The Mighty Wolf ...Grrrr!

Last weekend I raced the Mighty Wolf Tri in Winneconne, WI. I think it was the most low-key race I have ever done. There were no timing chips, you just racked your bike anywhere you wanted, and there were only 250ish athletes. It was great! It was nice to have a low-key race, although kind of weird. I kept looking in my race packet for my timing chip and swim cap because I thought I was missing something!

SWIM: I started off in wave 5 with coach Mike Pierson. He had better reflexes than me, so beat me off the start and into the water. No worries though, as I soon passed him. Coming around the back side of the swim course, I got caught up in a bit of traffic and took a hand or foot to the face (ouch!), but otherwise was ok. Came out of the water ahead of Mike...only to get smoked in T1!

BIKE: I decided not to look at my power meter for this race other than for cadence. I was not super impressed with my bike split at KS, so I wanted to try to up the cadence and see if that made a difference. My average cadence ended up where I wanted it to be, 91, but my time/pace was still a bit slower than I'd like. Despite this, only 3 guys passed me on the bike and no girls. I did, for the first time, manage to get my feet out of my shoes prior to coming into T2. It worked realitively well, although I will need to continue to practice to make it faster. I'm just psyched that I didn't crash while doing it!

RUN: I made it out of T2 only to realize that I forgot my race belt and number. This was not good because the race number was how they got your time and place at the end of the race. I decided to keep going anyway and face the consequences if needed. We ran on grass for about 1/4-1/2 mile and then hit the road. The grass was a bit wet (although not too bad) because of all the rain we got last week. I was glad when I got to the road because I felt as though I could pick up the pace a bit without worrying about footing. Only 1 guy passed me on the run at the very end (mostly because of footing on the grass on the way back), and he had tried to make a move the entire run, but ended up hanging just behind me until the very end. I have no idea how fast I ran because my watch battery was dying and my watch just kept asking me if I'd like it to run in English or Deutsch...oh well. I was fortunate that they were forgiving and held my finishing spot on the tags while I went back to transition to get my race number after I crossed the finish line.

All in all, it was a fun race. I was happy with the OA win and new course record. It was great to meet and see everyone from Your Training Zone team!

Things I'd like to improve/work on:
1. Transition time--ugh
2. Biking harder--I need to be less cerebral and just put the pedal to the metal and bike 'till I puke.
3. Staying out of traffic on the swim or just being meaner and swimming over people :)