Hillary Schmidt

• Stay warm for as long as practical before entering the water.
• If safe access is available before race day, use a short ocean familiarization swim to experience the temperature, swell, sight lines, and beach entry.
• Make sure your goggles and wetsuit have already been tested together.

Begin decisively but appropriately. Establish breathing, stroke length, and position without chasing an unsustainable opening. Find clean water or useful feet, then settle into your sustainable rhythm.

Cue: Calm, strong, connected.

Use the sighting buoys to maintain the most direct practical line. Draft when the feet are genuinely useful, but do not follow someone navigating poorly or swimming below your natural rhythm.

Cue: Use the group; own the line.

Expect the visual environment and water movement to change around the wharf. Stay composed, maintain contact with the water, and keep navigation deliberate.

Cue: Nothing to solve—just keep swimming.

Maintain pressure and continue sighting through the beach approach. Do not mentally finish before stable footing. Stand carefully, regain balance, and begin moving forward. Use the beach-to-transition run to restore your land legs and remove the top of the wetsuit while moving when balance allows.

You do not need to rush chaotically. You do need to remain purposeful.

The opening includes turns, accelerations, congestion, and the transition from town to open road.

• Stay mostly at or below the lower end of the steady range.
• Avoid matching every acceleration made by nearby riders.
• Shift cleanly, settle cadence, and establish position.
• Begin fueling early rather than waiting for the course to settle.

Cue: Settle in. You know how to do this.

• Ride steady terrain at 175–182 W.
• Apply the roller ladder selectively.
• Release before carrying power over each crest.
• Check cadence regularly, especially into the wind.
• Confirm fueling is occurring on schedule.

Do not confuse feeling good with permission to make every rise expensive.

Cue: Smooth pressure. Free speed. Keep fueling.

• Use 183–195 W on longer rises.
• Use 195–205 W on moderate rollers when the effort will remain brief.
• Reserve 205–218 W for genuinely short, steeper demands.
• Keep the transient ceiling near CP and momentary.
• Release at every crest and use your handling skills on the descent.

You are allowed to race this terrain. You are not allowed to turn repeated rollers into repeated threshold intervals.

Cue: Pressure up; release early.

• Hold intended output rather than defending expected speed.
• Continue fueling through the turnaround approach.
• Stay alert to riders slowing, turning, or changing lines.
• Inventory cadence, RPE, hydration, and accumulated cost.

Cue: Hold the system.

The wind relationship may change immediately or gradually. Observe what is actually happening.

• Re-establish power, cadence, and aerodynamic posture.
• Do not surge to regain speed.
• Compare power with RPE and heart rate.
• Confirm you are on track for 80–90 g of carbohydrate per hour.

If the system is green, continue using the full ladder. If yellow, favor the lower end while addressing the cause.

Cue: New direction. Fresh assessment.

• Use the full ladder if power, RPE, and mechanics agree.
• If physiological cost rises, compress the upper bands first.
• Shift early enough to prevent a low-cadence grind.
• Use descents and crests to preserve momentum without wasteful power.

This is a place to be quietly fierce: controlled, technically clean, and increasingly competitive.

Cue: Strong, not spiky.

• Protect speed through position, cadence, and clean lines.
• Do not purchase minor speed gains with repeated high-power work.
• Complete the bulk of remaining fueling before final re-entry.
• If everything is green, ride with increasing competitive intent within the system.

Cue: Make speed cheap.

• Stay alert through turns, traffic, and changing speeds.
• Take final fuel early enough to be useful and manageable before T2.
• Maintain pressure where safe and efficient.
• Prepare mentally to run rather than judging the bike split.

Cue: Finish the bike. Start the run.

• Begin near 200 W rather than immediately forcing 210 W.
• Allow pace to settle near the slower portion of 7:10–7:25/mile.
• Check posture, cadence, breathing, and stomach comfort.
• Make fueling a must-do right off the bat according to the separate nutrition plan.

This is control, not timidity. You are preparing to build.

Cue: Build into the race.

• Let pace slow with the grade.
• Hold approximately 200–210 W only while mechanics and RPE remain appropriate.
• Shorten stride slightly and maintain cadence.
• Do not repay every uphill second immediately on the descent.

Cue: Effort stays steady. Pace can move.

• Run by power, RPE, and footing rather than momentary pace.
• Look ahead to select a clean line.
• Maintain quick, light contact on less predictable footing.
• Allow displayed pace to fluctuate without interpreting it as a problem.

Cue: Quick feet. Quiet mind.

• Maintain intended physiological pressure rather than chasing flat-ground pace.
• If green, continue near the upper end of the range.
• If yellow, protect mechanics and stabilize through the climb.
• Prepare to make a competitive decision as terrain becomes favorable.

Cue: Hold form. Earn the close.

The controlled phase is over if mechanics, RPE, and fueling status remain sound.

• Increase pressure beyond 210 W if sustainable and competitively useful.
• Allow pace to improve naturally rather than forcing one abrupt surge.
• Use competitors ahead as targets.
• Stay engaged with the race and the people around you.

Do not wait until the final few hundred meters to discover that you protected energy you could have used.

Cue: Quietly fierce. Now compete.

The final approach includes turns and sand. Normal road pace no longer matters.

• Increase cadence as needed.
• Keep your eyes up and commit to the best available line.
• Use everything remaining.

Cue: Empty the tank.