Lone Star Triathlon Festival - Half Iron - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I knew this wasn't my day when I went for the big cannonball jumping off the dock,, my foot slipped and I just looked like the rest of the people jumping in. I checked where the buoy was before we started and saw the antenna s on the other side to site off of. since the breeze was right to left there was a slight current right to left also,, I started on the right side up front-ish thinking I would be drifting left.. Some how I ended up like a bad golfer's slice shot and veered way right, since I breathe on the right side I never saw anyone and didnt' realize how far off I'd gone.
after the first buoy I did much better, saw someone that was going the same speed as me so i got behind him and drafted until he started breast stroking. since I knew that my run was going to suck I should have really pushed it on the swim but I didn't for some reason I just went at an easy pace.
The one thing I thought i did really good on is when we got close to shore and I could see the bottom was to stand up and dive forward instead of keeping swmimming, that gets my legs awake and I it seems quicker than swimming that last bit to me
Almost at the last buoy I hear someone yelling my name, so I actually start looking around then realize that no one out here is going to recognize me and start yelling.. Later I talked with Jacob and he was asking if I heard him yelling my name as he went by. too funny

I don't have enough experience with drafting. I know that once I'm behind someone that my effort level is going to be much less. but I always get worried that I'm going too slow behind someone, thinking that they must have slowed down when it's just the effects of the draft. I need to grab the faster feet as they are going by me. I also need to start breathing on my left side for a course like this it would have been better..i was all over the place zig-zagging

i could have been a lot faster once I got out of the water over the mat and up the ramp, i stopped thinking I missed the wetsuit strippers. plus I wasn't really ready for them once I got there, I should have had my suit down more and sat down quicker. after that I just fast walked to my bike, baby powdered the feet and hands. socks on, helmet on and just hug my sunglasses on my shirt. I was worried that it would be too humid at first and they would fog up.

I really need to start the bike ride with no socks on or take even more time to really dry off my feet better.. ten minutes into the ride my socks are soak and stay that way the whole ride, and it sucks starting a run with wet socks/feet

This was a great course at first i just couldn't seem to find the right gear, so I was changing a lot. I really need to figure out how many calories I need though.. I took a gel flask so that was 500 calories a full gatorade [240} and a little of another gatoraid [100] so I had apx 800 calories which seems like a lot for what should be a 90 min ride.. I was riding really good for me, since I was in the 3rd swim wave i knew I'd be passed by others in our race and some of the people doing the HIM. I stayed in their draft zone as long as possible while the passed me and pulled away. things were going well then I looked down and noticed my tire was much lower than when I started,, I've had a rash of flats lately most likely do to old rim tape[which I found out after the bike] so I just keep going until it was basically flat. I jumped off filled it up with my last co2 cartridges hoping that if it's a slow leak I might be able to finish. well I got about another ten minutes and just as Roger passed me pfffttsss.. I'm flat again.. I've used up everything I had in the last couple of days. [2 flats on sat also] so I just start walking. In my mind I was done for the day.. frustrated and I knew that i wasn't prepared for the run. so I was just going to wait for a ride, put my stuff up and have a beer.. I caught up to a couple of others guys walking and convinced them that if we wait as a group it will be quicker once the SAG vechile gets to us. Two of the guys said they were done anyway since they wanted to place higher up, and we started talking about getting back skipping the run and just relaxing.. so the SAG trucks gets to us, I was the 2nd guy to get worked on, the guy says something about my rim tape and hopefully this will hold up to the end. So i take off and figure that's it for the day. But once I started riding i was having fun again,, for once I got to pass alot of people, since it took a little over 20 min for the truck to get to us.{i'm glad they were out there though} then i seemed to find the right gear. Plus I really thought at some point i was going to hit a headwind. I took it a bit easy going out thinking i'd save something for the wind.. anyway once I got back close to the end I was able to get out of my shoes really well and do a nice dismount and head in transition.
my actual ride time was 1:30 nearly a 19 mph avg which is great, but then again I had a nice break about 2/3rds of the way though.

not flat, lose 30 lbs

I had a pretty good dismount for not practing it at all, i was thinking of doing a front wheelie and grabbing the bike out of mid air but chickened out, so as I'm going at a nice little run to my rack I totally forgot that I was planning on skipping the run, got my shoe's on.. but my socks/feet are still soaking wet from the swim.. I need to go sockless for the bike

not much, don't worry about taking my gel flask,, I knew there would be plenty of food on the course but i took it for a just in case

Ok my run volume was 3 miles for the month of febuary, 8 miles in march with no runs longer than 3 miles.. what's even more amazing is that is more than I thought it was.. So I knew this run would suck, I was calling it a mini-aquabike with a nice stroll. Then I forgot I was planning on just handing in my chip to go drink beer. so I'm out on the course and i figure just run the first 5 min. to say that you at least attempted it. so at 5 min I take a little walk break, and I'm way too hot, I feel like I'm overheated big time,, I'm beating myself up for gaining so much weight since last year. thinking how stupid it was of me to even come down here without any run volume.. so I start to run again thinking I'll work on my form to get the crap thoughts out of my head, then all of a sudden the 1st mile marker is there??? I look at my watch and if everything is correct I just did a sub 9 first mile with a minute walk break.. no way.. So I decide I just do a 5 min jog/1min walk since it obviously worked so well for that 1st mile. once I got to the 2nd mile I decided since this it didn't matter if I did something stupid and couldn't finished I'd give the coke a try, with some pretzals, dried fruit and what ever else was there.. Let me tell you that coke is like liquid gold baby!!! I took a couple more shots and started off on my shuffle, when I'd get to the time to walk, I kept making deals with my self and kept going,, I figured as long as I'm going slower and stopping for food why not.. I was amazed that I didn't really need any more walk breaks to this weird figure 8 thing and that was only because I just downed too much coke at the last stop.


actually train for the run. not have surgery where they take my insides out of me 6wks prior to the race, so I can't train..

Ok if I don't lose at least 30lbs by IMKY I'm toast thats all there is to it. last year when I started training for tri's I weighed 215 know I weight 235. I've got to get off this carb crab [and milky ways] I used to eat so well, lots of veggies and chicken. but hardly any pasta's. I can't use the excuse that since I'm working out more i can eat whatever I want !!


This ended up being a great race for me.
My swim was so so ... ok it was actually kinda crappy since it was in salt water with a wetsuit and I didn't even attempt to push it to see what I could do. But mentally I was pretty proud of myself for dealing with the flats and not psyching myself out about the run..