2021 River Roux Triathlon - Aquabike (Swim-Bike)

This was my first Olympic distance race in a while. Olympic distance triathlons are not as common as sprint distance triathlons, so it was nice to push my endurance a little further at this race distance. And what a race it was. My previous 1,500M swim PR was 40:18 and my previous 25M bike PR was 19.6 mph back in 2013. So to swim 33:05 and bike 20.9 mph for this race was beyond my wildest expectations. Very pleased with this performance and especially for this distance. The swim was nice. Water temp a few days before was 78° and what started out as looking a little foggy ended up being beautiful clear skies and sunny. Executed very well for the swim. Swam beautifully in open water and focused on the process. Closing my eyes in short moments works wonders at centering me and resetting my mindset and focus. It allows me to focus on the fundamentals of "feeling" my swim form and controlling my breathing with better rhythm. It's almost as if I imagine I'm swimming in a lap pool and it's just me and the water. Also seeing the water line helped me by focusing on that and not what's past the water line like the land, trees or the sky. It allowed me to recenter myself and concentrate on having one goggle out of the water with the other fairly submerged. This helps sustain a hydrodynamic streamlined position by helping keep the legs up on the water as opposed to being sunken down. The bike was so awesome. I simply read the road, wind and made adjustments on gears and used the computer data (speed, rpm) to determine the right gear for the right time. I also use the arrow grip and focused on staying aerodynamic throughout. I did have a few mild cramping onsets but I kept them at bay by getting out of the saddle a few times in a maneuvering my foot (right calf and left hip flexor/abductor almost cramped). As it turned out, it was quite a competitive field today overall, not just in aquabike. Many of the splits and times were at a high level. I look forward to learning from this race and continuing to work on the process. Congrats to all who competed and to those who placed! What a great race and just a beautiful day for it too!