Race Report: Big Rock Olympic Triathlon

First race of 2016. I wasn't really ready for this one as I've been injured, out of shape, having some gastro issues and just generally not ready. But I signed up for it last year thinking all my Ironman momentum might get me on the podium in 2016. Well the fall has been brutal and so I gave it my best and it turned out better than I had hoped but obviously not where I wanted to be.

Race details:
Lake Perris, California
Swim: 0.8 mi - open water, 2 loops, calm lake
Bike: 24.8 mi - road, 3 loops around the lake recreational area, very hilly with uphills and downhills
Run: 6.3 mi - run, 2 loops out and back, fairly flat

Course Recorded Finish: 2:55:30

Garmin Splits:


Race Analysis:
Transitions:
Nothing much to say here. T1 had a long run uphill in sand from the lake to transition. Mine was relatively quick considering I wore a wetsuit. T2 was also similarly quick. I took a couple extra seconds talking to Quinn who I ran into there as he was coaching some Team in Training folks. But otherwise, good transitions.

Swim:

This swim was amazing! I can't recall having a better swim experience in any race. My 1:33 pace was super awesome for me! I don't even know if I've swam that fast in the pool! The only thing I can say is that I felt a lot slower than my watch says. It just seemed like a struggle even though it went so well! So I was pleasantly surprised to see that! Plus I beat last year's time by almost 20 min! Always using a wetsuit when possible from now on!

Bike:

As I write these race reports and look at my Garmin splits, it seems like there is always one thing that's obvious. It's that my bike SUCKS. With the exception of Ironman 70.3 Superfrog and Ironman Florida, my bike in almost every other race has seemed to blow giant chunks. And this is yet another example of that. I knew it was going to be tough to get to my goals as I was doing the bike. The uphills just seemed super challenging and I didn't feel like the downhills were long enough for me to make up those struggles.

What's sad is that I did this race with the better bike fit and the aero wheels. While I don't have the supreme triathlon racing setup, mine isn't too bad. And yet here I am still sucking. I think the answer is that the motor pushing the bike, aka myself, just needs to get better. I'm fat and 10 lbs overweight from my peak Ironman days just months ago. But my bike needs to get a lot better if I'm going to continue to do triathlons.

The last point is that my bike this time was 8.5 min slower this year than last year. That's no bueno. I mean the conditions were slightly different (super hot, very windy, lots of headwinds) but I don't like that excuse. I need to be better and that's the bottom line.

Run:

I have mixed feelings about the run as I review the data. When I first did the race, I was actually pretty happy with my run. It wasn't my blazing PR run that I had at Malibu, but I felt like that 8:22 min/mile pace was held pretty steadily, I felt like I was running a good pace, not saving up too much. I felt like things were generally good and I didn't walk despite the heat and the desire to do so.

But having reviewed the data and having compared to last year's data, I am a little disappointed. I vaguely remember walking to start last year's run. I was gassed from really trying to push it on the back and just gave up early and walked. I picked it up but still walked a decent amount. Yet at the end of the day, I only beat last year's time by like 20 seconds. I guess the upside is that I felt strong and kept a good pace, but that's about the only really good news. How could I have walked a short couple stints and still had almost the same time? I guess it just leaves me with some doubts after feeling good about it.

Anyway, the race ended up being better than the somber discussion here. I was 5 min under my goal of 3 hours and I beat last year's time by over 12 minutes. Those aren't things to be discouraged about. I should be happy. I should be happy that I did all this with hotter conditions and brutal headwinds. But here I sit again, stuck at 4th place out of 5, missing the podium by 10 minutes and just generally feeling like I've failed despite the better overall time...

Pics:

Pre and Post Race:

 

 

Race Setup:

Creeping the Results Page (no podium... sad...):

Race Report: Ragnar SoCal

As a sponsored ambassador for Team Nuun, there can sometimes be special opportunities to race for and with the team. One such event that I was fortunate enough to participate in was Ragnar SoCal. This is a 190.6 mile run from Huntington Beach to Coronado over 26+ hours on a 12 person coed team. The race was a blast and a success as we took first place in the Mixed Division! So awesome! And so many great people that I met as well!

Race details:
Huntington Beach, California to Coronado, California
Relay Run: 190.5 miles
12 Runners, 3 Legs each, 2 Vans

Runner 4 (me!) Legs:

Garmin Splits:

Race Summary:

Well what a fun first Ragnar! Throw 12 people into 2 vans and let them run 190ish non-stop miles... Pretty crazy. But with just the right mix of a team, it can be a blast and it was! My responsibility was Runner 4 and burning thru my legs of 3.1, 5.3 and 6.3 miles as fast as I could!

On Leg 1, you'll notice that this was my easiest leg... by a lot! It was flat and only a 5k. While that's not the shortest leg out there, it definitely was short given my recent history of running. And I basically killed it for my personal time. I mean, our team was crazy awesome with some runners with sub-6min/mi paces, but my lowly pace of 8:10 min/mi was definitely exceed for this leg. And no Josh run would be complete without a 180bpm Avg HR and it climbing to 200+ bpm levels!

Leg 2 was a little bit tougher. It wasn't quite a 10k, but it took me just as long given the elevation gain. Garmin doesn't make it look like much with the scale, but there was 1 relatively steep uphill near the middle and the finish was a grueling uphill with a switchback. I'm proud to say I powered through both without walking and actually was killing it at a pretty solid pace. And really solid considering that I ran this leg at midnight!!!

Leg 3, my last and final leg, was by far the toughest. This wasn't the case for all runners, but with it being a full 10k and with the course basically being a long uphill climb for the entire second half, my heart basically wanted to explode. Looking at the Garmin profile, it's amazing how it didn't climb above 200 bpm. But maybe I was just so tired from running at 7am on 2 hours of napping in a van that it just wouldn't get that high!

So that's the running summary part of this race. But Ragnar isn't really about running... Or it's maybe 30% about the running...

What I learned in my experience and what you'll see captured in the many photos I have shared below is that Ragnar is just about bonding 12 people together for a common cause... With that cause just being the chase of finishing a relay run. There were just so many fun times along the way. It started with bringing 12 strangers together to decorate a van and have some beers while getting to know each other. Then we set off on our journey and went from being strangers to the best of friends in no time!

We had a great crew! Everyone was pretty laid back and easy going. We had plenty of lighthearted fun and jokes were told often. Since everyone was a fitness person, we LOVED taking pictures! But everything about the group is what really made the Ragnar experience really fun!

There is one more thing tho... Well two... The first isn't as exciting, but you can tag other vans along the way. Some teams used magnets, we just used our window markers and tagged little Nuun "n" on other vans. But... there was one van in particular that started with us which had the UofA and "Bear Down" written on their van. So naturally, being a USC guy, I just had to. You can see the pic way down below of me sneaking and tagging their van with a "Fight On SC" mark. LOVED IT!!!

So the really fun part when you have a group of fitness oriented people who are competitive and fast is that Ragnar has this unofficial lighthearted idea of "kills." And yes, it's as fun as it sounds! When you're out running on the course, you can earn a "kill" by simply passing another runner and not letting them pass you before your leg is over. It's a novel concept. But our group loved the idea and loved the competitiveness of it and so we just had a blast trying to score "kills", talking about our "kills" and just generally chasing down all opportunities to get some "kills" and then discussing our funny stories about kills or how many we got. And we got plenty... Van 1 had a shorter distance to run and racked up 258 kills! But Van 2 ran an extra 30 miles while notching a total of 307 kills. So in total we scored 565 kills! Ridiculous! But soon much fun to get and laugh and talk about! Definitely one of my favorite aspects of Ragnar!

All-in-all, just a wonderfully great and fun experience! I had a blast with 11 other runners who started as strangers who I can now call friends. Definitely glad I had the experience I did and major thanks go out to Team Nuun for putting it together and the Brand Marketing Manager Brian for getting us all together and setting us up for success! We even got 1st place in our Mixed Division! Icing on the cake!

Oh and I got an extra medal! Yay!!! Because I did the LA Marathon and the Ragnar SoCal, there was a Golden State Double Medal for doing them both. 2 races, 3 medals... My kind of deal!!!

Pics:
Van Decoration:

Race Start:

My Legs:

Van Transitions:

Finish Line:

Food Pics:

Van 1 Candid Shots:

This pic I'm throwing in for humor! I obviously ran with Team Nuun which is a hydration and electrolyte supplement product. So as part of an April Fool's joke, I sent this picture to our leader and Nuun Brand Marketing Manager with the quote "we got our ice and hydration!" He def wanted to (jokingly) kick me off the team before I said April Fools! Haha Just part of the lighthearted fun of being part of a Ragnar Relay team with some cool peeps!