Pre-Nautica Malibu Tri Sandbagging report

First of all, I am declaring the Nautica Malibu Triathlon a SHAVE-WORTHY EVENT. This was my very first triathlon so it has sentimental appeal, and it's the big year-end race for my Tri Team. Plus I need all the help I can get to beat Jon Cryer. I'm going in smooth.

I have done this race 3 times, and each time I have been getting slower. I think it's about time I got a PR, so I want to beat 1:53. I'd really like 1:45-1:50. However, just so I can get my excuses lined up ahead of time, there is a potential problem; I have a slight injury.

For the past month or so, every time I started riding my bike (which is really only about once a week) I felt a pain along the outside of my lower leg. I didn't really think too much about it, but this past Tuesday I pushed a bit harder on the bike with Gerald and Brian (that'll teach me) and I think I did something bad. My theory is that the clip on my pedal got out of alignment a bit so I was pedaling with a slightly twisted leg. For two days afterwards, I could feel a constant ... not really "pain", but a definite soreness in my leg. I reset my clip today and took the bike out for a short spin. I felt a little bit of soreness, but I'm hoping that was just residual pain from earlier in the week. It certainly didn't feel as bad as every other time I got on the bike.

So there's my excuse. Well, that and the fact that I've gained 8 pounds since Ironman.