Gladstone Swim

One of the great things about my tri club is large number of organized open water swims during the week. My two favorites are the "Speed Circuit" swim on Wednesday mornings in Ocean Park and the "Gladstone" swim on Friday mornings in Pacific Palisades. Last year I alternated between the two every other week. I'm going to be entering into a swim focus segment of my training so I probably will go back to doing that or maybe attend both every week. I think doing two open water swims would be fine so long as I do at least two pool sets during the week were I can do drills and intervals.

Last Friday was my first time at the Gladstone swim for the year. It's called Gladstone because we all meet in the parking lot next to the Gladstones For Fish restaurant. It is smaller group of people and more low key than the masses that show up for the Wednesday swim, but these guys are all really talented. It's actually pretty intimidating because I'm so slow compared to all these guys. Most of these guys regularly podium, in fact one of the guys I met at this particular swim was the silver medalist in his age group at ITU worlds. Pretty impressive.

Last year we would just jump in one side of the small "bay" and swim across to the other side, regroup and then swim back. At least that's what everyone else would do. I usually only made it halfway before I could see them coming back and so I would quickly turn around so that I could finish my swim in a reasonable time. This time was different. The workout leaders are trying to be more inclusive of differing abilities and also people who wish to train for different distances, so they set up buoys at various distances and we could do various courses depending on our goals. I went with the "Olympic Distance" group. Here is a Google Earth picture of the two loops we did.
The first loop is in red. We went out to the first buoy, around to the second buoy, swam back to the beach and then ran back to the start. The second time we went out around the two buoys and then back to the first and then in. You can see that the first loop I overshot the buoys and was farther out. The second time I was in the middle of the pack and was in a better position.

These tracks were recorded in an i-gotU GPS data logger. I have been playing with this thing for a while and enjoying the cool bike course profiles in can create, but it really shines when tracking open water swimming. The device is really tiny and light so it can easily fit under your swim cap. It has a one button operation so you can turn it on and off while it is under your cap and it is sealed and water proof. As far as I know it is the only way to get a good handle of your speed and distance while swimming in open water.

Epic Ride #1: Calabasas to Pacific Coast Highway via Mulholland

So I have been preparing for the LA Wheelmen Grand Tour Double Metric Century Challenge and have been doing some incredible rides. I don't have time to do a very long ride every weekend, but I have been able to negotiate with my wife to get some long days in. I probably have done about 6 rides over 4 hours and feel pretty comfortable with doing the 200k next week.
Most of these rides were LA Wheelmen trainer rides, which they start in the spring with a new one each week. These ride slips are a great resource because I have really wanted to expand my list of available rides from the usual trek up Angeles Crest. Sometimes I am able to go on the regularly scheduled day, but usually I just print out the route slip from the webpage and go on my own.
The first ride I did with the LA Wheelman was a ride from Calabasas to the Pacific Coast through the Santa Monica Mountains. It was only my second chance to through these mountains. If you look at the profile of the route below, you'll see that the ride starts with a very steep but short climb in the very beginning. The climb is not very tough when you are fresh, but on the way back I was dreading that climb the entire way.

The first quarter of the ride was just beautiful. It was pleasantly cool with penty of shade through rolling hills with farms and ranches along the route. The next quarter of the ride started to get tougher. You had to climb up over the mountains to get to the ocean. I got a flat because there was slash in the sidewall of my tire. I felt pretty stupid about it because I had gotten a flat in the last ride I did and forgot to check the tire. I first tried to patch the tube, but it didn't hold. Then I felt really stupid because I should have just replaced the tube since I had one with me and now I only had one C02 cartridge to do it. It seemed like it took me forever, but I finally got it fixed by putting some cardboard separating the inside the tire and tube and replacing the tube. Now I had no CO2 left so I just crossed my fingers that I would make it through the rest of the ride with no more flats.

The climb was beautiful and there was still cool temperatures, but descending down to the ocean was just fantastic. It was incredible. You had to be careful to avoid stones in the road, but the views were spectacular.

Down along PCH the group stopped at a fish and chips joint for lunch, but I decided to press on back. First, it was only 10am and too early for me to eat lunch, but also I am slow and I figured I really needed that time to get back over the mountains, so I gobbled down a Balance bar and some Clif Shot Bloks and was off.

The way back was rough. First, it really started to heat up. It was probably around 85 degrees and I was pouring out sweat. Secondly, my bike keep ghost shifting out of my 29 cog onto my 27 cog. It was incredibly annoying. The route slip showed a different route on the way back. It was very steep, but incredibly beautiful. I wish I had my camera, as there was some incredible red rock formations and wildflowers out there.

The last fourth of the ride was just terribly painful. The ride had an assigned stop at the Rock Shop, and I should have stopped, but I was too concerned about making it home in the time I had told my wife I would be back. So I just pressed on. I guess I just took off more than I could chew with this one. I was stopping under every shade tree I could find. There was another rider that looked to be about 80 riding a hybrid and wearing sandals and I was doing everything I could just to try and keep up with him. It was so hot, and I ran out of water. I thought I was going to die so I stopped at a house, and when no one answered the door I just used their hose. I think I drank a whole bottle's worth of water right there.

I keep grinding slowly on, just dreading that last final climb. I don't know how many times I just thought of throwing in the towel and calling my wife to come pick my ass up. I knew that damn climb was coming up, and I just dreaded it. But I didn't call for the SAG wagon because I knew it would take forever for her to come get me, and I didn't want to wake up my four year old daughter from her afternoon nap. So I just pushed on.

Pretty soon I ached all over. My feet hurt. My hamstrings ached. My quads burned. My hands and shoulders were numb. But then something happened. I realized that I was at the peak of that very first climb. I was there and I didn't even know I was doing that last climb. I was so shocked and happy that I just powered down the last descent to my car with just a huge grin on my face. Sixty-four and a half miles done (GPS battery died on me so the profile above has the last few miles cut off), but how in the world was I going to finish 126 miles? I had a lot of work ahead.

Next time. . . the Terrible Tujungas!

2008 Redondo Beach Triathlon

So I finally did my first triathlon for the year. There aren't too many early season races in Southern California. So unless you are doing the California Half-Iron, June is about as early as it gets, and it is about time. I enjoyed the Redondo Beach Triathlon last year and so I was looking forward to doing it again. But I didn't really train for it, because I have been training for the upcoming LA Wheelmen Grand Tour Double Metric Century Challenge. But it was a sprint race and a C race on my race schedule, so I figured putting my run and swim training on maintenance would be ok.

The good news is that I finished higher in the rankings than last year, but the bad news is that I was nearly two minutes slower this year, which to be frank was disappointing. In the end the difference nearly all came down to the run, and reveals that my run needs alot of work.

The Swim

At 1000 meters, the swim is a little long for a sprint triathlon, so the event favors good swimmers. I'm not a good swimmer, but pathetically enough it is my fastest sport of the three. Last year I had a problem moving too far the the left and then swinging wide as I went around the final buoy. This caused me to get caught in some kind of rip current near the pier, and I made very slow progress in the final exit from the water. So this year I was determined to stay close to the buoy's even if it meant going through the inevitable crush zones where all the athletes are vieing for the same inside lane around the buoy.

I was feeling comfortable and confident and I was really surprised that I basically found a group of guys and stuck with them for the entire swim course. This has never actually happened to me before. I did swing a little too wide in the first half of the swim, but got back on course for the second half. The water was very calm so getting out was like a breeze.

My time was just a few seconds slower than last year at 22:57 for the 1000 meters. That is about a 2:18/100meters (not including the run up the beach) which seems pretty fast for me. I rarely go that fast in the pool, but maybe the course was measured short or my wetsuit made me faster. What I think is most likely is that I was probably swimming slightly slower than last year, but I swam a shorter course by staying closer to the buoys. My swim definitely needs lots of work, but it was about what I expected.

T1

Going up that hill from the beach to the transition area is murder, and I had to walk at least half of it. The only problem I had in transition was getting my wetsuit off. I had a little difficulty, but did not sit down so I probably did better than last year at 1 minute and 56 seconds, but I really should be able to get that down to around a minute to a minute and a quarter. That will be a goal for me for my upcoming events.

The Bike

I put on my bike shoes during the bike leg. I did that last year and had issues because another guy closed my bike shoes. Why didn't I learn?! I closed them this year. I thought I was closing them in such a way that they would be wide open, but no such luck. I must have taken at least two minutes to finally get those damn shoes on. I probably should have practiced more, as I haven't practiced since last year.

After getting my shoes on I kept the bike at around 220 watts for nearly the entire course. My lactate threshold is around 190 so I figured for such a short course 220 would be a good pace. People were staying to the right more than last year, but there still were alot of kids, and they had a tendency to weave back and forth right in front of you.

The best part of the course is a fast downhill loop followed by a short but steep hill. I did my best to pass as many people as possible on that downhill because I know they were going to get some distance from me on that uphill. Actually I had an advantage in my road bike on that downhill because I could stay aero in the drops and still maintain good control going around the loop, whereas alot of the people on tri-bikes had to get up on the hoods and slowdown to maintain control.

I had no problem getting out of my tri shoes as I was coming into T2. Now if only I could do a flying dismount. . .

So I did the six miles in 20 minutes and 42 seconds, which averages out to about 17.4 miles per hour. With all the bike training I have been doing I was hoping for better. I guess this just goes to show that specificity is the name of the game. I have been doing lots of bike training, but it has nearly all been long distance endurance training. I need to do those intervals!

T2

T2 was pretty fast at 1 minute and 24 seconds. I put on my running shoes without socks, which made it a bit easier. I was risking blisters, but I figured how could I possibly get blisters over only two miles. I also put on body Glide on my feed earlier, but I have no idea how much remained after the swim and running up the beach in bare feet. But it worked out ok, as I didn't get any blisters.

The Run

Here is where it gets ugly. My legs felt like lead. I haven't done a brick in several months. Boy, did it show. I was really working hard, but I was barely moving. My Polar RS800 was telling me that I was doing about a 12:30 pace. Ugh!

My legs started to feel a little better about a third of the way into the run, but by then my heart rate was really high. I'm not sure how high it was because my HRM lost the signal during the swim and so I didn't have any heart rate readings for the first half of the run. I finally remembered how to get it to find the signal later, but by that time the race was nearly over. I kinda miss my my S625x for races for this reason. It could keep the signal in the swim and I would have a heart rate for the entire event.

For the final hill I dug deep and ran the whole way with a final strong sprint at the end. I finished the two miles in 22 minutes and 7 seconds. That would be around an 11 minutes per miles pace, but probably the course was short. That was still nearly two minutes longer than last year, so my run has really slipped up.

My running has been really inconsistent since the LA Marathon. That's partly because I have been focused on my bike training, but also because I tend to want to run long and don't do much speed work or tempo running. This just trains you to run slow. So now I definitely know that I need to focus on short, fast running for the next few months.

My overall time was 1 hour, 9 minutes and 6 seconds placing 9th (out of 22) in the Clydesdale division (last year I was 22nd out of 41) so that was definitely an improvement.

King of the Mountain

At least that is how I feel. This morning I met up with a few members of my tri club to go for a bike ride up Angeles Crest. I went up many time last year, each time getting a little farther and farther. My goal was to eventually reach the top of Mt. Wilson. Here is what the profile looks like.


It is just up and up and up. I wasn't sure how far I wanted to go up this morning because this is only the third ride I have done outdoors this year. I basically spent all winter on the trainer and let the bike really slide in favor of my marathon training. I had allocated a three hour ride for today on my training plan, and frankly I wasn't sure if I could go for that long on these hills.

It was still dark when we started out a 6:15am. I don't usually ride in the dark, but there is very little traffic on highway two that early in the morning and I was with a group so I felt ok about it. I also brought along a high visibility jacket, red blinkers and a high intensity blinking LED headlight. Some of the others had no blinkers, no reflectors, no nothing -- and to make it worse they were riding in the middle of the road. Let's give ourselves a fighting chance here people!


Around 7:00am the sun finally came out and I started to sweat so I took my jacket off. Getting the right mix of clothing when cycling in cold weather has taken my a while and I still have alot to learn. I was wearing a Craft Windstopper base layer which I really like. It keeps you warm, but I never feel hot in it, and the windstopper material is great for the descents when it gets really, really cold. I was also wearing a pair of Castelli Primo bib knicker shorts. They have a fleece interior which really helps keep in warmth, but they are not full length so when the sun does come out you are not roasting. Other than that it was just a team jersey and armwarmers.


As I went farther up though it got colder and colder. There is actually snow up there. In fact, I was just up there last week for snow play with the family. We did some sledging and built a snowman. So it is definitely cold, at least in the shade. You went from being quit comfortable in the sun and then once you moved into shadow there would be this chill that just crept down into you bones. I quickly put my jacket back on. It helped, but it would make me sweat when I was in the sun.


This is a photo taken about an hour and a half in. You can see the road where I came up and in the distance you can make out the Los Angeles basin. At this point I was doing betting than expected, and so I decided that I would go for another hour and turn around, which would allow me to finish up in about 3.2 hours. I passed Clear Creek which is where I usually turn around and I felt really strong. A thought passed into my mind that maybe I could make it all the way to Mt. Wilson today.


Here is the view at about 2.25 hours. That is the way I came up. It is pretty spectacular in person. I decided that I was going to just keep going and see if I could make it to Mt. Wilson. I was not pressed for time which is unusual. This was because I had left extra early, and because I was not expected back until noon. So I thought why not. Let's go for it. I finally got to Mt. Wilson road and became very excited. It looked like it was going to happen. Mt. Wilson road is a little different than highway two. It is steeper in parts, but then has a few downhills and flat sections mixed in rather than just straight up.


This is the view about two miles from the top. There was lots of snow everywhere and it was getting colder and colder the higher I got. I finally got to the top at exactly three hours. That's 19.7 miles and over 5,200 feet of vertical climbing. Unfortunately the observatory pavilion was closed so I didn't get to see the view of the entire San Gabriel and Los Angeles valleys. It opens in April first so I guess I'll have to go back. But I do have proof that I made it to the top.


The way down was painful. Painful for my face and fingers. It was very cold and I was going about 30-35 mph. I had to keep my mouth closed or felt like my teeth were going to freeze and pop out. Every so often I had to stop and rub my hands vigorously to get some feeling back. I was pretty stupid to not bring my wind gloves. But I made it back. I got a flat a couple miles from my car. I was just thinking about how I had been up here many times and that I had never gotten a flat even with all the gravel. If you ever have those thoughts, stop! Here is a view of the path I took courtesy of Google Earth.

Details, Details!

My modus operandi is to get up early, pack my gym bag with my work clothes and then head to the gym wearing my workout clothes. This inevitably will lead to problems. Once I forgot my dress socks. Another time I forgot my belt. I have forgotten my underwear. I thought that I had done just about everything, and each time I learned an important lesson to be more careful and not make that mistake again. It has been a while, but today I broke new ground.


I guess that on my way out of the house I grabbed two dress shoes that don't match. In my defense, they look pretty similar from the back and are a similar color. At least I also was successful in getting a left and right shoe. So what to do? Wear my workout footwear to work? Flip-flops don't go with my suit too well.


Oh well, live and learn.

Precious Daylight

I was really looking forward to spring when I could ditch the trainer and ride outdoors. Here in sunny California weather is not usually an issue so what keeps me on the trainer is the amount of daylight. Due to my schedule I usually can only fit in a ride early in the morning, and I refuse to ride in the dark. I just don't think it is safe to share the road with groggy morning commuters in the dark.

So I was very excited to be out and about this Spring, but this year's earlier daylight savings time has put a serious kink into my plans. Looks like there's going to be another month of trainer rides at least.

This morning I did something a little different. I made my usual trip to the gym near my work, but took my bike. Instead of running, swimming, or using a spin bike at the gym I just got in a ride, and because I put my commute before my ride instead of after it I could ride just as the sun was coming up. It was alot of hassle getting all my bike gear packed up, and I always worry about someone breaking into my car and stealing my bike, so I don't know how often I will do this, but I really enjoyed it this morning.

Today I also decided to take the opportunity to do an outdoor Lactate Threshold test on the Ballona Creek bike path. It was the longest time I have ever spent in the drops. I think I may have spent perhaps a maximum if five minutes in the drops before, but this time I spent the entire 30 minutes of the test in the drops!

I never know how much credence to put into the results, but here they are. My new LT is 194 watts (a big jump up from 174). That actually seems about right to me just based on 30 min power historical bests I have recorded in the last few months, but the LT heart rate seems way too high at 164bpm. That is up from 146 and ten beats higher than my last running LT test. I'm skeptical of that number, but if it holds up that is an amazing increase.

Pasadena Triathlon

I didn't do this event, because I it was only a week after the LA Marathon, but it is a local race for me. I had actually forgotten about it this year, but on my usual Saturday ride to the Rose Bowl on my way to Angeles Crest I came across the start.

This triathlon is interesting in that it is in reverse order. There is a running start then a transition to the bike and then a final swim finish in the nearby Rose Bowl Aquatics Center.

Looks like alot of fun. Maybe I'll try it next year.

My New Toy

I bought a new road bike last year, but I almost regretted not getting a triathlon bike. I always planned on getting one, but maybe two or three years down the line. Every time I saw a triathlon bike I would just love the look of the aero bars, the aggressive geometry and the aero tubing. Oh the aero tubing! How could I ever think of waiting that long. So I knew I had to keep the cost low so I knew I was looking at a used aluminium bike. I also knew that I wanted Campy components because my road bike is Campy and that makes it easy to swap wheels or cassettes. This is particularly important if you have a set of race wheels or a wheel integrated power meter like a Powertap, which I do. There aren’t too many Campy equipped Tri bikes out there. You see some on Ebay, but rarely in the size I would need. I have a long torso and short legs so standover height on bikes is a problem for me. I really like Cervelo frames but they have really high standovers. I would either need a bike with a long top tube for its size or something with a compact geometry.

I found this used Raleigh frame on Ebay for cheap. It has a really long top tube and just the right standover, so it works out great. It is a Kinesis frame made out of 7000 series heat treated aluminium. Very similar frames are sold under the brands of Kinesis UK, Jamis, K2, Schwinn, etc., but I have never seen one exactly like this one. Usually they have carbon seat stays, which this one does not or they have external cable routing. This one also has vertical dropouts while the Jamis Trilogy has horizontal dropouts. Any ways it’s a relatively low end frame, but what makes it cool is that it is a Raleigh. What’s cool about that you might ask? It has been a long time in the US since Raleigh was a cool brand. But I like the uniqueness of the bike, because Raleigh doesn’t make triathlon bikes. That’s right. They don’t make them. Well, Raleigh’s South African franchise makes one very similar to this with external cable routing called the 6000, but Raleigh USA does not make a triathlon bike. So how did this one come about? Raleigh sponsors a few cycling teams and made this one up custom for one of their teams. (Or more accurately ordered one from Kinesis in Taiwan and put their stickers on it.) I’m guess that it was made for the Recycled Cycling Team.

Another cool thing is that I think a Raleigh bike is the perfect companion to my Bianchi. These two companies are the two oldest bike manufacturers in the world and both have charted similar paths. Both made their mark in of cycling racing history, both have diluted their brand appeal by selling cheap mass market bikes and both have made a recent resurgence on the cycling scene as of late. They both also traditionally wear Campy. So there you go, a perfect match.

I built up the bike with new parts sourced from Ebay, ProBikeKit.com, Excel Sports and TriSports.com. let me just say that ProBikeKit is awesome. I went with Chorus components because I saved so much money on the frame I had extra money to put into the components. My favourite part of this bike is the crank. The new UltraTorque crank from Campy is so elegant in design that I just had to have it, even though plenty of traditional square taper cranks were available.

The hardest parts to find where the bar end shifters. It was not so much that you couldn’t find them, but more that you couldn’t find them for a reasonable price. They cost about three times the price of Dura Ace bar end shifters and for no reason other than they are less common.

For brakes I went with the Tektro R740. Lighter than Dura Ace or Campy Record. Another factor in the choice was that I wanted a quick release on the brake callipers because bar end brake levers never have quick releases. Campy brakes don’t have quick releases, and putting Shimano on a Campy bike is just weird – thus the Tektros. I also considered FSA brakes, but I found a great price on the R740s and couldn’t pass them up.

For the cockpit I wanted Vision. I never really considered anything else. It just looks so cool. I have always wanted Vision aerobars and now I’ve got them. The Vision carbon bars are not some much lighter than the aluminium ones so I just went aluminium with carbon armrests.

The wheelset is Zefiro K52 deep section carbon wheels. Nothing special here. A good solid wheelset that is a little heavy, but has an aluminium clincher rim so that I don’t have to swap out brake pads when I change wheels. They were also very cheap. I couldn’t even consider getting race wheels unless they were very cheap.

I tried a Profile Design Tri Strike saddle I had lying around, but there is no way I could get comfortable on that thing in aero position. In aero position you are crouched so far forward that you are basically sitting on your balls. I don’t know how anyone can do it with a regular saddle. I invested in an ISM saddle. It is basically the same shape as the Profile Design Tri Strike but with the nose cut off. That way my guys can hang free and I won’t suffer. It also has long rails so you can move the saddle forward or back as needed.

I love my new ride!

LA Marathon Photo Log

Running Update

I have this track record of doing a race and then taking forever of putting up my race reports. First I have to wait to get some photos. Then I have to write it up. By that time it is so late that I think I shouldn't even bother. Oh well. Here are a few photos of me running the Inuagural Rose Bowl Half Marathon in December.




I paced myself pretty well and gave it a good kick for the final 400 meters. I was fine for about 2 minutes after finishing and then the pain set in. The next day I could barely walk. My time was 2:19:27.

The LA Marathon is off. It was a hard choice. The Holidays messed up my training a bit, but I was getting back on track. I had a couple injuries, but I was dealing with them just fine, and then I got slamed with a chest infection and there went two weeks of training. When I started back up again I couldn't run more than 5 miles and even then my heart rate was going through the roof at even a very slow pace. I still worked at it and it is improving. but there is no way I will be ready by March 2 without really pushing myself to the extreme and risking a serious injury. So I have been trying to do more cycling lately and then my chest cold is back... I guess I should just forget early spring events from now on. My winter training just sucks!

However, I don't want to give up on the marathon goal just yet. Instead of the LA Marathon I'm thinking of doing a self supported (or rather family supported) event in April or May. That would give me enough time to get back on track and hopefully be injury and illness free.

Redondo Beach Race Report

It feels like it has been a long time since my last race. I originally had not planned to do the Redondo Beach Triathlon, because I was more ambitious and wanted to do something a little harder, the Wildflower olympic distance triathlon. But illness and other unplanned events meant that training went very poorly and I simply wasn’t ready. I’m glad now that I made that choice because I was dying out there on this sprint with a very flat course. I do have an Olympic distance race coming up, the San Jose International Triathlon and so actually I thought that Redondo would be a good training event just in time to peak for San Jose two weeks later.

Because I treated the event as a training exercise it took most of the pressure off, but I was still a bit worried, partly because it seemed I had not had any good training over the winter, and because a stomach flu pretty much took me totally out the two weeks preceding the race. Just when I was supposed to be peaking I was in bed with a fever and couldn’t eat anything. I lost five pounds and when I did start up with training again I couldn’t do anything more than jog for 30 minutes.

I just told myself that it is all about pacing, and yet I also didn’t have my most important tool in pacing, my heart rate monitor. I recently purchased a Polar Power Sensor for my bike, but unfortunately I discovered that it does not communicate properly with my Polar heart rate monitor. All signs point to the power sensor and not my monitor as being the problem, but I sent them both to Polar so they could test them and find out what the deal is. So until I get them back I am without a heart rate monitor. So because of all this Redondo was a training event and a chance to learn some pacing by feel, which is probably very useful anyways.

When we arrived at the event the temperature was pretty cold and I wasn’t sure if my triskin was going to be warm enough. I had brought some arm warmers and an extra bike jersey, but ultimately I decided not to use them. In California the beach is always overcast in the mornings in the summer, but it burns up pretty quickly and so I gambled that I would be ok.

The Swim

The water was very calm. For such a short event the swim was actually pretty long at 1000 meters (about a half mile). Actually I think it may have been longer. It seemed on the long side. My group (clydes and old-timers) was pretty small so there was no real jostling for position. I got into a good groove pretty early and just kept an even pace. I was passing a few people and after a while I passed a few people in the earlier wave which made me pretty excited. My problem with open water swimming is that I tend to swim to the left and no matter how carefully I sight I seem to swim too wide of the buoys adding extra unnecessary yardage. This time it really hurt me because the swim exit was close to the pier and I thing there was a greater undertow near the pier. I was swimming and going nowhere. I saw people about ten yards to my right swimming right in, but it was like I was stuck. I picked up my pace and swam as hard as I could and still was not moving. I could look down and some plants growing on the bottom of the ocean and I wasn’t moving relative to them at all. So finally I swam sideways toward the other swimmers and then powered in to shore. The whole exercise probably added a whole 3-4 minutes to my time and left me barely able to stand as I pulled myself out of the water. My swim time was 22:10 which I was happy with, because it was at least 2.2 minutes per 100 meters and actually much faster when you consider running up the beach and swimming wide of the buoys.

T1


I was so tired and my heart was beating so fast from the swim that I was hyperventilating and couldn’t run. I had to sit down to get my wetsuit on. Actually I thing I just used that as an excuse to sit down. This time I was trying something different. I left my bike shoes on the bike and would put them on during the ride. One of considerations I was giving to which pedal to pick for my new bike was what type of cleat is best to run in during transition. There is no good answer for this. All bike shoes are pretty bad for running (or really just walking quickly). Then I got to thinking that I have triathlon bike shoes and really the only point of having such shoes is that you can put them on while on the bike. So I figured I would take the plunge and do that. For the last few weeks, every time I came in or went out from my house on my bike I would practice getting in and out of my shoes. In fact, the day before the race I spent an hour riding around my neighborhood, and all I was doing is getting in and out of my bike shoes as fast as I could. I actually am getting pretty good at getting in and out of the shoes, but I still cannot swing my leg over the bike to switch from running to biking. I just don’t have the right balance yet and am too afraid of laying down my nice new carbon Bianchi. So I just stopped, stepped over then then pedaled away, without a running start. I wasn’t about to learn this all on race day. Unfortunately I don’t have my transition times, because the timing company is not reporting them.

The Bike

Putting my shoes on during the bike would have worked fine, but one of the Velcro straps on my shoe was partially closed. I know how it happened. I saw one of the coaches of the racer next to me on the bike rack do it. It was supposedly to keep it from touching his bike. Well excuse me, I racked my bike there first, so he should just move his own bike and should keep his damn paws off my bike. That’s what I was thinking at the time, but I had to rush off and get body marked at the time so figured I would deal with it later and then forgot. But here I am on the ride trying to get my foot into my shoe and it is all closed up. I tried to reach down and unfasten the strap, but while the shoe hangs down from the pedal it is upside down and hard to reach. I finally got it, but it probably took at least 90 second of me fiddling with it. The whole time I kept thinking, “is this really saving time or am I just extending T1 into my bike.” I don’t know.
Here you can see me before I get my feet into my shoes.



The bike course was short and fast – a two 3 mile loop course. The first thing I notice is that it was crowded with people everywhere. USAT rules require that you leave space between you and the rider in front of you unless you are passing. And if you are passing you must complete the pass in something like 7 seconds. The passed person must fall back and have the required space before attempting a pass. When that is just a ridiculous rule when you have so many people going so many different speed. There was about five different lanes of “traffic” on the course and the slower people were not always, or even often, on the right. There were little kids on their cruisers swerving every which way right in front of fast guys on their Cervelos and it was just madness. I just tried to stay to the right when I could and tried to stay out of other people’s way. I just which others were doing the same.

There was a short downhill to a roundabout in front of the pier. That was really fun. I tucked down low to get as little wind resistance as possible and tried to take the turn as fast as possible. It was pretty thrilling. Then there was a short hill to get back up where we started. Here is a picture of my climbing the hill and working hard. The lady in front of my is looking pretty good, but I think she went a bit too fast in transition because she put her helmet on backwards.



Taking my shoes off on the bike as I came into transition went smoothly with no problems. Total cycling time: 24:35. Now I believe that figure includes my time for both T1 and T2, because the timing company didn’t break those out. If it didn’t include that time it would be a slow bike at 14.6 mph. But if you estimate around 5 minutes for T1 and T2, then it comes out to around 18.4 mph which is more my speed for such as short course.

T2

Not much to say here. Just grabbed my shoes, visor and put on my race belt. I probably went harder on the bike than I should have and my legs where feeling a bit rubbery. But I just told myself, “slow and steady” and headed out.

The Run



The run seemed to never end, even though it was only 2 miles. While a few people passed me on the bike it seemed that everyone was passing me on the run. Usually it is this time in the race that the elite women who started several waves back from me start to overtake me, and there certainly where those. But there were also the old men and even little children. Man, you know things are going bad when the little girls start whipping your butt. You go girl!



I finally made it across the finish line and was hurting pretty bad, but I was excited to have raced again and felt the rush. My run time was 20:30, which I do not believe included any transition time, because otherwise I would of have a very fast run (for me at least). As it is, it would mean 10:15 minute miles, which is on the high end for me and certainly much faster than it felt I was going. I thought I was going about 14 minute per mile pace.

Overall, I completed the event in 1:07:15. Compared to my last race I did about the same pace on the bike and the run, and improved a bit on the bike from an average speed of 17.2 mph at Malibu to about 18.4 mph (estimate). I hoped for a better improvement, but frankly I’ll take whatever I can get.

I happened to mention to another racer the fact that I will be doing an Olympic distance triathlon in two weeks and he shook his head and said, “good luck going long.” I never thought of the Olympic distance as being that long before, but after feeling how tired I was at this event, it put some fear in me and I only have one good week of training left before I have to taper, so I am making the most of it.

Special thanks to Dan Field for the race photos!

A Cold and Gloomy River Ride

This morning I went on my first long ride of the year. I decided to start slow with my training and limit it to 30 miles of flats, which made a river trail ride the optimum choice. I choose the Rio Hondo is the closest to my home and has the advantage that I can spend more time on the trail and less on the street getting to the trail. The trail is in pretty good shape with very few potholes, but there are large cracks in the pavement which can rattle an aluminum frame pretty hard.

Today's ride was thirty miles, and while it was cold and dark, my spirits were up. I am excited about training again, and excited about trying out new things. The new thing to try out today was winter bike clothing.

I still have not got my wardrobe down for this kind of winter riding. I have tried different combinations of things over the last two months and have made improvements, but I still have much to learn. I wore some heavy weight cycling tights, but they have no wind resistance. At speed I am really cold, but while stopped at a light I warm up. On top I wore a long sleeve base layer, a short sleeve jersey and a wind breaker. It was probably too much, because I was soaked with sweat when I got home. I wonder if leaving off the short sleeve jersey would work better, or perhaps I need a windbreaker that breathes more.

On my head I wore a windtex headband, and a fleece muffler around my neck. The muffler works great because you can move it up or down to give you more or less ventilation as needed, but the headband did not work too well. It certainly is good when you start out the ride, because it protects my sensitive ears from the the wind, but halfway through the ride my head was starting to pound from the cold. I took the headband off, and I was actually warmer. I think the headband was causing my head to sweat and the sweat was causing my head to freeze. Ugh. It hurts just to think about it.

Here is a picture of the Rio Hondo. As you can see there is actual water in the river, which is only the case in the middle of winter. The rest of the time it is just a big concrete ditch.

The clouds were coming in and I thought it would rain, but then they broke and the sun finally came out. This picture was taken just as dark clouds were starting to break up. It is spooky in the gloom from the clouds, but the pond is the prettiest spot along the trail. The wildlife included some geese and a few homeless people. In the background you can see the outline of Mt. Wilson. That is where I am going next week.