I echo your sentiments... except the cassette. I had a 11/25 and that worked fine for me; kept a cadence of 90.

I rode a road bike, but don't have di2 on my TT so I'm happy with my choice. I would consider a TT bike as there wasn't much shifting on the uphills. I did like easy access to brakes on the descents.

I took it far too easy on the run, particularly the first/last 2 miles and the descents (street and dirt).

If I could just learn to swim, I'd be doing alright....

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MyGearGarage - Track all your gear!

+1 on everything! Except I did ride a TT bike and found your not much shifting to be spot on.

you are probably much stronger than me! maybe next year ill work up to 11/25

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Website/Blog|Lauren Goss Racing |Follow me @lauren_goss
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Good tips on Alcatraz, your swim still looked pretty fast to me. Congrats on 5th.

Great idea regarding wearing a speed suit under the wetsuit for really cold water.

Great reading...

You mention the cap and googles after the swimming, from my time on the ETU-circuit I learned a little trick..

Open zipper as soon as possible.
Take of cap and googles and have them in your left hand (if you are right handed).
Use your right hand to take of the left sleeve first.
Let go of the cap and googles when your left hand is inside the sleeve.
They will stay there, and you can forget about them.

It's nice to know where they are after the race, and you won't get any penalties from not putting all your gear in the box.

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Long Distance PB: 8:25
Instagram: larsschmidttri

No don't do that....easier gearing is ALWAYS better. Let the guys with big testosterone do races over geared. Just match your gearing to your watts per kilo.

Most people try to do protour rider gearing, yet their watts per kilos are 50-70% less than a protour rider. The drivetrain needs to be matched to the engine which most age groupers, for some reason, don't get. They go with Ferrari drivetrain yet they barely have Smart car engines....bad choice....lower gearing is almost always better (unless of course you have that V10 or V12 engine and most pro women are V8, age group men, barely V4-V6)

+1, the only think that got me was the mention of it being a great windbreaker. Is that supposed to mean as you are on the barge waiting to dive in?

This is great, thank you! Just sent it to several of my friends who plan to do this race next year. Oh and I love your website!

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Thanks for posting. Can you clarify this though:?

Dive in, do not jump feet first.

Are you referring to getting good forward momentum, or something else?

Is there somewhere I can find out the best gearing match for my current (or near future) w/kg?

+1. Additionally, you may be running the same set up as the other individual anyway depending on whether or not they are running a 50/34 or 53/39

The speed suit really helps with the wind on the descents. I wore a speedsuit over my race suit in Dallas US Open in October and it really kept me warm on the bike. I guess the wind doesnt go through the suit.

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Website/Blog|Lauren Goss Racing |Follow me @lauren_goss
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Yep, dive off of the boat instead of doing a pencil dive. It gives you more momentum.

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Website/Blog|Lauren Goss Racing |Follow me @lauren_goss
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Oh, you wore your TYR Torque the entire race??? I thought you meant you just wore it for the swim.

The easiest way is to take your target race watts per kilo and hit a grade equivalent to the steepest grade you will hit for an extended period of time on the race course. At that wattage, check your RPM in your easiest gear. How low is if....50's? 60's? 70's. Based on how low you go, then go with easier gearing to get your RPM back into a "normal torque" range, because if you don't you only have 2 options

1. Ride at a normal RPM range but severely spike your watts
2. Ride at target power but at insanely low RPM and put a ton of crank torque on your legs

Neither is good for the second half of your bike or for your run.


Dev

As a pro or the first few age groupers off the boat this is great advice. For the normal age grouper it isn't great advice. The pros line up along the length of the boat on the outside of the railing and have no one in the water before them. As an age grouper you jump in from a couple of spots and people are jumping in every second so if you dive you will be diving right on another racer.

Ha, yeah I wore it for the whole race. Was really comfortable. Zero chafing.

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Website/Blog|Lauren Goss Racing |Follow me @lauren_goss
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Lauren,
You forgot to mention that tremendous amount of Spam you sprayed on and how you put wetsuit on from inside out.....
I got to sit next to the Elite racers and was amused about all your relaxed nature before the race. Good to see.

All points you laid out and well taken for anyone going to race it.
Big thing I noted was that I took too easy on the bike in fear of the run. Lesson learned for next time is to push harder on bike.

Great race for anyone to do.
And while the swim was rough, it wasnt daunting, but a lot of AG'ers followed the Pros swim direction/path.
Could see right from beginning that was not direction suitable for allot of AG'ers. They need to "swim across the river" not directly at the exit point.

You gave away my secret!!! Haha, add me on facebook or twitter. Would love to see you guys at another race. Hope you had a good time out there. And I bet you do the Pam/insideout method next race...lets get it on video next time =)

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Website/Blog|Lauren Goss Racing |Follow me @lauren_goss
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looks like your swimming must not be that bad at all.

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I do hope you mean PAM and not SPAM.

Be sure to use the garlic flavored one, I hear sharks hate garlic.

PAM. I use the classic :)

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Website/Blog|Lauren Goss Racing |Follow me @lauren_goss
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Nice work on the website. I'll have to get around to racing Alcatraz one of these days (meaning once I don't get dropped too hard in the water).

Really liked your post comparing Tucson and Clermont. Have been meaning to get out to check out Tucson, but I enjoy Clermont so much I keep coming back. Though it looks like I get everything that Clermont doesn't have (college atmoshpere, mountains, trails, bars, clubs, etc) in Boulder during the summer.

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