尽管我对自己在夏威夷世锦赛上的表现非常失望，但我知道自己非常健康，迄今为止有一个伟大的赛季。与高调结束本赛季的目标,在这个过程中转换培训齿轮几周后,我选择了打奥运会距离比赛棕榈泉的CA。许多事情是诱人的种族,这是在沙漠中,一座美丽的山的背景下,这是冷,就像我上面说我期待的挑战更短的比赛经过几个月的集中在铁人的距离。

比赛的早晨很冷，但当太阳升起时很美丽，照亮了山谷两侧的山脉。赛前我很冷静，我知道我上个月付出的努力会有回报的，我很兴奋能以一个高的成绩结束赛季。热身顺利进行，按计划进行。我让自己慢慢地慢跑热身，然后最终走进一栋大楼，绕过停车场里一个方便的环线。风景很美，我对比赛很兴奋，所以保持放松并不难。距离比赛开始还有大约30分钟，我穿上潜水服，锁住慢跑的温暖，直奔起点。

总之，游泳是冷的。他们说58岁，也许我只是太软弱了，但那感觉太难以忍受了。我知道下水适应环境的重要性，尤其是在寒冷的天气里，我强迫自己在下水前大约10分钟。一切都很痛，我急切地等待着热血的第一次喷涌;我不确定它是否真的来过。现在从水里完全醒过来了，是时候比赛了。我把自己排在起跑线的内侧，用最短的线到达转弯处，等待着枪响。我从一开始就拼命地游，很快就把对手拉开了距离。水太冷了，我一直没暖和起来。我本打算在游泳时放松下来，让自己放松下来，但这是不可能的。 I tried as hard as I could to generate body heat but by the end of the two loop course I had certainly slowed; breathing and generally moving my arms was becoming labored. I was glad to get out of the water and also glad that I had built a strong lead through the first leg of the race. I was eager to get on the bike and start my effort, hopefully warm up a bit too.

一上了自行车，我立刻觉得一切都在掌控之中。我的计划是在前5分钟放松，然后让自己真正开始推进到想要的范围- 315 - 330。赛道很简单，只有几个弯道，在24.5英里的赛程中海拔上升幅度很小。正如我所料，我唯一感到的不适来自麻木的双脚。我很确定，在经历了一次寒冷的游泳和自行车上的寒冷空气后，这种情况会发生，所以我穿了袜子，但脚仍然很冷。随着时间一分一秒地过去，我惊喜地发现，我仍然能够产生我想要的动力，如果有的话，努力变得更舒服了。我在训练中能产生这样的力量至少有两年了，但在比赛中经常无法完全复制这种潜力。即使在我的自行车分裂期间，我也很难控制我的兴奋，我几乎惊讶于动力一直在来，努力感觉非常持续。从夏威夷开始，我花了很多时间在训练器上，这种扎实的工作带来的好处在奥运会距离强度水平上是显而易见的。在教练那里花时间的另一个好处是，你可以自由地思考你的姿势，而没有交通的压力或真正骑自行车的精神投入。 I was pleased that the changes I had made to my training over the previous month showed up not only at the beginning of the bike split but also towards the end as things started to require that little extra bit of focus. Half way on the course was marked by a simple cone, police officer and an aid station. Having successfully clipped, and regrettably knocked over the cone on my U-Turn, I quickly assessed where I was energy wise as well as compared to my competition. I knew I had a decent lead out of the water and was pleased to see that the lead had grown. At this point I knew I would be alone for the duration so I switched my focus to executing a great back half of the bike and finally being able to run a decent split off a strong bike split. The back half of the bike surprised me even more than the first half. I was able to maintain and even felt like I was controlling at times, as I got closer to 40k I started to gain more confidence that even though these were great numbers, I was actually in control and would be able to run a strong split. Another breakthrough in this race was maintaining the lower cadence I had been working on throughout a bike split. Normally when things start to go off the rails I will revert to a higher cadence, for perhaps the first time in the Olympic distance this was no longer the case. As usual, in the last 5 minutes I took an opportunity or two to have a quick stretch and finish my nutrition, which in this case was a simple 1 bottle with 2 scoops carbo pro and 1 scoop scratch. I still have a lot to learn and room to grow when it comes to long distance nutrition but I can safely say I think 280 calories on the bike with 1 gel pre race sets me up well for an Olympic distance event. I got off the bike proud and a little giddy about the power I just put out, but also eager to complete the race and make sure this was not just a bike split but an entire race. Detailed data on the split below.

我花了T2的大部分时间检查我的脚是否真的在那里，因为它们完全麻木了，你很容易说服我。脚发麻在任何时候都是一种奇怪的感觉，尤其是在试图快速从自行车上下来的时候。从T2航站楼出来的路线是穿过一块凹凸不平的场地，然后在人行道上行驶约1英里，然后是一段略长的碎石路段，走两次，全程6.2英里。刚开始的时候，我的步伐感觉很有力，我能够保持较高的节奏。在一个完美的世界里，我会喜欢五点半跑步，但这不是今天的现实，或任何一天，但我保证它会到来。我知道我不会因为身后的任何人而感到有压力，所以我努力保持努力，在游泳和自行车分裂成功后保持强大的跑步能力。我决定在上半场将我的努力限制在每分钟170次，然后在第二个循环中使用我所剩的一切。最后，我的节奏或多或少是正确的，因为我的节奏略有减弱，努力变得难以维持到最后。虽然我总是希望速度能更快，但我很高兴，因为我感觉自己能够努力训练，并一路推进铁人三项。

我以1分55秒02的成绩完成了比赛，这是我在这个距离上的一个赛道记录，也是我的PB成绩。我游泳1500米用时19:34，骑自行车24.5英里用时56:26，跑6.2英里用时35:35。这场比赛就是我为之训练的那种比赛，对教练做白日梦，但很少能真正完成。在完美的比赛中，总有一些事情会阻碍你，总有一些事情你可以做得更好，但在这一天，我是一个人，没有人要为我的节奏负责，除了我自己。棕榈泉奥林匹克长跑三场比赛给我留下了很好的印象，帮助我把2018年塑造成一个伟大的赛季，只有两次在不恰当的时间跑得不好。继续工作，接下来是3月2日的新西兰铁人赛。