Suprised myself on this one a bit. I have to this point been fudging swims up to last years HIM being content with half azzed practice in the pool. Lake Geneva forced me to put some time in and work in the off season have helped immensely. I probably swam about 90% freestyle with some sidestroke in when behind some breaststrokers. OWS practice was huge on sighting and I was dead nutz on to the buoys. I did manage to catch some feet to draft off of but didnt really focus too much on hanging on to someone. This was by far my best race swim as I kept cool and actually was swimming vs flopping around.

Still need to work on getting faster for the shorter stuff. Still kinda in disbelief I pulled this out and hit the top third of the swim overall.

There was somebody next to me that threw their shat in the middle of my bike and somebody elses so it was kinda crowded. The plastic bags and wetness didnt help. About 30 seconds off of where I wanted to be in T1.

I need to find a small bike bag for bike tools and stuff for the P2. This oversight had me put all my junk in a plastic bag. I decided to nix it and go without tubes and pump, a gamble that could bite me in the arse someday. Need to work with getting the ankles off better on the wetsuit. Just kinda an early season T1 really.

Once on the bike, I zipped up the first hill to the country roads. I was way ahead of a reasonable pace, my HR was jacked and eventually I had to settle into something I could maintain better. My bro in law looked at my bike yesterday and goofed with the barrel adjuster as I told him it had been having issues shifting and skipping. He made it kinda worse. With that, there were some self shifts and all on the bike. Not passed by anyone and good to see less drafting there than last year. Mixed water and InfinIT mix. Kind of a puss with the wet conditions and gravel on the corners. I would say this continues to be a weakness in my bike skillz. Secretly I was hoping for 23+ but considering I have never seen that in training pace for a longer ride, not sure how that magically was gonna happen. Wheel cover felt good.

Work on cornering. I was hoping to bike hard and accomplished that, but maybe regulate pace at the beginning. I didnt fade overall but maybe had a few sections I had to pull back.

Suprised to see the time on this where it was. I think I remember dicking around with my race belt and again, plastic bags on my running shoes might have added a few seconds.

Nada. Coulda been cleaner, but no regrets having dry shoes for the run.

No issues getting going off the bike to the run. Legs were good to go right off the bat. Again, too rich at the start and had to regulate pace. I looked down about .4 miles in and was pulling 5:40ish. So thats why my heart wanted outta my chest. Still running high on HR, but unlike last year, I was gonna stick with it. Pulled back to around 6-6:10 to recover a bit. Saw Yams smokin it on the way back and caught Sneaky Pete just after the turn around. Payback is a biznatch and I gave him a swat on the azz in return for one at Tour de Cure a few weeks back. Also saw runaway and then morey1, who later told me I didnt look like I was enjoying the run so much, which was true. I kept pouring water on me with a fuel belt bottle and at the turn around water station which helped with heating up. From the turnaround, I ramped back up again for about .7 miles, then eased back for the final kick into the home stretch. From there I told myself there was two hundred yards and dropped the hammer. Crushed my training PR of 19 flat for a 5k, something I wasnt so sure I could zip through and was unsure of as I have been doing little tempo stuff. HR data for race was 153 avg, 170 tops.

Nada. Just keep on truckin in training and this is gonna drop. I dunno, I suppose maybe more tempo stuff, but in the context of long course training it seems tough sometimes.

Grabbed a water, waddled over to the Yamses to cheer on the other Donks coming in. Ate egg burrito, orange, banana, water, coke, etc all to get ready for the bike ride home.


I can complain about the lack of tempo stuff, and maybe hurt most on the bike today, but no issues with this race and lopping off 4+ minutes from last year.


Well run race and a fun course. Nice way to kick off the season.