I slowed down this year at Jack's Generic Triathlon versus the past two years, but I'd say I have a pretty good excuse- I barely survived Ironman Lake Placid one week prior. Actually, my swim and bike times weren't bad, to my surprise, it was just the run that was really slow. My swim was two minutes quicker than last year (my time from two years ago is messed up, plus the course was slightly different), my bike time was 30 seconds slower than 2 years ago, which was three minutes slower than last year, and my run was a good bit slower than either. Other than the relatively slow time and a massive blister, it was a pretty fun morning with my "triathlon family."
After getting home late Monday night, I was back at work Tuesday morning. Training-wise, the week was lighter than my typical weekdays, but I did still swim, bike, and run. Since my "A" race bike was still in transit, I had to revert to my old race bike that's mostly been collecting cobwebs since October. I gave her a test ride Friday evening to make sure everything was in proper working order. Saturday I met up with a highpointing friend and went for a hike at Lake Georgetown to help him and his friend get ready for their upcoming trip to climb Gannett Peak (which I climbed back in 2011).
Sunday was a pretty typical race morning- get up at o-dark-thirty, eat a little food, drive to the venue, in this case Lake Pflugerville. I had to carve some transition space between a couple rack hogs, but I did end up with a pretty good spot. There was some time to chill at the team tent before the race started ramping up.
I wore my swim skin for the two-loop 1000-meter swim. Overall the swim was okay. It was a time-trial start, like most of the local races have gone to. Coming from a 2.4-mile swim, the 250-meter turn buoy looked like just the first marker buoy, so I had very little concern. There were quite a few bodies in the water, in a narrow channel, but I didn't find the "traffic" to be too bad. The "channelling" of swimmers was due mainly to the mass of hydrilla at a certain depth, and the race organizers only being able to do so much, effectively cutting a keyhole through the worst of the weeds. For the intermediate distance, we had to get out of the water after the first loop of the swim, cross a mat on the beach, and go back in where we started. After the second loop, it was a run across the beach and sidewalk to the parking lot/transition area.
I'm sure I went too hard on the bike, like I almost always do. I passed lots of bikes, even more on the second loop when there were sprint-distance riders on the course. I only really recall one bike passing me, and at first I was confused because he was wearing my team's kit. I was trying to think of who could have come out of the water after me and pass me on the bike. Once he had passed and was slipping away, I realized it was Jake, who was going the aquabike and had started last, and didn't have to run after. My second loop was about two minutes slower than my first, due to fatigue, but also a big factor was that I ran out of water with about 5 miles to go.
Coming into T2 I started to get a calf cramp, plus my hamstrings were feeling tight, as usual. Not wanting to repeat the cramp disaster from