Report: L.A. Tri Series, #2 2010

Total Time = 3:02:48
Overall Rank = 219/258
Age Group = Clydesdales
Age Group Rank = 8/10

Pre-race routine

Woke up at 4am. Had Nutella on toast right away. Drank just a little water as I was already well-hydrated. Everything was already packed so I hung out until it was time to get dressed and go. Left at 5:25, which was a ten minutes later than I wanted to leave. Still got to the site in good time. Picked out a great spot in transition. Once I setup my area in transition I found that my Garmin was DOA. D'oh!

Event warmup

I went out for an easy bike ride, which did feel good. However, there was a bit of an incident when I got back into transition. As much as I liked the ride, I think it's better if I don't do one to warm up again. I wanted to do a short run, too, but I ran out of time. In the future, I'll stick to doing just a warm up run. Got on my wetsuit and did a short swim in the lake.

Swim

Distance: 1km
Time: 23:15
Pace: 2:08/100y

Water temperature was perfect for wetsuits. Not too cold, not too warm. I wonder if it's going to be too warm for wetsuits next month.

There were fewer swimmers this month so the start was better set up. I was in the front and since we were spread out on the beach, I was about halfway down from the inside, a good place to start. The race started and I got out fairly well. Instead of having to swim past people, a few people were swimming past me. Maybe I should have started farther out? After about 200 yards I started feeling good. Just like last month, I don't think people were using their heads sighting but were just following everybody else. The course had a first buoy, then we turned slightly to the left. There was a second and a third buoy. The third buoy was what we would make a full left turn on and the second buoy was just on the way. Problem was, the second buoy was in towards the left of a straight line from the first to the third buoy so if you went to the second buoy, you were adding to your swim. That's what most people did. I know because as I got closer to the third buoy, I met up with people who would soon pass me (again).

As we got closer to shore, we met up with one of the sprint-distance waves. Much congestion so the last fifty yards into shore were pretty slow. On the other hand, I did breaststroke in to shore, flexing my feet to work on my calves before getting out of the water. That seemed to have worked because my legs did feel better than last month's race.

What would you do differently?

I was trying to do some heads-down swimming (i.e. not sighting so often) but when I finally sighted I often found that I had drifted off course. I'm going to give up on heads-down swimming and sight more often.

The drifting and the congestion did contribute to my slower-than-expected pace. However, I think the length of the swim was the main reason. Can't do much about that other than keep training.

T1

Time: 2:25

Your basic T1 here. Everything went well here except the slow run in and a dropped a water bottle when putting it on the bike after squirting my feet.

What would you do differently?

Nothing. Well, maybe I should try that taking the helmet off while removing the wetsuit thing. Looks like fun!

Bike

Distance: 40km
Time: 1:32:20
Pace: 16.15mph

Mostly the same course as last month but with an additional hill thrown in and three laps instead of two. Since this race is longer, the plan was to not go as hard so I'd have something left for the run. Looking at my pace, I did a good job of that. I didn't have the Garmin with me so I relied on how I felt for pacing so that worked out well. The second half of the last lap I went one gear lower than usual on the hills so my legs would get ready for the run. Also did some stretching as I got near the end of the course. This helped transitioning to the run.

I wanted to take in all my nutrition on the bike. I had some sugar water w/ electrolytes (it's an experiment), water, and a gel. Sugar water the first hour, water and a gel after that. That all went according to plan. Man, when that sugar water hits you, it's a weird feeling. I need to keep playing with that.

What would you do differently?

Just get stronger on the bike. I pretty much did what I wanted to on the bike. I was slow in the group but it was a good ride for me.

T2

Time: 1:23

Really good T2.

What would you do differently?

Nothing.

Run

Time: 1:03:25
Distance: 8km
Pace: 12:46 min/mile

I felt pretty good starting the run. Good, not great, but I didn't feel horrible, which is how I have felt in my other races this year so the bike-run bricks are working. Hilliest run course I've ever been on, which I wasn't expecting. I had to walk the two steepest hills--there would have been no point trying to run up them. It would have been no faster than walk pace anyway. I felt good on the flats but those hills really did me in. I took my metronome with me to help with my cadence. I wasn't able to keep up with it so after a couple of miles I shut it off.

On my recent training runs I have noticed my feet slip-sliding in the shoes from the sweat coming from warmer days. That peaked today and the result was a spot on my left foot that rubbed raw in the last couple of miles. Oh joy. It didn't slow me down but it was annoying. Next race I'm going to have to bite the bullet and put socks on since I can't go a full 10k like that. If the course was flat there probably wouldn't have been a problem.

So, it was my typical slow run but I think I actually did better than usual on it. There is hope!

What would you do differently?

I felt my left quad edge towards cramping the last couple of miles. I need to take in more electrolytes on the bike and maybe actually drink water on the run course rather than just pour it on my head (which felt really good).

I need to do lots more hill work.

No metronome. I wasn't able to take the Garmin on the run but next race I'm not even going to bother.

Wear socks...or get better-ventilated shoes.

Post race

Warm down

After experiencing light-headedness after the last race I immediately went to town on the oranges and water. The light-headedness did return (along with the light sensitivity) so I found a bench to sit on and it went away after a couple of minutes. I wonder if it's a sugar thing? Maybe I need to have some Gatorade in my bag and go straight from the finish line to the bag and start guzzling. I sure would like to know what's going on.

What limited your ability to perform faster?

Longer distance, slower pace. That's just how it goes. I'll get faster the more I train.

I'd love to use the "I was one of the two oldest Clydesdales, give me a break" excuse but the other 48-year old took second. So much for that. :-)

Event comments

It's funny. The race organizers sent out an email earlier in the week touting the casual nature of the race, including no body marking. However, this time we were bodymarked and our bikes numbered. Why? Apparently some people walked off with bikes they weren't supposed to last race. Nice to see they're addressing the problem.

Oranges and bananas were nice but I wanted to guzzle some Gatorade and all I could find was water. Oh well, I guess I'll have to bring my own.

Challenging course for me but do-able. Next month's full Oly should be interesting.

8th Clydesdale in the swim, bike, and run. I'm Mr. Consistency. It does explain why I didn't see any Clydes passing me.

Countdown to the L.A. Tri Series #2

All I have left to do is pack, write this, and sleep.

This is the first triathlon I'm going to treat like an actual triathlon. While on the swim, get ready for the bike. While on the bike, get ready for the run. Then have my run benefit from the earlier stuff and from my bike-run bricks in training. I'm also using this as a rehearsal for the full oly triathlon next month.

First off, I'm actually going to do a warm up! I'll stake out my transition spot, then go for an easy small loop of the course (7mi), then an easy 1mi run. This will give me plenty of time to rest, take a gel, get into my swimsuit, and do a swim warm up in the lake. After last race I felt that a warm up would have been helpful. We'll see how it goes.

This race has a 1km swim, which might include a run after a 500m lap. I'm not sure because there aren't any details on the race's website and the course they show for the swim is the same one for the 500m swim last month. Whatever. The plan for the swim is to start middle-front and just swim my race. I'm hoping that by being middle-front instead of my usual towards the back will help me by not having to swim past so many people. It's not that I'm fast (I'm not) but was faster than many of the people in my wave last race. I've been practicing breaststroking a bit so I need to remember to do some of that towards the end of the swim so I can stretch out my calf muscles before I start running from the water. I'm hoping that will keep me from having that calf pain I had at this place in last month's race.

Once I get on the bike I need to get into my shoes sooner than last race because there's a good uphill shortly after leaving T1 and I want to be in my shoes for that. See, I leave my shoes on the bike for my transitions and, usually, I want to get some pedaling done before I get in my shoes so I can do it with a clear head and no wobbling. This time, though, I'm going to have to rely on my transition training to safely get into my shoes before the hill. Once I crest the hill there is a short flat and a great big downhill for me to catch my breath (I'm thinking I should easily reach 45 mph). The bike course is three laps, adding up to 40km, so I'm thinking that my first trip up that hill on the first lap, I will spin up in the saddle while my legs gets used to being on the bike. The next two laps, though, I'll see about getting out of the saddle and hammering up for them (I've been working on that, too). We'll see how I feel. I'll be drinking sugar water (literally--more on that in another post) on the bike the first hour, followed by water and a gel the last 20 minutes. Towards the end of the third lap I need to downshift to spin, stretch, and get my legs ready for the run...better than I did last race.

Get off the bike, take off my helmet and sunglasses, put on my shoes, grab my visor (with metronome attached) and race belt and go. Ah, the 8km run. Last race, my run was horrible. This race I hope to improve! I've done several pure bike-run bricks and I hope they result in a better run. I am totally going to geek out, though, by having the Garmin on my left wrist and the metronome attached to my RoadID on my right wrist. Yes, I'm going to do a race with a metronome keeping track of my cadence. I think I'm going to run without drinking anything. So, keep my 164 cadence through 2.8 miles of the run and then cut loose the last two miles, upping the cadence to as much as 167 if I'm up to it.

Predictions? A conservative 19:00 for the swim, 1:20 for the bike, and 48:00 for the run. Toss in a few minutes for transitions and I'm in the neighborhood of 2:30. The weather looks great so it should be a fun morning. Oh, and Tommy's is test marketing pastrami at a location that's on the way home. Mmmm, pastrami and chili fries after a race...

I've Made a List and I Check It At Least Twice

How do you know if you have packed everything you need for a triathlon? By having a checklist, of course. You add to it and tweak it as you go but you always use the checklist. Below is mine, which I keep on my iPhone. I may not need everything on it for every race (e.g. I won't need a wetsuit for my August and October races) but better to see something and not need it than need something and it not be packed. The only thing that isn't on this list is my transition bag, which is what everything (but the bike) gets packed in:

Tri suit
Goggles
Bike
Bike shoes
Frame pump
Bike bag
Helmet
Run shoes
Race belt and number
Wristband
Transition towel
Timing chip
USAT card
Shorts & shirt & belt
Gel
Cut Rubber bands
Garmin
Kids scissors
Marker
Tape
iPhone
Keys
Wallet
Race pack
Swim cap
Wetsuit
Water bottle
Bike pump
Sunglasses
Flashlight
Body glide
Jacket
Ear buds
Visor

Brick By Brick

Along with my campaign to become a better runner is my campaign to become a better triathlon runner. What's the difference? Runners just have to run. A triathlon runner has to run after the bike.

To that end, the last two weekends have found me doing dedicated bike-run brick workouts. That's where I ride a 9-mile loop around Hansen Dam, do a reasonably fast transition, and immediately head out on a 2-mile run. Because of the quick transition I do these in my trisuit (triathlons are great for overcoming one's self-consciousness :-).

Last week was the first and it was pretty tough. I took 15 minutes between sets and I could only squeak out a 1-mile run on the second set. This week I took (at least) 30 minutes between sets and made it the whole 2 miles. Times on the run were pretty good, too. The awkwardness of switching from the bike to the run is dissipating with each of these. I'm spinning a higher cadence towards the end of the bike and learning to pace myself. Of course, race day is a totally different animal but I'm trying to be a racy as possible in these workouts so I hope race day is not too different. These workouts are really tiring so, with the next triathlon in two weeks, today's workout is the last brick until after the next race, where I hope to have a better run report than my last race.

My Metronome Arrived Last Week

I finally realized that I need to learn how to run. I don't know what took me so long. I have cycling books and magazines to help me learn how to cycle. I even have a book on swimming, despite being on swim teams in my youth. I figure since I've been running since I was a wee one, I must know how to run, right?

A few weeks ago I did a hard 5k training run and I just wasn't getting any faster. It didn't make any sense. How could my cycling and swimming be consistently improving and my running continue to suck? The answer I came up with is that it must be technique. So I headed over to Amazon and, after a look of review reviewing, I purchased "The Triathlete's Guide to Run Training" by Ken Mierke because many of its reviews mentioned technique.

One of the first ideas he presents is having a high-cadence run, ideally in the 180 strides-per-minute (spm) range. He strongly recommended that I get a metronome to help me in this quest. I would need to decrease my stride-length so I could move away from being a heel-striker and use the metronome to find out what my current cadence is. From there, I would gradually build up to the 180 range. Fortunately, they make these little electronic metronomes that are perfect for what I need so I bought one on eBay.

I went for my first runs with it over the weekend and what a difference! First, I could comfortably run at 164 spm. I had done a few runs the past few weeks where I decreased my stride length but having a metronome was interesting. It sure does keep you honest in the form department because you can't be turning over that quickly and have bad form for long. I did a five-mile run on Saturday and, only paying attention to cadence and form, turned in my fastest pace on a run over 5k. I wasn't even wiped out afterwards, either. There must be something to this cadence thing. Take a look at a marathon on TV and count out the cadence of the lead pack. They're at least 180 spm. It's something I hadn't noticed before.

Ideally I think I would like to move to more of a forefoot striker. Way back when I was briefly on my high school's cross country team. We ran barefoot for almost all of our workouts and the only way to run barefoot is by landing on your forefoot. We were all fine (and 100 pounds lighter, natch) so there must be something to this forefoot thing. We'll see later but, for now, I am just concentrating on getting the cadence up. I dabbled briefly with forefoot running but it trashed my calves so I will wait until after my June triathlon to play with it some more.

Report: Los Angeles Triathlon Championship Series #1 2010

Total Time = 1h 34m 12s
Overall Rank = 162/245
Age Group = Clydesdales
Age Group Rank = 6/11

Pre-race routine

Had my traditional Subway sandwich the evening before at 6, with some Ovaltine before bed. Woke up at 4am and downed some Nutella on toast. I had packed the night before so all was set to go. Left the house around 5:2t and arrived at a great time. Got a good parking spot and an aisle spot in transition.

Something different this time was I put some chamois cream in my trisuit. On longer courses, this suit (Garneau) caused some discomfort on the bike so, while I wasn't expecting that on this shorter course, I wanted to try out the cream in a race environment (i.e. with a swim).

Event warmup

Got in the water, got used to the temperature (which took faster than it usually does), and did a bit of swimming. Given my calf problem (see below), I wonder if I should start doing some running beforehand.

Swim

Distance = 500 meters
Time = 9:06
Age Group Rank = 7/11

For some reason these OWS really wear me out at the beginning. I think it's the nervous energy of the start of a race plus bumping into people. I really need to get over that. I also need to get over the need to start towards the back of the pack. While I'm not a FOP swimmer, I'm not BOP and I spend too much time passing people during the first hundred yards.

Once I got in the clear, things were okay. It looks like I have tendency to drift to the left so I guess I need to work on swimming with my eyes closed to fix that. Sighting was okay--better than in the past but still needs some work.

One thing that really helped was that I listened to the instructions at the beginning of the race. We were told that the round buoys were what we needed to pay attention to, not the oval ones. During the last leg I was sighting on the round buoy but I noticed that the vast majority of the pack (and by "vast majority" I mean "everybody I could see") was swinging wide around an oval buoy, further off to the right. No lifeguards told me to get back on course and as I was getting out of the water I heard the announcer tell an upcoming wave to use the round buoys (I think I was being used as a positive example). This saved me a bit of time.

I wasn't so happy with my effort (I felt slow and tired) until they posted the results and I saw my time. My timed pace was almost exactly my pace during a practice 500 that I did in a pool earlier in the week. Maybe the course is short but that pace would explain why I was so tired at the end of the swim.

What would I do differently?

I need to place myself more towards the front of the pack to avoid having to pass so many people. I'm handling swimming in traffic just fine (thank you high school water polo!) so I need to work on going out quicker to hang out up front.

T1

Time = 2:32

I was so tired after the swim that I pretty much shuffled up (a hill) into T1. Wetsuit came off fine--only one foot got stuck. Hopped on the bike and went.

One weird thing was that as I was shuffling into T1, I felt a pain in my right calf. Calf pain after the swim? I've felt that pain before and it didn't bode well for the run. I hoped that the bike would warm it up for the run (it did).

What would I do differently?

Run instead of shuffle from the lake. Would have saved some seconds but I just couldn't do it.

Bike

Distance = 24 km
Time = 48:41
Age Group Rank = 8/11

I am so glad I previewed the course last weekend. I knew which hills to get out of the saddle for and which to stay seated. No turns surprised me. My gear changes were great. Despite my relatively low placing, I was very pleased with how I rode.

At the end of the ride I downshifted and spun, as well as standing up to flex my calves, so I could prepare for the run. Seems to have helped my run and the aforementioned calf pain.

I flaked in the fluids department, drinking only once. Didn't matter so much for this race but the coming races in this series will be longer and I'll need to drink on the bike because there will be consequences if I don't.

Chamois cream seems to have worked (i.e. survived the swim). We'll see for sure on the longer course.

What would I do differently?

I'm just not a 20 mph cyclist yet but I am 2 mph faster than last year so maybe next year? I'm sure a TT bike would have helped, too. Just gotta work more on the engine.

T2

Time = 1:20

Not bad. I didn't have really good focus here, so that didn't help. I also need to practice getting my Garmin off the bike--I was kind of a mess doing that. I got into my shoes better than usual, though. I'd like to think it was the Body Glide I put on the shoes that morning.

What would I do differently?

Practice more than getting off the bike for T2. I have that part down. I need to do the "grab the belt and Garmin" thing better.

Run

Distance = 5 km
Time = 32:33
Age Group Rank = 9/11

I just sucked here. The spinning and flexing I did on the bike, as well as my brick training runs, seemed to help me get going--I didn't feel exactly great but I didn't feel as awful as I did at UCLA last month. I did my high-cadence thing that I've been working on but I didn't feel all that good until two miles in. By then I had been so slow that it didn't much matter. Probably my worst (not slowest) run ever.

What would I do differently?

The next two races in this series are in the next two months, with bike legs of 40k. Since I don't need to do so much prep for those bike legs, my focus for the next two months is going to be the run. While I'm not going to get fast, I plan on getting faster.

Post race

Warm down

This was an odd one. I had some oranges, drank some fluids, and walked around. The weird thing was that I was a bit light-headed and my pupils appear to have dilated. I looked around and the whites were glowing white. It was weird because I didn't have to squint, so everything wasn't bright like that, but all the white t-shirts and white cars were intensely white. I'm guessing my pupils were dilated because of the exercise but I can't be sure. The light-headedness did go away after a while and I didn't faint (or feel like I was going to) so I guess all was well. Weird.

What limited my ability to perform faster?

The run (as usual).

Event comments

Nice race. Loved the swim in a lake, since I get seasick in the ocean. Challenging bike course (somebody in the clydesdale group cheated and only did one lap). Nice run course (wish I could have enjoyed it). The volunteers were awesome! Screaming teenaged girls! I felt like one of the Jonas brothers.

Report: Santa Clarita Century 2010

Time in the Saddle: 7:13:33
Elapsed Time: 8:30
Distance: 100.93 miles

So...many...hills. The event's website describes the course like this: "This is not an easy century. While not the hardest event on the calendar, it is still challenging with one lengthy climb, three shorter, but extended climbs, and several smaller hills." That's an accurate description and it tells me I'm not ready for Breathless Agony yet. ;-)

The plan was to draft as much as possible--shamelessly. In that, I was successful. I can really tell my gains from last year's half-century. I've moved from the back-of-the-pack to the middle-of-the-pack. On hills, too! Even in the last 20 miles I was able to go up hills slowly but faster than some of those around me.

I might have gone out too hard but I think it was just the difficulty of those hills. I asked at the top of Alisa Viejo how steep the climb was. Somebody said that at its steepest it was only 14-16%. Only?

I plan to have compact cranks installed on my bike at the end of this season so we'll see how that helps next year.

Though it got windy in the afternoon, the winds weren't grabbing my wheels on the downhills. Plus I sat up on a lot of them so I wouldn't be going too fast in the winds. That seemed to help. On the big downhill after the course high points I did hunker down. I was sad to see that I only hit 48 mph, though.

Working on my cornering definitely showed in the Mint Canyon part of the course. I didn't need to hit the brakes at all.

What would I do differently?

I made a mistake by not eating so much at the first SAG stop. It didn't affect me right away but it did later. I ate more at the next two SAG stops, though. Next time, eat a lot, including a coke, at every SAG stop.

On a supported ride like this, I think it's best if I leave the Snickers at home and put my gels in the Bento Box so my jersey pockets have more room for clothing layers as they get peeled off.

Forgot sunscreen. Though I did burn, good thing it's only April.

Event comments

Loved the course. From the start under a banner to the tough climbs that just kept coming on after another, to the last mile through neighborhoods, over a bridge, and down into the mall. We even had a police escort out of the city. Okay, I didn't love the climbs as I was doing them...

The expo seemed kinda lame but that will get better in the years to come (this was only the second time they've done the ride).

Lots of helpful volunteers at every water and SAG stop. They even cheered us when we reached the finish line. The volunteers were really great!

I look forward to doing this ride again next year.