Intro...

Well, I'm not lurking now. Looks like this could be my home to stay for my triathlon logs. Thats pretty much what brought me to this site was the logs. I didn't get real creative when I put in a log in name, thats me, no handle or catchy nickname.

I'm a 27 year old male who lives in Phoenix AZ. A co-worker and myself decided we would start off the new year training for a triathlon which was held on April 25th at GCC. It was our first triathlon and my training partner kicked my butt by 52sec. I rode a horrific 42min 12mile time which will stick with me until the day I die because I have been training around 36min for that distance and even with fatigue I should have been able to pull a 40min. I found the problem to say the least, my seat for my bike had been slipping day by day since I had tuned it up last and by race day the seat was almost fully lowered but I never noticed until I saw my total time...boy do you lose power when your legs don't extend enough!!!

Anyhow, I'm putting that crap behind me and expecting a better show out of myself next race. I guess you always use the first triathlon to iron out all the bugs like...forgetting to take off your helmet on the transition to running...taking off your goggles and swim cap while running to the transition to bike (it's so much easier to see where your running)...making sure you have a pump for your tires on race day...remembering that you left the gel pack in your shorts so you wouldn't have to look around for it...easier way to drink on the ride than trying to reach down with one hand, grab the bottle, and steer while drinking, boy was that tough...figuring out how to drink out of those cups they hand you on the run (is it just me or does everyone drink through their nose? I think I gave up half the time and poured it on my head)...on the last part of the bike, stretching your calves to prepare for the run. I think theres more but thats all that rolls off my finger tips.

I had hoped to beat 1:20 for a 400m/12mi/3.9mi for my first triathlon but I was 3 min over my goal. Considering that I never included any time for transitions in my goal I feel I did pretty well. I look foreward to using this website and forums to help with ideas to improve on my race and would love to have any feedback from some of the problems I encountered on my first tri.

Look foreward to talking to you all, maybe even see somebody in a race!!!

Casey Shaw