Notes
US Championships bike leg. I transitioned pretty well for me and got on the bike feeling good and happy to be doing something I'm good at. The first 3 miles were hard to really get rolling though. I think it was a very gradual incline the entire way with a short hill at the end. I was passing people here but not going quite as fast as I would have liked (~23 mph). At the top of the hill we did a 180 and headed back the other direction. I got rolling on the downhill and never looked back. I think I kept it over 27 mph until the next big hill going over a bridge around 6-7 miles in. I powered up the hill still doing 20 mph and felt like I just continued to roll. This primarily came from how easily I was passing everyone. Most of these competitors were people stuggling from age groups in front of me but I was also catching a lot of my own age grouop. I kind of expected to find some other bikers going close to my speed but I just kept going by people and leaving them right away. Around 17 miles in I started to get some tightness in my calf that made it a little harder to push. I think this may be due to only getting out of the saddle once or twice on this ride. I was still biking well but I could tell I was losing the fight to really get after it. Luckily someone went by me around 20 miles and I got my act together and started rolling again. I went right back by him and hammered the rest of the race without my calf being much of an issue. I seem to always have the mental breakdown around 20-23 miles on the bike. I was only 10 seconds slower than HyVee last year and honestly feel like I could go quite a bit faster if I ever found some guys to race on the bike. I actually feel better biking than running in triathlons lately. I'm glad I got out for that ride last Wednesday because it helped me feel very comfortable on the bike. Much better than the pigman. So I can't complain but I also feel like a 58 minute bike split should be very feasible. 42nd fastest bike split in my age group. 232/3061 overall