Swim - 23:51 - 11 / 108 OA, 11 / 62 Male, 1 / 12 AG
The swim went fairly
well. This was a wetsuit swim. I was able to get a good warm up in
the water before we started and that helped get my breathing under control
right away. I lost contact with the front packers by the first buoy and based
on the times ahead of me, there was no way I was going to hang with those
fish. However, I stayed together with a few other swimmers and benefited
from the draft and was very comfortable getting out of the water. T1 was
smooth and I passed several people in transition on my way out. T2 = 0:58.2
Bike - 56:48 - 5 / 108 OA, 5 / 62 Male, 1 / 12 AG
The bike was an
interesting one. First, this was the first race that I had my disc wheel
and it was windy. Surprisingly as you had told me, it wasn’t the disc it
was the 80mm front wheel that was catching the wind. I never had a
problem, but it was a big confidence boost to know that I can ride the disc in
a decent wind. I left transition right behind a younger racer and we
ended up pushing each other the entire time. We exchanged passes a few
times. Surprisingly, we did not seem to pass any other Olympic racers the
entire three loop course. However, it was hard to tell because of the
mixing in of sprint and duathlon athletes after the first loop.
Regardless, I felt like I pushed right at my limit the entire ride. I
successfully never looked at my bike computer and only looked at my watch to
see what my time split was per loop. I never let up on the gas though and
was very happy with the result. It did measure about ¾ mile short. After
looking at the results, the top five finishes also had the top 4 bike splits so
that explains why we never caught them. Despite the short distance
measured, it was still a PR by at least three minutes from my PR last year
which measured only 0.2 of a mile longer.
T2 was fast and
smooth and it was fun to see Tammy recording my transition. I stuck out
my tongue at her and ran out! T2 = 0:55
Run - 41:28 - 10 / 108 OA, 10 / 62 Male, 3 / 12 AG
Leaving transition I
felt ok, but not great. It took about a half mile before my legs settled
in to a stride that felt normal. From there, I settled in and just
went. Again, not one glance of the watch the entire run except for the
turnaround for the second loop. That actually inspired me to pick it
up. During the end of the first loop and into the start of the second
loop, I started feeling a side stitch but it was nothing serious. It
eventually subsided and was a non-factor. On my way back out, I noticed
the young man that I was chasing on the bike was behind me and looking
strong. There was also a man that looked to be in my age group that also
looked strong. I used them for a reason to pick up the pace and “run
scared” of being passed. This proved to be a very good mental game
because there were several parts of this course that I could simply measure how
I was doing staying ahead of them. I also figured out who the race leader
was and could see he was pounding it out which kept inspiring me to push
harder. Ultimately, I am very satisfied with this run as I felt like I
ran very well. Again, the course measured short on my watch but being
completely wooded and my Garmin does not do well under cover, it is possibly a
decent 10k. I pushed all the way to the finish as I looked up at
the clock in the chute and tried to crack 2:04 and missed it by a few tenths of
a second. It turns out, I ran the exact same run split as Devilman
Olympic last year which was a PR for me.
Nutrition notes:
We woke really early
to get to this race which was a little over an hour drive. I ate
overnight oats (mixed with all my favorites stuff to bring up the protein
content) before leaving at 4:30 AM. My pre-race hydration was Advocare
Spark. It has amino acids, vitamins, and caffeine to get me going.
This is a new approach I was testing out in this race. About 30
mins out, I drank one scoop of UCAN with protein mixed with amino acids, peanut
butter powder, and cinnamon. At 35 - 40 minutes on the bike which
was about 1 hour into the race, I had another scoop of ucan with protein, ucan
hydrate, and amino acids. The amino acid supplementation was also new for
pre-race and during race nutrition. I had a 20 oz water bottle BTA with 2
GU tablets in it. At two miles onto the run, I had a SIS Energy Gel with
Caffeine which was really only for the mental boost of the caffeine.
Overall, I think this was the best I felt the entire race ever.
Energy felt level, muscles felt strong, and I never had a sensation of a muscle
cramp. Something clicked here.
Lessons Learned / Reflection:
I really enjoyed the
peace of not looking at data. I had no
choice but to remain in touch with how I felt and just keep pushing. I have never looked at data during the swim,
so that was nothing new. On the bike
however, I was always testing myself to see how much more I could push. Having a rabbit out front helped and the
constant desire to find the front pack kept me motivated. At the end of the bike, I did not rest on my
laurels and just follow my rabbit but stayed aggressive and kept the pedal to
the metal. The run was the most
challenging and I found some inspiration on finding the leaders and seeing how
hard they were running. Later in the
run, seeing the two who would ultimately finish behind me was another push.
One of my goals of
this race were to see where I stood with speed. Clearly my bike was on par and
my run isn’t far off from my top end thus far.
I am excited to see what the next block of training will bring in preparing
for my next Olympic in about 5 weeks.
