I learned that with very little prep, I can do the endurance thing and finish. My times won't be great, but I finish.
I learned that wetsuits do indeed offer a huge advantage in buoyancy for the swim. Huge.
I learned that hard as I try to stay calm at the start, my adrenaline ramps up and combines with the chaos of the swim start. It makes my breathing and form terrible, and I switched to breast again. Right now, my only solution to that is to try and do some open-water swims on my own before Racine, and to change my race-day plan. As of now, I'm going to plan to hit the water towards the back of the pack and start with breast. When I feel comfortable, I can switch to freestyle when my breathing settles down. I think that will be much better than having a freakout early on in the water, or doing breast the entire 1.2 miles and expect my legs to have enough left for a 56-mile bike and 13.1-mile run.
I learned that my new Trek Madone is a sweet, sweet ride. I tackled the 29 miles in a good time, wasn't too sore or worn out as a result of having the wrong bike.
I learned that I need to push myself on the run more. I did OK, but I know I left some out on the course.
I learned that I need to be doing workouts 5-6x every week, minimum, with two-a-days as often as possible. This week I'm planning to do swimming each morning, and a bike or run each afternoon or evening.
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I will do a post later this week to update my training numbers.
