Solid race Fred.  Way to deal with the adversity that the day brought.  It's all about how you react when things don't go 'your way' and your introspective approach on how to identify why things didn't go as planned is admirable.

Way to tough it out on the run even though it must have been tough mentally...and physically of course.  I admire your ability and willingness to push your limits...and ride that sharp edge of racing to your potential, and coming up short on your lofty goals.

Even Rocky lost in the first movie.

First - awesome bike split, even though you backed off the power.  Obviously shows there's more in the tank on the right day.

Second - really admire you gutting it out even though it wasn't going your way.  It's easy to pack things in when things are going downhill.

Not the race you wanted (but still an excellent showing).  Hope you are able to learn from what went wrong, adjust, and accordingly crush the next one.

I've heard it said: pacing for your quickest performance at an endurance event is called pacing on the razor's edge.  

Fred, way to HFTU on the Run.  I think the fact that almost nobody passed you on the Run says it all.  It was a tough day.  Numbers and times don't tell the real story.   You had a Solid Race!

I think there's a really fine line between pacing correctly on the bike on over pacing the bike.  I tend to fall into the conservative camp and pace the bike a little on the slow side to be able to run well, but its really tough to figure out the exact watts & HR that will let you maximize both.  Pushing a little in one direction or the other can cause a big time difference. 

Also w/r/t to the PM -- for whatever reason when I raced St. As my Quark calibration was competely off.  I couldn't figure out why but it just wasn't right.  Then I brought the bike home and it began to calibrate consitently again.  No idea but it sounds like you had a similar situation.

I also think that in the tri community honest self evaluation should be seen as a good thing.  You train really consistently and you know what your body is capable of and what your targets should be.  When you're not able to hit those targets,  I think it warrants taking a hard look at the training, taper, race plan, pacing and nutirtion.  Its not a bad thing to want to evaluate and re-structure so that you can perform to your ability based on your training (its also not saying you had a "bad" race but saying you know you're capable of going faster).

Good points and breakdowns from Bryan.  Heck of a race and great job sticking it out through the tough parts.

I agree....I don't see a pacing issue. Going too hard on the bike manifests itself different than what happened here on the run. I see a nutritional problem. The problem might be as simple as an upset stomach on race day or, and more likely, just trying to force too much down.

I would love to see the power file Fred. I PM'd you.

Great race and way to hang in there. It's one thing to be hurting and another to be so uncomfortable you can't hold anything down. That's just the worst feeling. Solid result and lots to learn from this race.

Great job pushing through a tough spot, Fred!

At BEST, it might be

EAGLEMAN 1 ----> FRED 1 

You owned this course last year in much tougher conditions.  You had a phenomenal race at Columbia a few weeks ago.  There are a lot of possibilites as to what might have gone wrong for you on this day (many have been thrown out there by you and others).  Maybe you'll figure it out, but probably you'll never be totally sure.  Trust the fitness you know you've built.  And trust the ability you know you have to race this distance.

Yes.

Great race even though you didn't hit all your goals.  I really admire your ability to push through on what was obviously a tough run.  Your fitness level is fantastic and I think sometimes in endurance sports there are things that are not always explainable or quantifiable.  It seems nutrition and/or hydration is the likley suspect, but I know you are not a big fan of using that as an out.  So what about non training issues...stress, mindset, work, family etc?  Also, what about the race you just did a few weeks before Eagleman?  Any recovery issues or stress from that?  How about your taper into this race?  Probably all stuff you've looked at, but I thought I'd throw it out on the table regardless.

It sounds like you'll come back with a vengeance and even the score with the Eagleman.  The funny thing about this sport is next time around perhaps you go into the race NOT feeling confident and you come out with a PR.  We can't always explain some of those odd ball situations.  However, when we try to, it always comes back to nutrition/hydration