Had to swim around some kids since this wasn't a scheduled race and both lap lanes were taken. Started out a little strong, but overall this felt pretty good.

Not much.

Jumped out of the pool, grabbed my towel, and dried off a little while running to the locker room. Put on my heart rate monitor strap, bike jersey, gym shorts and flip flops and dodged the cheerleaders (like 200 little girls in some competition or something) as I walked to my van. Grabbed my helmet, sunglasses, bike gloves, and shoved off. I had my shoes clipped in already, but stepped into my left shoe then swung my leg over before slipping into the right.

Again, not a whole lot given the obstacles. I just tried to be slow and smooth and the time was better than I feared it might be.

It took me a couple of miles to settle in and get my cadence/heart rate where I wanted it. Once that happened, just tried to keep my heart rate low. Had some wicked head winds that seemed to shift on me about half way through, so it felt like I had a head wind for about 3/4 of the ride. Other than the wind, it was a beautiful day and a decent ride. I could have pushed it harder if this was an actual race.

Instead of using tri shorts, I used some older bike shorts with a smaller chamois. It was fine in the pool and the run, but it took awhile to dry. Not really a huge deal, but I might invest in some tri shorts at some point.

About .2 miles from my garage, I unstrapped my shoes but kept my feet inside. As I came to my driveway, I brought my right foot out and swung it over to the left side of the bike. I stopped, then took my left foot out, made sure the crank arms were at 3/9 so the shoes wouldn't drag, then racked my bike on the wall of my garage. I had my shoes on my garage floor with my sock condoms on top (before I started I put my socks on and rolled them down and off - works great to roll on with wet feet). I lost a few seconds wiping some dirt off my feet, but other than that this was smooth and pretty fast.

Again, not much. I think I'll make sure to have a towel at transition to wipe my feet off before I roll my socks on.

Came off the bike feeling pretty good, but legs were a little tired. I've done a few brick workouts, so this feeling isn't completely new, but still a little weird. Took me about half a mile to feel like a runner. My goal was to take it slow so that I could train next week without any time off. Kept my heart rate at high Z2 as much as possible, but popped into low Z3 occasionally. Just wanted to get the distance done, and I know I could have pushed it a lot harder if this had been an actual race.

If this was a race, I would have pushed it and embraced the pain. For what my goals were today, I wouldn't have done anything different.

Walked to my back porch and laid down in the shade and watched the clouds with my girls. Drank some water and ate some food.


It has been hard to get to the pool lately, and a knee issue has made getting quality rides in difficult, but for what I was going for today, this "race" was exactly what I was going for.


I feel good about my performance giving how life has affected my training.