Swim: Just a hair faster, but it felt a lot easier. I definitely have a lot more endurance in the water than ever before, but I really need to work on getting out of first gear.
T1: I had left my bike and run gear in transition early and then went home to relax for a bit. I had quite a bit of time between the start of the race and my swim start, so transition was closed when I got back and I never even thought to check on my stuff. Big mistake. Someone must have bumped into my bike, so instead of everything being as I left it, my sunglasses were stuck in an air vent of my helmet and I couldn't find my garmin watch. Eventually I found the watch on the ground near the next bike, but I really didn't handle the unexpected stress very well. Instead of calmly getting everything together, I frantically ran around in circles for what seemed like forever. In the end, it cost me an extra minute, but I saw my hopes for a course PR go out the window and that was pretty disappointing.
Bike: Slower (31:13 vs 29:29) After the T1 debacle, I had a hard time getting into a good rhythm. It was my first race on the new bike, and I took the turns (of which there are many, especially in the beginning) more slowly than I would on my road bike. Hopefully that will improve as I get more comfortable on the TT bike, and is a pretty good sign that I need to ride more on the road and less on the trainer. Between the iffy handling and my frazzled mental state, my bike time was nearly 2 minutes slower than last year. Considering I feel like a much stronger cyclist now, I really wasn't happy with that at all.
T2: Determined to make up at least a little of the lost time, I had a good second transition and was in and out in 51 seconds.
Run: Last year I really pushed myself on the run because I seriously wanted to break an hour and knew that it would take a good effort to break my time goal. It was a bit more challenging to find that motivation after seeing the clock leaving T2, but I managed to get through the run in 21:40, which was actually 10 seconds faster than last year. I'm glad to have had a good run... it was nice to finish on a good note despite the earlier issues and my disappointment with my final time.
Smile even when you're grouchy. |
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