Struggled with breathing the first half of race, there was a large bow or arc in the bouy line from the wind so I swam straight to the turn bouy and was pretty far off the line in the middle of the first leg, this led to some collisions with those outside of me trying to get closer to the bouy line. Finally settled down on the return leg and got breathing under control. My wife got some video of the end of the swim and my stroke rate was ridiculously low, maybe that's why I felt so fresh.

Better swim warmup, keep breathing under control.

2nd fastest T1, think lots of people were putting on long sleeves and gloves. Wetsuit came off well, no issues with getting over Garmin or chip. Deliberately kept running effort low in transition, I came to the realization that a few seconds quicker time in transtion from running fast doesn't help if it takes away from the bike.

Waited until out of park on the downhill to put feet into shoes, got passed as I was messing with my shoes and he put some distance on me early in the climb, I caught him near the top, he got me back on the dam and stayed ahead 10-15s. 2nd and 3rd lap got passed early in climb, gap opened to 10-20 meters, started closing near top and passed back at start of descent.

nothing

pulled right foot from shoe very early because I was a bit worried about fumbling with shoes given cold hands, but that was no problem. However, the finger dexterity required to put on socks and running shoes was a challenge and seemed to take forever, probably only an extra 10-20 seconds, it just felt painfully slow. Otherwise good transition.

stash gloves on the bike to keep the fingers warmer

felt pretty slow out of transition, turnover was okay but stride length was short, Garmin was showing about 8 minute pace when I glanced at it, not sure I believe that, maybe excessive averaging left over from transition. Felt better by the hill and started catching a lot of guys ahead of me (mostly duathletes), then kept picking up the pace to the finish.

need more run and brick volume, hip rehab has gone very well and I just need to keep slowly building volume and intensity.

shivered, hung with the family for a few minutes until they left then hung out for the awards ceremony. Awesome massage.


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