TexasMan Sprint Triathlon - Triathlon

We sprinted into the lake from the beach. I let the crazies go before I waded in. Open water starts are always tough because there's just nowhere to swim without interruption, and that can get the heart rate up. I managed OK but I'm sure the first 100-200 yards were slow because of that. Took to the first turn buoy before it all thinned out, but by then the faster women were crowding in. Back side and leg home were OK. I did my usual 10-14 strokes then breast stroked or paddled to take some easy breaths and sight. Stayed on course pretty decent but swim took much longer than I'd hoped. I so wanted to beat 15 minutes!

Maybe take shorter sighting breaks.

Long T1, mainly because we had a quarter-mile or so run from the beach to transition. Coolest thing is they had wetsuit strippers! Yeah, you had to take time to get on the ground and lift your legs while they ripped off the neoprene, but it saved me having to mess with it. I bet the transition surface made us all slower...as I came in I was a little embarrassed at the way I was mincing through the lot but I glance around and everybody looked like they were walking on hot coals. Because of the time, I chose not to put on a warm bike jersey,; probably saved me 25-30 seconds. Because of the cold, though, I had trouble getting my feet cleanly into my bike shoes.
Ended up 48 of 141.

Nothing. Managed as best I could. Shouldn't have taken this long but so many external factors out of my control impacted this.

Wanted to beat an hour here, but was concerned about the impact of the wind, which was quite strong and gusty. Course had more hills than I expected too, only one of which was really steep, but all of which I remember as long. So coming in at under an hour feels like an accomplishment, even though power numbers aren't where I wanted them (155 NP, which is OK, but in the 130s for AP, which came as a shock).
Nice place to ride, with wide shoulders, although they tended to be rough and gravel strewn; still, I think a great bike course, made tougher by the windy conditions, which were always present from one side or another. One short section, where we rode through a wide curve, put the wind behind us on the way out and it felt like riding on a cloud. On the way back, of course, it hit us from the front, almost like a wall. A couple of big gusts had me struggling to stay upright.
Played leapfrog with a couple of other athletes, particularly one very athletic woman who seemed to be struggling to maintain a consistent pace. We swapped places two or three times until I finally just hit a higher gear and dropped her. I knew I'd see her on the run, though, and I did, about halfway through, when she dropped me. Turns out she was one of the top ten women finishers.
I recall one awesome sight, reaching the top of a rise with the road stretched downhill in front of me to another rise probably a mile away. Striated clouds filtered the sun from my right, dappling the landscape around us. And as far as you could see, off to that other rise, on both sides of the road, were long, single-file lines of bicycles. It was like a picture you'd see in Triathlete Magazine; scenes like that are one of the reasons I love this sport.

Not much to say here but push harder, although this wasn't an easy ride through crosswinds and rolling hills. I'm generally satisfied; wanted to beat an hour and I did, in some pretty tough conditions.

Given the transition area surface, I chose to leave my shoes on...did NOT want to go barefoot through that again! Feet were freezing, like a couple of ice blocks, which made it tough to get my shoes on; had to pull one off and retry. Have to apologize to one of my rack mates...they'd left a towel splayed across our area and I decided I'd use it to make sure I didn't get any of that T2 gravel on my feet and in my shoes. However, because I liberally apply Blister Shield powder in my bike shoes I tend to leave white footprints everywhere, including a bright one on his/her towel. So sorry about that!
Ended up 96 of 141.

I thought I moved OK here, but I did have some difficulty with my shoes and getting my cold fingers to work on my race belt. Still, I should've been better than this. My transition times cost me a shot at my stretch goal.

Very pleased with this run and how I handled it. Walked briefly through the first water stop just enough to take a couple of sips, took no water the rest of the way. Did the same thing as last week at 15 minutes, going two minutes on and one minute off at higher intensity until the finish, and finished pretty strong. I will admit, however, that my Garmin recorded the run leg at just under three miles, so we all probably had nice runs.

Not a thing.

Got some water and just hung out for a little bit. Actually felt great at the finish.


Mostly external conditions, save for the swim. Yes, there were some conditions in the water, but I probably could've shortened my sighting breaks to some extent.


Great job by DAR again, they really put on an awesome event. Wanted to point out that the reason the start wasn't on time is because they moved the swim buoys for the longer races in closer in order to eliminate the chop that was in play further out from the beach. It meant the longer distance swimmers had to do three loops including runs across the beach, but I bet they were all a little easier.