Time trial start with people going off every three seconds. The first 50 - 100 yards was just horribly disgusting. The soft, silty bottom had been so stirred up that when you put your face in the water it was like swimming through tar. You couldn't possibly see anything at all. After the water cleared up a little then you got to the weeds. I felt like the freaking beast from the blue lagoon with all the weeds hanging off me. Just nasty. I settled in and found some feet to draft off but soon enough, that person was taking a hard left off course. I really couldn't find another appropriate set of feet so I went to it on my own. Total time was about 2:30 slower than last year but I wore a wetsuit last year. The hardest part of this for me is that I can't figure out why my OW swims suck compared to my pool swims. I think this might have been a tad long since the top swim time was 20:36 and typically the top swims will be more like 18 or 19 minutes. Still, if I'm swimming in the 50m long course pool and can hold just under 2:00/100m in a long set, why the hell am I swimming 2:12/100 YARDS?!?! Frustrating...

Consider pushing a little harder? Figure out why I'm slower in OWS situations?

Got through transition pretty quickly but this is one of those where your rack spot totally dictates your transition time. Its horribly inequitable but what are you gonna do? I had a quick, easy, and smooth transition and it sure is nice to be able to ride your bike IN transition.

Nothin' much. Sure is easy to do T1 when you have no wetsuit.

I felt pretty dang good about this bike. I got of to a shaky start as I was having some real trouble getting into my shoes. They were smooshed down and I had to take a couple tries to get my foot fully in the shoe on both feet. Once I got up to speed I got to cranking. I was feeling good almost the whole way through and did a good job of grabbing swigs of a light mix of Perpetuem every 10 minutes or so. I did feel like I ended up drinking a little too much, though. I thought I might've been able to get to my goal of cracking 20 mph average in a tri today but the winds really kicked in on the back half of the course bringing my average down a little. For the most part, I thought I rode really well and had some great turns. It drives me crazy getting stuck behind people who go really slow through the big sweeping corners. There's no reason to hit the brakes on a wide corner when the road is dry and clean. But I do love rocketing by those people as they try to get back up to speed after hanging on the brakes way to long through the corner. This course is generally really good but somehow, the last couple miles of this course are a little weird on my psyche. I think its somewhat uphill and into the wind plus it was REALLY crowded so I wasn't moving along as well as I might've liked. Still, I think my 19.5 mph average is my best yet and I'm pretty pleased with it! I did beat my last year's time by over 3 minutes, too. I do have to work on tweaking my position with the new Adamo saddle. I haven't yet found the spot where I can settle in and stay in aero without getting really uncomfortable or that I have to keep sliding back in the saddle. I did wear my new Oomph! Lava Compression Tri shorts today and they were the cat's pajamas. The pad is a combo of the traditional fleece and a thin layer of neoprene under that and they are wicked comfortable. I almost want to go out and buy another pair but they are NOT cheap. I found them on sale for "only" $95 but its better than the regular price of $115. I 'spose that's about how much you'd pay for good cycling shorts so I feel justified. :)

Get my position nailed down before a race. Keep cranking the last couple of miles.

Before the race, I realized I'd forgotten to swap out my laces with Yankz so this took a little longer than I'd hoped. Otherwise, this went well. Bike racked, helmet off, socks on, shoes on and tied, running while putting on hat.

Not forget to use Yankz.

I felt really sluggish on this run. Even when I was trying to push it I couldn't seem to pick up much time. It was quite hot and very humid but I don't think that was much of a limiting factor. Like most races, I got destroyed on the run. Perhaps my primary focus in this offseason will be running LOTS to try to improve this discipline. I sure would love to be able to keep up with that 67 year old guy who blew by me like I was standing still.

Learn to run faster?

As soon as I crossed the finish line and stopped to have my chip taken off, my left quad cramped up into a ball. Fortunately, a little walking made that go away. I got some water and did some stretching before retrieving my gear. I waited around for a bit to get a short massage and I'm SO glad I did. She worked only on my legs and that was an incredible aid to recovery. My only regret is not having her work on my glutes, especially my chronically tight right glute.

I also decided to do this race "naked" wearing only a stopwatch. No HRM. No GPS. Just RPE. I thought I governed this really well on the bike, OK on the swim, and pretty poorly on the run. I felt like I could have pushed a lot harder on the run but that my legs wouldn't cooperate. Perhaps they would have but the more important thing is for me to learn techniques to tune out those little cramps and such and push myself to go faster.


OWS technique. Inability to run fast, especially off the bike.


Great race, great course when the water level isn't super low, great volunteers.