I did this race last year, which was my 2nd triathlon. I really enjoyed it, and it was a great venue to bring your family to, so I decided to do it again this year. I did the sprint last time, but today I moved up to the 'intermediate' distance, which is 1500 yard swim, 22 mile bike, 6 mile run. Just shy of an actual olympic distance.
Pre-Race
Just like last year, I stayed at the Bayfront Hilton, which is a very short walk to the Swim Start/Transition/Finish area. This event has designated rack spots for each athlete, so no need to get to T1 right when it opens to get a good spot. I tried to sleep in until 5am (the race start is 6:30) but I was wide awake at 4:40am so I got up. My 'pre-race' fuel ritual only consisted of a cup of coffee, and I sipped on water for a bit. No solid food. I figure for olympic distance or less, that should be fine. I grabbed my bike and transition bag, and headed to the transition area. Setup was a breeze. The people racking around me understood how to alternate which bikes face which direction, so we had plenty of space. I walked the transition area to make sure I knew where my rack was with respect to the swim exit and bike exit. It was still pretty dark, so I had a tough time deciding which goggles I wanted to wear. The sky looked clear, so I figured the rising sun would be in our faces on the return portions of the swim, so I decided to go with my Roka X1's in mirrored amber color. I noticed it was warm, and quite humid, and the water was reported to be 74 degrees. Despite the warm conditions, I chose to use my wetsuit anyway. I grabbed my swim gear, dropped my gear bag off at check-in, and found a comfy place to sit down, stretch, and wait for my wave.
Swim: (1.1 miles - 33 minutes)
They do time trial starts at this race, since we enter the water from a metal stairway (no beach). I was the 5th wave. So I didn't hit the water until about 15 minutes after the first wave started. Right away, I started catching people. By 300 yards I was already catching people from earlier waves. However, my goggles fogged badly (we don't have access to the water until we jump in to start racing) so I had to pause for about 4 seconds to get them cleaned up. After that, no issues. The mirrored amber color was perfect for the light conditions. The course had buoys every 100 yards, so it was super easy to navigate. I was hanging with my age group wave pretty well, with the occasional fast guy passing me, and we could see that we were catching lots of people from earlier waves judging by the different colored swim caps we were passing. I felt strong, and very fluid with my stroke. Once we were closer to the turnaround point, a rather large ship passed pretty close, and sent some huge wake towards us. It reminded me of the first time I swam at Zuma. It also caused some really strong current for about 5 minutes, which was a new experience for me. I finally passed the last buoy heading back to the stairway to exit. I was shocked to look at my time and see 33 minutes. On a good day, I can swim a HIM swim that fast. As it turns out, the course was way long. 1.1 miles, instead of 1500 yards. To put that into perspective, 1500 yards is about 0.85 miles. So, we swam about an extra 440 yards. Taking into account the section where we hit current, my swim wasn't so bad after all. I was happy with it, and started the long run to T1.
T1: (3 minutes 55 seconds)
The run from the swim exit to the bike racks is a bit far. I remember last year logging over 1/2 mile of extra running between T1 and T2. So that's where most of the time goes. I did OK (not great) getting my wetsuit off, and I was off with my bike very quickly. I chose to do the flying mount, since the bike exit is perfectly flat. It worked perfectly this time.
Bike: (22 miles - 58:35)
The course is two laps, and is flat, except for a bridge overpass that you climb both sides of twice, and another kind of short hill that you hit twice. I settled into a pretty fast pace right away, and immediately started catching droves of people. One big problem with this course is that the pavement on Harbor Dr in San Diego just plain sucks. There is a long straight stretch of this road that looks like somebody threw hand grenades on it. Last year, I was on a road bike with carbon tubular wheels, and I remember the road being bad, but not this bad. Also, there are a huge number of very narrow 90 degree turns (25 of them, in fact). And it seemed like every time I approached a tight corner, there was a group of people who's bike handling skills were, let's just say, not stellar. I definitely wasted a lot of speed in these bottleneck situations, having to get out of aero position (and often having to brake hard) to safely navigate around the slower riders, not to mention the disruption to my power output. Still, I was happy to see that I finished the first lap in under 30 minutes. Last year, I think I did one lap for the sprint race in 32 or 33 minutes, so I am definitely way faster now. The second lap was about the same as the first, except I managed to go just a bit faster. I ended up averaging about 22.53 mph, which on that winding course with terrible road surface and crazy turns, I think is pretty good. And here is a bonus: check out this pic that was taken and posted on the Triathlete Magazine website:
That's me approaching the end of the bike course (I am reaching down to unstrap my shoes in prep for dismount). That woman behind me is in the sprint race, and as you can see, was drafting off of me. I actually yelled at at least 8 people to tell them to quit drafting off of me.
To see the photo spread on Triathlete Magazine for this race, go to HERE My picture is number 12 in the list.
T2: 2 minutes 15 seconds
My bike dismount went perfectly, and I had a medium length run back to my rack, but not too bad. I took the time to put socks on for the run, so that added a few seconds. I felt pretty smooth and relaxed. I don't feel like I wasted too much time.
Run: (6.3 miles - 1:03)
Ok, so my swim was decent, bike was good. But my run totally sucked. I felt okay for about two miles, running just under 8 minute miles. After that, my right hip started acting up, forcing me to walk. I had an injury to the labrum of my left hip earlier this year, and now I have another injury (doesn't feel like the same thing) to my right hip. I've just never managed to get things going with my run training, and I am pretty bummed about it. Anyway, I managed to jog/walk the rest of the way, but my time was so slow I am embarrassed to even type it up there. After scouring the results for my AG, I could see that I was in 5th place starting the run, and wound up finishing 19th in AG. I'm not too happy with the overall result, but glad I at least stuck it out and finished.
Total Time: 2 hours, 42 minutes (19th AG)
Like I said above, I'm not happy with that overall time. I was looking at maybe a sub-2:30 if I could have held my running pace. But oh well. I think it is time to step back, not worry about racing for a bit, and get my running on track. The swim and bike are obviously clicking for me though.
Lessons Learned:
Not much to report on this one, aside from being injured, everything went pretty well. One repeat problem is that after the swim, my Garmin HR monitor didn't work on the bike and run. This is the second time in two races this has happened. The strap (and transmitter) seem to work fine. I can use them for cycling or running. But all of a sudden, if I wear them under my wetsuit for a swim, they do not get picked up by either my Garmin Edge 500, or my Garmin 910XT.
Also, I wore my Orca 226 two-piece in the race. It definitely works better for me than my Champion Systems gear. I am bummed not to be wearing PTC kit when I get my pic on Triathlete Mag's website though!
if your telling people not to draft you youre too slow and wasting time looking back.just do your own honest race.you might want to look at usat rules to see the time and distance a person can be in the draft zone.also ,a light breakfast might have made that run more comfortable.i always have a cup of unsweetend apple sauce 15 minutes before start time.yours antone.
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking the time to read my report. I don't think being too slow was the problem. Only a handful of people had a bike split much faster than mine. I can tell if someone is drafting without having to swing my head around and look. In all cases, it was someone latching onto me as I completed a pass. That's against USAT rules. As far as race fueling goes, my run issue had nothing to do with energy levels. I was forced to slow down and walk due to an injury I've been dealing with to my right hip. For a race of this distance, I find that all I need for fuel is a bit of energy drink on the bike. I sipped Infinit Speed in this case. Worked great.
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