hit of gel at 14 was rough. Pace fell off shortly thereafter to high 9s. At this point I was speed walking parts of the aid stations trying to get down water and coke. Pace stayed this way until mile 24 where I was able to pick it up a bit.

Overall
I like the course...the right mix of flat and some rollers with 1 climb per loop. 3 loops give you a chance to see you spectators often, although without it being an OAB, you don't see other athletes as often. I did get to see Laura once, Brad twice (once when he was blowing by me at mile 21) and Craig once. Saw my Dad, Brad's fam and the rest of our Sharky gang numerous times as well.


NUTRITION
4x Hammer gel from flask (~1/2 servings at 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 18) = 360cal
9x soda (@ miles 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24) = 216cal (assuming each cup is 1/5 of a can or 24cal)
Water at every aid station ~60oz
5x Endurolytes (1, 5, 9, 13, 17) Wanted to take 6 but dropped my last one at mile 21.
TOTAL CALORIES: 576cal. 143cal/hr. 0.90cal/lb/hr.

Eat more. Well, really I need a better nutrition plan and I need to figure out what I can eat without it making me feel nauseous.

Food. Watch Laura finish. Massage.


Nutrition plan wasn't great. Nutrition execution wasn't great.


As far as my performance, I am tough on myself. I expect to arrive prepared and have a great race. Despite less than perfect nutritional preparation and execution, my training was great and I PR'd each discipline en-route to a 28min overall PR.

As far as the race, I liked this race a lot. It's prob my favorite IM course and the location/venue is only second to LP. Volunteers were great. The Town of Tempe was great. Most importantly, it's always great to get our gang together to race. So much fun to share the day with them all.