Wow. I've done 5 or 6 races at the Texas Ski Ranch before and the water has never been that nasty. It was just gross.

The course had to be a bit long, since even the best in my wave of 40-49 was barely under 1:50 per 100. Even in 35-39 the best time was 1:42/100.\

While my time was slower than I wanted, I can write that down to the long course, I was happy with my placement in the AG.

Not much. I actually prepared pretty well and I'm never going to be FOP for the swim. I probably should have gone easier, especially at the end. I was seriously anaerobic coming out of the water.

Uneventful T1. Probably a little slower than usual.

Lost about a minute here to what I was shooting for. Average power was decent, but not what I wanted. I really feel like I should have been able to hold around 225 watts without going too crazy. Maybe I could have if I just pushed harder.

Passed one guy in the AG early one and then he passed me back. I settled in for a legal draft on him, but lost him in some traffic on a turn.

More bike training in the last weeks before the race.

It's hard for me to believe, but I need to work on my transitions again. I lost between 3 and 11 seconds to the guys that finished ahead of me in the AG, although I picked up 9 seconds on the guy that passed me on the bike.

Not sure where the time gaps were. I just need to practice.

Lost another 20-30 seconds of my goal time here. I don't think I could have gone harder, since I was pretty spent crossing the line.

The guy that passed me on the bike was ahead of me and I pulled closed when he walked for a few yards. At that point, I was pretty sure I could catch him. After the turn around, he pulled up again and I picked up my pace so that I was moving when I went by him. I wanted to crush any thoughts that he could stay with me. He still tried, but couldn't recover and finished about 50-60 yards behind me.

Don't know how much better I could have trained for the run. I was consistent in hitting my speed and tempo workouts.

None.

I really wanted to place in my AG at this race and believe I had a good shot at it. I fell short by 1:35. In a race this short, that's a pretty big gap. Still....the unfinished disk cover for my wheel and another 10 watts would probably be worth almost a minute, my transitions were a little sloppy and could have been worth 15 seconds, and if I can run 7:10 miles for a standalone 10k, I ought to be able to run 7:15 or less for this run course. That's at least 25 seconds.

I'm still looking for sub-54:00 at this race. There's always next year.


Always a fun little event and a good way to kick start the season.