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 Swim
Comments: Lake swims rule! I train in the ocean and am accustomed to swallowing saltwater by the gallon. Its always such a pleasant surprise to inhale a half a ton of water and find it to be fresh and tasty. mmmmm. I am getting much more comfortable with mass starts. The trick for me is to be aggressive. It seems to help define your space. This was no exception. There were not a lot of people in my wave but the atarting area was comparatively narrow so it took a little longer to find my own space in the water. This was ok as I have been practicing an active recovery pace for this reason every time I train. Several times I found myself off course and needing to stop and look around and correct. I don't think it cost much time as I wasn't horribly off course at any point. The same agressive strategy worked well when cornering the far buoy. Just start swimming like you mean it and everyone else sort of gives you room. I don't kick because I still harbor feelings of guilt for the guy I kicked so hard in Catalina, but just asserting my space. Works well. I had a hand cramp just after rounding the far buoy which made me feel as if I wasn't getting a good catch with my right hand. Very odd. I probably was, but it still felt awkward. The rest of the swim unremarkably, boring, pleasant, beautiful lake swim. What would you do differently?: I need to train for speed. I do not currently train for anything other than endurance and it definitely shows in my time. I'm lucky to maintain a 2 min/100 pace.  Transition 1
Comments: Hard to say. It felt average, not slow, not fast. We'll never know. No transition split recorded by the timing company. Its all part of your swim split. What would you do differently?: I took off my swim cap and goggles before stripping the top half of my suit. Then, in haste, i tried to pull the sleeve off over my fist as I clenched my goggles and swim cap. This is a bad sequence. Practive doing this the other way. I always attempt to strip the bottom half of my suit standing up and always end up sitting down and losing time. I should know this about myself by now and just give up and sit down. It would be faster to just sit down in the first place. Beyond that, clipping cletes in and fastening them on the fly would save time, training and racing with no socks would also help.  Bike
Comments: I went at the bike pretty hard as I usually do. There were a few guys that I sort of traded punches with the whole time. This made for some healthy pacing. As usual, there were the speed demons with the $6,000 tri bikes passing me as if I were pedaling backwards, but for the most part, I am more competitive in the bike. I have been practicing hills quite a bit this year so i am relatively comfortable decending hills as well. There were a few 40 - 45 mph descents achieveable on this course if you did a good job of sprinting over the crest of the hill. The rough road was a bit of a problem though. At one point I wasn't paying close enough attention and hit a pothole at about 40 mph. I heard parts flying off my bike or so I thought. I immediately hit the brakes to make sure that whatever portion of my componentry that was laying by the roadside was not critical. Aparrently not. Come to find out later that three packets of gel flew out of my Bento Box, jarred loose by the pothole. On one of the climbs there was a truck who had managed to elude the traffic control and find his way onto the course. He followed behind some of the cyclists for a few seconds before laying on his horn. Several of the other riders around me joined me in honoring that a$$hole with the single finger salute. Really, now, there were cones and signs EVERYWHERE. I wonder what sort of an imbecile would do this? Everything felt pretty good on the bike. I would LOVE to get my hands on a Cervelo P3 or Kestrel or a QR or any tri-specific bike. They just look so cool. What would you do differently?: Get a tri bike. I need this. Transition 2
Comments: It seemed fast. Again, we'll neverever know. No split time for T2 either. Seems like there should be. What would you do differently?: Train with no socks.  Run
Comments: I suck at running. I just start out at a really meager pace and stick with it. My goal for this race was to complete it without having to walk. In this sense I achieved my goal this time. The run course was not very clearly marked at time and I saw a few people who had made wrong turns. I was practicing my normal strategy of following the ass of the opther lemming. When (finally) approaching the finish chute, i had a little bit in the tank so I sprinted in, crossing the finish line completely spent. At under 9:00 min mile pace, this is actually lightning quick for me. Damn I need work. What would you do differently?: Train harder on the run. This remains both my limiter and the least enjoyable of the three sports for me. Post race
Warm down: Ran through the finish chute, looked around for Katsfood, told him "Let's get outta here..." Packed up from transition and got out of there quickly. T3, I call this. A pretty good and efficient T3. What limited your ability to perform faster: This is my 2nd Olympic distance and a lower priority race for me. I am pretty happy with the outcome. I could certainly train for speed in swimming and I MUST focus more on my run training if I am ever to achieve anything other than a back-of-pack finish. Event comments: This was a fairly well organized race with a few goofy points about it. No body markings, no T1 splits, some shortcomings on the run curse marking, no pre-raceday packet pick up... all these together made it feel like a B race. Then again, my last race being Wildflower which was supremely well organized and administered in contrast. In fairness to the race director, those are really the only things that I could pick on, and why bother picking? Its a great race venue. The lake swim was fantastic. This was a nice local race with a good frequency (four or so per year) Despite the three goofy strikes against it, i'll be back to this one. Last updated: 2007-03-27 12:00 AM
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United States
Tri Events
70F / 21C
Overcast
Overall Rank = 132/210
Age Group = 35 - 39
Age Group Rank = 27/36
After the traditional pre-race night of no sleep, we met at my house at 5:00am to drive the somewhat short distance to San Dimas. Travelled to race with fellow BT'er and co-worker, friend Katsfood. I was a little nervous about the logistics of the morning as this race didn't offer a package pickup and check-in the day prior. My typical prerace routine is a well balanced breakfast consisting of oatmeal, coffee and apprehension.
The site of the race at Bonelli Park is pleasant. It looks as if will make a really nice race venue. As this is the 25 year anniersary of this series, I assume that the course will be pretty well laid out and marked.
Katsfood and I pick up our packets and swag bags and head out to transition. The transition area is clean enough and well organized, the usual chatter with the neighbors, as always, is very congenial. At this point, Daniel, (Katsfood) and I remove our sweatshirts to find out that we are inadvertantly and unknowingly wearing the exact same jersey. How ridiculous. "Did you see what that bitch is wearing...." If I find out he's wearing the same shoes as me, i'm going home. The (spectacularly in shape looking) woman who racked next to us is laughing at us. I feel kinda silly.
Time for bodymarking.... what bodymarking? There's no bodymarking. Damn. I LIKE bodymarkings. I like to watch them fade over the course of the next several days. I like to avoid scrubbing them off all week after a race. No bodymarkings at this race. I feel somewhat shortchanged. Goofy (1)
A few minutes swimming around in the lake. The more I swim in the ocean, the more I appreciate and love lake swims. In a spectacularly schmatlzy display of karmic a$$ kissing, I swam out to the volunteers on the kayaks and surfboards said good morning and thanked them for helping out, knowing that the gods of triathlon would look more favorably on me if I do this.