Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Triathlon - Olympic Distance - TriathlonOlympic

We were held at the start line about 5 extra minutes to let the field spread out a bit. The surf was pretty mellow but some good size, well timed sets did cause some havoc. I was lined up in the center of the front row. I took off at the horn and hit the water first. First job was to get passed the sand bar. What I do is stand for as long as I can without losing time to the other swimmers. Usually of the front guys, someone will start swimming early. As long as I'm not going slower than the guys swimming, I stand, because I know they are going to have to stand once the sand bar comes....and they did. Hit the sand bar and then ducked under a couple waves. Bad news, goggles leaked real bad under the first wave, good news, it was still shallow enough to stand and fix them. I did lose a few seconds of time here though. Goggles weren't great and leaked again but not so bad that I couldn't deal with it. It did make sighting tough though.

Settled into a good pace with three other guys. I thought we were in the lead as I couldn't see any blue caps ahead of us, so I was content to settle into their pace, which was still pretty quick, but definitely an energy saving pace for me. I decided about 500 yards in that when we made the first turn, I would surge ahead and try and drop them. We made the turn and I made the surge and put about 10 yards on them fairly quickly. My plan worked perfect, until we hit traffic. We hit some orange caps that I had a tough time getting through and this let two of the guys catch back up to me. Oh well, with about 500 yards to go, I was content to just swim it out. Turned for shore and really tried to look behind me to try and catch a wave in. One came and I was in perfect position. I took off on it and as soon as it broke, WHAM! I slammed into an orange cap and it knocked me off the wave! Shoot! I just put my head down and swam for shore at that point.

As I was just about to stand up, I got a MASSIVE cramp in my calf. I wasn't worried though because I have gotten cramps just like this before while surfing. I know that they are temporary and go away...and it did. It actually hit me twice, but subsided both times and I was able to run for the shoreline without a problem.

Ok swim. I guess I could push harder. Again, still new at this and don't want to blow my race trying to kill the swim. I was in good position after the swim and that's what counts. Experience is going to be key in trying to get my swim time down.

Perfect...fastest T1 by :09 in AG.

This was a bit of a different transition as I had to pack my wetsuit into my bag before I left so that it could be returned to me after the race. Point to point race remember. I practiced putting my wetsuit into my bag the night before. I also cut the calves to make it easier to remove.

Everything went great. I stepped out of my wetsuit and put my helmet and glasses on at the same time. Rolled up my suit and stuffed it in and zipped up the bag and I was gone.

Nothing

Took off on the bike and did my normal flying mount. That went great. I peddled up to speed and then reached down to put my shoes on. On the first shoe, my hand slipped off the handle bar and I almost ATE SHIT. If I didn't save that it would have been bad. Got up to speed and got going.

I immediately passed someone from my age group. I knew I had to be fairly close to the front. I got hooked up at first with a guy that looked like he was in the relay from the wave in front of us. He was wearing cycling socks and what not. The weird thing about this course was how wide it was. Like 4 lanes wide, so there was people everywhere. You could pass on the right and be 30 feet from the person on your left. All I kept thinking was, Am I blocking? Because there were people everywhere. I realized early that it was just going to be impossible to try and stay right and not right side by side to some extent.

At about 15 minutes into the ride, I was caught by someone in my AG. He passed me but didn't pull away. Then we were joined by another 35-39'er. It was the three of us going back and forth all the way to downtown LA ( about 14 miles of the course) These guys were slightly better than me on the uphills and I was better on the down hills and turns. This was a very rolling course, so we went back and forth. We didn't see anyone from our AG, so we thought we might be in the lead and rode according. Turned out there were two guys ahead of us that were kind of gone.

At the first turn around, I decided to put the hammer down a little and see if they were gonna come with me. If they had, I would have eased off. If not, I would try for as big a lead going into the run as I could get. I put it down and took off. This section of the first loop was mostly downhill so I was really flying. At the final turn around, about 5 miles down the road, I could see where they were. I had put a pretty good lead into them. So I decided to keep it down and try and have a descent lead into the run.

With about 2 miles to go, I was caught by a different guy in my age group. I thought, ok, this guy came from way back so I'll just let him go, he must be flying. Well he wasn't really and I was able to stay in contact with him into T2.

Maybe not push so hard. BUT, I need to find those limits. I can't race comfortable all the time and not know what I can and more importantly can not handle.

Perfect...No problems...2nd fastest trans in AG

I came into T2 a few seconds behind the guy that passed me on the bike. But we left together. I seriously thought we were in the lead and so did the other guy.

I said "Good Job Man" and he said, "Let's go crush this field!" So we took off together.

Nothing

Well, this is when I realized that my bike was going to make this 10K tough.

We took off together and ran side by side for about a half mile. Good strong pace but I thought I could hold it. You never know if the guy is just going to take off or what. After about a half mile, he started to just barely creep away. I thought, ok, just keep him in sight. After the first mile, my watch beeped and I looked down to a 7:09...oh shit! Are you serious? I knew right then and there that my bike was too hard. 7:09 for the first mile of a 10k is about 30 seconds slow for me.

After that, I hit the hill for the first time. This thing was a killer. I remembered the advice of Andrew Haberkorn from the day before (A really fast pro I've been recently talking to) who told me, relax on the uphill and crush the downhill. So I just slowed down and cruised up it. But, good news was I was passing people left and right and was actually catching the guy I left T2 with. We crested the hill and he pulled a small gap. I was tired but doing ok.

Just before the downhill, I was passed by one of the cyclist I was riding with. He was running a pretty good clip. We headed down the hill and I stayed with him until the road flattened out and he started to pull away. He was able to catch and pass the runner in front of me too.

I was taking in water at every aid station. I don't like to take in Gatorade if I can help it. It sometimes gives me side stitches. Mile 2 was like a 7:47 or something, and that was ok as the hill was just brutal. Mile 3 was a 6:28 with the downhill.

I came in to the turn around and prepared mentally to do it all again. I pushed through it and was passed by another two AG'ers. Best case scenario was I was in 5th. I was pretty sure I was top 10 as a worst case. Finished the last quarter mile strong.

Obviously I would have lightened up on the bike. Having said that, my 10k wasn't as bad as I thought. I just saw 47 something and thought, OMG, I should be 5 minutes faster than that. But, after looking at the results, the best 10K run in my division was a 41...that's slow. Usually there are a few guys sub 40. Most of the guys I was running with ended up with 44's. The winner ran a 45! So, comparatively, It was not AS bad as I thought. Still could have been better, but certainly not disastrous.

Walked slowly through the finishing lane and met Ashley. I retrieved my T1 bag, headed back to T2, got my bike and went back to the car. We loaded up and headed back to the expo to see how I did.


Couple things.

1. I think I trained a bit too hard in the week leading up to the race. I did some very fast rides and a pretty tough track workout. I was pretty sore 48 hours before the race. I felt pretty good on race day, but I like to be feeling good the day before as well. That my have added some fatigue in the run.

2. I wasn't happy with my nutrition the day before the race. I ate too much. I had a LONG time before breakfast and my wave. When that is the case, I like to eat light the day before and have a good size breakfast. I did the opposite. I ate a ton the day before and was forced to eat a light breakfast...I felt like I was a tad low on energy during the race.


All in all, I had a very good race. It was really something to be up there battling during the bike. As a fairly good swimmer, all I've known to this point was getting passed on the bike. This time, I was able to hold my own. For the first time in my 6 month tri career, I was ranked higher in the bike than the swim.

I'm really going to work hard on my run during the off season. I know run times are related to bike fitness and all that, but I want to get my run inline with my swim and bike times.

I'm doing Hermosa Beach "Day at The Beach" Tri next weekend just for fun. Just going to use it as a good workout and have a good time. Then take a break for a little bit!