I TRIed. and now I must reflect.

I'll write more later when I'm not exhausted and when I know what my official times were and placing was, but here are some things I want to remember about today for my next Triathlon. Actually, for all my future tris.

10th annual Breath of Life Triathlon in Ventura, CA:

What I liked:
-Friendly race environment (nice people, great cause, great BBQ and Beer garden afterwards... all free. Free!)
-Flat course (which means it's a good place to get a PR if one day that's all I care about rather than challenging myself more to getting a good time at a more challenging race)
-Really competitive!! The top girls at this race in my division have posted 1:10:00 or less for the past few years and I don't think this year will be any different... we'll see
-Ocean swim (it was good to try something new this time

What I didn't like:
-All the drafting. I mean seriously, how can you be a cheater like that?? I wish they regulated that more. Wayyyy too much of that going on.
-I know this sounds spoiled, but I really liked how the Toyota Desert Tri had results posted almost instantaneously.. so it was kind of a bummer not knowing how I did in comparison, but I guess that's a more typical thing for races to do, according to Ryan.
-At times, the roads were really really thin and kinda crappy. not too bad at all but what I didn't like about it was that the race didn't seem organized in a way that would help out with these 2 things... stuff was pretty crazy near transition; people passing constantly and bunching up early on during the ride... I'm sure this contributed to the drafting. People probably thought, well, no one has said anything to me yet so I guess I'll just keep it up!! losers. just kidding. Well, not really.

What I did right:
-I'm glad I stuck with my plan from my first tri of getting in the front of the line before the race began instead of standing towards the back. I think it motivated me throughout it all to stay up and not get passed by the rest of the girls behind me.
-Started out on the bike by keeping my cadence way up so my legs could get warm, then kept a fast pace for the first half. My average had to have been around 22.
-Pushed on some bigger gears for the heart of the bike, then again switched to a lower gear so I could loosen up my legs again for the run
-Thanks to Ryan, I started my run a little slower and shot for negative splits. I definitely got them. 1st mile I think was about an 8:15 (boo) 2nd was about an 8:00 and the last 3.1 was definitely faster but I don't know exactly what it was.
-I pushed through my knee pain. It's really tight right now but I'm really happy I didn't walk at all because I simply just hate the feeling of having to walk.
-And the biggest contribution to my list of what I did right: BEING RYAN'S GIRLFRIEND!! holy crap he did so much for me today. He dragged me out of bed so we weren't late, made me a tasty pb&j- the breakfast of champions, DROVE so I could sleep (or try to anyway), CLEANED my entire bike the day before so it was running perfectly today...wow, carried all my crap around as I got warmed up and got my transition area set up, gave me some great tips for just about everything I did today, cheered me on, ran with me to the end when I was feeling like a truck load of anvils, oh man and he found me toilet paper when the bathrooms were all out. cheesy but true. AND he just inspired me like crazy to go hard. he even stopped at a gas station on the way back to get a bag of ice for my leg. I could never ask for more. thanks boy!

What I did wrong:
-not that I could help it with what I'm trying to set myself up with right now for work, but I definitely could've trained more.
-I should have also paid more attention to my leg before and during the race so that I could make the necessary adjustments sooner (including taking ibuprofen, stretching, doing core strengthening exercises which I just started doing again this weekend... and evening out my efforts in all 3 sports.)
-I forgot about sighting during the swim until I realized about 200m into it that I definitely wasn't swimming in a straight line.
-I could have thought out my game plan for the bike a lot better instead of just going as hard as I could then backing off a little when my legs started burning like crazy then speeding up again... and so on. This made the last 4 miles of my ride exactly the opposite of what I wanted them to be. I wanted to push as hard as I could on a bigger gear with 5 miles left, then shift down a little with about a mile and a half to go then unwind for the last half mile on a really low gear to get ready for the run, but instead I didn't take the time to look at my little computer to see exactly how much more I had left to go.. so instead I was shifting up and down and pushing harder then backing off, and I ended up getting passed by 2 girls who I think were in my age group just because they kept their pace and did what I wanted to do.
-Similarly on the run, I should have pushed a little harder on the 2nd mile, then waited until about the last 1/2 mile to go all out. Instead I pushed too hard too soon and got a side cramp, and my knee came back at me again for the last 1/2 mile. And, unsurprisingly, I got passed by some girl with about 50 yards left to go.

and lastly, BEFORE THE NEXT RACE, I want to:
-Read this post a couple times as a reminder of what works and what doesn't.
-Get my knee as healthy as possible
-Mayyyyybe get new shoes. It's definitely time to anyways.
-Stick with my training plan but also do every workout in the morning BEFORE I get caught up in work then realize it's too late or I'm too tired. I just saw an article yesterday that said morning workouts, compared to evening workouts average out to be 60% more efficient. That's a TON of difference and even more motivation for me to get them done early.
-definitely be able to swim 1000 straight through without stopping.
-do a handful of solo rides that are at least 25 miles, while averaging 20 mph if possible.
-be able to run the full 10k without stopping. I don't even care about my time. That might not sound like a big task, but it is for me because it includes a lot of other details like making sure I rehab my leg correctly and making sure I stay on top of my workouts every single day.
-lastly, I want to check out the course before race day if I can. It's not too big of a deal if I don't but I think it would definitely help.