Vegas Notes

Since the World Championship is moving to Mt. Tremblant, I probably won't be doing this course again. But there were important things that I did and learned, so I'll write them for my own historical record:

1. Drafting on the swim. I was concerned about still being tired during the swim, so I actively worked to always find someone's feet. I normally just swim my own race and probably waste a lot of energy. The lake is really muddy, so I did have to do a lot of heads-up sighting to make sure I was still behind someone. This might have slowed me down a bit, but I didn't feel drained after getting out of the water, so that is a plus.

2. The foot rinse. In the run to T1, part of the lane was through a grassy area that the rain and 1700 previous competitors had turned into a mud pit. After that, we were routed through a sand volleyball court. As a result, my feet were covered in wet sand. There were volunteers handing out water right at the beginning of the carpet and I grabbed one with each hand and poured them on my feet. That was an outstanding decision.

3. Change to water plan. Since the temps were not hot on the first 2/3ds of the bike, I only grabbed water at half of them. I was still getting fluids from my gel bottle (8 gels + water in a 12oz bottle). Once the sun came out at the end and I had finished my gels, I made sure to drink a bit more after the last aid station.

4. Run fueling plan. They added an extra aid station this year, but my basic plan was to take water and coke at every aid station except the one halfway up the hill -- I carried two PowerGels to eat on the first two laps. I also would dump ice down my shorts or top. My run was 10 minutes faster this year, so I was pretty pleased with that.

5. Post-race air travel. I flew through Atlanta on the Tuesday after the race on Sunday. Despite wearing compression nylons, I had a terrible cramp in my quad that popped up about 2 hours into the flight. For future post-race travel, I need to get an aisle seat so I can get up and move around more easily.

6. Heat prep. I had been going to the sauna at least once a week, taking colostrum, and doing workouts in extra clothing and I think that all of these things helped. I don't really remember feeling like I was overheating like the previous year.

I was still feeling a bit fatigued on the climbs, but I was happy with the level of effort I put in on race day. It was so great to see my Timex teammates before the race and then out on the course!

So now that my race season is done, it is time to step back, reflect, and plan out next season...