Well, what the heck was THAT about?

I thought that this was an okay swim, but it turned out to be surprisingly slow; it seems to me that this is where I really dropped out of contention with the place I wanted to be (solid MOP). What's surprising to me is that except for two small to middling problems, this swim felt fine -- nice and smooth, no panics, plenty of juice to finish the second lap, arms were appropriately tired. But by the time I got out, my AG had left me behind. So WTF? Did I swim into some "Dr. Who" time warp? Did I accidentally swim three laps? (The RD often jokes: "You MUST swim two laps. Anything over that is your choice.")

You know how they say that you can't win the race in the swim, but you can lose it? Well, this is where I lost it.

Two things that did legitimately slow me down:

1. AND HERE'S WHERE THE FORESHADOWING COMES TO FRUITION! Wait, was that subtle enough? Very early on -- like the first turn of the first lap -- one end of my timing chip came loose from the neoprene band on my ankle. Believe me, it freaked me out; I thought I was going to come out of the water with nothing on my ankle at all. Gave me a sudden feeling of nudity, right in the middle of a lake surrounded by men my age in black rubber suits. Disturbing. After futzing with it real quick in the water, I figured that one end of the chip was still attached, and I just kept swimming. Still, I did try not to kick as much and as hard -- perhaps this slowed me down?

2. My damn velcro watch band comes loose. I still need to replace this -- but the only place that carries the replacement is out of stock. Anyone have a solution? http://www.voguestrap.com/tx65e901.html

A third thing that also may have slowed me down, but I can't legitimately claim as an excuse, because it's just whining: I don't own a wetsuit.

And finally, the real reason I was slow: I FORGOT TO SWIM FAST! DAMMIT!

By the time I got out of the water, I was actually BEHIND phoenix -- which isn't too bad, because she's a good swimmer, but is still pretty bad, because she had to have started at least 90 seconds behind me, or maybe more like 3 minutes behind me. What the hell?

At any rate, I found phoenix's lost goggles for her, and asked her to fix my chip strap in exchange.

Drive faster, so that I could get to the site faster, so I could check my chip band, so I could swim faster?
Get a wetsuit?
Just swim faster? This last thing might be the best choice. I've been swimming the "endurance" workouts in my "Swim Workouts in a Binder" -- but the distance on this race didn't really feel like a problem. Maybe I should concentrate on speed for a bit.

put on socks, which took some time, but I'm dealing with some blisters so it's a trade-off

I looooooooove my bike, and this felt good. I think I passed as many people as passed me, but at any rate I felt good, competitive, and occasionally fast. I was working on a 20mph average but just missed it.

I want some race wheels, though. When you get right down to it, I want a lot of things.

Nutrition was one espresso hammer gel 15 minutes into the bike, a few fig newtons at the half way mark, and one chocolate gel 20 minutes before the end. I kept my water intake fairly low -- it was a cool and overcast day, and I didn't want to get to sloshy before the run. So I emptied one of my three water bottles overboard immediately after getting on the bike -- no reason to pack around too much etra weight, I've got enough chubby love to go around as it is -- and probably only drank a bottle and a half total. Yes, I know, I'm getting rid of the aqua rack and replacing it with an aero drink. I've enven bought the aero drink, I just haven't installed it yet, and wasn't going to do it for race day.


Ummmmm . . . nothing. This was, I think, a respectable ride. But I sure felt out of it having sandbagged the swim.

Changed to dry socks. Yes, it ate time. See blister comment above.

learn shoes-on bike trick?

Well, overall this seemed to be a fine run segment. I started out hustling pretty good, slowed down a bit in later miles, but picked it up and finished strong. I didn't feel overly stressed; I wasn't dying out there, even though the sun had finally come out. It was still a cool and mostly overcast day; I was running without a hat or sunglasses, which I normally have. You know, for the ladies.

Anyway, I was feeling pretty good as I started out. I started out running with the phenomenally buff guy that I'm running behind in the pictures below, and I was feeling pretty pleased with the fact that I was running with him, and even passed him for a bit. See, cuz I was feeling good about myself, that's when God turns on the irony: It turns out that he had just done the Triple-T the previous weekend. Yes; he had run three (or more) consecutive sprint triathlons the previous weekend. This international-distance race was his "active recovery". Ye gods.

Whatever. I kept running, and talking to people, to keep my spirits up. Saw Phoenix on the way back. Crossed the dam feeling strong, even though I had gone to splash water on my face at the aid station before the dam AND MISSED MY OWN FACE. Oh well.

Ate stuff. Found water. Waited for Phoenix.


Hmmm, well, that's a good one. I don't know how I got out of the running on this one -- or indeed, if I was really in the MOP where I wanted to be -- but it sure felt like I was out on the course a long time. This is one of the problems of racing oly distance at a spring/oly: Once you finally make it in, all the sprinters have long packed up and eaten everything and moved on. So it feels like a ghost town when you finally make it back, even if it's not. I guess I need to get used to that.

I think that, when it comes right down to it, I forgot to GO FAST. I mean, I had everything else: the gear was all set up, I've been training pretty steady, I know what's going on in the race, I got to the race on time. But then, after the siren blew, I forgot to GO FAST!

I should remember that next time: When the siren sounds, GO FAST!


I *still* like HFP. Reliable, experienced. They're the Toyota Corolla's of racing.