bike race - 40K time trial state championship

The Texas state 40K time trial championship was yesterday, in Lytle, which is a bit west of San Antonio.

The weather started out looking good, but began raining at about the 1 mile mark, and rained hard for rest of the 40K ride. This was my first bike race under really wet conditions (I decided I prefer it dry).

My time was 57:23, average speed 26 mph. This just missed my best 40K time by 7 seconds. So considering the conditions, this was probably as well as I have ridden for 40K. I placed 5th of about 17 riders in the 50-54 age group.

Jon was 7th, so team "Lost Faculties" took 5th and 7th places.

summer teaching

I can't believe that I taught two biochemistry classes this summer, one of which I'd never taught before. It cost me some missed sleep, and was a lot of work, but overall it was enjoyable, and I learned a lot.

That was a very busy 9 weeks! Now for a few weeks of slower pace, before it starts again.

Waco triathlon

I did a triathlon in Waco yesterday - 1.5K swim, 40K bike, 10K run.
Finished 9th out of 397, first in age group.

Swim time = 24:23 (7th fastest swim)
Bike time = 1:00:43 (3rd fastest bike split) 24.7 mph
Run time = 48:26 (41st fastest run) 7:48/mile

total time = 2:17:49 (includes transitions)

I'm swimming and biking very well, but running like a 53 year old. Perhaps I can work on the running. :-)

Results for top finishers (click to enlarge):

40K bike time trial, personal best!

I was very surprised that I can still do a "personal best" in something athletic, since I am 53 years old! I did a 57:17 for a 40K bike time trial in Castroville TX yesterday, beating my old best of 57:24 from 3 years ago. The conditions were pretty good, very little wind, but hot and humid. The course was out-and-back, essentially the old state championship course that I've ridden a few times before, but never quite that fast.

So I can still ride a bike as fast as I ever could. I can't say the same about swimming and running, though. Swimming has slowed down a lot - 30 years ago I could hold a pace of 1:12 per 100 yards for 2000 yards, and now its more like 1:25/100 yards pace. Running has slowed down by about 50 seconds per mile.

I wonder if that was my last "personal best". Anwyay, I'm quite pleased (amazed!) that everything still works, and I'm pretty much injury free.