Desert International Triathlon - Triathlon

I'm improving, but still by far my weakest discipline. Started out positioned in 2nd row on inside and went out hard, which I've been practicing. Got to 1st buoy with first 5-10 guys and tried to find some feet to get on...not too successful in doing this. Got clean water around 300 yards into the swim and eased off my start pace. Settled into a grove. Sighting was OK, tough to see out to the first left turn with the sun, but tried to keep in line with other swimmers. Strayed too far right a few times, but not too bad. Got into a good grove and felt strong for the most of the race. Had a few people try to swim over my legs...gave a hard kick or two and that stopped it!

Overall a good swim, I was hoping for a slightly faster time, but still quite satisfied with this swim!

Need lessons...finally going to do that!

Quickly got to my bike, had removed my goggles and cap and pulled them into a sleeve while removing the top 1/2 of my wetsuit while running to T1. Put on sunglasses and helmet as I was trying to step out of wetsuit. I had pre-clipped my shoes in and did a good job of running to the Bike Out and a quick jump onto my bike. Rode with feet on top of shoes for first few 100 yards, to top of small hill exiting the park. Had some trouble getting my right foot into my shoe, felt like a gel was in there, while coasting, reached down, flipped shoe upside down and back and forth to shake out anything that might be in there....took way too long to sort that out while coasting at 10-12 MPH. Finally got right foot in and velcro tight. Left foot went in quickly and then I was off! Maybe lost 20 seconds messing with the right foot...

Practice this more....double/triple check that nothing is in my shoes!

Went out pretty hard and stayed in aero at all times except turns that had bike traffic (which were most) and the final short climb back into the park. Raced mostly by feel, but did glance at wattage and speed a few times. Had to put in a few surges to pass groups.

Disappointed to see some drafting groups...come on people, you are CHEATING!!

Did not get passed by anyone.

Felt great on the bike, eased up a bit for the final 4 miles, upped my cadence to about 105-110 to get my legs ready for the run, but wanted to drop the power output a bit so my legs wouldn't be too dead!

Overall very happy with the bike results....only took a few sips of my Gatorade/water combination...no gels or food needed.

Nothing...felt very good about the bike segment.

Got feet out of shoes quickly on final little descent to the bike dismount, getting both out just in time to swing my left leg over and around to the right side and do a running dismount right at the dismount line! Ran to my spot, one hand moving my bike, the other up-clipping my bike helmet. Racked bike quickly, slipped on running shoes, (no socks in my awesome Zoots for under 1/2 IM races), grabbed my TeamFC visor and race belt and headed to Run Out. Put on visor and race belt while running.



Nothing...felt good about T2

Went out at goal pace of under 6:10...splits: 6:09, 6:04, 6:09 for first 3...starting straining to maintain that pace as legs were not happy! Dropped to 6:21 for mile 4 and 6:18 for mile 5. At mile 5, I knew I had just under a mile left, so I picked up the pace a touch and held on to the final stretch...

Our team had a canopy set up on the run loop, about 200 yards from the finish...was AWESOME to go by on lap one and then as I was finishing to cheering teammates, family and friends of teammates.

Going by the TeamFC canopy for the final stretch gave me the motiviation to dig deeper than I thought I could and gut out the last 200 yards with everything I had left in the tank. I about collapsed after the finishline, but knew I'd given it everything!

Nothing...I gave it everything I had given my fitness level and the fact this was more of a "fun" race as my target "A" race is IM Los Cabos...in just 4 weeks!

Just enjoyed celebrating and being with nearly 30 of my teammates! Grabbed plenty of cookies, oranges and bananas. Headed over to the TeamFC canopy to cheer on the rest of my teammates as they completed the race...so awesome!


Focus is on IM Los Cabos...so I just backed off training a bit, but still did a 10+ mile run the day before and biked about 25, all at or faster then IM pace. No big deal as I am thrilled with my results; winning my age group and taking 14th overall was great!


Great local race that draws lots of excellent athletes....really the first decent size race in So Cal to kick off the new year of events! I had a great time and highly recommend this event.