Race details:
Malibu, California
Swim: 0.93 mi - open water, ocean
Bike: 24.85 mi - road, unique course from Zuma beach to Big Rock along PCH aka Hwy 1
Run: 6.3 mi - run along the Malibu strand and parking lots
Course Recorded Finish: 2:47:25
Garmin Splits:
AG Finish: 18/61
OV Finish: 279/985
AG Race Factor: 1.41
OV Race Factor: 1.38
Race Analysis:
Transitions:
This race, I was back to being on point with my transitions. Both were in the 2 min range, but that's about right for me for this distance. I know that T1 was a little bit slower than normal due to wearing a wetsuit. I also recall that T2 was quite a bit slower since I had a sizable distance to run in my bike shoes to the bike racks. I thought to myself as I ran, "you should probably have taken your shoes off." Oh well. Thoughts for the next race...
Swim:
Upon finishing, I totally thought I had a great swim. 33 minutes was not a PR for me for this distance. Surprisingly enough, my Wildflower swim (in my Lava Pants HAHA) is currently my PR for this distance. It's pretty hilarious to think about.
Anyway, back to the swim, I also noticed that my age group swim split winner swam it in about 20 min. I also then found out that I was decently far down on my swim split. That's pretty strange for me. I'm curious if I didn't take it fast enough or if this race just had a large demographic of ex-swimmers or generally strong swimmers.
Another mental note is that I zigzagged a little bit too much. Came in too much towards the first buoy and then went a little too far out after the second buoy. Started course correcting a little bit better as the swim went on. There were some waves, but nothing major. Same with the current. All in all, a good swim split.
Bike:
The bike was probably my most impressive and obvious improvement to-date! It was a 40km PR by about 7 min. But not only that, it was a PR because everything just looks good. Despite the rolling hills, my speed and cadence generally stayed constant (with the exception of a few downhills). And most impressively, my heart rate started off pretty high, it came WAYYYYYYY down as the bike portion went on. That's not a trend I normally see, so I was stoked! The only real bummer on the bike is that Henry passed me just after the turnaround (I wanna say near mile 16), but otherwise a great bike split!
It's often good to note nutrition on race reports. On the bike, I surprisingly didn't eat anything. I'll qualify that by saying I had a Salt Stick + Caffeine pill right before the bike and I hate 3 water bottles worth of liquids: 1) water + Nuun 2) water + Gatorade + Xtend BCAA 3) water. Outside of these things, I didn't do any other calories and didn't take any bottles from the volunteers. So that's really a good thing to know about my own nutrition!
Run:
The run was another great part of this race. Keeping my pacing and nutrition on point for the bike allowed me to really have great energy and pace for the run. In fact, I was able to have just enough left in the tank to overtake Henry and speed down the finishing chute! Oh and it was a PR by about 3 minutes as well! :D
Just like the bike, I did a lot of good things on the run. First, I started off a little bit slower than where I thought I could end. Coming out the gate too strong for any split is never a good thing, so I avoid that. I also never really pushed the pace until I really needed to and you can see that in the HR plot. I stayed pretty consistent until I made up my mind (around the 4 mile mark) that I was going to chase Henry down. Then you'll see my HR climb pretty steadily until the end. But the great pacing and energy management allowed me to basically build the entire run and finish really strong!
Nutrition wise, here I didn't really eat or take in anything either. On the course, they had Herbalife electrolytes and water. So I took both at every aid station except the last one (so 4 out of 5 stations). I said no to the last one in order to not lose any time chasing Henry down, which I did in the final mile.
All in all, I had a good race, I paced myself really well and pushed it the right amounts! I was even able to save some face by passing Henry en route to the finish line! ;)
Silly race pics below:
Pre Race and Race site
Post Race Meal (Border Grill tacos and Churro Tots hooked up by LATC)
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