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

This post will be updated with results as the month of December goes on.  MC^3  - Bike, I did a dry run on the bike to see where my current comfortable fitness is before a full blown effort later this month. Relay-istic Winners  -  Run, On 12/1 as I thought I knocked this out asap as the first workout Tri Harder Next Time  - Swim - Just had to "GET IT DONE"! Team Results   Individual Results

Wrapping up November and heading into December with a fun Virtual Challenge from the Castelli Colletivo . They call it the December Challenge; create a relay team to complete an Olympic Distance Triathlon. So that is a 1500 meter swim, a 24.9 mile (40K) bike, and a 6.2 mile (10K) run finished in December. So why not just do one event? I have decided to join 3 relay teams and do all 3 events. So how will I do this? After some brief thoughts I have decided to knock out the 10k asap, probably the 2nd of December. Then maybe try a 40k TT on the bike trainer over the weekend and then use the rest of December to "hone" my pain cave and get another 40K in at the end of the month. The swim will just have to happen. Fortunately the pool is outside, but heated so I will find a "warmer" afternoon and get it done. MC^3 - Bike Relay-istic Winners -  Run Tri Harder Next Time - Swim Team Results   Individual Results