Saturday marks my “tri-aversary.” This is also known as the anniversary of my first triathlon. I’m once again signed up for the Top Gun Sprint Triathlon held at lovely Ft de Soto beach. I remember last year as my first ever triathlon. I was pantsing my poop about this race and had little to no clue what I was doing. (You can read part I HERE and part II HERE. It was a Discombobulated Tri, that’s for sure.)

Sure I had received some help from my tri buddies (Shout out Little J and Navy Steve for completing the Lake Placid Ironman on Sunday!), but I was really just like a baby bird trying to fly out of the nest.

I’m hoping that since I took this summer as a full blown tri extravaganza I’ll have improved in all of the disciplines, including my ever slow transitions. I’ve been going through them in my mind and hoping to have even less trouble on the bike than my last tri which pretty much went off without a hitch. Save for the guy yelling at me to clip in faster. Heh.

I looked up my race times from last year and have compared them side by side with my goals. Let’s have a look-see.

The swim: 1/4 mile, 10:12

My goal: 9:00. I think I can cut at least a minute off of this time if I place myself better and don’t get stuck behind the group.

T1: 4:50
My goal: Get that sucker down! That seems slow, but there is a little run to get to transition and then the whole shoes and socks thing. I’ll shoot for cutting this by a minute too.

The bike: 10 miles, 36:18
My goal: 35:00. That will get me to about 17 MPH. I think I may be able to go faster but I don’t want to get too crazy here. It’s still me. On the bike.

T2: 2:15
My goal: I’m actually OK with this. Perhaps get it to 2?

The Run: 3.1 miles, 28:56
My goal: 25:00. That would get me to an 8 minute average. It’s aggressive, but why not?

Total time: 1:22:31
My goal: 1:15 (I also think this is aggressive, but we’ll see what happens.)

I’m feeling good that I’ll PR from last year. With the addition of Dolly and a wee bit more confidence in what I am doing it seems possible. I’m very happy to use this race to see just how far I’ve come from the days of biking 8 miles and being completely spent versus the 32 I rode yesterday. And being completely spent. Baby steps.