Drank 100 cal of gatorade just before entering the water. Wore Timex chrono watch to keep track of all segments. This worked well.

Start is at the dock, in the water. 2 distances all start at the same time, sprint and international. 2 bouys out in the water, one close and one far. The far one is my goal and is placed a little to the right of the close one so I position myself all the way to the right in the start area. I'm out in front too. Mike Pirnat is there and he's doing the sprint. We take off and I run into Mike and another person who seem to be heading to the outside (right) for some reason and not taking a straight line sight to the bouy. I adjust quickly and head for the far bouy. I get clear of anyone pretty quickly. I'm pretty much alone the entire way.

My arms were a little tired after the first few 100 yds. I think the lack of consistent swimming since Ironman made my arms a bit weak. But in the end my time is the same as the last Oly, so I am ok with that.
My sighting seemed fine, but a little rusty. On the way out, the bouy was small from so far away and there was nothing landmark that I could use. I got into a place eventually where the sun was my sighting mark. That helped. On the way back, sighting was challenging. I focused on the bouy for the sprint and just tried to head slightly to the left of that. I may have gone a little too far left though as I found myself coming in at an angle to the dock that didn't seem right. The last 100 yds seem to take forever.


I need to get the shoulder part of the wetsuit on a little better to allow easier arm movement.

Got to try to leave cap, goggles in the wetsuit arm. Have not done that and I forgot today.

Some of the T time is due to the walk from the dock to the area. About 30 seconds of that.

I tried to get the suit off and put helmet on at the same time. That seemed to work.

Wore socks. Shoes not on the bike. Put on Garmin. No running jump on the bike. Walked to the mount area. Got going.

Practice mounting with shoes on bike. Try jogging to T1. I can shorten up the T1 time

Drink more water. I drank 1 bottle of Infinit (200+ cals). But need more h20 to carry me through the run portion. Not enough water stations on the run.

Due to the hills, I couldn't get my goal to average 20 mph. I took the first 4 miles relatively easy got my HR down from the swim to Z3. Was Z4 at first.

Then tried to stay at Z3, but changed my strategy with all the hills. Instead, I took the downhills hard and rested on the straights. I caught a lot of people in the last half using this approach.

Left hamstring cramped up a little on one downhill burst of speed. Good thing it was already around mile 20 or so.

Prep for turn arounds better by getting into higher gear. Lost some speed when I slowed and then was in the wrong gear after the turnarounds.

Great T2. Fast.

Get out of shoes before reaching end. Practice jumping off of bike to speed up T2.

It was hot. Should have carried water and 2 gels not 1. Much better than my first Oly. No need to walk this time. Passed #2 in AG in the last 1/4 mile!

It was hot and hilly, but I could have done better at keeping cool and hydrated. Also I should have brought my kinvaras. No need for trail shoes. Much lighter shoe with less sole might have helped. Wrap the cooling towel around my neck to keep cool.

I believe I can improve my speed in all areas. On the swim, I feel that my stroke has gotten better, but I'm still not as fast as I can be.

On the bike, my leg strenght is much improved over last year, but I have never done a bike focused training plan. I plan to do this early next year.

On the run, I've improved tremendously since last year and feel I will continue to improve especially since I plan to BQ next year.

Overall, year to year fitness has improved noticeably. Compared to my first Tri in April 2010, this was fantastic when I compare.


Notes for next time:
-Carry water bottle and cooling towel on the run and wet myself ASAP on the run to stay cool.
-Try taking a GU at beginning of run and 1/2 way
-better gear shifting at turnarounds
-Sight to the 1st (sprint) bouy so I don't go too much off course
-Wear road shoes. This is mostly road (10% trail).
-Try shortening up T1
-Strategy for hills is to push on the downhill to minimize effort on the next uphill.

Wearing Timex was a great idea. Captured segment times well.