Lone Star Triathlon Festival - Sprint - TriathlonSprint

Pretty uneventful swim. I felt like the effort level was right where it should have been.

What else? More swimming.

I was a little slower than I expected to be, based on times from last year. Not terrible, but 8th fastest in my AG is mediocre for me.

I probably could have done without the socks and save a few seconds, but it wouldn't have made a difference in my overall placing.

I haven't checked the PM yet, but I'm guessing I'll be around 200 watts. I was pushing over that and felt pretty good. I had one guy in my AG come by me pretty early in the ride. A second guy in my AG also came by a few minutes later, but I was able to maintain a legal draft off him the rest of the way. Those were the only 2 people that passed me. I have no idea how many I passed.

Checked the power tap and normalized power was 201. Not too bad. I could have pushed another 10-15 watts pretty easily.

I wasn't peaked for this race like I wanted to be, mostly due to time constraints.

I almost completely wrecked this dismount. I opened the straps on my shoes, as usual. As I got closer to the line, I took my right foot out of the shoe and swung that leg over, also as usual. It was only as I was just closing in on the line that I realized that I hadn't taken my left foot out of the shoe yet! Oh crap. I quickly threw my right leg back over, got my left foot out, and got ready to dismount again. No harm, no foul, but that could have been ugly. The rest of the transition was good. Even as fast as I was to that point, Michael Lovato was finishing as I exited T2.

Pay attention. Timewise, though, I had the best T2 in my AG, tied with the AG winner.

Run was a bit meandering, although apparently not as bad as last year. I took it a little bit easy, knowing I had the 1/2 the next day. I also wasn't sure of my AG rank, so I wanted something in the tank if someone in my AG came by (turns out it didn't matter at all). I definitely could have saved 1-1:30 on this run if I had kept up with the speedwork I was doing for the marathon.

Nothing other than the free massage.


Lack of speed training over the last 4-5 weeks on the bike and run and lack of swim training overall. My base for the bike and run are solid, but for a short distance like this, I needed to have more recent speedwork. That'll be the goal for April as I get ready for the very short Rookie.


Keith and his crew knocked it out of the park again. Tons of volunteers, great organization, good post-race activities and spread, excellent venue. His races are definitely the gold standard. I'd put his races right up there with any of the Ironman events, just without the Ironman "experience".