Lone Star Triathlon Festival - Sprint - TriathlonSprint

Canceled, either due to a buoy issue, or by lifeguard's call, and I bet it was the lifeguards, as they appeared to be having a serious time staying in place and not drifting with the waves.

NA

The "timetrial" start wasn't really that, it was more of a single file line flowing across the start mat, so it was extremely crowded during the bike, especially until getting to the seawall. I have to admit though, it was kind of fun, as it presented a different type of challenge, and felt more like you were directly competing against everyone around you. Once I got to the sea wall, it felt like the wind was a direct cross wind, but I was surprised at the pace that I was keeping (23-25 mph) so I didn't try to push it too hard, thinking that it might have been the adrenaline pushing me, and I might burn out. Turned out the pace was because the cross wind was a partial tail wind, so at the turn around i found that out, but was still able to keep my pace around 20-22 mph. Once I made the turn off the seawall headed back to Moody Gardens, I thought I got hit with a sledge hammer made of wind, for a little bit my pace dropped to 15 mph, but I HTFU and pushed hard to keep 18 mph, which sucked once I started running.

Overall I was really ecstatic about the bike leg. In my trainning rides of about 30 miles, I would always check my time at 12.5 miles and it was usually about 42 min, so I was shooting for 40 min in the race, and managed about 37, which meant I got to say "on your left" about 70-80 times, and heard it about 10.

Push harder with the tail wind.

Went smoother than I expected it to, thankfully I had a spot near the bike out/in, so I didn't have to go too far with the bike. Shoes went on smoothly, and then I realized I hadn't removed my helmet, so that was last before putting on the visor, but it didn't slow me down.

Helmet off before shoes on.

Starting the run sucked, ALOT. I had been pushing really hard on the bike for the last mile, and I had not drank hardly any water on the bike. That meant that I had to fend off a right calf warning that it was about to ball up, and drop me. After about a half mile though the threat of the cramp was gone and I was settled into a comfortable pace. Come to find out that pace was blistering compared to what I felt I was doing. I know 8:30 per mile isn't exactly fast, but when you haven't run a sub 9 minute mile since high school, you get a little happy. I figured that I was running about a 9:10 pace, which was a little faster than my training runs, so I was very happy to find out my pace was what it was. I even pushed really hard for the last 400, one of the volunteers said about how far was left, and I knew I still felt good, so I started almost sprinting.

Train more for the run, I was 20/91 on the bike, and 54/91 on the run, just a little disparity there.

Lots o' water. Then bananas pizza and beer. Tried to keep walking around to let some of the LA get flushed out.


Aerobic conditioning when running. My legs will give out on me when biking before my aerobic capacity, but it is the exact opposite when running.


Since it was my first race, I was incredibly bummed about the swim cancellation, even though I was not looking forward to the swim, I still wanted the challenge. I knew I would be hooked before I started, and this just further solidified that I will soon be a junkie.