I did this exact same race 40 days ago, and I adjusted the details of the swim pretty well. Last time, I ran quite a bit in the water at the beginning, but that got me tired and I wasn't going any faster than those dolphin diving. This time I just kept doing dolphin dives one after the other and I was among the top 3-4 guys to the first buoy. It took 6-8 dolphin dives, but I did these relaxed and they worked awesome. After rounding the first buoy I found feet in front of me and stayed on them for almost 100 meters, but then I saw that a few of the guys in this lead pack were swimming too much towards shore due to the current, so I started to swim by myself and kept going straight. This worked well, since I got to the second buoy together with a guy that was about 10 meters in front of me when he started drifting. My whole swim was relaxed, and I came out pretty fresh, I also improved by 1:15 what I did last time and I had to deal with a stronger current.

Nothing

The T1 time includes a long 0.2 mile run to transition. I did this run more relaxed than last time and was not gasping when I got to my bike. My time was a whooping 1:10 better than last time!

Nothing

My race plan today was to go hard on the bike and see if I could hold on during the run. On the way out, there was a strong headwind, so even though I averaged 19 mph I was working pretty hard. When we turned around it was heaven, I geared up once, went for a bit and then geared up again. Sadly, I did not realized that I should have probably gone even faster, and settled in that pace. I ended up averaging 21.9 mph on the second half, but I could have gone faster. Now that I see the HR graph, it is pretty evident that I was going easier on this second half. Nevertheless, in worse conditions than last time I still ended up going faster, my improvement was 1:28.

Realize that I should have pushed even harder when I had the wind in my favor.

This is the only part of the race in which I really messed up. I was coming into T2 with 3 others riders, and the course signals were really bad, so when we turned in, we were right next to the road we should have taken, we had to slow down and go over the grass to return to the course. The time lost was only a couple of seconds, but it shook me up and made me mad. When I run with my bike into transition I was still reeling and turned into the wrong rack, so I had to turn around and correct. The result was that I was 3 seconds slower than last time.

Keep my cool when something does not go as planned

Here I was, it was time to find out how going hard on the bike was going to affect my run. I started out and my legs felt sore, but I was able to keep a good cadence. I had no idea how fast I was going, so when my Garmin vibrated signaling the first mile was done and I looked down to see 8:24, I was very happy. This was faster than my first mile last time with a much easier bike. The second mile was the most painful one, but I pulled through and was able to keep my breathing under control. In the third mile I was already out of the sand and on asphalt, so it got a little easier and I also pushed a little more. I ended up running 1:01 faster than I did the previous time.

Nothing, I followed my plan.

Walked around a bit, grabbed a croissant with ham and cheese, a protein recovery shake and a muffin along with a couple of bottles of water. Then I stretched.


Not realizing that I needed to push even harder on the bike. Also, I realize that most people are pushing harder than me on the run. I am at a very high effort level, but I am still pretty controlled with my breathing. I see plenty of people in miles 1 and 2 running faster than me and panting like they are going to die. I think the next race I need to just go fast from the beginning of the run and see if I blow up or not. This being said, I still improved on my time from 40 days ago by a total of 3:36, so I can't be disappointed. I am in a tough age group. I would have gotten 3rd in among the younger 30-34 and I beat all the guys between 20 and 29.


They did improve on the organization compared to the first race in the series. The buoys were out on schedule and had no issues with the swim course. That being said, when we were about to start, the race director did not know when some of the groups were supposed to start and he was trying to communicate with his people unsuccessfully. The signaling on the bike getting into T2 was just awful. The food and drinks afterwards were good, and the T-shirt they give you was better than most.