The Life and Times of Sam Luna

Great Off Road race down here in Texas, a short drive to Navasota from Houston. 400yd Lake Swim, 8 Mile MTB on Jeep Trails and 2 mile run around the lake. Same location for Xterra Magnolia Hill. This is a great  race  put on by Race Director Ben Proko. 2 days of racing including an adventure race, Sprint Tri, Du and Relays all included. For me this was my welcome back to racing in 2020, so I was excited about getting to come back in 2021. in 2020 I did the Du and this year I opted for the Tri. Swim morning the water temp was reported 73 degrees, so I opted to wear my wetsuit that I had thrown in. I figured it would take me about 10-20 secs extra to take it off, but I would save that per 100yards. So about a minute gained for a poor swimmer was a bonus. The bike   course   was the same as last year, so I was happy to be about 3 mins faster this year. They had laid down some fresh sand through out the course. This caused a few people including myself to slide around a bit on a few of the

The  Bayou City Triathlon   team did a great job getting this race done! The day was very windy, and they had to adjust the swim course the morning of for the triathlon. For those of us non-swimmers it was just a windy day on the bike. For my first race on the road in years I really spent the day enjoying being back out among some old friends and also re-learning what it felt like to push the pace and get comfortable in a race. I made some rookie mistakes in transition, forgot my socks altogether and definitely have some work to do on the bike! Results

  So not the prettiest, but hey, I got the job done. Last week I finished The 35 min bike and 15 min run with a 21.3 km bike and a 3.86 km run. This week I was looking to improve on both. I needed a bit more consistency in my power output on the bike and I wanted to go out a bit harder on the run. This week I finished with a 22.8 km bike and a 4.1 km run . So better on both legs. Results are still being worked out.. 

  So I completed my first Virtual Zwift Duathlon Race! Also, this is my first "Masters" multisport race! Pre-Setup, The race is 35mins on the bike, a 10 min. transition window and then a 15 min. run. I set up a bottle for the ride, a bottle for the run, recovery drink and a couple Gu's. I laid out my shoes set up with the foot pod. I don't have a treadmill so my plan was to drive up to the gym quickly after the bike and hop on the treadmill. The garage door broke that morning so I needed to jog up to the gym or attempt to run with my phone outside.. I went with jogging to the gym.  The bike: My setup was my road bike on the trainer. I warmed up the system for about 10 mins and then calibrated my trainer. Next step was to launch Zwift and get logged into the race event. I stretched soft peddled some and then went for the bike. I hurt a lot from not having been used to hard efforts on the trainer. my distance was less than what I hoped for but it hurt. I gather my gear

 Ok, so first, what is Zwift ? Great question!  Zwift is an online gaming platform for cyclists, and recently runners as well. The more you ride, the more you unlock. You can also follow other athletes; train and race together. A third party WTRL created a duathlon race series for Feb-March that I will participate in to try something new and get some early benchmarks of my fitness. To prepare for the race I set up a Zwift account, made sure all my old skool bike equipment was compatible and also ordered a Zwift footpod to run with.  Here is my first impression with Zwift: I am not in need of "virtual" motivation. I am pretty good with just hopping on the trainer and grinding out a workout or recovery ride if needed. I am using a very old faithful comptrainer. It is wheel on, not direct drive. So there is some power loss and wheel slip. I am using a laptop with Zwift and a TV for sharing a larger view or watch something else. Zwift rewards those that play the game more, faster