Signing up for a race is always good motivation.

Having a rematch with the sprint tri in Shadow Cliffs that started it all a few years ago.

Need to re-read the race report from that and come up with a new time estimate for myself. Vague recollection says the bike/run parts had decent times but the swim and transitions were horrible.

OK, just read the report and saw 5:30 in transitions and 10:00 swim. Pretty sure that can improve to 3:00 and 8:30 respectively without much trouble. Would like to get the run down from 9:30 miles to 9:00, saving another 1:30. So 7:30 better...

Let's call 1:08:00 the goal time.

And in the lessons learned department:

Not going to try and eat before the finish. This is a pretty short race and food in the early AM just messes with my stomach.

Got a hotel room minutes from the venue to save myself having to get up ridiculously early to drive an hour to get there. This should make it easier to skip solid food before the race.

Gonna use my wetsuit so I can get a warmup before the race and not be cold standing around soaking wet at 6:45 am.

Gonna start with the proper wave so hopefully my transition spot won't be completely trampled by the time I get to it.