My best HIM swim to date - felt nice and relaxed and was able to do a little bit of drafting. With most racers being better than me it wasn't hard to find some feet to try and hold on to.

I was pretty happy to come out of the water and see 31 min on my watch. Hopefully next year I'll be able to get down to around 30 min.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/585515112

Decent transition - slower than for the 70.3 two years ago, but the layout was a bit different.

Pretty happy with the bike ride. I was about 4 min faster than on this course two years ago on similar power. I think I was smarter about my power output since this was my third time on this course (70.3 and 140.6 in last two years).

There were tons of draft packs that formed with 50+ riders in them. Luckily I was able to avoid them, but kind of disappointing to see.

This course has rolling hills for a majority of the ride. There is a seven or so mile stretch that is slightly uphill on the way out and downhill on the way back. On this section I was able to cruise at around 24 mph on the way out and 28 or so on the way back. On the climbs I tried to keep the wattage below 350, but that was pretty hard, especially on the steeper stuff in the last 10k out and back near the village.

Right around the time we passed the village and headed out for the last little turn around I was passed by 5-6 guys who were riding strong. I decided I'd do my best to stick with them, and I ended up riding legally with them, passing on some of the downs and being passed on the ups. Chris Thomas was one of the guys, and I hung with him on this last bit. He has won his AG at worlds before, so being able to ride at his pace for the last 20k was kind of cool.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/585504546

I went through 28 miles in 1:07, but knowing the course, realized I had no shot at a 2:14 split. The second half of the ride has more elevation gain, and I rode that part in 1:11. Looking back at the data I probably could have been slightly above 280 watts and still had a similar run - my avg HR was only 154, and it is usually in the upper 150's for a HIM.

I came off the bike feeling good, but had no clue how the run would go.

10 more watts would have been feasible and probably resulted in a HR of around 157.

Took 15 sec longer than needed to get my helmet into my bag...

Since February I've been battling ITBS, and my longest run since April had been at Timberman three weeks ago. There I ran a 1:36 on an easier course, and my knee hurt a bit. In between my longest run was 65 minutes, and I had some decent ITB pain.

I had found that running after biking seemed to not hurt as much - this is what I was hoping would pan out.

I decided to target a 7ish pace, and was able to hit that for the most part on the first loop. The run course was changed for this race from a single loop to a double loop. By doing this they essentially doubled the elevation, as the omitted part was virtually a flat 3-mile out and back. Each of the two loops included a nasty little hill near the lake that was hit on both directions, and a steep climb in the pedestrian village.

At the end of the first loop I was right around 45:30 on my watch, and had the hope that running the same time for the second loop would sneak me under the 4:30 mark for the day. Two years ago I went 4:35 in the 70.3, so I was confident I'd be able to beat that time. Unfortunately, on the second loop my lack of run fitness caught up to me and I ended up around 47 min.

I feel that if I hadn't been injured a good run on this course would have been around 1:25-1:27 and a time in the mid 4:20's. However, I was still pleased with my overall race given my fitness and lack of training this year compared with last year.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/585515159

I got some food, a crappy massage, then found Katie and Jackson. We eventually got my bike and gear bags, then headed to the hotel. Not a long walk, as the hotel was at the base of the village and right on the run course.


The season long ITB injury severely limited my run training this year. My run mileage is half of what it was last year at this time.

I have signed up for the full IMMT next summer with the goal of getting to Kona. I'll be working with Colin Cook, a good friend, and head coach at Peak Tri Coaching to help me get there. Training will look a bit different than it has over the past two seasons, and we will work on strength and nutrition, as I feel I have the base to get to Kona.