Did the Angels Camp Triathlon this weekend. It was billed as a sprint with a 1000 yard (.63 mile) swim, 16 mile bike, 4 mile run. Foreshadowing!
What we got was a 1500 yard (at least) swim, 13.6 mile bike and 4 mile run. My GPS showed .98 miles (1650 yards) on the swim but as you will see below I did a little extra because I cannot swim straight.
Was I even ready for a sprint? Last year I commuted to work on my bicycle and my bike fitness really improved. Since I was getting in a workout every day on the bike, with about 500 feet of climb, swimming and running got short shrift. My knees appreciated the lack of running. After the new year I stopped commuting, and the workout calendar became a mix of Sunday bike rides and occasional weekday swims. It was a rainy winter and spring and trail running just got left out.
Once I signed up for this tri the swim workouts got a bit longer and I got in a few runs. They were a bit labored. There was also one trip to a local lake to make sure the new wetsuit (my first) was OK. It worked fine and I comfortably put in 1000 meters and thought I was prepared.
Just about every time I've signed up for a morning race (runs mostly, but there was the one other tri), any attempt to eat breakfast just made my stomach upset, often until well into the race itself hours later. Anything solid would sit there like a brick. To collect one more data point, the raceday plan here was to eat nothing before the race. Liquids only. At the beginning of the race I felt fine, and never had any stomach issues. So that part was a success.
Just about every useful nutrient in my bloodstream at the start of the race was hanging around from the previous night's carbo load.
The beer was helpful in getting to bed at a reasonable hour. Registration opened at 7 and the race was scheduled to start at 8:30.
After sleeping through 'til about 3am and then dozing on and off 'til 6:30 it was time to load the truck and head for the park. Setting up went quickly. Turnout was light. All the rack spaces were pretty well located for quick transitions.
Here's one of the lifeguards towing the marker buoy out onto the course. We all looked at him from the top of the boat ramp and though he left it kind of far out, which was funny because it drifted even farther away after that.
There were only 2 porta potties to support the whole event. The frappucino in a can was a definite no then. That left plain water before the race.
The swim began after a short meeting with the race director. There were only 66 entries, so it was a mass start, everyone at once, which meant my plan to acclimate in the water during someone else's wave start didn't work out too well. The water was cold (guessing 60-62 degrees) and it took a couple hundred yards before I could put my face in the water and not have a violent involuntary reaction. That made it hard to breathe out with control. I never really had comfortable form the whole way because of this, but settled in after 400 yards or so and made steady progress.
You can see from my GPS track that I have a mean hook (hint: to the left) when I don't have a handy painted lane line to follow, and should continue to work on form and sighting.
Upon wading out of the water onto the boat ramp I removed my GPS from its hiding place in my swim cap and saw .98 miles and 40+ minutes. Well all right then. Olympic swim accomplished. Now I know I can do that. Speaking of the boat ramp. You climb back up this to get to the transition area. 12%-15% is recommended pitch for boat ramps. Who knew?
You left your flip flops at the bottom right?
Into transition there were maybe 5 people behind me still finishing the swim. After a none too fast transition (walk up ramp, step out of wetsuit, put on shirt, shades, helmet, gloves, socks, and road bike shoes that you have to ratchet tight). Walked the bike 10 feet into the mount area and jumped on and hit my best part of the race. Caught a few people on the first hill. One of them had a derailleur issue and actually fell over. The other was struggling and stopped to curse a bit. From there it was seeing people up the road and catching them and picking them off. The course had some rollers and one steady climb that peaked around 10%. Total elevation was not much to an Oakland Hills regular.
In graph form:
Not much to say about the bike except I tried to keep my cadence up, push the biggest gear I could with my heart rate not getting above 170 for more than the occasional moment, like attacking the tops of hills since there would be a short recovery down the other side. This worked out pretty well. Looking back and factoring in final results, I probably passed 25 people on the bike.
Bike course track:
The plan had been to rest on the last downhill bit into transition so I'd be charged for the run, but it wasn't very downhill and I had just passed someone, so, not so much.
Transition was pretty small. Everyone had a good spot.
After parking the bike I ditched the helmet and gloves, pulled my shoes off and went to pull on the running shoes. My right foot would only go halfway into the shoe and then it bottomed out. After about 3 tries I remembered where that missing clif bar was. Shook it out of the shoe, pulled it on and started lumbering away.
My calves were really tight and my heart rate jumped up whenever I tried to open up my stride and it just felt like I had no power at all. This was probably the downside to the no-food plan. Slow jog to the finish it is. The course went straight up the flank of a hill on an access road (10%) to a contour path that was narrow and nicely scenic.
Here's the full GPS data graph with elevation, speed, heart rate, cadence etc.
In the first loop of the run I caught up to one woman at about mile 1, got passed by another at about mile 3, and then in the last downhill quarter mile emptied the tank and maxed out my heart rate trying to catch one last person. For the last 50 yards this was about a 6:00 mile pace and I got 'em at the line by one second. Another 10 seconds later the urge to puke rapidly came and went.
That last position? Picking that one up came at the expense of the first place woman in the 60-69 age group. A mighty swimmer, she. Notice was just served to me that I don't have much room to let my own fitness slip in the next 20 years. One second out of 2 hours and 19 minutes.
Finishing position was 7 out of 12 men 40-49, 26th male out of 38, 34th overall out of 66. Not bad considering that the swim was long and the bike was short, and I'm a marginal swimmer and prefer the bike.
An even bigger lie than the swim distance? The BBQ. Let me say that directly. The BBQ was a lie! Cold overcooked burgers. Warm watery beans. Ketchup was very popular on this day. The Coke was a magic beverage after a hard effort though. If there had been cups with ice I might have ascended to the next plane of existence on the spot.
So yeah, it was challenging. That is sort of the point. For safety and liability sake, if I were the race promoter I would probably try and make sure the part of the event were people could drown was not 50% longer than advertised. And the tough guys who came without wetsuits expecting the advertised 65-70 degree water were in for a rude surprise. I thought I heard one person near me at the very beginning say he was turning back, but there's no way to tell from the results if someone started but did not finish.
You can tell I had a good time because a race report was up the same day (beginnertriathlete.com) and this one with pictures and GPS screen grabs is up the next day.
Next goals? More sprints. Would not rule out an olympic this year as long as it is wetsuit legal. Would like to keep getting closer to workable nutrition, and have some better run results. An ocean swim might be interesting as well. Warm ocean would be more interesting still.
Official results:
http://onyourmarkevents.com/results.asp?id=2435
