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 Swim
Comments: Best swim ever. I'm comfortable in the water, but have generally struggled with trying to go faster and not burn myself out. Previous attempts have just gotten slower and more burned out. Got the Total Immersion book from the library a couple of weeks, read it and tried a few drills in training, and I'm convinced--swimming technique is king. In the past, I've been off the back of the swim pack pretty quickly, but today I was pretty much with the group the whole way, passed some people in my wave & more than a couple from the wave ahead, and didn't get passed by too many from the wave behind (which was relays, so you'd expect them to have some pretty speedy swimmers). I found that when I really focused on form, I got visibly faster than people next to me (but I'm not quite up to focusing on form the whole way yet). Another tip I read somewhere that worked for me today--as long as you're in a group of people, don't bother sighting, just f'ing swim. Take a peek at the buoys now & then to make sure you're not in some splinter group heading out to sea, but otherwise it works a lot better not to disrupt your stroke every 5 or 10 strokes to look around. In addition to being faster than previous swims, I was in a lot better shape when I got out of the water--which is good with that long-azz run up the beach. What would you do differently?: Go through TI drills through the winter & work on technique for next season.  Transition 1
Comments: The timing mats for swim out were right at the water's edge this year, so I assume this transition time includes a couple hundred yards of beach run. I did jog pretty much the whole way and thought that I was reasonably efficient in transition, but this is still pretty slow. What would you do differently?: Keep working on it.  Bike
Comments: Felt pretty strong on the bike. Passed quite a few people, and most of the people passing me were the carbon/aero/disk wheel crowd, who are pretty much going to own my left anyway. Had Gatorade cut 50% with water in my bottle and had some of that on the second loop. What would you do differently?: Probably could have climbed harder over the bridge, I pretty much shifted down and spun. Had better shift points on the second lap, I probably should have thought more about this when driving the course on Saturday. Transition 2
Comments: Still room for improvement here also.  Run
Comments: Didn't have the "dead legs" getting off the bike--that was really hard in my first race last year but hasn't bothered me much this year. Cramping in both calves at the beginning, but I just kept a smooth stride, backed off a bit on the first little loop down toward the swim start, and ran out of them by the time I went back by the transition area. Rest of the run went pretty well--not as fast as I'd like to be, but felt good the whole distance and finished pretty strong. I've had a few problems with sore tendon in my left knee, but didn't really crop up today. What would you do differently?: More speed work. Right now I can go for longer distances at this pace, but it's hard to pick up the pace significantly at shorter distances. Post race
Warm down: Walked around a bit, looked for a few friends/acquaintences but didn't spot them. Had some water & banana, won a beach towel from Arrowhead. What limited your ability to perform faster: I feel like I worked a pretty good training program for the last 13 weeks, and really did get good results from it. Just a question of going harder/faster in training so I can go harder/faster while racing. Plus a lot of potential gains in swim technique. Event comments: LB was my first race in 2006 and I ran 1:40 then, so I knocked 5 min off of last year's time. I feel pretty good about that, and will definitely be back to my "index race" next year. Last updated: 2007-09-23 12:00 AM
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United States
Pacific Sports LLC
Overall Rank = 608/841
Age Group = M 45-49
Age Group Rank = 48/55
Up at 4:45. Had a banana & some water at home, Clif bar & coffee in the car.
Got to the transition area by 5:45 or so. Got my bike racked, transition area set up, got body-marked.
As at most events, the lines for the porta-johns were pretty long. I don't really like porta-johns in general, and hate standing in long lines for them while I'm trying to focus on the race, but here's a tip--if you check around a bit, it seems like many race venues have public toilets somewhere near the transition area that nobody takes the trouble to find & use. I went a couple hundred yards down the bike path (run course) to the public toilets next to Shoreline Yacht Club, and voila--one stall, no waiting! (and plenty of TP).
There were rumors about cancelling the swim due to potential water quality problems from yesterday's rain, but they announced they'd consulted with the authorities and had decided to go ahead.
Jogged the 200 yards or so back from the toilet, and then another short jog down toward the swim start area. Went back to transition & got my swim gear (no wetsuit, just a neoprene shirt, cap & goggles) & packed up my sweats & sandals. Did a very short swim to acclimate. Water was full of crap from the recent rain, but I didn't think it was that awfully cold.