Very good swim here. I've always had a tendency to go way too hard on the swim. I end up getting totally anaerobic and come out of the water with my heart rate jacked up to the moon. Today, I kept myself in check. I had a good draft for the first 150m, lost him going around the first buoy, but found two more guys basically swimming side by side and pretty much followed them in.

Swim rank: 110th overall/7th AG

Nothing.

Mostly a good transition, but I jinxed myself, apparently. After the thread on starting with your shoes clipped in, it figures that at my next race I'd have the worst time ever getting my feet on top of my shoes. I know why: I tried to hop on the bike and then get my feet on the shoes. Normally, I put my left foot on top of the shoe and swing my right leg over. Hey dummy, nothing new on race day!

T1 rank: 81st overall/7th AG

Mount my damn bike like I normally do. Could always run a little faster, but the few seconds I lose I more than make up by not starting the bike anaerobic.

Wow. I didn't expect this, but this is the highest NP and AP I've ever held for a race of this distance (or shorter, for that matter). What's more, I didn't feel like I was redlining the whole way like I typically shoot for on races of this distance.

The road conditions over the back third or so of the course were horrible. The road was chip seal and it was like riding on cobblestones. I think I would have made up even a little more time on my competitors if the roads had been good. I absolutely fly on flats and downhills because of decent power and great aerodynamics. Because of the rough surface and resulting astronomical rolling resistance, I lost some of that aero advantage.

With 4 more weeks of full on training and a recovery week leading in to The Austin Tri, I'm pretty excited to see what happens there.

Bike rank: 54th overall/5th AG

Not a damn thing.

Couldn't have done this much better, other than maybe shave a second or so off racking my bike. Overall, it was damn fast.

T2 rank: 46th overall/4th AG

Didn't expect much from this run, since I slacked off training for several months and the last 3 weeks I've been doing basically base-type stuff to get back in the groove. As a result, I've done no speed training at all. Even my long run paces are way off what they should be. Begin over the 170 pound mark doesn't help things. In decent shape, I could cut almost 3 minutes off this time.

Amazingly enough, I did almost run down a guy in my AG who runs even worse than I do. I think he heard me coming and managed to pick up his pace in the last 1/4 mile. He put on a pretty good kick and I couldn't hang. I didn't push it crazy hard and that almost cost me.

Run rank: 142nd overall/11th AG

Same story as always: actually train for the race!

Immediately headed over to the post race massage and got one. Had a bunch of water, some soda, and a couple of free beers. When I checked the result postings, I got upset at myself. I also had to stick around to see what happened at the awards.

The posted results only showed 4 guys ahead of me in my AG. That meant I was no worse than 5th. If 2 of those guys went off with the open wave (possible), it meant I was third and on the podium. However, if only one of them went off (pretty likely) with the open wave, it meant I was 4th by less than 5 seconds to the guy that I didn't do everything I could to chase down. Argh.

Well, one of them did go off with the open wave, but there was a correction in the posted results that added a guy ahead of me, so I was still in 5th for the AG. The damn run is what cost me, though. I was less than 45 seconds out of third. No ifs, ands, or buts about it: if I had trained for this race like I should have, I would have placed for the first time.

Ah well. 5th in my AG is nothing to sneeze at and it far exceeds my expectations for this race.

This was the 3rd race of the Texas Tri Series. Prior to this race, due to a mediocre showing at The Rookie and a horrible race at The Couples, I was in 4th for my AG, about 6:30 behind the guy that finished ahead of me today. So now I'm off the podium by about 6:35. I feel confident, though. I can run this guy down on a longer race. He only managed 8:38 miles today. The best 1/2 IM run pace I can find for him is 8:55. I know for a fact that I can do Longhorn in less than 8:10 per mile. Even if he manages to match today's pace for Longhorn, I'll make up the deficit. That doesn't count the time I should make up at The Austin Tri next month.


My only problem with the High Five events out at the Texas Ski Ranch (The Rookie and this race) is the mediocre post race meal. They have beer (good), lots of different snacks (good), plenty of sodas and cold water (good), but crappy Costco/Sams frozen burgers as the main course. I don't even bother with them anymore.

Other than that very minor gripe, they do great work.