Breath of Life Ventura Triathlon - Olympic Course - TriathlonOlympic

Nice little swim. Told myself to just keep it smooth, and did. There was a pretty decent southwards current, and I managed to get off course a bit, but not terrible. Quickly found space and just kept swimming. Could have gone much further at same pace. I guess I can continue to sort of cruise on this event. The bike and run are still holding me back comparatively.

Maybe sight a bit better. Otherwise, nada.

Transition was pretty smooth. There was a long run up across the beach, and I was happy to have my water bottle to rinse the feet. Had the extra step of checking the cell phone- my wife is 9 months pregnant and I was "on call." Some dude blocked my bike with his stuff, but besides that it was pretty smooth.

Nothing really. Just need practice. I wish they would have had splits for T1 and T2. I think they were all lumped into the bike split.

Biking is still my limiter, despite some emphasis in training. When it comes down to it, it's a lack of muscles strength. Sure, I got tired with time, but I just don't have the power I need. Other than that, I was happy with the effort, if not necessarily the results. I still get worked on this, and passing folks is the exception.

I need focused, hard training here. No more going through the motions and getting miles in.

I also don't need the second water bottle. I never get through even one at this distance. The one GU was just right.

Pretty seamless. Fumbled getting one my shoes on. Also, had to check the cell phone again. Actually did it will jogging onto the beginning of the course and almost went the wrong way doing so. Wouldn't notice it until later, but I missed my pocket and dropped my phone on the strand.

Not much. Pretty happy with this, aside from the cell phone thing.

So, where do I start?

I was really disappointed with both the result and my effort level here. I think I could have done a couple minutes better had the following strangeness not occurred:

1. As I mentioned, I dropped my phone at the get go (I got it back, thankfully at the end!). I noticed it a couple minutes later, and predictably stressed out about it. I didn't care about the phone, but was pretty sure that Murphy's law would apply, and my wife would call me frantically in labor on the way to the hospital. Rational? No. But very me. Result? I took the pace out way too fast trying to "hurry." Rational? Same answers.

2. My nose stopped working. Yes, it stopped working. Maybe I'm unique or need some medical intervention here, but my nose generally works one nostril at a time. For reasons I don't understand, my body decides to "switch" nostrils every few hours. It did so just after the first half mile. And it went from a clear nostril, to a completely blocked one. Result? Almost completely unable to breath through my nose. Total distraction and a meaningful impact on my performance. Just can't mouth breath comfortably.

That, combined with my irrationally fast pace amounted to a very quick first lap, and a near collapse on lap two. Oh, and speaking of lap two, I was so bent out of shape, I didn't push as hard as I should. I was medium gassed from the bike, but no excuses for my lapses, and too frequent 20 second walk breaks.

Not race with a wife's due date in a week. Get a better nose. Stop being such a nancy. The list goes on.

Just wondered around and grabbed some pizza, a Pom juice and a long awaited beer.


My training has been too "minutes oriented" the last couple months. I've been taking it for granted that if I put in the time, I'd improve. We'll, not that much. Better than the Toyota Desert tri, if only because I got the same time with slightly more distance, but I really wanted to shave another 5 minutes off and didn't. More intensity, please.


Great race. Good organization, lots of folks, good food, yummy beer (though longish lines). Would definitely do again.