8 months Post ACL Reconstruction: Desert Triathlon

Well 8 months later, I'm back to Triathlons!!! Yeah!  I competed in the Desert Tri in La Quinta, CA last Sunday.  This was an International Distance Tri consisting of a 0.75 mile swim, 24 mile bike, and 6 mile run.  The swim was awesome.  I felt so comfortable; unlike last year when I thought I might drown and felt like I couldn't breathe in my wetsuit.  This time after a bunch of open water swims under my belt, the long hours in the pool this past year, and a new sleeveless wetsuit, I managed to improve my swim time by about 15 minutes.
My bike time was about the same as last year.  However this year it was raining and windy.  Last year was sunny with clear skies.  Also my legs were more tired going into the bike, mainly because we had a 3.5 hour bike ride under windy conditions the day before. 
Now for the run...  Last year I ran 8 min-miles, this year 10 min-miles.  Yikes!  That meant that I gave up almost all the time that I had gained earlier in the swim.  The net result was that I beat last year's time by less than 2 minutes.  Well a PR is still a PR.

My run was hampered by "dead" legs that just did not want to go any faster.  On fresh legs in the gym ( treadmill)  I can run 8 min-miles, but due to some lingering Right hamstring weakness from my hamstring graft, my Right leg gets fatigued more easily and I cannot sustain a faster pace for a longer period.

As you can tell by reading my earlier posts, I have already completed a half marathon, 2 full marathons, and an Ultra marathon of 50K since my surgery last July.  I can handle these "slow" long runs.  I just need more time to get the speed back for the shorter distance races.

My next objective is the Wildflower Triathlon on May 1st.  That will be a Half Ironman Distance Tri.  I have 2 months of training with the Ironteam to get ready.