My plan was to push off the walls and go at least five strokes, or 5 x 5 if possible. Managed to maintain that until crowded lanes made it difficult. That's what actually slowed me up; without the crowd I might've beaten seven minutes. Actually exited pool at 7:19 so, given crowds, I felt pretty good about that.

Still need to work on pushing off wall under lane rope. Working on that. But overall, pretty happy with this.

Much better than I expected for T1, since my rack spot was just about as far from Bike Out as you could get.

Nothing; good T1.

Very solid bike leg, I'll take this every time. Did the first loop without pushing too hard, allowing terrain to guide, pretty much keeping any burn out of the legs. Second loop I went into the five minutes pushing, two minutes easy method, and that got me through the loop. Couldn't believe I came in under 40 minutes...knew I'd beat 90 minutes total as a result.

Not a thing. Very solid bike ride, with legs and energy left for the run.

Actually got my shoes on without having to sit down to pull them on. Did have to balance a little against the rack to get my right foot inserted. But because I didn't have to sit, I'm saying this transition is a winner.

I did take time to squeeze down a partial gel and a take a swig of water, so I'd have an energy boost on the run. Likely would've been under 1:50 if I'd forgone that, but not sure it would've been wise. Could also get feet out of bike shoes while on course and run barefoot into T2. Haven't practiced that in a while, but would also shave some time.

My plan was same as I did two weeks previous: 3 x 3:15/:45, 3 x 4:15/:45, 3 minutes of 30/30s, then five minutes to see how I feel before taking it in. Keeping Stryd wattage in the 180s was the goal, so overall power would end up in the low-mid 170s; mission accomplished with overall power at 173. For final five minutes, I jogged first two easy, then did two minutes of 20/20s, jogged easy for another minute, then just went ahead and jogged it in. Plan worked great. Felt great. Another quick first mile. No chest issue whatsoever until about the last two minutes and even that was quite minimal.

I'm just going to keep this up and call it good. Maybe over the next three weeks I can get some additional conditioning to allow for pushing the race wattage higher, thus gaining a slightly better overall pace. But given my challenges over the lat couple of years, I'm freakin' thrilled to beat 12-minute miles.

Walked around catching breath while sucking down post-race water, then walking back to transition and packing up.


Crowded pool lanes over the last three lengths or so. And, of course, my running challenges. But, as I indicated, I'll absolutely take sub-12 minute miles at this point.


Loe this race; it has become my favorite win the DFW area. The DAR people have got it down; just a good, fun time and a great 90 minute workout (sub-60 for the good ones) for me.