"Stage Triathlon"

I had a busy weekend, and sort of did a triathlon in stages, although in the wrong order. Saturday morning I ran a 5K, in the afternoon I raced in a swim meet, and Sunday morning I rode 65 miles in the LiveStrong ride (not a race). Even though I didn't win anything or break 20 minutes in the 5K, it was still a really good weekend. I reset my 5K PR to 20:34, I set PRs for the 100 freestyle (1:27) and 100 breast stroke (1:49), and I got to ride almost 30 miles with popular professional cyclist Jens Voigt.

IBM Uptown Classic 10K

Thanks to a cold front coming in yesterday, it was nice and cool this morning for the IBM Uptown Classic 10K. The cool 50-degree air played a big part in my setting a new 10K PR of 44:47, almost 4 minutes off of last year's time. I don't know what possessed me to wear a tri-top and arm warmers instead of a long-sleeve t-shirt, but I'm pretty sure I looked ridiculous, especially with gloves and a headband.
I maintained a fairly even pace, in the 7:10 range, despite the elevation going up and down a little here and there. Either they changed to course from last year or my memory of it is off, because I don't remember mile six being mostly uphill. I might have tried to pick up my pace for the last mile, but it took extra effort just to maintain pace. I didn't pick up my pace until pretty much the last turn toward the finish line. It wasn't really that much faster, about 6:40 pace, and it seemed slow as people who had saved more energy sprinted past me. I had been sweating heavily, despite the cold, so once I stopped it wasn't long before I started to feel chilled. I didn't stick around the vendor area long before going back to my car to put more clothes on and head on my way.

Kerrville Triathlon Fest 70.3

Third time's the charm, I guess. In my third 70.3, I finally broke 6 hours. I could try to attribute it to training and preparation, but while those helped, it was probably mostly because of the great weather. With a mostly overcast sky, a high around 70 degrees, and a mostly beneficial wind, it was truly a "chamber of commerce" day. While my swim time wasn't quite as good as Buffalo Springs, my bike and run splits were my best yet. My run split was even better than the Corpus "53.1" in April, for my best half marathon off the bike. While I probably could have pushed the run and/or bike a little harder, my effort was enough to meet my goal, and still left room for improvement next time. If I had gone 5:30, it might have seemed impossible to beat, but beating 5:54:24 seems doable.