Lewisburg Sprint Triathlon

This year I have sort of kept up with my running while trying to become a bike racer.  This has some disadvantages, and actually starting this week, I am going to begin to separate the sports into little seasons with some base building in between for both.  But, being ready for two sports has advantages too, and this year that advantage has been triathlon.  It is worth noting that I have completely avoided swim training as well, and it has cost me... next to nothing.  Apparently, I have one swim speed and outside of any effort that would cripple my other training, I don't see myself improving much there.  So I bagged the swim training again and ultimately lost about 5 seconds (only a 300 yard swim) to last year's time.

Once on the bike, I felt pretty fast.  I passed a lot of people.  I had a nice 21.4 average for a rather "on and off" sort of course.  Fortunately I was passed by one biker.  I say fortunately because this guy became a carrot to chase, not just for the second half of the bike, but for the entire run.  He did beat me, but I think his pacing, way out there albeit, helped motivate me to be where I needed to beat three others behind me by about 20 seconds or less.  This is a staggered start tri, so when on course, you really have no idea where you are place-wise.

The run was solid, about a 6:27 mile average for 3.25 miles.  Weird distance, yes, but that is the posted distance (and this is a weird triathlon).  Both my bike and run were triathlon bests for me, and I finished 4th in a field of 254.  So that pretty much wraps up anything with a bike for a while as I attempt to take my 5K ability up a notch for the next six weeks.  I will be at Thater racing in the 4/5, but that will be the only time my butt will see a bike from now until October.

I'd also like to take a moment to thank everyone on the RUUD team for welcoming me in this year.  It has been a lot of fun riding and racing with you all and I have learned a great deal.  Very excited for next year already!