Inaugural post. Well, this is the first post of the blog, so bear with me. I'm new at this!

I went out for a training ride today in preparation for the Dilloman Sprint Triathlon in Austin this Sunday. It felt good to get back on the hills after doing so many flatter rides. However, I gotta tell you . . . it's amazing how quickly the fitness goes away! My legs are shot. Thank goodness I still seem to have decent recovery.

Anyhoo . . . I'll be interested to see how my time at Dilloman this year compares with last year's. The 2005 Dilloman was my first ever triathlon. I felt like I did okay for a first-timer. Last year, I finished in a total time of 1:32:22.0 (including a 2 minute penalty for blocking -- oops!), which was good enough for 128th place out of 421 total participants. I gotta tell you, though . . . with as well as I've been racing this summer, a repeat performance in that range this year will be a major disappointment. I know I'll have a slower swim time, because I haven't been working the swimming much; but, I expect I should be faster in every other aspect. I guess we'll see on Sunday! Here's my prediction for this Sunday:

Swim: 15:30. I just haven't trained it much lately. Hopefully I'll surprise myself!
T1: 01:45. Last year it was almost 3:00, but I've learned a lot this summer.
Bike: 37:15. Last year there was rain, so if there is none this year, I should have a much faster ride.
T2: 01:30. I've no idea how fast the T2 will be, but I did 1:30 in Chicago with its huge transition area. I figure I can do that here, too.
Run: 24:00. This is the "X" factor. I had a BAD run last year of over 30 minutes. My running lately, however, has been in the 22:50 to 23:30 range. If I keep close to that pace, 24:00 is a decent estimate.
Total: 1:20:00. Assuming no penalties (none since 2005!), this seems pretty realistic. I'd like to do better, but the rolling hill bike course and my lack of swimming doesn't bode well. Even if I just meet this prediction, though, it's still a 12 minute improvement over last year!

Let's hope it goes well!