It’s been one year since I completed my first ever triathlon, the Couple’s Triathlon right here in Austin. Coming off the heels of a Rapha roller race victory a few short hours before, I was tired, but made it out to Decker Lake and finished the race that day. It was good race to launch a new athletic endeavor. Going into the race this year, I would not only be much better rested, but much more prepared. A better swimmer, a stronger biker, a tougher runner, and more experienced in transition. I pulled up last years stats:
- 1:29:55 total
- 27:19 in the water,
- 32:20 on the bike (20.8 mph),
- 25:19 on the run (8:10 mile pace)
- 4:55 spent in transition
- 281st overall of 900 or so athletes.
I set a goal to knock 15 minutes off that time and have one of the fastest bike splits. I didn’t quite make 15 minutes, but 13:15 ain’t bad. Factor in a big mistake I made in T2 and it could’ve been more like 14 min. Here are the new (and improved!) stats:
- 1:16:40 total
- 21:37 swim
- 29:45 bike (22.6mph) 10th fastest bike split o the day
- 22:26 run (7:14 mile pace)
- 2:49 in transition
- 89th of 910
The swim felt longer than that and was tough due to the warm water and some failing goggles that I had to stop at least 5 times to press back on. They still were holding water though, so much so that I started to get double vision and had a real hard time seeing the buoys on the final 250m. My vision was blurry coming out of the water too, which was a little scary, but a quick start on the bike dried them up quickly. This was the first race on my new TT rig. Since I built up the Bridgestone as my new (old) road bike, the Trek Madone got converted to a TT bike. Aerobars and a fast forward seatpost have made this thing a speed demon. A few folks with real TT bikes and super fancy aero wheels threatened to pass me a time or two, but as soon as we hit the hills, the slow twitch junkies had a hard time keeping up a tried and true mountain biker.
Second transition was pretty smooth, except 30 yards into my run I realized I left my race number in transition. Rules state you have to finish with it, so I turned around to go get. Probably set me back about 40 seconds, hence the 14 minute improvement I could have had, not to mention a run pace that was closer to 7:05. 40 seconds in a sprint tri is a lot.
Overall, I’m very pleased with the effort and can’t wait til next year to try and get that time under 1:10, maybe even 1:05. Pretty lofty goal, but if I can knock off 14 minutes from a year ago, whose to say I can’t do it again?
This week is some R&R, lots of sleep, lots of hydration, lots of stretching, and lots of preparation for the Breckenridge 100 mile mountain bike race this coming Saturday. Best of luck in your quest for improvement and accomplishing goals in whatever aspect of your life you are working to improve.