Started the swim in the front of the pack. It was crowded, but after I got past some of the slower swimmers it thinned out. My sighting was spot on. I felt like crap for most of the swim. Just kept swimming as fast as I could. It takes me a good 800 yards to warmup, so I was NOT warmed up. Ha!

Turned right at the first bouy, and then right at the second bouy. Then I got into the waves before us. Starting passing light blue and orange caps. I knew once I saw one of those caps that they were going to be SLOW. And they were. Breast stroking, back stroking, etc. Ugh. One guy I grabbed his leg on the side when I swam by. I saw him pop his head up. But I was coming through, and he was about to kick me. So yeah, I'm going to grab his leg. Obviously, I wasn't trying to take him down or anything.

OK, look... it was a SUPER LONG RUN from the water to T1. While my transitions are never great, they don't suck THAT bad.

Overall a solid bike. My goal was to keep my HR around zone 2 and lower zone 3. I didn't want to blow it out on the bike and fade on the run. Had I been racing this, my plan would have been different. But I wasn't RACING this race. I didn't have but 6 weeks of training for it, and no taper. My coach didn't even realize I had a race until 2 days before the event. So it's not like my training plan was catering to it.

One guy kept playing leap frog with me. There's always one. And WHY is it USUALLY a guy? Hum. I finally said at one point, "I seem to be your motivation to go faster". To which he replied, "yes".

I passed him towards the end, and he didn't pass me again until the last couple of miles. I was lowering my HR to get ready for the run, so I let him take it.

Overall this bike was subpar performance for me. I have averaged 19-21 mph in sprint races. Go to below 19 and closer to 18... shows that my bike fitness is not back. With that said, I placed 6 out of 23 people in AG on this bike. Had I been in racing shape, I probably would have been higher in the standings.

Avg HR: 162
Max HR: 182
Zone 2- 6:14.
Z3- 38:01.
Z4- 12:15.
Z5- :48

Eh, a little bit better. I'm really not good at transitions.

Obviously, this is where I completely suck. Ha! I go from 1st on the swim... to 6th on the bike... to 15th on the run. Ouch.

I knew my run fitness was NOT there to blow this out, so my focus was to keep zone 2 until maybe the last .50. But until then... I wanted to stay in zone 2, and walk as needed to keep my HR down. So, honestly, I'm shocked I keep around a 10:20 mm. Way better than what I have been doing in training with this heat.

A few girls in my AG passed me on the run. Towards the end I tried to keep pace with a gal who I thought I might keep up with and pass at the end. Oh, what a joke that was. I tried, and my HR shot up to zone 4, so I just backed off. I wasn't going to keep THAT pace for very long, that's for sure. While my HR was in zone 2, I wasn't feeling great or peppy.

Towards the end I picked up the pace and pushed into zone 3. This kept off one of my TTT team members who was behind me. I kept thinking she was going to pass me, and her goal was to pass me after the 2nd aid station, but since I sped up, she stayed behind me.

Avg HR 162.
Max HR 189.
Z2- 27:25.
Z3- 6:24.
Z4- :32

Stood around waiting for Jonny to finish the Oly.


Lack of training. Didn't train for this race. It was a "D" race at best. Gosh, my coach didn't even have it on my training plan. Yeah. I told him about it, but he forgot.


Overall it was a good race. The goodies in the bag were nice (socks, a nice shirt, etc.). I liked that the bike course and run course were not completely flat. The bike course had some decent rollers on it even. There were plenty of aid stations and water, food, etc. at the end of the race. I also liked that they changed the run course from previous years, and we didn't have to run on the side of the highway on the black asphalt. That was a beat down in previous years. Overall a solid race.