Thank you Carlos for sending along your race recap! And congratulations on a excellent race at Augusta! It even provided you a PR! It’s nice to have an apples to apples comparison for this measure.
I am sure this is a swim PR for you and it will be hard to beat. This is an awesome current assisted swim! That said, I don’t know any of us who can’t benefit from more open water practice. It’s a skill that takes years and refreshing to really optimize.
For the bike, pleased to hear that potatoes are working for you. If they are (and they are my secret weapon for many of my seasoned triathletes who get very tired of all of the sugar filled options), I wouldn’t recommend transitioning fully away from them. Instead, for your Ironman, they can be an important part of your nutrition. However you can supplement with other options to provide you the extra calories you need. Also, in the Ironman distance, you stop half way through and pick up your second round of nutrition at your special needs bag. So you can always restock! And trust me, after 7+ hours on the bike, if you are only taking in simple sugars, your stomach can end up with GI distress (particularly when you get off to run). So potatoes added to the simple sugars typically is a very solid plan.
Awesome to hear that the run/walk worked for you. Since it was a very hot day, this likely was your fastest strategy and when you start passing people that passed you earlier on, you know this was the case. Nice work sticking it out and crossing the finish line with a PR!
Lots of good lessons learned and experience received to lead you into your Ironman journey next season. Great work out there!
