login
 Swim
Comments: If you are an experienced swimmer, my time (37:04) probably doesn't look too impressive. But for me, this was a break-through swim. In my only previous Oly-distance tri swim in June (Silicon Valley Int'nl), I came in at 40:46. So I chopped nearly four minutes off my PR -- in the kelp. So I was happy about that. This time around, I made a concerted effort to stay calm during the chaos of the first 200 meters. I didn't worry too much about getting run over, punched, or kicked. Instead, I just focused on keeping my stroke and breathing easy. And it worked. I held everything together, and still felt fresh by the first buoy. Whew. I didn't exactly burn it up the rest of the swim, but I managed to hit my goal time, almost spot on. So if you're a novice swimmer like me, there's hope! Just keep working at it. My next goal is to get under 35 minutes... What would you do differently?: I alternated between a two-stroke and three-stroke bi-lateral breathing pattern. I would have preferred to keep a consistent three-stroke pattern going. But it was tough to navigate the course and the kelp and avoid running into people. It's really hard to simulate those conditions during practice. So I guess some of that just comes with race experience...  Transition 1
Comments: At first glance, T1 seemed to go okay. My wetsuit slipped off easy and I quickly grabbed my bike and ran out of the transition area. I had pre-mounted my shoes to the pedals, and slipped into them easily at the start. No apparent problems yet, until.... What would you do differently?: See below.  Bike
Comments: Okay, so my start seemed to go well. I hopped onto my bike and quickly slipped my feet into my shoes. I then stood up and started mashing to get up some speed. So far, so good. But then I noticed something was amiss. My front tire was violently wobbling and making a horrible rubbing noise. I looked down and saw that the quick release lever was wide open. Yikes. So I pulled over to the side of the road and closed it up. Disaster averted. Whew. I have no idea how that happened. But I'm guessing that a fellow competitor somehow got their bike caught up in my front tire during T1. I think that little episode cost me 30-40 seconds or so. But it could have been much worse. Fortunately, there were no further incidents the rest of the way. I was going a little slower than I expected, and I checked several times to see if my brakes were rubbing. But no such luck. I just had to grind it out. Halfway through the second lap, John Murphy, the eventual winner in my 45-49 year-old age group, whizzed by me like I was standing still. He was already a full lap ahead of me and finished with a ridiculous 1:00:56 bike split. Wow. I think Jason Campbell, the 50-54 division winner, was right on his tail. Those guys are amazing... What would you do differently?: For the rest of my life, the first thing I'll do before hopping on my bike is to check my quick release levers. Transition 2
Comments: Nothing unusual to report, which is a good thing. I played it conservative and sat on my butt as I put on my shoes. I also grabbed my Garmin Forerunner for pacing on my run. What would you do differently?: I should have better secured my laces to my shoes. I use lock laces and velcro to keep the laces from flopping around. But apparently, the "vel" and the "cro" didn't match up, and I had to stop at about the 1/4 mile mark to secure one of my laces. Ugh.  Run
Comments: I started out at a sub-8-minute-mile pace and held it for the first two laps. But I was bonking by the turnaround point of the last lap. The photographer sitting at the turnaround did not need a very fast shutter speed setting to catch me in action. I really wanted to get closer to 50 minutes in the run, but I just did not have it in me. Still, it was a better run than I've had in a triathlon for a while. What would you do differently?: I should have used one of the Gels in my racing belt or at least grabbed a couple alongside the course. I don't know why I didn't. I just didn't want to bother. Now I know better. Post race
Warm down: Walked around the Expo area in a daze for a couple of minutes. Drank some Gatorade, then stretched. What limited your ability to perform faster: Fitness, experience. Event comments: The Men's 45-49 division is a black hole! ;-) Seriously, there are some really fast dudes in my age group. Being that I'm 49, I'm really looking forward to moving up another division next year. Heck, if I was a few years YOUNGER, I would have placed in the top 10 of the Men's 40-44 division. Go figure... But enough whining. I'm really glad I decided to do this race. It was a lot of fun. I can see why it's so popular. I'll be back... next year. Last updated: 2011-08-01 12:00 AM
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
View profile
Add to friends
Go to training log
Go to race log
Send a message
View album
CONNECT WITH FACEBOOK
United States
Tri-California Events
64F / 18C
Overcast
Overall Rank = 152/597
Age Group = 45-49
Age Group Rank = 16/39
I still haven't figured out my pre-race routine yet. Getting a good night's sleep before a race is a big issue for me. This time around, I managed to get about 6-7 hours of sleep total. But I was waking up every 45 minutes or so, and having problems falling asleep again. I guess I need to ask somebody to club me over the head or something... :-/
I finally got out of bed for good at about 4:15AM and ate breakfast. It took me about an hour to drive to Pacific Grove. No problem finding a parking spot on Pacific Ave.
I got my transition area set up pretty quickly. But I had problems getting my race number to stick on my helmet. Does anybody else have this issue? Maybe it's the moisture from the fog...
Jogged and stretched for about 20 minutes.