First race of the year

I did my first race of the year this last weekend. My feelings are mixed about the results. I probably should not be so hard on myself, it was the first race of the year. After all, the idea of the first race is supposed to be a gauge to see how training has been going. So what did I learn:

I am undecided about how to take it but my bike time was not what I expected. Does this mean that my training is not what it should be or does it mean that I did not push hard enough and could have gone faster? Either way the results were good but I expected better. One of my goals this year is to average 23+MPH on the bike in all races. So obviously the bike the was disappointment. The reason is that the Lonestar race takes place in Galveston, the flattest place in Texas so the bike leg should have been the fastest I've ever done. It wasn't! in fact it was slower than my bike leg at the Austin Tri last season and that one is a 3 loop course (which are usually slower because of all the turns) and it has hills. The only thing that I can come up with is that I could have pushed harder and that I did not push because it was the first race of the year and I was afraid of blowing up on the run.

I should dwell on the positive in the race because there were several positives. The swim was fast. Not my fastest but it was one of the top three. Both transitions were flawless. The run was awesome. This was a quarter Ironman so the run was 3 tenths longer than a 10K. My time was good enough that if it had been a 10K I would have been real close to my personal best.

The next race is in 5 weeks so I have time to re evaluate my training and get ready.