Great race overall. 8th place in my division (updated: 7th).

Pre-race:

     Feeling more sore than normal. The back in particular has been causing me some issues. The calves felt a little tight but not really a concern and I did not feel anything while racing. A good warmup with several quick spurts. I was fortunate to be able to run to the far side where the swim course was. It allowed me to see the whole course and also see where people were swimming. Ran into Kate which was nice. I am glad she recognized me as I was not expecting to see her and was very much focused on my warmup.

Swim 22:31:

     I had not done very well in the swim race in the day prior but that just let me know how hard I could reasonably push. I started towards the right side of the course which was the shortest. This time the fast people started mostly to the left with just 2 guys on my side going away. There was more contact than most races because many racers were trying to swim to the right side of the bridge (clearly much longer way to swim). It was worth it to stay left. In general, even the faster swimmers struggled to swim in decent lines. The general predilection was to swim sagging lines. Basically make a turn and turn too far and swim a curve to the next buoy.

    The time on this swim was fantastic, but I am hearing from other people (including the winner) that the swim course was probably about 100 yards short. That still leaves a great time but not barnburner.

    They did not allow a pre-warmup in the water, but it was a water start with ample time to get wet and used to the water. My wetsuit was good for the arms and legs but not quite as set in the back/chest as normal and I did not really notice until underway. The right goggle leaked and I did not stop to fix it. An Oly is fast enough that you just swim with 1 eye. Besides, the left eye does most of the sighting if I am hustling at faster than half-distance speed anyway.

    My wetsuit is probably about done. It has all sorts of cuts. The leg is split in the back. The sealer for the seams has peeled off. I love my suit, but it is close to done. Fine for xterra or sprint/oly…. but any real race could cause issues.

T1:

    People went very slowly running in transition. I passed lots of people on that run. Only a few in my age group as it was mostly people in other age groups. I got the wetsuit off reasonably well, but I should probably cut the legs a touch shorter to get them off faster.

    I was able to get to my bike quite quickly, the time spent in transition earlier made bearings super easy to get.

Bike:

    HR was rather high on the bike. There was never time to settle in… the power read low right away. I had zeroed it out before the race but I think that was not enough. I do think that it needs to go in for maintenance. It’s been off for a while. Not really a big deal. Oly distance is a pretty hard effort. There are 3 climbs. The short climb at the first turnaround and then climbing the bridge twice. It is not that steep and should be done in aero. The expansion bumps were pretty large. I had to hold onto the BTA bottle to keep it from scooting around. I passed a few people right away and one person got close to me but no passes that I could tell. The wind was pretty light and provided a tailwind on the way back.

T2:     Nothing notable. Shoes went on ok which I was worried about.

Run:

    Not bad. It was pretty clear that I would not be able to run the pace that I had 5 years or so ago. But I was moving well. I had run without socks in these shoes before but this time I felt chafing by the foot quickly and got some decent blisters with a little bleeding at the end of the run. It feels strange to say the run was hot after running in IMCDA where it was 107 but this was the warmest 78 I can remember. Super high humidity and direct sun was the culprit there. Two guys ran past me fairly early, one with a lot of speed and the other was just enough I couldn’t stay. I did pass one person and they fell apart on the run and did not finish close. I was able to count the guys in front of me at the turnaround and it was not nearly as many as I thought there would be.

Post-Race:

    Felt great to make the podium, even with the podium going 10 deep. I did not really focus on recovery after the race and went out. But that meant poor food, poor sleep, too much beer. I also changed the flight to 5am so I got up crazy early and had to have everything packed. Then the flights were packed and mixed with the dehydration it took a few days to just feel normal.

Things to get faster:

• Running, not sure if it is volume or speedwork missing but my running paces are all slower this year than any recent year. In Boise my z2 hr pace has been upper 8’s. Two years ago at this time it was right at 8 and sometimes just under.
• Swimming, this swim was pretty good. But there is probably some room to go a little faster with the same effort. The open water swim times for practice have all been discouraging this year… but more OW time is probably the solution.
• Cycling, feels like endurance is coming along nicely. But the FTP feels lower.
• Tape the rear cover on, I lost the top.
• Align the rear wheel. It was not rubbing, but it was not straight. Could use some sticky blue stuff to hold those screws in place.

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• Race Report