This was my best swim at this race ever. Previous best time was 9:24 and I've had many years where my time was in the 10s. I again wore my full sleeve wetsuit despite it being ridiculously hot out. I think I was one of about 6 guys who wore one and probably the only one with a full sleeved suit. I snuck up to the front right thinking I could use my usual strategy of getting to a side and finding some open space. That didn't happen and I was soon in the middle of a lot of contact. Nothing too terrible, but in previous years it would have definitely unnerved me and caused me to flip over. I was determined to not let that happen this year. I fought through the chaos fairly well. I didn't go all out by design so not to wind myself and that worked. Before I knew it I was approaching the turn buoys and then headed back home. On the back stretch I began to pick up the pace as much as I could, I lost my swim cap with about 100 yards to go. It wasn't knocked off. Rather I could feel it coming off gradually after the last turn buoy. Even though this was my best swim at this race to date there's still lots of improvement to be had in the swim since I finished in 17th place overall.

During the race, nothing. Before the race, like I say every year, get better at swimming. It's pretty pathetic that I'm barely over 14 hours of swimming for the year. We also say this after every race but the only way to get better at swimming is to swim more. I have to make a commitment to get to the pool even during the school year at least once a week.

Average transition for me. The wet suit gave me a little bit of difficulty. I didn't clip my bike shoes in because of the hill that we have on the trails right out of transition. Either I have to work on getting my feet in shoes faster even on hills or I just have to go even faster in T1 to make up the 30 seconds I lost to some of the guys who beat me.


Practice transitioning after OWS practices. Sprint out of the water to the bike rack instead of jogging and just being happy that the swim is over.

Pretty good bike ride. I got my SRAMs literally the day before the race so I was exited to see how much of a difference they would make. I ended up shaving almost a minute off of last year's time. Still, I thought I was actually going to have an even better time since I actually broke 35 minutes on this course back in '09 when I had just gotten my Cervelo. I think that day was a combination of good race conditions and the excitement of having a new bike. Anyhow, I passed a lot of athletes pretty soon into the first lap and then settled in. My cadence reading wasn't working on my bike computer because I adjusted the sensor for the speed but I didn't adjust the magnet for the cadence. That and not being used to a new cassette probably made it so I didn't go as fast as I what I probably could have/should have. I shifted too fast a couple of times and the chain had a hard time getting switching so I'm just happy that the chain didn't fall off. Also, the easiest gear on the new cassette is harder than the easiest gear on my other wheels and I can't shift to the smaller ring on the front gear so that made the hills a little tougher than I was used to. I'll have to get that worked out. I told the guys after the race that although I really like this bike course, I wish there was some way to figure out what place you were in. Overall a good ride, but again, still room for improvement since it was "only" the 6th fastest bike split.

My bike training has been pretty good but usually all I do is go out and ride. I really should do interval training, especially for sprint distances. Also, I didn't do a brick at the course like I normally would prior to the race. It probably didn't matter too much because I am super familiar with the course, but still, I really should take advantage of living so close to this race site.

Below average transition for me. I went to the wrong rack so that cost me about 10 seconds. Fortunately that didn't matter in my overall positioning. I really can't believe I made such a mental blunder. I also had a moment where I was a little deflated when I came into transition and saw there were about 5 or so bikes on the first rack. I had seen the overall winner just before the half mile point on the run as I was coming in from the bike so I knew where he stood but I was thinking I might be in 3rd or 4th, not 6th which is where I was even though I didn't know that for sure. I tried to put that out of my mind and my mission became holding onto whatever spot I was in which usually isn't the case for me on the run.

Not go to the wrong rack.

Solid run for me. Second fastest run at this race and my previous fastest time (I believe) was the year the run course didn't take us all the way up the hill to the other parking area so this might have been my best run here yet. Anyhow, I felt reasonably pretty good coming out of T2. Many races I come out of T2 and my calfs are beginning to cramp but that didn't happen today. I came to the bridge where there was a lady and she told me I was in 6th. That was nice to know. I couldn't see where the guy in 5th place was so I was pretty sure I wasn't going to catch him but I could see the guy who was in 7th a ways back so I was determined to not get passed by him or anyone else. First mile was a decent 6:43. After you hit the 1st mile mark, you're at the bottom of a gradual hill leading to the turnaround point and you can see quite a ways behind you. I kept checking back periodically and I was fairly certain that I was at least maintaining my lead on the guy behind me. I struggled a little up the hill and hit the turnaround. On the way back down the hill I really tried pushing it so I could take advantage of as much as possible. Second mile was 6:36 due to coming down the hill. I was fairly certain that I wasn't going to get caught at this point so I let up a little bit in case I needed to kick it at the end to beat anyone. I hit the bridge which is about a half mile from the finish and began to pick it up in hopes that I could get a PR for the course which I did. Last mile was a respectable 6:48.

More speed work. I did mile repeats very few times prior to this race. Again, the way to get faster for a sprint tri is to actually do intervals.

Downed a lot of water, enjoyed the iced towels they were supplying. Cheered on Tyler, Rob, and Ben.


Not being as consistent with my training and doing speed work as much as what I really should and need to in order to get to that next level.


I love this race especially when my friends come to town.