I felt good about the swim. Tried to go hard but tried to keep things in check. I feel like I lost some time at the start because they had us swim out but I some how ended up in the back and had to let people swim some before I could get going. Had to end up swimming around/over people. Next time I need to get in the front. Other than that, I was happy with the results.

Start farther forward.

We had to run up a huge steep hill to get from the lake to transition. I remembered this one from Emerald Pointe, because it's the same T1. Last year's time was something like 5 minutes. This year I ran the whole way (albeit slowly!) and feel like I did a lot better.

Hill repeats :) Also just need to practice getting everything on faster.

Starting out on the bike I realized I pulled a Cornelius and had my aerodrink bottle in backwards, so the straw was at the far end. Doh! I was able to drink it, but I had to stick my head out and pull the straw into my mouth.

I really enjoyed this bike route. Some great hills, and I even got up to 43 MPH on a downhill. There were a couple hills that were tough, and one in particular was killer. But my ride in the Gaps last weekend made even the tough hills seem manageable. I felt like I passed a ton of people, and was only passed by 2-3 people, only 1 of which was in my age group. I went all out, not knowing how my knee would hold up on the run. I feel really good about this bike and think I honestly did the best that I could.

Could probably always stand to do more hill work.

Came in as quick as I could and out as fast as I could. I could always probably stand to practice transitioning more, though.

Practice

I have been dreading this run all week. My knee has been sore and I didn't run all week so that maybe it would feel okay on the run. It felt a little sore from the start, but didn't get much worse than that. I tried to keep my effort high since it was just 3 miles, and I think I accomplished that from looking at my heart rate. I did feel tired on the run, but I guess that's to be expected. Last year at Emerald Pointe, which was the same run route, I ran 9:30 min miles, so I have definitely improved! Now if we could just figure out my darn IT band issues and get those in proper working order, then I would be able to gain some improvement here.

Have IT bands that work properly. Once I figure out what's going on with that, then speed work will be in order.

Drank some water, found Sam (who was still volunteering 5 hours later!). I had the massage guy do a little work on my IT band, and then we decided to pack it up and go home. We then went to Steak-n-Shake - and all I can say is wow. I haven't eaten that much food at once in a long time, but I was damn hungry. And I didn't feel one ounce of guilt!


IT band issues.


Great race - tons of volunteers and it was great to be out there with a bunch of Iron Girls. Awesome t-shirts, very nice post-race food spread (even if we didn't eat any!), and lots of people giving us encouragement.