Swim: Warm-up the swim, sprint the start to get ahead of weird strokers and hope to avoid getting swum over, sight every 8 strokes to avoid zig-zaging down the course, have a finishing kick.
Bike: Take advantage of non-fixie bike to take little breaks on downhills and generally avoid spiking the HR to allow recovery from swim and prep for run.
Run: Use new front of foot technique and quicker turnover, no other plan beyond not bonking two miles from the finish.
EXECUTION
Swim: Followed the plan, went straighter than first triathlon, much smaller waves/more spaced out so had little physical contact with other swimmers, passed a few swimmers from previous waves, but towards the end I got off track and so had to veer hard left to exit the swim. Had enough left to jog to transition, so that was good. My arm form was pretty good, but I forgot about my legs and need to work on the symmetry of the rotation and pushing down chest/head when I am not sighting. SLOW transition to bike, due to bike shoes and wiping rain off goggles, but needed just a moment to get down off redline HR.
Bike: Perhaps mine was near the last wave, or my swim + transition made me really late, but only saw slow bikers on the ride. I passed maybe 40 riders, and got passed twice. Ripping downhills with a big gear is fun, had to remember to give legs breaks. Long false flat followed by two hills, last hill I was in my lowest gears and had to power the end out of the saddle. It seemed to be over pretty quickly all in all.
Fine transition except I needed an extra Gu that was hard to find. Rookie mistake to take that without water in hand and I ran out, coughing a bit rest of run.
Run: Let the legs swing a little on downhill on the way out, the back was relentless uphill, so jogged the worst of the uphill. I should have dug a little deeper here. I need more mental toughness for the finish. Ironically it again seemed to end rather suddenly at the top of the hill, when I was just getting ready to pick it up again. Obviously hill workouts are needed and longer runs so I have something left after 1+ hours of the race.
Next time: Swim, swim, swim…to end up in the rest of the race with people my pace, which will make me go faster for both the bike and especially the run. The sprint distance really seems like enough, particular 750m swim. I need to work on improving my time before stepping up to the Olympic distance.
Verdict: We will have to wait for the times to come in, but I felt better about the swim, which remains the problem area, and the new bike was fast and fun. Hopefully with more endurance work and mental toughness I can take on the run. I am curious about the times and rankings, because I felt like I should have been more in the thick of things given how fast I was going.
Luray was a gorgeous course, with great views of farmland and the Blue Ridge throughout. On a warmer day (it was a fabulous 70-75 or so) the shade on the run would be fantastic, and the water was perfect for me without a wetsuit 80 or so. Except for the tough hills, it seems like a perfect first triathlon particularly since it is smaller (700 or so).
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