I did an open water swim the Thursday before. So, I knew what to expect temperature wise. All my swim workouts leading up to the event I thought I had mastered bilateral breathing. On the Thursday swim, bilateral breathing lasted about 200m, and then I reverted to breathing on the right. So, going into this swim, I knew that it would probably be the same...and it was. I was able to get in a few stretches of bilateral breathing. I'm thinking it's just my mind screwing with me, as I know I can do it, but during the pressure of the race, I just felt short of breath.
The swim overall went pretty good. Time was pretty much right where I expected, maybe just a few seconds slower than I wanted, but acceptable. Sighting was tough on the outbound leg, as the sun was directly head on. Couldn't really see the buoys until we were pretty much right on them. On the way back was much easier. My line was good with the exception of the turn around. Found myself cutting the corner, and had to do about a 90 degree correction. The Garmin shows a pretty steady line.

Keep working on the bilateral breathing and overcoming my mind screwing with me. Could probably put forth more effort, but wanted to conserve energy for the bike.

Wet suit strippers were right on the task. Wetsuit came off really quick. Run to the bike was not too long. Got my helmet and socks on and grabbed the bike. Trotted to the mount up line, and mounted the bike in one smooth motion. Was on the course pretty quickly and got up to speed. Got into the shoes without any issue. Glad I practiced that.

Nothing. This went as planned

My nutrition plan on the bike was to start taking my first Honey Stinger waffle at 00:15 into the ride. I had broken the waffle up into 8 pieces, and wanted to take in a few pieces every 15 minutes. Hydration was two bottles of Skratch, and one bottle of Heed. After the second intake of the waffles, my stomach started feeling like there was a large rock in it. Tried to tough it out, and ate about a waffle and a half. At about one hour on the bike, I decided that the stomach wasn't improving on the waffles. So, I went to plan B. I had two Honey Stinger gels. I took one at 1:15, and the second at 2:00. I did take one on course Cliff Gel at about 2:45. Was nervous about that, as I hadn't trained with that brand and didn't know how my stomach would react. The rest of the bike, the stomach settled down, but occasionally reminded me that it wasn't happy.
Performance on the bike was good for the first three laps. I kept my cadence and HR in my targeted zones, with the exception of some of the hills. I did drop my chain once during my second lap on one of the hills. Gotta remember to not get ahead of myself and try to force the gear changes. The last lap seemed more a test of my patience. I was ready to get off the bike at around mile 50. Toughed it out, and was pleased with my time.

Train with the on course gels to make sure my system can handle it. I did a number of training rides with the waffles, so not sure why I have these stomach issues on race day. Maybe need to wait another 15 minutes before taking in any nutrition to let my stomach settle from the swim.

Dismount was a little funky. I did get out of the shoes with no issue, but had not really practiced the actual moving dismount. Did it okay without stumbling or tripping. Run to rack was easy. Got the shoes on quickly. Grabbed my visor, number, and nutrition, and quickly headed on out.

Work on moving dismount

Run felt a little slow, and it took me about a half mile to really get my legs feeling normal. First mile was at 8:15, which is slightly faster than I want to be at that point. Little did I know what was ahead...Hilly trail running for the next couple of miles. This portion really kicked my butt, but the positive is that I never stopped churning, just kept on running short little strides up the hill, with recovery on the way down. Walked through all the aid stations, and took on a few sips of water, while pouring one over my head. I did grab a cup of ice a few times to hold in my hands or put down my race kit. Was hot out there, but never really felt uncomfortable. When I hit the last mile, I was right behind someone in my age group. That was enough motivation for me to put on a little extra effort to cruise past him with about a half mile to go. Coming up on the finish was very satisfying

Include hill work in my training plan

Walked around for about 10 minutes, drank some water, and ate some oranges. Found my wife and friends, then hung out at the Tribe Multisport tent. I did have to lay down for about 10-15 minutes. After all my races, as soon as I stop moving, the extremities start to get all tingly. Laying down and just cooling off seems to solve that problem.


Hill training on both the bike and the run.


Big shout out to all the volunteers, especially those out on the run course. I know it was welcome sight to see you guys out in the middle of the desert.

Overall, this was a long and tough course. I'm glad I put the amount of training into this one, because I needed it. Post race, it was really easy to focus on all the negatives, but when I look back on it, I'm pretty proud of my accomplishments.