la crema tri (6/28/2026)
overall - what a fun day! had fun, no IT band pain post tri / no cramps on the run. finished on la crema vineyard with wine + pizza from diavola :D
other thoughts - tris are tough for partners cause we all had to get up at 445am on sunday (to be out of house by 6am to get to drop our bikes at T1 etc). and they had to take our stuff from T1 since T1 and T2 were different sites. really appreciate the support.
swim: river visibility was 0 lol but super calm water + not cold, probably the closest thing you can get to open water that feels like a pool. some parts were shallow (under bridge) and some people were standing and walking (so weird). ended up right with vic and he saw me / we ended the swim together :D beauty of a summer race is the sun comes up early so by the swim start it was bright out + nice heat from the sun already
- big lesson learned = doing the swim clinic the day before to get the wet suit out and break it in. must pull up wetsuit around shoulders / arms so it's not constricting under the armpits // pulling down on arms like a rubber band. this was a huge benefit on the day of the race (otherwise in the clinic it was exhausting to just go 100 yards cause every stroke felt like you were doing a PT rubber band exercise)
bike: stunning ride through the vineyards, tons of flat stretch out of the swim / virtually no hills so bike portion was super chill. was fun just riding with vic basically felt like a long weekend ride. bike was on open road (not closed to cars) but good police staffing at the turns to nav you
- sipped on electrolyte drinks but maybe had half bottle? and 1/4 of water bottle?
run: ran 8:30 for the first 2 miles with vic, chatting pretty comfortably. "sped up" after and was huffing it. uneven terrain dirt / rocks / sticks in the vineyards, lots of mini hills that were a challenge.
- ate 1 maurten gel at the beginning of the run + took a little water at each stop