The Life and Times of Sam Luna

Photo by Aaron Palaian As usual Ben Proko puts on a really great race event at Magnolia Hill Ranch. This is my 3rd year to do a race here, and my second year to do the triathlon. This years course had a few changes from later year. A bit longer swim at around 500m, a 9 mile "gravel" bike course and then around a 3 mile run. I didn't have the chance to check out the course prior to race morning so I was sure to get there earlier and pre ride a few of the new sections. Transition was setup "open rack". You get to pick your spot, so I grabbed and end spot to make it easy in and out. First I headed out on the bike and noticed the sandy course, I got just comfortable enough to feel mentally prepped. Then I pre-rode the new 1st mile of the run course and was immediately bogged down with sticky sand that was DEEP. I turned around and headed over to the lake to give the bike a bath and clear off the caked on sand. Back in transition I double checked my set up, grabbed m

So last year I did this race as my first road duathlon back to racing.  I really enjoyed the location in Laporte near the water and it brings out a good local crowd. I did have a couple of goals in mind, be faster or even to last year, and hold onto the run at the end. I spent the last few months (10 months) working on my bike. I tried to maintain my run over the period, but it wasn't my focus.  My newbie "Masters" mistake was racing hard 2 weeks ago with a hard Brick right after. So it took a good 10-12 days to start to feel a bit recovered. It definitely took a bite out of my top end speed. The race was slightly modified this year with a 1 mile run to open; the same 12.5 mile bike follow by a 3.2 mile run to finish. The first run felt ok to get started; I just focused on not going to hard.  Once on the bike I felt in my groove, and then WHAM! I hit an expansion joint, heard a crack and felt my handle bars turn. My steering was off the rest of the race, so I had to just

  This is a HARRA staple race over the years. 4 runners, each run approx. 2 miles. I ran this back in 1998 in Sugar Land around Fluor Daniels, at Rice, Barker Cypress, the Bayou, Stude Park and now TC Jester Park. I run with the Al Lawrence Running club over the years (when I get the call for an extra runner).  This year I ran in the open category for the Mens team from ALRC. We finished 4th Overall. The course was just over 2 miles, about 2.2; and a simple loop. I was pretty consistent; running 5:53, 6:10.

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