Plan was to mix up my strokes between free, breast and side. Did not do a single stroke of free. Was oddly intimidated to try, probably because I don't have confidence in it. Time was better than expected, especially since I breaststroked 95% of it.

Get more confidence in free, finish TI training. One day would love to be able to use free exclusively.

Transition was pretty far away from swim exit. Had to walk a few feet to get head straight before running to rack area. Baby powdered, rolled socks were key. It felt like it was right speed, but won't know for sure as transition times were unconfirmed and unranked (problem with timing company).

Nothing

My cadence meter has been broken so I've just been going by feel. I am really fast downhill, but still learning how to shift effectively from down to up. I'd trained on this course 3 or 4 times before race day and my performance was like clockwork, totally as expected.

Fix cadence meter, more time in saddle.

Seemed to go really smoothly, as expected, at a good pace. I did eat 2 gels when I should have started running first and then eat them, but whatever. Time is estimate, I think all participants were given 2:00 for T2.

Eat gel after starting run, not while in T2

Good God I am a slow runner. I had trained on this course at least once a month coming into race and I knew a few of those hills would be deadly. I knew I would probably make up more time if I walked up them while putting some ass into it. That strategy worked and I felt better for push at end. Last half mile I picked up pace as much as I could (not much). Lost 100 places in the overall between bike and run so clearly this is where I need to improve most. Time was about as expected despite walking. I ate more gels than planned but learned from last time to bring them with me, so it was fine.

Practice running more. Need to integrate speed workouts. Want to get into low 13s.

Walked around post race area, got professionally stretched out. Loved that man, whoever he was.


Training


Very few surprises on this race. Everything went exactly as planned and expected. Mental prep worked. I performed exactly to my training - shocker. Excited about my potential for improvement...no problem getting through race. I feel like this is my baseline to compare future training against. Great camraderie, volunteers, support. I enjoyed this one much more than my first. Lack of timing in transitions was a problem. But overall this was run very well, especially given the leadership transition mid-year.