Da Iz Biz: Race Report: Redondo Beach Sprint Triathlon

Well Year 5 started off mostly as expected. The race was a great start to the season and I hit another Redondo Beach PR! But not all is well that ends well as I missed the sub-1hr mark by a whole 21 seconds!?!?!?! I hoped that maybe the clock was slightly off or something, but official times were not adjusted. Oh well... I guess there will just have to be next year...

Race details:
Redondo Beach, California
Swim: 0.5 mi - open water, ocean swim
Bike: 6 mi - road, 2 loops, mostly flat, 1 down then up hill
Run: 2 mi - run, loop around Redondo Pier

Race Summary:
During the race, I felt like I gave it my all and not much could really have been pushed harder to get under 1 hour. After the race, I think I could pick at a couple different areas:

-Prob could've tried to be more aggressive at the swim start and swam a little straighter (see map)
-Prob could've freaked out less when a wave threw me to the floor and I lost my goggles
-Only fumble in T1 was that I didn't get my sock on completely and had to do an extra tug
-And while the wetsuit add a few seconds to rip off, the swim benefits were worth it
-Mounting the bike prob too a few sec too long
-Maybe could've taken the downhill faster and tried to rip it uphill quicker
-Figuring out how to U turn
-Prob shouldn't taken a water bottle sip during T2
-Find an 11th gear for running when already at the 190s BPM
-Run faster uphill I guess

I mean that list is long. Prob could've gotten a few seconds here, a few seconds there and got the goal. But that's all part of not having quite a perfect race. In sprints, it always seems like every little detail must be perfect in order to really hit your goal. Because every distance is so short, there's not a whole lot of time to be made up for little mistakes. Oh well. I guess we look forward to next year!

Historical Race Breakdown:

This is what happens when you're an engineer and suffer from OCD and extensive performance analysis issues. You take your data, meticulously record it and try to make some sense out of it...

I think most people would take away the improvements in Total Time. The first year being a n00b made for a pretty slow time. But every year following has been about a minute improvement year-over-year. But still, clearly obvious and painful is the lack of a sub-1hr time. Hopefully I can keep the trend going and be there next year...

Breaking it down, it seems that wearing a wetsuit produces the best swim time by far! And while it does add about 20s compared to the year before, it's right around the same time as the other years. What's a little surprising is that I had a SLOW bike time. I know I had some trouble clipping in at the start, but to have my slowest time is pretty disappointing. I've been working so hard on cycling too! My only guess would be that I took the downhill too slow and sucked at the U turns. Otherwise, thinking thru it, I feel like I pushed hard and turned over pretty well on the flats. And the run was damn good. It apparently wasn't my best, but seeing a 15 there is a positive sign.

Map and Stats Plot:

Heart Rate Zones:

Bike HR Zone Chart: Pretty much about right for the bike

Run HR Zone Chart: Life in Zone 5 for the run

HR Zones pretty much tell the story that I was going hard and probably not giving up all that much in the effort department.

Race Charts:
Swim:

Garmin was a little off here because I hit start/stop and not lap. But it looks like I swam a tad bit out of line and Garmin did say I swam 1237yds instead of the closer to 1100yds the swim should be.

Bike:

One key is that a max of 29.6 is kinda slow for this downhill, so I guess I could've taken it harder and riskier. Also, the initial bike clipping took about 10 sec based on Garmin time markers. Otherwise, it looks like maybe I didn't come off the uphill and start pounding it as hard as maybe I could have.

Run:

Well this is about as expected for me. BPM pretty much stayed in Zone 5 and only kept rising. Pace peaked up early and clearly started to drop off (aka fatigue). But Run Cadence was pretty solid as light blue and purple indicate a very high turnover rate. I think the green towards the end correlates with the stairs and uphill parts.

Pics: