I felt really good about the swim. Even though I had to breaststroke for about 3/4 of the swim I felt pretty good and decently fast. I definitely got passed by a lot of the younger swimmers, but I think I passed maybe 10-15 people. Made sure to swim freestyle under each of the bridges. Couldn't really find anyone to draft off, everyone was either zooming past me, or was way to slow to draft on. Getting lifted out of the water, it was all I could do to pull my knees up to my chest and keep from clobbering them on the edge of the dock as I was pulled out. Didn't feel too much of a current even out by the buoys. Longest single session swim I've done.

Swim freestyle. I just need to force myself to swim further distances in training so that I can keep it up longer. I think that alone would make about a 10 minute difference.

Haha, I took my sweet time with this. Made sure my feet were nice and clean. Ate a GU, drank some Empact. Shoes weren't clipped in, but I think I'd fall over if I ever tried doing that.

Practice transitions more often. Need to get them down around 2 minutes. Maybe eat/drink right after mounting? And maybe get a tri top/suit so that I don't have to waste time putting on a bike jersey. And maybe get a Bento style box for the bike, so I'm not having to rely on my jersey to supply my nutrition.

Felt good. Set a timer, so I drank about every 20 minutes and had a GU every 40. Switched between drinking Accelerade by itself and Empact with the GUs. Passed Susan before the turn around and passed my mom about a mile from the end of the bike. Dropped my chain going to the small ring on the last big hill before the bridge on the way back. Lost probably about 2 minutes. Only passed maybe one or two of the people that passed me while I fixed it. Longest ride I've ever done too.

Practice longer rides. Mom and Susan were doing 150 minute rides. Think my butt would fall off if I were to ride that long. Gotta work up to it. Also realized my aero bars were a bit too far forward, so I'll have to fix that.

Again, I might has well have read the newspaper. I think my mom made up almost a minute on me during transition. Drank some more Empact with a GU. But left the gate fairly strong, so I guess there's something to be said about that.

Again, practice more transitions. Maybe have one or two days where all I do is switch between biking and running (4 miles bike, 2 miles run, repeat x 3). Just more practice. But right now I'm more worried about finishing, not placing, as my results show.

I swear, my watch is possessed. I forgot to start it until about 4 minutes into the swim, on the bike it kept getting stopped by my gloves, so I about said screw it. Only glanced at it occasionally, but it looked like the first two miles were around 8, the next two around 10 and the last around 12. I was really happy to finish the whole thing at the same pace I seem to be stuck at during training. Mostly drank water on the course, but took a GU at miles 2 and 4. Loved the cold towel idea. Had to walk for about 30 seconds (Damn!) because my left quad was starting to cramp. Tried to stretch it out and nearly had my hamstring cramp, so I said screw the whole not walking thing, and just made sure I finished without cramping. The guys goaded me to go faster at the finish, so I felt the cramps coming on, but made sure to walk them out all day. Longest run ever as well. I'm sensing a pattern.

Longer training runs. Maybe start working in specific exercises to increase speed/strength, instead of just stepping out the front door and running.

Lack of training volume. I'm sure I've got the skills to be competitive, I just need to spend more time in the saddle...and the pool...and on the road. Each one of these legs was the longest time/distance that I've ever completed, and I did them all back to back, so I felt somewhat excited about that. At the same time, I know how much better I could have done had I practiced more. I would have needed to knock off an hour to qualify for nationals. But I've got the bug now. Doing the sprint in August and maybe one or two more before the season is over. Maybe I'll be closer to 2:17:49 next time.


Other than the delayed start and the issue with the timing equipment delaying the winners announcements, it was really (from what I could tell) run well. I will definitely do this again next year.