Evergreen sprint

The water temp had been 67-68 degrees over the past 3 years. This year it looks like it will be 65-66 degrees on race day. Similar to the water temps in Denver in early June.

I found the altitude more impactful than the water temps for the swim. Have a great race!

Darrin and his company put on fantastic events!!! Thanx 4 supporting underground racing and have a blast.

Cheers

I just drove the bike course. Holy cow, it is going to be one heck of a challenge. I did similar elevation at Boulder Half IM last month but carried out over 56 miles, it wasn't bad. I'm now on a desperate hunt for a compact crank or a 30t FSA ring. Might swap out with my MTB crank but afraid I'll miss the big ring on the decent.

Good luck to everyone racing.

I'll be there on Sunday!

I knew the course was hilly but now I'm getting worried. I have done similar elevation in Deer Creek Canyon so hopefully that will help.

See everyone on Sunday

I was referring to elevation affecting my swim. I felt it in the water. For the bike, yes, it's good to know where the top is!

Good idea on mapping it out especially for your sanity. I'll do my best to look for you but I'm usually in a hissy before the race and a bit dazed afterwards. If you've got it together I have an obnoxiously bright yellow road helmet the matches the obnoxious yellow tires and bar wrap on an otherwise reserved black Felt Tri bike. It works great locating my bike in the coral after swimming. My kit is rather reserved also being simply black and white.

I'm picking up a compact crankset tomorrow (Saturday) morning and installing it. Hope I don't regret this move (racing with new equipment) but I'm already feeling relived knowing I'll be able to climb easier and just having fewer teeth on the chainring shouldn't be any significant adjustment.

Edited by driftin' by 2015-07-24 4:22 PM

Rode the course today. It's a butt kicker. Glad I did as it will be nice to know when the downhill starts tomorrow.

That whole race was a but kicker from the cold water, unforgiving bike climb and hilly run. I wasn't able to get the compact crank installed like I had planned on Saturday so I toughed it out mashing with all 39 teeth on my small ring finishing it in 54:09 which is about 15 minutes quicker than I told my wife to expect me to finish. Getting passed by people with triple or compact rings on the climb, I was really able to make it up by topping out at 46.5 MPH on the decent.

Besides being ridiculously cold, I was really surprised with how long the swim took me at 19:52 but my Garmin 920xt, which is pretty accurate in the water, recorded a distance 1039 yards. Not that I zig-zagged much but this resulted in a good pace for me of 1:55/100yd especially considering my swim cap ripped, had my goggles kicked off and oh, the freezing water especially around the turn buoy. Boy oh boy, was that water cold or what?

I was really hoping for a better run but that first big hill really took it out of me plus my feet were still frozen numb from the swim and I didn't feel confident with my foot placement on the dirt trails so I took it slow.

Transitions weren't great either: 3:04 and 2:32 respectively both times having to sit to put on my bike shoes in T1 and later for socks and run shoes in T2 because of dirty and numb feet. Problem I'm sure everyone else was experiencing.

1:52:09 total time which would have yielded a second spot among the small group of Clydesdale racers but I found my registration wasn't correct and instead finished 17 in my AG. I will also add too that I did this race without sugars or grains and only relying on burning fat as my body becomes fat adaptive. So no GU, Gatorade or other stimulants were used and it felt great. Overall another great race put on by Jill and Darrin in a beautiful setting. I can't wait to do it again next year.

Next up- My Way or The Tri Way on 8/30 in my backyard at beautiful Aurora Reservoir.

Good job, Josh! That was a tough race for sure and getting your goggles kicked off is no fun.

I did pretty well on the swim, despite the cold. T1 was slow because I was trying to zip up a shrug to cover my arms but my hands were too cold. Bike was 5 min. faster than the last time I did it, do I was happy with that, plus blasting down the hills was so fun! T2 was a bit slow because my hands were still numb, which slowed down tying my shoes. Run, well that first mile was tough for me too. Wasn't expecting that long uphill and it was really hard with numb feet. The last 2 miles were much better. I passed a lot of people and finished strong. Just getting to the start was a huge victory for me so finishing, and not even last in my AG (8/10) was super.

I loved this race and really want to do it again! I almost did it as a relay because I didn't think I could do the bike. I hung in there and finished with a smile. Today--day off and a long massage!!

Congrats to all the finishers. We did it!!

Nice job you two!

The lake was so cold, holy cow. I'm not a fast swimmer to begin with, and I just couldn't force myself to put my face in, opting instead for a (slow) breaststroke. Thirty minutes later I was finally in transition when the lead male finished his ride and headed out on his run. I was also in the last wave, which didn't help. Oh well!

I hadn't biked the course before so I figured I'd just deal with the hills as they came. It was good considering that I hadn't managed to fit that much climbing in a short ride before. It also helped that having just done a ridiculously slow swim, my only goal was to finish and enjoy the rest of it.

Like Mary, the first part of the run was hard just because my feet were still frozen from the swim. It took two miles until all toes were back to normal temperatures, though they were mostly functional for trail running purposes by the time I hit the first aid station.

I think I'm looking forward to My Way or the Tri Way, but that water better be warmer!