The Austin Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

I have had shoulder problems all year and have done alot less in swim conditioning than I normally do at this point in the season. Fortunately, I have been seeing AJ Zalenski at Advanced Rehab and I currently have NO PAIN in my shoulder. So, my plan was to go out hard at the start and see what happens. The gun went off faster than expected. We had only been in the water for 15 seconds. I had positioned myself in the front and to the outside to get off fast and then swing behind the front pack coming up on my right. However, I couldn't hold the pace and started dropping back after about 300 yards. My shoulder felt fine, I just didn't have the conditioning to go that hard (and no warm-up) and I was bothered my the "tightness" of my wetsuit. A race this late in the season is hard to feel comfortable in a wetsuit and I let the feeling of being squeezed bother me more than it should. About half way through I started to settle down and concentrate on my form. Too bad I had wasted about 800 meters on things like a tight wetsuit and lack of conditioning distract me. I started passing people back after this point and I have to admit that I have never seen so many bad male swimmers in any race that I have ever done. There were more guys doing breast stroke than I can ever remember in any race. Overall, I was disappointed in the time but not too surprised with the lack of swim conditioning I have put in due to the hurt shoulder. Now that things are back in shape, I will add some swimming back into the week and get back to where I'd like to be.

More swim volume and get some wetsuit swims in all during the year.

Long way from the water to transition. My bike was right in the middle by the speaker stand. I ran about half the way and walked and took my wetsuit off the rest of the way. I was into my bike stuff quickly and off on the long trot to the bike mount line.

Nothing

I really had no idea where I was conditioning wise for the bike. I have been doing a lot of long volume/base rides of 50-70 miles the past several months but no speed work. I can also say that I have not been doing enough hill work lately. It just occured to me that I have been riding on some pretty flat geographies and no routes like I did last year. I have yet to ride the ATC or J&A group ride this year.
The bike section starts just like CapTex except you take a right on Congress and go UP South Congress all the way to W. Mary St. I looked down on the first lap as I went up and noticed I was sloshing along at a whopping 12 mph going up. However, what goes up must come down and I reached a speed of 36.5 mph going back down South Congress. Going up to Congress to the turn around was ok, then the glorious scream down to the 1st street turn and out to Austin High. The hill up to RunTex was not as bad as I thought it would be but I was gased at the top and had to spend about 100 yards to recover before dropping down the highway exit back onto first street. The first lap I did in 21:35 and felt pretty good, even knowing I had to go up S. Congress 2 more times. Lap#2 I did in 25:00 and could notice myself slowing on the uphills, even the smaller ones. I also started to notice that the Infinite that I was drinking was starting to make me nauseous. I didn't have anything else on the bike and decided that I need something or I would bonk on the run so I kept working on that one bottle. Lap #3 was remarkably slower at 28 minutes and I had gone into some severe stomach issues.

More hill work and general speed conditioning. DO NOT drink Infinite on smaller races than Half Ironman.

Good transition but I took a bit to sit and put socks on. I am glad I did after my shoes were full of water at the end of the run. More on that later.

Not sure, maybe train with no socks.

I started the run with a gu and water and immediately wished I had not taken in anything. As soon as I got out of transition and onto the run my stomach started seizing and I knew it was going to be a long run. I could run for about 3-4 minutes and then I had to stop and walk enough for my stomach to settle so I got into a pattern of this for the remainder of the run. The sad part was that my legs actually felt ok and I think I could have run a bit faster. Once again, I have not been doing any track or speed work on the run lately to focus on getting some long base mileage in for Longhorn in October and IMAZ in April. I tried to throw-up several times but could not get anything out. I think I would have felt much better if I could have tossed my cookies. This race sort of caught me by surprise and I was not ready for it. I like the run course except for the street that goes behind J&A's and smells like a garbage can. There was lots of support along the way and it made it easier to keep going. By the end of the run, my shoes were soaked from dumping water on my head and people squirting me with huge water guns, including my daughters. They wanted to get me really wet. I guess the slower you run, the more you get wet.

DO NOT DO INFINITE on the bike for races less than a Half Ironman.

Walked around and found my wife and kids, then waited for my stomach to settle enough to get something to drink and eat. Then I got a nice massage from the folks at Advanced Rehab.


Conditioning and nutrition decisions.


All the Jack & Adams races are awesome post race treats, even for friends and family. The only downside I see is the lack of a medal. I don't know why, but I like the medals more than t-shirts. This is a great race and is a great addition to the local race scene. It's definately one to do every year. The Texas triathlon community is growing but I feel like I know so many people and continue to see them over and over again at races. It's that community that makes it all worth the effort and I truly enjoy seeing everyone at each race.