TexasMan Olympic - TriathlonOlympic

For some reason, neither my swim nor my T1 times got recorded, so I just inferred them by using a T1 time that was a few seconds faster than Todd's (my T2 time was a few seconds faster than his).

In comparison to my last OWS (Disco @ 30:34 - a disaster of a swim for several different reasons), this was a great success. The only issues that I can point out this time around are 1) the mouthful of water that I caught after rounding the first buoy that forced me onto my back so that I could cough for a good 10 seconds and 2) my lack of spatial awareness in relation to other swimmers. The latter robbed me of the many opportunities to draft and caused me to swim right up on several people toward the end (didn't know they were right in front of me).

In general, though, I swam with a consistent and conservative effort, stayed on course (I never found myself consciously correcting my direction), and felt "with it" coming out of the water.

There's still a disconnect between my pool swimming (avg 1:36-1:40 pace over 2000-3000m) and my OWS swimming. I imagine the gap will narrow with more OWS practice/experience.

I definitely feel that I could have swam a bit harder without putting myself in a deficit for the rest of the race.

Again, because my swim and T1 times weren't recorded, I had to guess.

I couldn't freakin' believe that Todd beat me out of the water... AGAIN! Arg! The dude turns into a fish on race day. Transition was without a hitch.

Maybe become proficient at running bike mounts? But because I don't ride with socks, it'd only save me about 10-15 seconds with the added potential for significant pain/embarrassment. Yeah, I'm not in too much of a hurry.

Based on my Disco performance (slow/paniced swim & leg cramps for the entire run), I set out with the following goals: 1) be conservative, 2) drink at least 1.5 of the small bottles of Accelerade that I mixed, and 3) eat at least 3 of the 4 Power Gels that I brought.

All accomplished. I never felt like I was really pushing myself and I coasted or lightly accellerated most of the downhills as well as spun (85-95) the uphills.

Even it means lowering my cadence into the upper 70's/low 80's, push a larger gear, especially on the flats/downhills. I was just too tentative in my fear of repeating the cramp-filled Disco run.

Other than 1) stubbing one of my left toes (which I later found broke my nail in half) while running up to the rack and 2) racking the bike in its initial position (by the seat instead of by the brakes), this went great.

I would say become used to running without socks, but I like my socks too much.

Man, I felt great. I felt no cramps coming off of the bike and was able to jump right into a pretty quick cadence. I don't have the numbers to prove it (need to find a HRM with split functionality), but I'm pretty sure I negative-split the run by a pretty good margin.

Not feeling thirsty/twitchy/crampy, I skipped the first 4 aid stations and took only 1 water at each of the last 2. I probably could have done without them, too, but, as with the bike, I was conservative/tentative with my memory of the Disco run.

Push harded initially and then much more hard on the back half.

Kissed the wife and girls, chatted with Todd, got some pizza & water, and then packed up and headed out.


My memory of Disco. I know I've improved in all 4 disciplines (includes nutrition planning), but I couldn't help but feel that I was doomed to burn out during races.

The flip side(s) to that is 1) I bested my Disco time by about 12 minutes and 2) I enjoyed every minute of the race (except for that mouthful of water) and felt fully recovered after only about 10 minutes (HR back below 100).

While I don't think I really pushed myself as hard as I could have, it was a good effort and a great confidence booster as I start my taper for Longhorn 70.3.


Good volunteers, well-marked course, and a very relaxed atmosphere (something that I personally appreciate).

There were, however, a few hiccups (albeit nothing that hindered my performance or ultimately detracted from my enjoyment of the race) ...

.. my chip strap was way too big (or altogether flawed). The velcro only engaged for about 1 inch. I used some of Todd's medical tape to secure the strap around my ankle.

.. it seems to me that the swim course could have been shifted right in order to avoid the "reedy" area of the "out" section. I don't recall this being a problem @ Disco.

.. my swim and T1 times are missing. In looking at the results, it seems that this happened for quite a few folks. Faulty equipment/process?