Texas Man Pre-Tri

Had a very good workout this morning at Johnson Branch State Park at Ray Roberts Lake. This was the "pre-tri" practice/workout for next week's Texas Man Triathlon.

It started off with an open-water swim clinic. Even though I have already completed a tri with open-water swim (the Metroplex Sprint), I still picked up a few good pointers in terms of pacing (don't start off too fast - heart rate increases too much), sighting (don't pull head completely out of the water too often - will make your body "go vertical" and tire you out), and exiting the water (swim as close to shore as you can because running in the water is difficult, will tire you out, raise your heart rate, and make you look like a dork). After that I did about 900 meters of open water swimming: one lap around the dropped buoys (approx 700 meters) and another out-and-back of 100 meters each way. The open water swim also gave me a good reminder about the visibility in the water of lake swimming - i.e., NONE.

Following that, there was a transition clinic. Again, since I have never attended a formal clinic, I gained some good info. Most was common sense, but it was still useful to hear it. Nuggets that I got:

(1) make sure everything is "open" - helmet upside-down with straps laid out, sunglasses opened not folded, socks laid out
(2) water bottles should be screwed tight and the tops pulled up/open - not as applicable to me since I use the AeroDrink
(3) pump up tires the night before so flats/slow leaks can be discovered before the race rather than at T1
(4) put needed items in "reverse chronological order" from front to back of transition area - i.e., bike stuff in the front, run stuff in the back; as portions of the tri are completed, put those items in the back - i.e., at T1, put goggles and swim cap in the back.
(5) similarly, place items "bottom up" since you usually put/change the stuff on your feet first (socks and shoes on top, race belt & hat on bottom; sunglasses go inside helmet)
(6) make sure your bike helmet is put on and strapped before taking bike off rack and after put bike back on rack
(7) miscellaneous stuff about looking for landmark so it is easy to identify your transition area and having a bright towel and/or putting objects on the end of the rack to help as well.

After the clinic, I joined the "Alpha" group of riders who were doing the half-Iron/Olympic bike course. The speed was advertised as 20+ mph, but bike computer said that they were averaging close to 25 mph (at least while I could keep up with them) so I had to drop back after about 6 or 7 miles. (I'm sure riding 60 miles yesterday also played a role in my slowness). I ended up riding 23.83 miles in 1:15 ... good enough for a 19.064 mph pace. I was surprised/disappointed by rough roads (lots of chip-seal) for about 4 miles of the course.

This was the longest distance I have ridden with just my tri shorts. Not sure if it was the rough roads, the need to further recover from yesterday's 60+ miles, or both, but my posterior is a little sore from the ride. Oh well, not a big enough problem for me to want to get a new seat and/or use time to put bike shorts on during T1 for the tri.

After the bike, I did a 3.19 mile run. I wanted to do the 5K course but it wasn't very well marked so I missed an out-and-back and only had gone 1.2 miles when I hit the turn around. However, using the Garmin I found another path that allowed me to add enough mileage to get a little over the desired distance. I finished run in 28:44 - almost exactly a 9:00/mile pace.

It was a cloudy day, but the rain held off until the run. About 1/2 mile into it, a welcome drizzle started coming down. Unfortunately, the rain became a downpour by the end of the run, so I didn't stay for the scheduled nutrition clinic (and I don't even know if they held it). In fact, when driving home, I had to stop on the shoulder of I-35 twice until the torrential rains let up enough to allow at least a little bit of visibility.

All-in-all, though, it was a great workout and I am looking forward to next Sunday's tri.