Well, I completed my third triathlon (all sprint) this past weekend.  It is the Cedars of Lebanon Triathlon (I did this same one last year as well).  As you can see from chart below, I really improved my time on the bike.  However, I know I would have been faster in both the swim & run portions, had I not been battling bruised/cracked ribs.  The pain slowed me down a bit in the swim, but it really slowed me down on the run as I couldn’t get a good deep breath.  My legs felt great & strong, but I had to slow up a few times in order to get my breath.  If it weren’t for my injury, I think I could have done about 7 minutes on the swim and around 27 minutes on the run.  My injury didn’t really affect me on the bike part though.

My goal next year for this race is to get a podium finish in the Clydesdale division.  If I can shave 1 minute off in my swim time, 10 minutes off in my bike time, 2 minutes off of my run time and 1 minute total in the transitions would put be at 1:23:59, which should be able to get my podium finish (based on the times from last two years). 

One thing I've noticed about the podium finishers at any somewhat large triathlon is that although they may be 200+ pounds, they are 6' plus, ripped monsters with little or no body fat on them and should really be competting in the AG instead of against (what I call) real clydedales.

I agree!!!  The guys that I saw up there on the podium (with maybe one exception) barely looked over 200lbs.  I am 6'1" and currently weight about 225 lbs (and i am not ripped...and most of the fat is in my belly.  I'd say my body fat % is around the 25% to 27%).  My goal is to get down to around 210 while losing my gut (I know it's hard to just lose it in my belly...but I am going to try).