Santa Barbara Tri – Long Course

Posted on August 28, 2010 by drexel13

With a 50K looming and only about a week of real training left for it, I couldn’t justify an all-out effort this year for the SB long course. In short, I just plain can’t take time off for recovery – or worse, injury. I needed to be able to do a three hour training run the next day, so I decided to try to keep a pace that was right at the upper edge of feeling good.
The ocean had been unseasonably cold, so I wore my long sleeve suit. As expected, the swim was cold – really cold. Supposedly, it was 58 degrees, but I don’t think it was more than 54. The first half, besides being cold, wasn’t too bad though. There were a few collisions with other swimmers and a couple times when I was literally swam over by another guy, but definitely not the most aggressive group I’ve been in. Things took a turn for the worse after the turn-around. The ocean was super choppy, making swimming, sighting and breathing all really difficult. Strangely though, I felt like I was struggling less than the others around me and managed to pass a lot of people in the water.
Once out of the water, I saw that I had a 34 min swim split. This was about the longest acceptable time I had set as a goal, but given the frigid conditions and choppiness, I didn’t feel bad about that. T1 was smooth and I was racked up near the bike out, so that helped keep it under two minutes.
Right away, the bike ride just didn’t feel good, even going easy-ish. After about 4 miles some guy said “55? you must have had an amazing swim!” After a second of consideration, I responded, “no, 35, terrible swim.” As it turns out the body marker put 55 for my age on my leg instead of 35. I didn’t even notice until after I got out of the shower after the race. Then, that guy’s comment made a lot more sense. The middle part of the ride was pretty fun with some good climbs and fast descents. I did have the unfortunate experience of getting hit with two snot-rockets from a couple bikers who passed me going down Gobenador Canyon. I was going about 35 mph and each of them got about 5 bike lengths out in front and then let a loose with a farmer-blow. At 20 mph, I would have been in the clear, but at 35, I got it right in the face. They should have (a) gotten farther ahead first and (b) blown to the left side. I was going way too fast to dry to dodge the mucus, but I did have the presence of mind to close my mouth, which was fortunate since I got hit directly in the philtrum.
After about 25 miles of biking I started getting bad low back pain. This was rather unexpected as I bike 40-60 miles with hills every Saturday, so this should have practically been easy. It got so bad in the last few miles I just wanted to stop. Fortunately once I got off the bike and into transition, the pain let up significantly.
T2 was also quick, again partly due to proximity of the run out.
The run actually felt good, and immediately so, but I had to pee real bad. Usually, I’d tough it out and hold it, but it really was taking away from the enjoyment of the run, so when I saw a public restroom ahead of me, I got my skinsuit unzipped and the top pulled down around my waist so I could run into the bathroom and get down to business ASAP. I had probably the worst “stage fright” ever and it took about 90 seconds for complete relief, but it was worth it. After that, I was able to step the pace up continuously and still managed to run the 10 miles in under 70 minutes.
Relative to the last two years, my time was 7 – 9 minutes slower, but for an 80% effort, I think I did pretty well. Somehow, I actually placed slightly better in my AG versus last two years. I thought the M35_39 age group was supposed to be tougher…

Place: 134/720 overall, 118/494 Men, 18/76 men 35-39
Total: 3:35:21, swim 34:39, T1 1:58, bike 1:47:59, T2 1:10, run 1:09:35

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Oxnard Triathlon – 2010

Posted on July 18, 2010 by drexel13

Last year, I had a terrible swim at this race and pretty much gave up, dogging the bike and run. In the end, I missed placing 3rd in AG by less than a minute. From that moment on, I swore I’d never give up on a race again. So, this year, my goal was to redeem myself by doing this race as hard as I could–even though I was moving up into a larger, more competitive age group and knew there was pretty much no chance of placing. The plan was to get through the swim, which really is the most I can do there, then bike as hard and fast as I could maintain and see what that left me with for the run. If nothing else, it would be a good experiment.
When I showed up on race morning, I was already a little panicked because we didn’t leave early enough (my own fault) and parking was pretty much non existent. My wife, Janice, was nice enough to let me out with all my gear so I could just bike to the event while she found parking. For reasons unbeknownst to me, the race directors moved the transition area north about 50 yards relative to previous years. There were about 100 more people doing the Olympic distance this year, so maybe it was to accommodate the additional participants, but it was pretty crowded nonetheless.
Panic is not a good feeling to have going into a race. I distinctly remember feeling like I wasn’t sure what to do next to get ready for the start, even saying out loud “OK, what am I doing?” After a little bit of dilly-dallying, I got it together enough to get all the preparation done. Body marking, sun screen, heart rate monitor, set up the bike stuff, lay out the run stuff, get the wetsuit on up to the waist, grab ear plugs, goggles and swim cap. As I walked out of transition, I kept thinking I was forgetting something. Then it dawned on me: timing chip! So, I jogged back with panic setting in because if I had the timing chip with me, I would have seen it and put it on. I searched my gear as the officials were trying to chase the last of us stragglers out of the transition area. The timing chip was no where to be found. There was no more time to look or try to figure out where it was, I needed to get a replacement, stat! I asked the nearest volunteer who directed me over to registration where a very nice woman gave me a spare packet (chip and numbers for your gear) and directed me to find the timing person who was supposedly at the swim start, way down the beach. As I began to jog down there, Janice stopped me and pointed out that there was a timing tent right behind me with a guy in it. So I talked to him and he changed the chip information for me then directed me back to body marking to change those numbers. The body marking didn’t work real great since I had put on sunscreen, but the important thing was the timing chip and the bib, bike and helmet numbers which I promptly replaced with the new number. Finally, I was ready to go!

Swim (1500m)
 Well, after all that panicked running around, I ended up with plenty of time to relax since the start was delayed. No one knew why, either. There were just no officials at the Olympic swim start. Mine was the second wave this time and it was a pretty big pack of people, so I hung out towards the back a little for the running start to get into the ocean. Thankfully, this year the buoys were fairly close to shore and were pretty easily spotted. The swim was not ideal. It was very choppy and every time I turned to breathe, not only did I get a wave in the face but the sun blinded me. This was further complicated by foggy goggles. I managed to stay on course mostly by judging the suns position in my field of view so that I would swim in a straight line. Once in a while when I looked forward, I’d manage to see the next buoy and could tell I was still on track. Once we got around the last buoy and turned back in to shore, I couldn’t see the finish for a while, so I just swam towards other swimmers. A pretty big set of waves came though and the life guards were warning people when they were about to get hit with a wave. For once, I was able to actually catch a wave and rode it a good portion of the way in before sliding right over another swimmer, probably kneeing him in the head. What comes around goes around; I’ve been on the receiving end of that a few times before. As I got out of the water, I checked my watch and saw I was just over 33 minutes. Not awesome, but better than last year and no matter what, I wasn’t going to let it influence the rest of the race. From there, it was almost three more minutes, mostly running through loose sand, to get back to transition.

T1
 The first transition was quick. I had no problems getting the wetsuit off or getting the bike gear on and grabbing the Gu for the road.

Bike (35K)
 The bike out chute was a good long trot before reaching the road where you could mount. Once on the bike, I quickly got up above 20 mph even though the wind was blowing in from about the 10 o’clock position relatively speaking. At first, I thought I wouldn’t be able to hammer it on the bike as planned, I was feeling stiff and my glutes were starting to burn. But after about two miles everything started feeling pretty strong. The situation got even better soon after that since we made a right turn so that the wind was more at my back. During this stretch, I was managing closer to 26 mph. Another right turn meant losing a little tail wind, but it was still beneficial, my speed only dropping a couple ticks. Next was a little out and back off to the right, so first it was almost straight on into the wind, but I managed to keep the speed up above 20 except for up the little hill right before the turn around. After turning around I was hitting 27 for that stretch, then back down around 23 or 24 with the wind at about a 4 o’clock position. Another right turn up over a bridge and into the wind meant a bit of slowing down, but it was only for a short period of time. Then the final right turn to complete the first loop and it was time to doing al lover again. I’m happy to say that the second loop I was able to push even harder , since I felt like I still had some more effort in me. I was concerned that I’d be too beat for the run, but there was only way way to know for sure, so I kept pushing. The whole time on the bike, I only ever got net-passed by one guy. I couldn’t see the number on his calf, so I don’t know if he was in my age group or not. I got passed by three others as well, but each time I caught back up to them within a few minute, passed and stayed ahead.
If you don’t count the time it took to trot the bike back into transition (which was probably over a minute) then my average speed on the bike was 22.6 mph. That made me pretty happy. The question remained though: did I have anything left for the run?

T2
The second transition was quick and uneventful as well. I had Gu’d twice on the bike (once at the beginning and once near the end), so I didn’t need to grab anything additional. Just a quick change of shoes, swap the helmet for the hat, grab the race belt and number then go.

Run (10K)
The run course is two loops that are supposedly 3.2 miles each, so it’s a little longer than 10 K. Also “loop” isn’t really the right word to describe it. It’s an out and back with another little out and back offshoot. That’s pretty much the worst kind of run for me. I hate out and backs, especially if you have to do them twice. At least it was a nice view for parts of it. The first loop of run I felt tired. Assuming that the mile markers were correct, I figured I was averaging about a 7 minute mile and that was just the price you pay for pushing hard on the bike. Even so, 5 or 6 minutes gained on the bike is a fair trade for two or three minutes on the run.
Pretty early on, two runners passed me and, unfortunately, they were (A) in my age group and (B) going really fast. One other guy passed me a little later on, but I caught up to him again and stayed ahead after that.
Some of the local residents were offering to spray runners with a hose which was a nice way to help beat the heat. I grabbed electrolyte at the far end and then remembered that it was Heed, probably the most foul tasting sports drink ever created. I hit the turn around a little more than 22 minutes into the run leg. Not awesome, but if I kept it up, a 44 minute 10K (that is longer than 10K) isn’t all that bad. After starting the 2nd loop (and having another cup of delicious Heed), I started feeling a bit more energized and was able to pick up the pace a bit. Slowly and steadily I went a little bit faster as I progressed through the course until I was at an all out sprint to the finish. As it turns out, I did that second lap in about 20 minutes and a 42 minute 10K at the end of a tri is pretty respectable. I was happy with it anyway. Did I mention the run course was long?

This year, I really feel like I redeemed myself. Even though I didn’t even come close to placing, I did what I set out to do and took almost 10 minutes off my time from last year in the process.
Janice did an awesome job of taking a whole bunch of pictures. Some additional photos were provided by my friend John as well as fellow tri club members Pamela Pomoloski and Kristine Kistler. Brightroom also provided some photos.

Total time of 2:20:51, swim 36:28, T1 2:02, bike 58:48,
T2 1:26, run 42:07
Place: 69/372 overall, 64/269 men, 14/48 M35-39

PHOTOS

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San Diego International Triathlon – 2010

Posted on June 27, 2010 by drexel13

Last year, Janice and I did this race as a relay, after which I decided that it would be a good course for me to do solo as well. So, when it rolled around this year, I was ready to go. The race is kind of a weird distance for the swim and bike, somewhere between sprint and Olympic, but the run is a full 10K. This suits me just fine since running is my strongest event and swimming my weakest.

Swim (1K)
 The swim was a deep-water start in the harbor, so you walk through some muck until the water is deep enough, then swim to the start. It was a quick swim, but a battle. It’s is definitely not unusual to have some accidental contact but one guy on my left kept trying to swim through me. About 30 degrees off course. Persistently. Plus there was a plethora of violent kickers, so I had to be careful when catching up to some of them not to get a heel to the face. It just doesn’t seem necessary to me to kick that much or that hard since you mostly swim with your arms. Then again, I’m a terrible swimmer, so what do I know. Despite getting hit a lot, I got out of the water faster than I thought, at almost a minute faster than my official time last year.

T1
 The first transition was admittedly kind of slow. Most of my swim stuff was off before I got back to my spot, so I really only had to take off the bottom half of my suit, then get geared up for the bike. However, I was wearing a new TCSD uniform for the first time and spent way too much time fumbling with a Gu, trying to get it in one of the side pockets. Ultimately, I decided to leave the Gu behind since the race was short enough I wouldn’t really need it. By the way, I found the pockets immediately after race without issue. Also, I’m not complaining about the tri gear at all, I’m just dumb for not checking first. The gear itself was great – very comfortable and no chafing! Thanks Zoca!

Bike (30K)
 First of all, this course is short by more than 1K, as measured by me on two different bikes with two different odometers, two years in a row and both times I came up with 17.8 miles (28.6 K). So, when determining average speed, that was taken into account. There’s about a mile of fairly flat riding, but then it quickly becomes a pretty decent climb, all the way up to the Cabrillo National Monument along a peninsula. After turning around, you backtrack a few miles, turn around again to climb back to the top, then return down the hill all the way back to transition.
During the initial climb, I wasn’t getting passed much and was passing quite a few people. Mine was the third wave, so during the first time through the loop section, there weren’t any bikers on their second loop yet. I did notice a couple guys clearly drafting off each other. This is not a draft-legal race and the announcer had reminded everyone at the beginning several times to keep at least two bike lengths between riders (also I think the rule is actually closer to three lengths). My attitude has always been to let the cheaters cheat, they are the ones who have to live with it. Plus I was doing just fine keeping up without drafting – passing them, then they would pass me, over and over. On the second loop, they got in front of me a bit more and there were a lot more bikers on the road since the later waves were starting their first loop. An older age-grouper started yelling things like “nice wheel up there!” and I realized he was calling out those guys on the drafting. Eventually, he caught up to them and it looked like he chewed them out pretty good. Unfortunately, it didn’t make a difference because they continued to draft off one another and I heard them joking about it when I passed them again. When I caught the guy who reamed them out, I told him he was my hero for that.
Overall, the ride was fast and fun. All I wanted to do was average over 20 mph and I did that handily, taking almost 4:30 off my time from last year while averaging 21.2 mph. Some of that was due to tri-bike versus road bike, but I’ll go ahead and take credit for a good chunk of that improvement as well.

T2
The bike to run transition was uneventful and went a lot more smoothly than T1. On the way out, I grabbed that Gu and sucked it down real quick, just to ensure no bonking.

Run (10K)
There was a water stop immediately outside transition which I passed up since I was still working on that Gu. This was a mistake because the next one wasn’t for almost two miles. Those first two miles were pretty tough too. My calves didn’t feel like they were working so good and I probably averaged just under a 7 minute mile. After that though, I loosened up and was able to speed up significantly. Only two guys passed me on the run, one of which I caught up to later, but then he passed me again before the end. As usual, I passed a lot of people and the last guy I passed had a tri-shirt with a local renewable fuels company logo on it. After the race I spoke to him about the company a bit so I was able to make a contact there. Bonus!

This was just a train-through race for me and I needed to run about ten miles that day for training, so I jogged the 4 miles back to transition, cheering people on as I went. A lot of people seemed confused and I got a lot of weird comments from people, but it was pretty amusing to me. One guy nervously asked why I was running the other way and was pretty relieved when I told him he didn’t have to do it too.
Overall I felt really great about my performance in this race. It was so much fun, I will probably do it again next year. Also, as the title suggests, this was my tenth complete solo triathlon. So, that seems like something of significance worth mentioning.
Pictures are courtesy of Osamu and the rest of the guys at Opix. The one above is probably the best swim-exit photos I’ve had yet.

Total time of 1:52:12, swim 17:29, T1 2:14, bike 50:24,
T2 1:25, run 40:40
Place: 113/960 overall, 108/605 men, 15/81 M30-34

PHOTOS

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Mission Gorge (15K)

Posted on May 30, 2010 by drexel13

For a day that started off badly (intestinal distress!) this was a pretty good race for me. It had been over a year and a half since my last trail race and I’m trying to get back into it a bit, so this local event was a perfect opportunity to do so.
As I said, I wasn’t feeling well at the start and it was a pretty hot morning, so I decided it would be best not to go too hard. That reminded me of rule #1:

1) Don’t go out too hard.

Admittedly, I usually break this rule. However, you can usually get away with breaking it as long as you don’t get too carried away and are able to calm down soon enough. Sometimes you just have to run out those pre-race jitters. Today, I had no jitters and managed to go out at an even pace. This, of course, resulted in getting passed by dozens of people in the first half mile. But I knew I would catch a lot of them later on, so it was OK, I just had to eat some dust for a bit. Before long, the uphills started getting pretty steep, which is where rules #2 & #3 come in:

2) Walk before you have to.
3) If you can walk faster than you can run, you should be walking.

Following these rules, I walked by a lot of those people who blew by me at the start.
After about five miles, the course comes to a place called the thousand stairs (though I only counted about 300). This was by far the steepest trail I’d ever raced. 9 Trails has a lot of long and steep sections, but this was so steep there had to be wooden logs staked into the ground to form make-shifts stairs so you could actually step without sliding and near the top you had to use your hands to climb up a small section. That was pretty cool. Check out the elevation profile below and you’ll see what I mean.
The downhill on the other side was only slightly less steep. There were no steps, but it probably could have used some. As you might expect, my quads took a bit of a thrashing, but just as it was starting to really add up, the downhills were over. After that, there were some really nice trails covering the last 3 miles with some interesting creek crossings. There was a small, straight section of road about a mile before the finish where I could see see ten of the people in front of me. I couldn’t know how many were in front of them, but I figured I had enough juice left to try to take out as many of those ten as possible. By the time I could see the finish, I had passed five of them and was pretty close behind one more. I don’t think he knew I was there I launched into a sprint, passing him seconds before the finish. That always makes me feel good.

Total time: 1:27:50, Pace: 9:25
Place: 59/360 Overall, 49/259 Men, 13/52 M35-39

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Reef and Run

Posted on May 25, 2010 by drexel13

On Tuesday nights in the summer at East Beach is another multisport event called Reef and Run. Similar to Nite Moves, you can do a swim, a run or an aquathlon. It’s a little different though in that there are multiple distances for the swim (1 K or 1 mile) and run (2 or 4 miles). Only one option is available for the aquathlon; a combination of the shorter distances. This is a relatively new event series having only been around for a couple of seasons, so the turnout is generally pretty small. I figured this would be a good way to get in a quick swim workout and maybe smoke a local race.
Did I ever have it wrong. The swim wasn’t that cold (57 F supposedly) but was really hindered by chop. Every stroke was a battle. The course seemed long too, the fastest time being 19 minutes and it took me almost 25. That’s more than 1 K, for sure. Like Nite Moves, transition time is included in your run split and I tried to take that into account when looking at the previous results and setting goals for this race. Transition was pretty quick, taking only about 1:15.
What I didn’t know is that, also like Nite Moves, you have to run extra relative to the 2 mile run-only – about two tenths of a mile farther. The run was pretty good though. My feet didn’t feel as bad as the last Nite Moves I did, but still felt a little blocky. Once I hit the turn around I had the wind to my back and that helped speed things along. What didn’t help was having to stop at a red light and wait for the cross walk. The volunteers (stationed there to press the button and inform runners that stopping on red is mandatory) said I was “moving pretty fast, you’ll be OK”. I’m not sure how long that took. Probably 30 seconds, maybe 45. Of course I tried to make it up by sprinting the last quarter mile, getting my heart rate up to 185, which is the highest I’ve seen it in a while. By the end it felt like my throat was closing and I was wheezing pretty hard. I thought maybe I was having an asthma attack for the first time in 20 years, but within a minute of finishing, I could breath normally again.
Turns out that the aquathlon was pretty popular this week, there being a total of 10 competitors. I was third overall which is pretty darn good considering how long the swim took. I don’t think the stop-light delay made any difference since there was about three minutes between me and the person in front of, or behind me. For all I know they may have had to stop too. If I account for transition time, extra distance and the stop-light delay, my run pace is a lot closer to a six minute mile. Not too shabby.

Place: 3/10 Overall, 2/8 Men, 1/2 M30_34
Total time of 39:57, swim 24:50, transition+run 15:07

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Cycle Eastlake! – 100K ride

Posted on May 16, 2010 by drexel13

I wasn’t sure I should post this one, for reasons that will be clear by the time you’re done reading this. Ultimately, my main purpose for doing this event was to do a bike-only race. I’ve done plenty of runs, even a number of swims, but never a ride outside of a duathlon or triathlon. So, I decided I wasn’t going to leave out the first bike race I ever did, even if it wasn’t much of a race (hint).
Cycle Eastlake is an annual event with multiple bike and walk distances. All proceeds benefit the public schools in Eastlake.
The day started out cool and foggy, which is good. Maybe not the foggy part, but it’s definitely nice to have a low temperature start to a 3+ hour event. The start was interesting for me, having never done this before and never really riding in a group. The pack split up pretty quickly though and once we got up the first hill, no one was going very fast so I got out in front without really any effort. I thought that was weird and I led for a mile or two before a big pack passed me on a downhill. At that point, I could’ve latched on, but didn’t think it’d be fair since I knew I’d never actually take the lead and pull the group (recall my non-experience with group riding too). The course was marked, but there was no one directing so you had to keep an eye out for little signs with arrows at turns. Everyone got a printout of the directions, but it’s pretty difficult to look at while biking, plus it gets pretty sweaty and gross in a hurry. Unsurprisingly, I got lost after the beginning loop, almost going around a second time, because I was following the turn arrows from the first loop. There were a few other times I had to stop and consult other bikers and/or the printed directions, but after about 25 miles, there were much fewer turns and navigating got a lot easier. The ride was also slowed by having to obey traffic lights, which I had not originally accounted for.
The biggest mistake I made was underestimating the big, 7 mile climb starting around mile 35 and ascending 2,000 feet. Those of you who regularly do big climbs like Gibraltar can go ahead and laugh, but I generally don’t end up climbing big hills more than a mile or two. This particular climb is not all that steep, but it’s seven miles long. This was also the only part of the course that got sunny and hot. It made for a great downhill though and I was hitting well over 40 mph in several sections.
The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful until near the end, where I made another wrong turn at mile 60 and went well over a mile the wrong way, then had to go back up a hill. Before the wrong turn, I hadn’t seen another bike for miles – no one in front of me no one behind me. I’m not sure how many passed while I was lost, but as I got back to where I made the mistake, three bikers came through the intersection, now in front of me. Naturally, I found this to be unacceptable, so I had to catch up and did, thanks to a little help from a red light they were stopped at. After that, one guy traded on and off with me for a bit and finally pulled ahead as another guy passed. Then I saw the finish and those two weren’t going very hard so I cranked it, passing them on the inside of the final turn. The one guy who had traded on and off with me decided to give me a run for my money. He just barely beat me as we both sprinted it out across the finish – where there was no one actually recording times or places. I guess they don’t do that at charity events. No results. Thank you. Anyway, it was kind of fun to have that little competition at the end and I didn’t want to be a sore loser – especially since it mattered not at all – so I rode up next to the guy and said “nice!”, meaning that it was some good competition and it was fun. He just gave me a look like I was a total butthole. My guess is that he thought he taught me a lesson or something. I just said “but I rode an extra 2 miles” and then rode off. Bikers are such dicks.

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Nite Moves – Tri Club Challenge

Posted on May 12, 2010 by drexel13

Nite Moves is in full swing in Santa Barbara, so every Wednesday people show up for a 1K swim, a 5K run, or both. This particular Wednesday evening, even coordinator Jake Clinton arranged for a special first wave for Tri club teams and invited all the local clubs to participate. The real cherry on top was that each team received three comp’d entries and I managed to snag one (thanks to club president Kyle for that).
The swim went almost as expected. The water was really cold (53 F) with some even colder spots. The swim was definitely longer than 1K and was probably closer to 1200m based on other people’s times, so I didn’t feel too bad about taking more than 22 minutes to get out of the water.
Transition sucked though. Part of my shoe folded over and in as I put it on my foot. I fumbled with it for a good 30 seconds or more because my hands were numb. That wouldn’t be so bad except that there is no transition split, so it just makes the run look like it took longer. I got a split from my watch though at 1:42 – that’s an eternity at Nite Moves.
Those who do the swim and run end up with a longer run than the run-only folks since the swim/run transition area is downhill from the run race start. I felt really fast on the run and figured I went out too fast (as I tend to do). To my surprise, I was able to keep up the pace the whole way uphill and pick it up on the downhill, despite feeling like I was running on wooden blocks for most of it. Near the end, I could feel my feet again and managed a sprint through the finish.
I had the 6th fastest run overall (including the pathetic transition time) so that was pretty good. Since my race age is 35, that’s what I put down on my entry but for some reason they have me as 34, so I placed 6 out of 13 in that age-group where I would have been 3rd of 8 in the 35 to 39 group. Oh well.

Special thanks to Santa Barbara Pix for the picture.

Place: 16/80 Overall, 14/54 Men, 6/13 M30_34
Total time of 45:03, swim 22:25, transition+run 22:38

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Spring Sprint Duathlon Relay

Posted on May 2, 2010 by drexel13

That’s right, two relays in a row for me. Janice and I like to do a relay together now and then. Usually, it’s a triathlon and I end up swimming then biking and she does the run. This time we signed up for a sprint duathlon so she could do two legs and all I had to do was bike. Since it was such a short bike leg, I figured I should be able to hammer it pretty hard, so that was my plan. Janice was talking up some sub 10-minute miles and I told her she had to be under 9:30 for at least the first leg since it was only one mile. Well, she showed me, coming in well under 9 minutes for that first leg. The ride was pretty flat, but got a little windy on the west side of Fiesta Island. That slowed me down a little, but I still managed to average over 22 mph, so I was happy with that. The second run leg for Janice was a two loop course, so once I caught my breath I walked over to where the first loop ended, waited for her and ran the second loop with her. Once again, Janice was faster than she said she’d be and even launched into an all out sprint for the last 100 yards or so. We finished faster than we thought we would and took first place in the mixed team relays, since there were only two other teams and they were all women. Of course we stuck around to claim our medals – fair is fair. Another successful team effort!

1.03 mi run (Janice), 9.07 mi bike (Zach),
3.07 mi run (Janice again)
Place: 2/3 relays, 1/1 mixed relays
Total time of 1:04:05, run-1 8:44, T1 0:39, bike 24:05,
T2 1:13, run-2 29:24

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R.U.T.E. 2010

Posted on April 10, 2010 by drexel13

Spring is the time of year for R.U.T.E. (Are You Tough Enough), a 65 mile, 5-person relay through Santa Barbara county. You pile 5 people in a 4WD car and drive the whole course while one person is running each leg. No aid stations, no race bibs, no officials. This was my third time racing it, so going in I knew that it would be a fun race. I’m starting to think people don’t like me much though, since, once again, no one from my team the previous year could make it this year. This years team, titled “Tri and Find Our Shortcut” – a play on the fact that we’re all triathletes and a modification of last years team name, as well as being grammatically incorrect – was an assembly of the fastest guys I know of (and who know me, live in Santa Barbara and were willing to race).
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Kyle Visin: Current Tri Club co-president and all around awesome triathlete. Kyle recently earned a spot at the Kona Ironman World Championship while racing his first full Ironman Distance. Not to mention he ran the marathon section of that in 3:02. Kyle’s got speed and he has endurance. Technically, Kyle was supposed to be on the team last year, but had to bail at the last minute. Fortunately we had another fast alternate. This year Kyle was in for sure.

Matt Trost: One of the fastest guys at the tri-club track workouts. Matt smokes the local sprint races, usually placing in, if not winning, his age-group. Speed is definitely one of his strengths.

Shigy Suzuki: Everyone knows Shigy and everyone knows he is fast. Nobody climbs hills like this guy. Shigy is an unbelievable triathlete, having done I-don’t-know-how-many Ironman races (including world championships) and generally winning or placing in his age group in almost any race he does. Shigy is also an ultrarunner. There’s pretty much no distance or race he can’t do and do well.

Ricky Ho: Everyone knows Ricky too. When it comes to straight running races, he is one of the fastest guys out there. Nowadays, Ricky is almost always top 5 in any local running race. He is also becoming a pretty strong contender in the triathlon scene. But when it comes to running, nobody works harder than Ricky – just look at any finishing photo of the guy and you’ll know what I mean.

Zach Komon: Hey, that’s me! Arguably the slowest guy on the team. There are very few people who would describe be as slow and quite a number who would even say that I’m fast, so that says a lot about the caliber of the other guys on the team this year.
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Leg 1: Mostly rolling hills with a couple steeper uphill sections. Kyle pretty much smoked the first leg. We almost missed the hand-off though because Ricky was waiting for the bathroom at a coffee shop where we stopped to cheer Kyle on.

Leg 2: About 3 miles of rolling hills, then 4 miles of steep uphill. We were a close 2nd at the hand-off. My HR was 150 before even starting! Probably because of the stress of almost not making it in time. I managed to hold on to (formerly #1) team for a while but we were both getting passed a bit. Eventually, even that guy pulled ahead. After about a mile of uphill on Gibraltar, I started feeling good, but got passed once more (sixth place at this point). I finished this leg about 45 seconds faster than ’08 (course/hand-offs were different in ’09). At this point, I knew there was some serious competition this year.

Leg 3: More steep uphill. Shigy cranked the rest of the way up Gibraltar. He quickly passed three guys and the rest of us were in the car behind him when did a little bow and arrow miming that was funny just before passing the second place team.

Leg 4: Mostly downhill with one significant uphill early on. We were 4 minutes behind lead when Shigy handed off to Ricky who averaged something like a 5:15 pace for 9 miles, ultimately giving us a 45 second lead (first place).

Leg 5: A little downhill, a little flat section, then a little uphill. Unfortunately the now 2nd place team had pretty much the fastest runner in Santa Barbara running next. He caught Matt on the uphill segment, but Matt still smoked the 5th leg and kept a good distance ahead of the 3rd place team.

Leg 6: Long, slow uphill, dirt road grind. Shigy did his thing while the rest of us had a tough drive. We barely were able to get by him to the hand-off in time. We dropped into 4th place getting passed by a team of 20 year old UCSB cross-country runners and the team that took third last year – so no shame in that.

Leg 7: Long, steep downhill with one little uphill in the middle. This hand-off isn’t well-defined and nobody gets it right. We accidentally handed off a little more than a half mile early, so I had a little uphill to run first. I almost caught the 4th place guy (UCSB), but then we hit the downhill and he was gone. It was difficult for me to go fast enough downhill – the road was just too steep and I couldn’t get the turnover. Nevertheless, it was still pretty speedy. The last four or so turns I thought was the end and would start sprinting, then realize it wasn’t the end. I guess I ran it faster than the rest of the team thought because Matt had told ricky he still had 3 or 4 minutes to warm up when they got to the hand-off. I didn’t see anyone waiting for a hand-off so I started yelling “Ricky!” and saw he was shedding layers by the car. But he got ready in time. All that downhill beat the crap out of my quads and hips. I was too sore to even jog lightly for about 5 days afterwards and even after that it was pretty painful running for another 3 days.

Leg 8: About 4 miles of steep downhill dirt road, then seemingly endless, but only 3 miles, flat. Ricky got us back to a solid 3rd place. That poor guy… he was sore for a week afterwards and had to race twice more during that week. Like I said, he’s hardest working guy in running.

Leg 9: Mostly flat, through Solvang. Kyle held 3rd through this leg, while wearing a speedo. There were some pretty interesting reactions from the people in downtown Solvang as he ran through. This was pretty hilarious to the rest of us driving along, but for Kyle it came with a price: bloody, chaffed thighs.

Leg 10: Mostly flat, but with a really long hill in the middle. Matt finished really strong, also wearing a speedo (but not suffering the chaffing). The 1st and 2nd place teams just had too much lead. He may have closed in on them some, but you just can’t make up 7 minutes or even 4 minutes on a 4 mile leg.
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Overall, we did awesome! The team ran the race 23 minutes faster than my team last year. I was personally responsible for about 2 minutes of that, but since I was smart enough to ask the rest of the guys on the team to race, I’ll indirectly accept responsibility for the whole thing! The competition was incredible and we are proud to have taken third place this year. Our finishing time would have easily won it in any of the previous races since it started up again in 2005.

Total time: 7:13 Pace: 6:40
Place: 3/31 overall, 2nd all men team

Categories: Race | Tags: , , , | 3 Comments

Oceanside 70.3

Posted on March 27, 2010 by drexel13

Forward
This was a day of firsts for me: first 1/2 Ironman distance, first race on my new tri-bike and first race in the 35-39 age group. Going in, I felt pretty relaxed. I had been feeling a bit down about my training but recently began reading “Breakthrough Triathlon Training” by Brad Kearns and it really changed my attitude. The book pretty accurately describes the pitfalls of being overly competitive and driving yourself too hard. The author claims to do best when his motivation remains pure and enjoys the sport, rather than focusing strictly on goal times and rankings. So, I figured I have nothing to lose and everything to gain if I made it my goal to have fun at the race. Thinking back, that’s why I started doing triathlons anyway. They can be a lot of fun. Plus, I did better – or at least felt better – in races where I just went out to have a good time.
The taper just about killed me though and I found myself getting kind of depressed, particularly the week before the race. In a weird way, that made it easier to set the “have fun” goal – the race was at least an opportunity to get out and exercise again.

Pre-race
There’s not a whole lot to say about the pre-race morning. I got up just before 4, got to transition on time, set up and got ready for the swim. My wave wasn’t until 7:03, but I didn’t really find myself standing around with nothing to do, except when waiting for the bathroom. At 6:30 everyone was kicked out of transition and we lined up along the outside of the transition area in groups according to wave numbers. Then, one by one, each group went down the boat ramp, into the water – this was in the harbor, by the way – and swam to the start.

Swim (1.2 miles)
When my wave got in the water, it felt warm since the air was so cold. The air temperature was about 45 degrees but the water was 59. That may not sound that warm, but it’s enough when you’re swimming, even in a sleeveless suit. The swim to the start was already rough – elbows and feet everywhere. I got kicked right in the philtrum too. On the way to the start! Wave starts were going off every three or four minutes, so we didn’t have to tread water for long. Once we got going, I tried to just stay out of the way but had a hard time doing so. I touched a lot of gross feet for most of the first half. Besides that though, I felt really relaxed and somehow seemed to be going pretty quickly, at least for me.
Just before the first turn buoy, I caught a heel directly in the right goggle, so I had to stop for a bit to adjust it so my eyeball didn’t get sucked out. Things continued to go pretty well though and I felt like I was making reasonable time. I figured if I could get out of the water in 42 minutes or less, I’d be in good shape. Even 45 minutes would be OK. I started to doubt the speed of my swim around the half way point, but at the time, I didn’t know it was half way over. The reason being that the course is curved, but with a very defined turn around. On the map, the turn around looks a bit like it would be one buoy and you swim back. In reality, it’s two buoys that are pretty far apart. This made me start to think that I wasn’t remembering the swim course correctly and I had no idea where I was. So, I just kept up a relaxed, efficient pace, following the other swimmers and keeping buoys on my left.
Since the wave starts were so close together, I started getting swum over by some of the faster people in the later waves. This resulted in a lot more feet touching. Men should really take better care of their feet, they just feel nasty. Finally, I found my bearings (never drifting off course though) and realized that I was probably more than 3/4ths done. It didn’t feel like I’d been out in the water a long time and I certainly wasn’t tired. I wanted to look at my watch, but I’ve found that once I do that, I start checking it a lot and that tends to drag things out. However, I was pretty sure that I was on track for at least sub 45 minutes and maybe even sub 42. Then, because all good things come in threes, as another group swam over me, I received a fresh kick to the ear, rounding out the trifecta of head-kicks. No matter though, I knew I was close to being done.
When I rounded the corner to exit the water, there was a group of about 10 volunteers whose job it was to yank you out of the water and unzip your wetsuit, all in one smooth motion. That was pretty awesome. Then I ran across the timing mat, back into transition.

T1
Well, not directly back into transition really. The transition area was about 0.15 miles long (I Google Earthed it) and to be fair to all competitors, regardless of position in transition, you had to go all the way along the outside of transition and enter the far end. The whole path was carpeted though, so that made it easy to run. I even passed a few people during that little sprint. This extra time also gave you plenty of opportunity to get the top of your wetsuit off, take out earplugs, etc.
My bike was about at the half-way point and when I got there I took my wetsuit off quickly and without issue, made sure to grab my Clif bars and Gu, got on all my bike gear (race bib included – that’s a rule for IM events apparently) and trotted my ride out to the bike start.

Bike (56 miles)
In retrospect, by this time there were quite a lot of spectators around cheering, but I was in a kind of tunnel-vision mode, just trying to get on the bike and out on the course as quickly as possible. I heard the announcers say my name and that I was with TCSD (since I was in San Diego, I went with that club’s uniform). Several people shouted “go tri club!” or “yeah TCSD!” which was pretty nice to hear. After just a few quick turns, the crowed thinned out to nothing.
The first half of the ride was really nice. My hip flexors were feeling a little strained, but I was determined to have a good, fun ride if nothing else. So I just rode at a pace that felt comfortable. I really didn’t look down at my speedometer much and when I did it was just to check mileage so I could keep up the nutrition. Every 15 miles I would Gu, at mile 20 I’d eat a whole Clif bar and somewhere around 50 miles I’d eat another half Clif bar (I didn’t want a lot of solid food sitting in my stomach when I started the run). Getting back to my speedometer and this being a day of firsts, it was also the first time I wore my Polar heart rate monitor on this bike which has a wireless speedometer. Well, the HRM didn’t like that one bit and started going crazy with the beeps and giving nonsensical heart rate information. The false HR wasn’t really new to me; on my other bike with a different wireless speedometer, my HRM would always give bad data as well. However, this particular combination made the watch really go crazy. I didn’t know how to shut it up, so I was pushing buttons almost at random until it stopped beeping. It wasn’t until some time later that I realized I had stopped the timer and had therefore lost track of my race time. It would still have been useful to get my run split and to know my heart rate during the run, so I started the timer again and this time it didn’t beep like crazy. Well that turned out to be because it just didn’t register the heart rate at all anymore. I hoped this would kick back in once I got off the bike and on to the run. Meanwhile, I tried to keep the bike on the road as I clicked through the timing options on the watch and by bike computer to figure out how much I had missed on the overall time. I don’t remember exactly, now that I’m writing about it, and I was probably a little clouded in my thinking, but there were two numbers I came up with for some reason. I had missed 14 minutes with my watch and I needed to add another 8 minutes for something else (that’s the part I don’t remember anymore). I also didn’t want to focus much on the timing when I’m supposed to be having fun. However, I’m including all this right now because it becomes important later. All I remember is “knowing” I needed to add 14:30 to the bike split and 8 minutes to the overall time. After a few brain cycles that became add 22 or 23 minutes to the total time on my watch and that’s all I remember about it.
Back to the important part, the ride. The first 28 miles were pretty quick and really scenic. There were a few times when I saw “TANK X-ING” written on the road as you went through parts of Camp Pendleton (though I saw no wild tanks). The course went up the coast, inland a bit and then west again through a tunnel under the 5. It was actually a really cool tunnel, but even better was when you came out the other side, the view was spectacular. Everything was so green too, since we had so much rain in January and February.
Right around this point, I realized that I kept getting passed by groups of 6 or 8 people, clearly drafting off each other. There were no course marshals around, so they didn’t get penalized, but I don’t know how you do that in a race that is not draft-legal and feel OK about it. All I know is that I earned my finish time.
Eventually, the course turned back inland, but the views were still really great. When I hit the half-way point I had only been riding an hour and 25 minutes, which gave me a nice cushion for the second half to still maybe break three hours. More importantly, it didn’t seem like I’d been on the bike that long and I was still having fun.
The hills started around mile 29 and when I hit the first one, I tried to recall what it was the race announcer had said back before the race started. I could swear he said the bike course doesn’t get difficult until mile 39. I was hoping I heard him wrong and that he said mile 29 because this hill was no joke. However, I managed to pass a whole bunch of people on the climbs and didn’t get passed that much myself. Once over the first hill, a bit of a head wind kicked up with some gusts from the side. This made it particularly harrowing on the descents.
Things continued to go pretty smoothly until around mile 35 when I started to get some low back pain. It felt like my hip flexors were getting pretty beat and my glutes were hurting some as well. By this time I was pretty sure that the announcer had said mile 29 is where it got tough, not 39, and the more I thought about it, the more that made sense, so I told myself to tough it out just a little longer because the hills should be done soon.
The first real downhill was supposed to be 25 mph limit, no passing zone (everyone was told this in advance) It turns out the speed limit wasn’t enforced, but they were enforcing the no passing zone, so I wasn’t going as fast as I wanted. Near the bottom of that hill, two people passed me so I yelled “no passing zone!”. One guy apologized shortly after – I caught up to him pretty quickly – saying his brakes weren’t working that well. I don’t know if those two got DQ’d or not, but that’s what the penalty is supposed to be.
After about 13 miles of hills the hard part was over. Looking at my watch, I figured I could break 3 hrs if I could keep up 20 mph. That might not seem fast to some people, but it’s a pretty good effort for me even before riding the 42 miles to this point. The course was flat or slightly downhill most of the rest of the way though and I maintained closer to 25 mph, rarely dropping below 20 and passing a lot of other riders. I felt good too, with some weird, crazy energy. My water supply was pretty much gone though, so I hit the final aid station, going through way too fast and blasting the first water bottle out of the volunteers hand. I managed to juggle a second one and catch it, but that could have gotten ugly.
As I approached final turns of the bike course, the crowds got bigger and louder, which always gives me an extra boost. The final two tenths were slow because as you near transition you have to drop your speed, then you have to bike the whole length of transition – like having to run it after the swim, but the timing mat wasn’t until right after you dismount and enter. At this point, I knew I was well below three hours on the bike and figured around 2:53. Needless to say, I was pretty happy with that ride and still felt good, physically and mentally.

T2
Since the long ride past transition was included in the bike split, this was not such a ridiculously long transition. Trotting the bike back to the rack went smoothly. Some volunteer nicely reminded me to turn my race number around to face front, which I did. This had an immediate effect. Since everyone could now read my name on my bib, I heard a lot of people cheering for me by name. Once my bike was racked up, I made a quick change of shoes, swapped my helmet for an SB Tri hat, picked up my last two Gu and ran out of transition.

Run (13.1 miles)
Unfortunately, the heart rate info on my watch still wasn’t working, so had to go strictly on feel. I knew that I could take almost 2 hrs on the run and still break 5:40 which would make me happy. Breaking 5:30 seemed likely then, which would be awesome. The first mile split was sub 7 minutes, but it felt short and even if it was a full mile, I didn’t think I would hold that pace. My feet were burning and it felt like I was running directly on the bones. I just tried to keep going at a pace I felt I could sustain and tried to soak up the sights a bit as a distraction.
The run course is not great though. It’s two loops, probably to save money since it’s later in the day and you have to pay to shut down streets. Also, less volunteers are needed that way. To keep my mind occupied I looked for other people in either of the tri-clubs I’m in. There were plenty of TCSD people, as would be expected, and we all rooted each other on. I only ever saw one guy from Santa Barbara though. As I ran past him, I shouted “go Santa Barbara!” and pointed at my hat. He probably thought I was nuts, but seemed confusedly grateful for the encouragement.
The first loop went pretty well overall. I took Gatorade and water at most aid stations. The wet sponges were a nice and unexpected touch too. This was particularly good for getting 4 hours of sweat off your brow and out of your eyes. After turning around for the second loop, I started to get a little tired, but at least my feet stopped burning (though the running on bones feeling never faded). As far as I could tell, I kept my pace and even picked it up a little near the end. The final aid station left less than a mile to go, so I opted to skip it since there’s not much good it’s going to do at that point. With about 1/2 mile left, I started to get a little wonky and thought maybe I shouldn’t have passed up that last opportunity for some sugar and electrolyte. Nevertheless, I still managed to sprint (or at least what I perceived to be a sprint) the last hundred meters or so to cross the finish.

Post race
The volunteers at the end were super nice – very concerned about your health and state of mind. I felt a little nauseous, kind of sore (adductors especially), definitely tired, but so happy that none of that mattered. My watch said 5:04 and some-odd seconds, so recalling my math from before I figured I came in around 5:26, beating my “A” goal by almost 10 minutes – all while having that “have fun” attitude. Naturally, I was extremely pleased with that result.
Walking into the food tent, I looked around and saw some really unappealing pizza. Food in general seemed absolutely unappetizing to me, but took some pizza anyway. It was actually pretty good and some soda was a nice complement. After eating and drinking a little, the latest results weren’t posted yet, so I went back to my spot in transition to stretch and start packing things up. After a little while, I went back into the food tent to check the results. Times were posted up to 5:35, so I knew I was in there somewhere, but I couldn’t find my name. Eventually, I just started at the bottom and carefully scanned up the list until I found it. I traced the line over to the total time and couldn’t believe what I saw – 5:15:33! Clearly I had done the math wrong on the bike earlier. I wish I could remember why I added that extra 8 minutes, it would have made for a better story. It was probably an estimate of total transition times. That way I could add all the splits to estimate a finish time. Then that number somehow got incorporated into the total time to add to my watch. I figure the other two or three minutes difference is just errors in approximations – I always round up anyway so that the finish time is a little faster than I thought.
My friend Fred often talks about having an out-of-body experience goal time in addition to real world goal times. I call this my A+ goal. Even though I went in with the goal of having fun I still made C, B, A and A+ goal times. All I had to do was not think about those times while racing and just enjoy the event. With this attitude, I crushed my A+ goal time of 5:22. Truly an out-of-body experience.

Epilogue
Potentially, I could have gone a little faster on the run, but without the HR monitor, I wasn’t positive how hard I was pushing. Considering how I felt in that last half mile and how I couldn’t even logic my way through a better finish time estimate at the end, going harder might have had disastrous consequences. Maybe I would have come in a minute or two faster. Or maybe I would have eaten pavement. Given my overall performance up to that point, I think I made the right choice. Besides, I had to leave some room for improvement, right?



Total time of 5:15:33, swim 38:32, T1 4:45, bike 2:51:38,
T2 2:20, run 1:38:18
Place: 478/2142 overall, 89/317 men 35-39

PHOTOS

Categories: Race | Tags: , , | 4 Comments