Random notes from Spudman

Jason's notes

• Need to spot my line on the swim more often, hit a tree overhanging the bank with about 300 yards left to go. As a general rule, you don't want to wash ashore that early.
• This was the first time I've ridden a distance exceeding a few miles in the aero position. I noticed I had an immediate 1 MPH pace gain when moving down into the aero bars on my bike. I experimented with this numerous times on the bike leg and it held true every time.
• Finding the gear that was comfortable, then grabbing one more provided my most efficient pedaling. The additional speed outweighed the additional effort required, and seemed to be sustainable. May try adding one more gear (two from comfortable) next race to keep testing this.
• I attacked (don't know if there is such thing as an attack in a triathlon bike leg or if this term is reserved for roadies?) on the few small hills we had. In general, the riders I would pass and gap during these efforts generally caught me within 2 miles. Not sure if these efforts had any benefit as the group of 4-5 of us that finished together yo yo'd back and forth like this beginning about 8 miles into the 25 mile ride.
• I need to adjust my seat. The front was tilted a little up, which was starting to get a little frisky by about mile 10. Funny how things go unnoticed when you wait for a race to see if your aero set up is where you want it, and then how noticable it becomes when it's too late to change it.
• If a transition area is on grass, find out if sprinklers will be coming on overnight before setting your run shoes out the night before.
• Nipple chafing - hadn't experienced this since High School football days when jerseys would shred the nips on no pad practice days. The poor little guy on the right fell victim and took a few days to recover - it hurt.
• My run is brutal bad and Spudman was no exception- all the people I'd picked off on the bike (there were a lot) were back by me within the first two miles of the run. Come to think of it, I don't remember passing a single racer on the run, and there were floods that came by me. I need to spend most of my training time here, and prior to that, need to figure out a way to trick myself into liking to spend training time here.
• My wife is a serious hottie in numerous respects, hot triathlete has been added to the list. And no Annie, I'm not just saying that because you swam faster than me - again! Seriously, you're either sandbagging big time at the pool, or, well, sheesh, I have no other explanation - completely baffled on this one, smile!

Next up - Xterra in Ogden 8/16.