Los Angeles Triathlon Race Report

On Sunday Sept. 30th I raced in my last race for the season, The Herbalife Los Angeles Triathlon.  This would be my third consecutive year racing LA, so I had a pretty good understanding of the course going into the race.

Pre Race:
I had three weeks following 70.3 Worlds to prepare for LA. The first week was rough.  My IT band became quite irritated following Vegas and it took about 4 days following the race before I was even able to walk without a limp.  I basically rested for a week and then slowly tried to get back into the swing of things the following two weeks.  My training was very sparse as I didn't want to further irritate my IT band injury.  In the days leading up to the race, I didn't feel close to 100%, but my body was in a way better condition than it was in immediately following Vegas.  I was ready to go.

Swim:
It seems that every year, a big swell comes in just in time for this race.  This year was no different.  There were consistent overhead sets coming in as we were waiting to start.  I was excited to get out there and swim through them.

Photo courtesy of triathlon.competitor.com

As the gun went off, I made my way through the surf and ended up reaching the first buoy with the lead pack.  I latched onto the feet of one of the guys and ended up swimming in a group of 3 for the remainder of the swim.  The sun was out and I was having a very difficult time sighting the buoys, so I basically ended up following the guy in front of me hoping he would do a decent job of navigating.  As I was swimming into the shore, a decent size set came through and I chose to just duck under it rather than trying to ride the wave and risk getting pummeled.  I came out of the water in third place with a split of 21:21, about 15 seconds out of 1st.  

Bike:
Transition went smoothly and I was off on my bike headed towards downtown.  As my heart rate started to settle and I began to get into my groove, I noticed that I felt sort of flat.  I just didn't have the kick I normally have for an Olympic distance race.  I believe it may have been all of the recovery time I required after racing in Vegas.  Although my body was rested, it felt flat.

One thing I like about the LA Tri is being able to ride through all of the communities as you approach downtown.  The bike course definitely provides a different type of scenery than I experience at most other races.

I came into T2 with a split of 1:02:09.  Comparing my bike split the other athletes in my division, I can see this is clearly an area in which I need to improve.

Run:
The LA Tri run has gotten me for the worse the past two years.  Both years I developed bad stomach cramps and last year my left ankle was injured.  Knowing that my leg was still a little gimpy due to the IT band issues I was having, I decided to hold back at the beginning a little more than I usually do for a 10K run.  This ended up working fairly well.  The run course is two loops, each with a pretty massive hill to run up.  Once I made the first loop and noticed I was feeling pretty decent, I realized that all I had to do was make it up the hill again and then cruise the last 1.5 miles to the finish.

I finished with a run split of 34:22, which on paper looks great, except it appears the run course was about 0.4 miles short.  Still, a much improved run from the previous years.

Here's some moving pictures from the race.  If you pay close attention, you will see me adjusting my goggles at 0:54.

I ended up finishing 4th in my division (elite amateur) with a time of 2:00:03.  Hmmm, this is the second time this year I was three seconds short.

Overall, I am happy with my race.  I dropped about 5 minutes from my previous year time, although I believe some of that may have been due to the run course being short.  Cracking the top 3 in my division was a goal going into the race, but some fast guys showed up and and prevented me from doing that.  I guess that's just the way things go.  It was overall a good way to end an up and down year.

Next up is vacation!! While most of the triathlon community will be focused on a little race going on in Kona, I will be making a trip to Kauai for an extended weekend to wind down from the busy triathlon season.

Vegas 70.3 World Championship Race Report

I know...who writes a race report a month after the race happened?  The truth is, Vegas took a lot out of me, both physically and mentally.  I simply did not have the energy to sit down and write a report until now...I got lazy!  I guess a month late is better than never, right?

This was my second year racing at the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Henderson, NV.  My race report from last year can be found here. The race was on a Sunday Sept. 9th, but I arrived in Vegas Thursday afternoon with the hopes of enjoying a day of actual vacation before I had to start stressing about the race. The highlight of Thursday night was a meal at Shibuya Japanese Steakhouse, the best Japanese steakhouse I have ever been to. Saturday morning I woke up early and went for a short hike in Red Rock Canyon which is about a 30 minute drive east of the strip.  That was a great hike and provided beautiful views like these:

After the hike, I headed to Henderson and began the 1.5 days of race logistics including packet pick-up, mandatory athlete meeting, run gear drop-off, and bike drop-off.  I really hate doing all of that stuff, but I guess it is part of the activity.  On Saturday, I was able to get a very short swim-bike-run in just to make sure everything was working properly.  It was. 

I was all smiles race morning because I was about to do what I came to Vegas to do - race.  You will soon see that I lost the smile by the end of the race.  Here's how it went.

Swim:
The swim is in Lake Las Vegas.  Because I had done this race last year, I thought I had a solid understanding of the course and a good idea of how the conditions would be.  Last year I remember the swim being quite pleasant. The swim this year would likely have been just as pleasant other than the fact that the water temperature was a little warm for my taste at 83F.  At the start of the swim I found the lead pack and immediately latched onto the lead swimmer in my wave.  My goal was to stay with him and take advantage of the draft, a strategy I used last year at this race.  Unfortunately, this guy was a little fast for me to stay with and he dropped me about 400m into the swim.  From then on, I was pretty much alone as I couldn't keep up with the leader but I was able to pull away from the rest of my wave.  About halfway through the swim, the hot water temperature got to me and I started to feel awful. It felt like the heat was draining all my energy and I knew I still had a lot of racing to do.  As I approached the swim exit I was more than happy to get out of the water and cool off on the bike, even though the air temperature was about 90F.

I came out of the water 4th in my division with a split of 27:02. That was about a 30 second improvement from my split last year and coming out of the water in 4th was a good place to be.

Yay, I'm out of the water! Onto the bike...

Bike:

As I started the bike leg, my heart rate felt like it was still pretty high from the uncomfortably warm swim.  Once I made the climb out of Lake Las Vegas and started to descend into Lake Mead Recreation Area, my heart rate dropped to a comfortable level and I was able to get into a groove.  The bike seemed to go fairly well for about the first 2/3 of the ride.  During the last third, my energy seemed to seep away more and more as I got closer to T2. In retrospect, I think I may have pushed it a little too hard on the bike. When racing the Half Ironman distance, I sometimes forget to hold back a little and end up pushing it like I am racing an Olympic distance race.  I did this earlier in the year at Vineman and was OK, but in the hot Vegas heat I was not able to get away with it.

The last 8 miles of the bike consist of a gradual climb to T2 in Henderson.  As I was approaching T2, my legs were feeling fairly drained and despite drinking a lot of water while riding, I still felt dehydrated.  I knew a challenging run was ahead.  I came off the bike 13th in my division with a time of 2:28:57.  I was just under my bike split from the previous year and am happy with that, but I am surprised to see that dropped me all the way to 13th going into T2.  There were some fast riders out there.

I like busting out a cheesy smile for the professional photographers at FinisherPix.

Run:
The run course is a three loop course where each loops contains a 2 mile uphill run followed by 2 miles downhill. The elevation profile can be seen here:

Coming out of T2, I was hoping my tired legs would regain some energy now that I was off of the bike.  I realized that would not be the case about a mile into the run as I started the first of the three uphill stretches.  The first loop was hard but manageable.  As I started the second uphill stretch, I began to have doubts as to whether I would be able to make it to the top of the climb and especially whether I would be able to do it one last time.  At that point I basically blew up and went into survival mode.  I was overheating, cramping, and fantasizing about laying in a giant martini glass filled with cool jello. I ended up running the last 5 or so miles at a slow jog and walked through aid stations while dumping every single cup of liquid that I could get my hands on over my head.  This death march resulted in a 1:43:09 run split, about 12 minutes slower than my split from last year.  That is obviously not good but it is what happens when you go from racing to just trying to survive.

This picture of me approaching the finish line is pretty much enough to show how I felt at the end of the race. I was completely drained.

  

I ended up finishing 27th in my division, a significant drop my 9th place finish last year. Here are my splits:

The basic fact is that I was not able to handle the heat.  I was unprepared for it and caught by surprise by its severity.  I know there were many in the same boat as me. There were also many people that conquered the heat and had awesome races. One example is my Team TriSports.com teammate, Sarah Jarvis, who finished 3rd in her age group.  Mad props to Sarah and everyone else who an awesome day. It just didn't work out for me.

Thanks as always to TriSports.com for the support throughout the season.

Next up is my final race of the season, the Herbalife Triathlon Los Angeles.  Oh shit, that race was last weekend.  I guess I better write a race report for it.