Swim:
The water was 58 at race time. I positioned myself in the middle and directly in front. Got off to a good start and swam at an above race-pace for the first 300 yards or so before settling in to a comfortable rhythm. Not too much interference from other swimmers. The only unfortunate thing was that my fingers immediately went numb and I wasn't getting great pull with my newly found claw. Everything else felt great! Legs, arms, lungs all had plenty of juice and I did a good job of sighting nearly touching every buoy as I passed. The whole thing was over before I knew it.
T1:
Wetsuit strippers fumbled with my suit for too long and I literally yelled "Just rip it the F off" to hurry them up. Poor kids. Feet and hands were pretty frozen which made getting my gear on/off a little tough but I managed. Overall a little slow here.
Bike:
It took me a good 7 miles to get warmed up and I really didn't feel great until after the first big hill at mile 10ish. Hammered the downhills and tucked in when I geared out. Passed a lot of people here. Hit the flat and continued to push while keeping a watchful eye on my power meter. As I'm sure you saw, I averaged nearly 270 but I swear, I was at 245-250 on the flats. Those hills really threw that number off. The big hills felt a bit easier on the second loop and I pushed fairly hard on the flats headed back to Wellington. I realized with about 1.5 miles to go that I had flatted. Just kept going and it didn't really slow me down too much.
T2:
Slightly better here in terms of time. Had to wear socks due to a blister beneath both ankles which added a few seconds but not many.
Run:
Started off a little fast and slowed it down so as to avoid the "one loop hero" syndrome as you called it. Was able to maintain 7:35 for the first loop but slowed down a little in the first half of the second loop before realizing I wasn't pushing hard enough and picked up the pace for the last quarter of the run...also wanted to make sure I beat Vatour who was nipping at my heels.
Overall a good race. Could have gone sub-30 on the swim had my fingers not gone numb. I think my bike performance was pretty good, especially when considering that I was trying to hold back a little and save my legs for the run. Run was good. As we discussed, I'm just now getting comfortable with being uncomfortable but continuing to push it.
Wetsuit strippers fumbled with my suit for too long and I literally yelled "Just rip it the F off" to hurry them up. Poor kids. Feet and hands were pretty frozen which made getting my gear on/off a little tough but I managed. Overall a little slow here.
Bike:
It took me a good 7 miles to get warmed up and I really didn't feel great until after the first big hill at mile 10ish. Hammered the downhills and tucked in when I geared out. Passed a lot of people here. Hit the flat and continued to push while keeping a watchful eye on my power meter. As I'm sure you saw, I averaged nearly 270 but I swear, I was at 245-250 on the flats. Those hills really threw that number off. The big hills felt a bit easier on the second loop and I pushed fairly hard on the flats headed back to Wellington. I realized with about 1.5 miles to go that I had flatted. Just kept going and it didn't really slow me down too much.
T2:
Slightly better here in terms of time. Had to wear socks due to a blister beneath both ankles which added a few seconds but not many.
Run:
Started off a little fast and slowed it down so as to avoid the "one loop hero" syndrome as you called it. Was able to maintain 7:35 for the first loop but slowed down a little in the first half of the second loop before realizing I wasn't pushing hard enough and picked up the pace for the last quarter of the run...also wanted to make sure I beat Vatour who was nipping at my heels.
Overall a good race. Could have gone sub-30 on the swim had my fingers not gone numb. I think my bike performance was pretty good, especially when considering that I was trying to hold back a little and save my legs for the run. Run was good. As we discussed, I'm just now getting comfortable with being uncomfortable but continuing to push it.
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