Quick note about this one, but I had forgot my Garmin Forerunner 910XT in my gym bag along with my HRM, so I have no real race data... Sad...
Race details:
Redondo Beach, California
Swim: 0.5 mi - open water, ocean
Bike: 6 mi - road, 2 loops on Catalina and Esplanade
Run: 2.0 mi - run, 1 loop along Redondo Pier waterfront
Course Recorded Finish: 1:01:14
Historical Comparison:
Because this is my anniversary race, I decided to throw up the historical stats and do a quick comparison. Some interesting notes here:
-Swim took a dip down in 2014 before getting quick in 2015 and 2016
-T1 has only gotten faster :)
-Bike has similarly gotten faster :)
---Although this leg is the one aided by gear as I went from a suspension unlocked mountain bike with platform pedals TO a road bike with clip-ins TO adding aero bars TO adding the rear aero wheel
-T2 has also only gotten faster :)
-Run has gotten a tad bit slower after SIGNIFICANTLY improving in 2014
---This could be attributed to the focus on going long in 2015 and 2016 whereas 2014 was more of a year of the Olympic distance
-But the good news is that my time has always gone down and I've made 1 HUGE jump from my first to my second and then a couple of 1 minute decreases. Hopefully that trend continues and I can finally break the 1 hour mark next year! We'll see...
Race Analysis:
Transitions:
Nothing much to say here. It was a sprint so I chose no wetsuit (which made it quite cold). That kept my transition time down a relative amount. Nothing much to be said otherwise. I mean the quick transition gave me a brief moment with Dave in T1, but otherwise, nothing eventful. There is a sweet pic that Amanda got of me with a Honey Stinger in my mouth as I'm grabbing my bike!
Swim:
The swim was great! Despite being a little cold, there weren't too many waves and there wasn't a ton of traffic (although I mostly stayed out of the front group charging in because there were mentions of stingrays in the area). But the swim was pretty good and solid outside of me briefly sighting off another group of swimmers who had deviated wayyyyyy left... A quick course correct and I didn't lose too much time.
Bike:
This bike is always a little tough. It's short at a touch over 6 miles. So it's really hard to make up any ground on people plus you really have to pound the pedals as a lot of folks can really push it for such a short distance. I admittedly wasn't ready for this kind of short, struggling, painstaking surge. It used to be something I loved, but since going long, it has become somewhat of a weakness that I just can't overcome. Essentially, no NOS switch in my gas tank.... And Dave was beastly as I saw him in transition, he said "come get me" and I tried. But Dave's superior bike skills opened up a lead and I never really saw him again...
I also looked like such a n00b in this one. Not as bad as the suspension mountain biking, but I had a normal road front tire and an aero Zipp rear tire. I discovered my front tire to be broken the morning of the race so I had to do a quick switcheroo and use this silly setup. I also now need to get a new front aero wheel... Sad...
Run:
The run, which has become my calling card, kinda let me down. That's tough to say when I ran 16:48 for 2.5 miles off the bike, but at this point it's my only real leg where I can legitimately make up time. But for this race, I just didn't have that extra gear. I think I tried a little hard to catch Dave and that kinda gassed my legs a bit. I just didn't have the ability to really push it on the run. But I did run well, I didn't walk and was able to finish relatively strong.
Pics:
Pre Race:
Swim:
Bike:
Post Race nom hoarding LOL:
My awesome spectator:
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