Not a good swim for me and I was 10 seconds slower than I did last year. Had some issues passing people, including the two people in the top 10 that couldn't really swim. I usually hit this distance right at 5:00 in practice (long course meters at the same pool) so I know I could have done much better. Oh well.

Passed 4 or 5 people and didn't get passed. Still haven't been passed in a pool swim so I got that going for me, which is nice.

Be more aggressive on the passing. Seeding myself faster wouldn't have really solved anything I don't think. I just had a bad swim.

Speedy transition for me as I knocked over 1 minute off last years time in T1. I knew I needed to get quicker in transition and it finally came together in this race. I swam with my tri top on and had my shoes on the bike so all I had to do was run up and put my helmet on, get my bike and take off. I like doing transitions this way MUCH better.

Besides running faster to my rack, nothing.

Prior to hitting North Colony I thought I was going to destroy this bike course. OK, myabe not destroy it but I was going to do really, really well for me. I was holding right at a 22MPH average until I hit the headwind at N. Colony. Looking back at it I probably went out way too fast but it's a sprint. Anyway, the headwind on N. Colony somehow seemed to continue when we made the turn south down Memorial. I think it was following me.

After two loops of that my average was adjusted back down to something a little more me - 19.5MPH.

I guess I could have held back some on each loop but that doesn't make a lot of sense to me. It's 12 miles - I should be able to hammer a sprint course for that distance. In reality I probably need to do more speed work so I have something left in my legs.

Good bike dismount and ran right to my rack. Had my shoes and hat on pretty quick-like and took off.

Nada.

When I got to the run there were three of us coming out of transition together. Somehow I wound up being the quickest of the three, something that never happens. Unfortunately the guy in front of me was WAY in front of me and I was losing ground. It was hard to pace myself when I didn't have anyone to realistically catch up to. At about the 1.5 mile mark I was caught by #16 and hung with him for a little bit. At about mile 2, #45 came out of nowhere and he and #16 decided they had kept me company long enough. I at least had someone to try to keep up with and I think I ran a little faster because of it. By the end of the run they were probably 200yds in front of me.

My run was OK but it was only 1 second faster than last year. Not one second per mile average - 1 second total.

Run faster.

Water, bananna, water, watermelon. Went back to the course and sat with my wife and kids to cheer people on and watch my brother and friends finish.


I need to do more speed sets in my run training so I can start logging under 8 minute miles in a race.


I had a pretty good heal injury right after Longhorn last year and didn't get back to training until around later May/early June this year. Given the fact that I dropped almost 2 minutes from last year and my run is in pretty much the same place as it was last year, I think I did OK. I need to continue my training though so I am ready for Redman next month.

It's a fun event right in my backyard. This was the third year for the TOTH and the third time I have competed in it. I plan to continue doing this event as long as they have it and hopefully continue to knock time off. I've gone from a 1:34 to a 1:14 and now a 1:12. Gotta get under 1:10 next year.