LongHorn Triathlon Festival - AquaBike - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

This wasn't a very good swim for me, but I really wasn't expecting it to be considering I had only been swimming about once a week for 30 minutes for the past month. I just couldn't motivate myself to get in the pool once I knew I had to switch to the AB.

I kept swallowing a lot of water and that bothered me. I did a decent job of sighting, but I didn't really try to draft unfortunately. I also never seemed to really get in a groove and feel like I was swimming well.

Uh.. get in the pool more than once a week!

Overall, I'm fairly please with my bike performance although I was hoping for closer to a 22 mph average especially considering that I didn't have to run afterwords. Basically, I think this just re-enforces what I already knew: I need to do more intervals and hard temp work on the bike. I think my endurance is good, but I need to build more top end speed.

This was just a few minutes faster than last year and I was pretty close to all out on the bike this time b/c I didn't have run afterwords. This tells me that my top end speed needs a lot of work if I want to get faster on the bike. It also explains a lot about why some of my run-splits aren't what they should be: If 21.3 mph is my all-out speed for 56 miles, then I should have been riding a lot slower than 20.8 mph last year if I wanted to have decent a half-marathon afterwords! Lessons learned! Ideally, however, I should get stronger/faster on the bike so that my top-end speed is 22+, and then 20.8 or 21 mph should seem easier and I can still run fast! Next year, I'll work on that.

OK, This is supposed to a race-report and not a self-lecture. Sorry!

Since I was in the last wave, I was pretty much passing people all day. It was nice ego boost sometimes, and slowed me down at others. The road surfaces seemed rougher than last year, and the hills seemed smaller. I didn't think the last 2 hills at the end were that bad, but again that's probably b/c I knew I didn't have to run afterwords. Winds were definitely more of a factor this year.

Overall, this is a fun bike course.

Spent an absolute awesome 3 hrs cheering on all the runners.


I think this race and the support of the BT'ers here is just what I need to get out of my injury funk and start to appreciate triathlon for all it's wonderful dimensions. A lot times I tend to get all wrapped up in my own personal performances, forgetting that this sport can be a socially rewarding experience too. I was so happy for so many BT'ers out there yesterday who set PRs or who finished their first 70.3! Thanks for inspiring me!