The Life and Times of Sam Luna

I hope every body had a Merry Christmas! My training has been suspended. On my first group ride out at Katy Mills in over two months I was taken out by a fixed gear rider with a flat. I broke my left collar bone. It will be 4-6 weeks before it heals and 2-3 months for a complete heal. I will be seeing an orthopedic surgeon next Monday. I will not be able to race until late March or early April. So I will miss the entire spring series of collegiate triathlon and road races.

I have been running only for the past two months, and I am beginning to miss the bike. After the Houston Half-Marathon, I will be happy to get back into multisport training. Two weekends ago I decided to sign up and run the Jingle Bell Run. Only the top 20 runners receive an award, a Pearl Izumi printed running shirt, a highly coveted item that brings out Houston's fastest runners. I signed up for the race with my main intent being to place in the top 20 or just to jog it if I wasn't in striking distance. *Note Lengthy Race Description Follows* I had looked at the results for the race over the past 5 years and noted that the 20th time was usually somewhere between 29 mins and 29:45. I felt confident that I was prepared to break 30 mins and to set a new PR. At the race I noted that a top female from the UT XC team was running and that she would probably run around 29:45 for the 5 mile race. The gun sounded and the runners bolted. I ran hard to stay with the large pack putting me...

It has been a while since my last post, but I have been very busy running. I competed in the KRTS 25k on Nov. 9. The longest run before it was 12 miles, so 15.5 miles was going to be pushing it. I started off way to fast and ran a 5:30 for the first mile. I settled into a 6:15 pace and held that until mile 10 and I fell apart on the last loop avg. 6:55 per mile. I am still please with my overall time of 1:42.20 which placed me second in my age group and 48th overall. Full Results

The TexasMan Triathlon was a great first time event. The RD really put together a memorable event. The weather was perfect in the morning, 70 degrees, and overcast sky's the whole morning. It was a wetsuit legal swim, so I dawned the wetsuit Phil loaned me. I lathered my legs up with PAM so that it would slide off easily. The swim was pretty quick and the first transition went smooth, but my chip came off when I took my wetsuit off.. so no more official splits. The bike course was very hilly and had strong head winds. So I wasn't able to keep up a good rolling speed. After about 3 miles I had moved up to 2nd place but I wasn't making any headway on the leader. Going into T2 I put my run shoes on and tried to feel the inside of my wetsuit for my chip, but couldn't reach far enough to grab it. My run was pretty typical of this year, a slow ugly death.. Full Results

Today was quite a wet day. I woke up at 5 am to the sound of rain drops and got my food bags prepped for Try Andy's Triathlon. The race was held at the Sugar Land Aquatic Center and put on by Andy Stewart of Finish Line Sports I was seeded number 420 in the 300 meter pool swim. We went off at 10 sec intervals. I caught the gentleman in front of me and had some difficulty passing him as he speed up as I started to swim around him. My last 100 meters in the pool was pretty smooth as I prepared for my first transition. I exited the pool quickly and ran straight to my bike and easily mounted and slid into my platforms. The bike course was very wet as it was still raining, but there was not a lot of standing water. The course was well marked as well as many volunteers out directing traffic. I finished the 10 mile bike and headed into transition. I ran down the wrong aisle but saw and opening and ran under a rack with my bike and racked my bike properly. I headed out to the run and the p...

This past weekend I raced in my second Sugar Land Duathlon. This was my first multi-sport race last year, so I was looking to see what kind of improvement I could make. I really wanted to improve on my fifth place from last year, and beat all the "runners". The first run was set off at quick pace by the Houston Marathon winner Drew Prisner and Track State Champion Rainbolt. I finished the first two miles in 9th place. On the bike I passed all but the 1st relay and Dana Lyons and John Zuilof. I struggled on the second run and was passed by Austin Conner who took the 39 and Under win, and I finished second, dropping 2 minutes from last year. So now its off to a few road races to see how I and my new Rudy Project helmet and shades stack up against the roadies and then to the Duathlon World Championship

This is the race I have been unknowingly training for since this past December. My Goal for this year was to qualify for the USA World Duathlon Team. I went to the first qualifier of the year at Powerman Alabama. It was my first real race, and I was not physical ready for what it demanded. I learned a hard lesson, but one that has brought me a long way. Over the past few months I have been "racing", but in reality it has been training for Duathlon Nationals. I had to learn to respond to my body, and know what it is capable of. My training for Nat's has been a serious one, even my diet had to change in preparation for my only chance to qualify for the World Team. My mileage increased to 125 miles a week on the bike, 25 miles a week running plus I had to maintain my swim at a minimum of 3000yds a week. For most serious athletes this probably wouldn't sound like alot. However, I work 50 hours a week at two jobs, Printing-X-Press, plus I am a student at the University of ...