On Saturday, April 2, 2011 I did Ironman California 70.3 at Oceanside which consist of a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and a 13.1 mile run.
Leading up to the race on Wednesday March 30th I used my pre-race equipment and pre-race nutrition checklist so everything needed was at hand to execute my race plan. Nutrition wise, I was well stocked to fuel my race with a good amount of prep time going into it for items such as pre-cut individually bagged fruit & veggies fueling my 2,000 calorie reserve you take into a race. On a road trip, fast food just makes you slow and their is no real food convenience to be found at a convenient store so its important to pack the right food you will be burning on that race course.
A lot of professionals do things in a well rehearsed, scripted fashion and I quite enjoy pulling off such a hat trick that looks amazing at the moment. My hat trick this weekend was juggling both a weekend Disneyland vacation and Ironman race with the family. But behind the curtain, truth be told that good multi-tasking is not performed ad hoc but rather there are weeks of planning leading up to script out foreseen scenario’s & optimize this exact time.
On Thursday during my taper, I took time out for the kids to bring them to Disneyland along the way. When I arrive at the finish line, having my family there is a priority to me so I involve them in my race plans so every kid including myself gets a turn getting their energies out.
On Friday I pick up my race packet at the expo and spend the majority of the late afternoon by the pool relaxing in vacation mode enjoying the 90 degree Southern California weather.
Saturday is the day of the race which I will walk through below. In addition, Saturday after the race I drive straight home to be there on Sunday to volunteer on the course at our local Visalia Triathlon. That same triathlon community spirit I whiteness the pro’s bring from Ironman Kona Hawaii to Oceanside, I hope to pass along from Oceanside to Visalia.
Saturday morning before the race I wake up at 3 am. I feel great having crashed out at 7 pm the night before. Managing a good night sleep and waking up early is key. My morning routine consist of visiting the hotel lobby for some coffee with a little extra time to enjoy a conversation with fellow athlete’s doing the same. I eat a raisin bagel, OJ and banana with my coffee right on schedule for breakfast to digest 3 hours before the race. Next, I foam roll and stretch while listening to my ipod. I arrive at transition when it first opens and secure the best location on my designated the rack. I proceed to sip on water with my salt/electrolyte & spotlegs supplements at this time. After my transition area is set up, I make my way to the ocean to spend some time gearing up for this environment which is different than the environment I train in at home. Putting my toes in the water the water temp is 58 degrees. I’m ready for today’s onslaught because next to the ocean, I’ve found that calm state before the storm of the race begins.
The 1.2 mile swim loop is in the Oceanside Harbor. The swim start wave for my age group this year is slated 2nd to last which means I’ll have a sea of prior wave start participants to navigate past. The Pro’s are the first swim wave which kicks off a 6:40 followed by the next swim wave every 3 min. My swim wave was number 22 placing it second to last starting at 7:45. Waiting in line for the swim start was over one hour, with the pro’s starting first, so my warm up routine consisted of some light running drills along side the ocean but I did not want to get too warm then go idle during the expected wait time so I made the decision to stretch more instead. I found a comfortable position at the entrance of transition with plenty of room on the rug to lay out and sit next to coach Faron and his wife. During this time I stretch and made light conversation achieving a very calm, no pre-race nerves state. Going by the book I would prefer to warm up and even jump in the water but at Oceanside, entering the water pre-race is not permitted plus given an hour wait for my age group, the best choice I can make to prepare by body for whats to come is to get as relaxed as possible.
I have a tendency to look my age group peers in the eye and get a little bit in their heads to see if there is some knowledge to steal vs. scenario’s to avoid. As I stand in line watching the pro’s finish this poor girl was discussing how stressed she is about racing in the ocean given the ocean may have sharks. I believe she put it this way, there are no sharks in a marathon so a marathon is mentally easy but swimming in the ocean I get so worried about sharks. As the pro’s come in, I recall that sea otter I observed playing next to the harbor boats earlier but apparently she did not. Now sea otters like to swim on their sides and leaving one fin out of the water mimicking a shark fin. As the pack of pro’s swam in, this sea otter though it would be fun to circle behind them fin up. Now as the girl was talking she looked out of the corner of her eye as someone said here come the pro’s and terror struck as she mistook the sea otter for a shark! Of course we immediately corrected her informing her of the sea otter but that would be the worst pre-race jitters anyone could imagine.
First out of the water for the pro’ is Andy Potts by like a minute. This guy has many qualities I would like to emulate as an aspiring athlete. First, watching him leave the ocean and transition to his bike you can see he’s a big guy, not a marathon build but a swimmers upper body build. The epitome of strength. Second, I watched Andy before at Wildflower finish carrying his kid across the finish line to win Wildflower and that speaks to priorities I value being able to do both family and triathlon. Third, before before the pro’s get to put on their sunglasses to disguise their eyes you get to look at them in the eye after a swim and see struggle, they may make it look easy but looking in his eye’s he is experiencing just as much struggle as any one of us will on this same course the only difference is he’s going faster. I’ll take that fire I notice in Andy Potts eyes and apply it to my game face as I enter the 58 degree ocean harbor for my swim start, no complaints, no worries and prepared my focus for the onslaught to come.
To start the swim, I position myself second in line where there is about 20 rows deep. The person I am standing behind is someone I’ve selected like a race horse who would appear to have the qualities I would bet on to win the swim. My game plan is to follow his heels and draft. The attributes I notice is not just the swimmers build and wetsuit & google gear but he is greeting others in the front of the line as if asserting himself as the alpha male swimmer meeting up with competition he last meet at this same venue last year. The harbor entrance is a start but they tell you to stop at the first buoy for a second start. This serves as a great couple minute warm up to gauge my strategy and practice drafting in my selected position. After stopping at the first buoy, I get to regulate my breaths to normalize breathing in cold water. After the second start, my strategy works very well until our age group catches the age group that started before us. Its now a complete traffic jam, I find my self literally swimming over people not doing a straight line to the next buoy & forcing a line between people to go past them. When I look up to spot, I am not only trying to spot the next buoy but make observations on the swim caps people are wearing as anyone not in my same silver cap is someone to pass and anyone in my silver cap is to be followed as they spend the extra effort to cut through the chaos. At the boat basin entrance, the water goes through a lot more up and down wave current which I am familiar with from surfing so I spot during the peak of the currents wave to navigate. Existing the ocean, the prior age groups slowed down and it literally felt like football practice trying to break the line to make my way in. Exiting the swim, you feel like you were just in a washing machine and I’m literally blowing salt water out of my nose, round one the swim leg was way more contact his year than the prior year.
Have you ever tried to run in your dreams where you mind knows you can go faster but there is something strange going on making everything go in slow motion. Well that is the T1 transition experience. Even pro’s feel like they are going slow because you go from competing in a water environment and have to get used to gravity again while at same time blood rushes back to the head as you move from a horizontal swim to a vertical run stance. I run past a lot of people in transition knowing this is foreign to a lot of them who never practice it until race day and I don’t wait in the line that forms but rather zig zag next to the barriers etc. Since everyone is on a single line carpet track, I must look like a crazy train fallen off the track ready to run through barrier walls to make my T1 time. Most spectators don’t see much of the triathlon itself but they do see all of transition so given this sample of how I race, I must look like I’m trying to run through the gauntlet at the old high school football practice, fast but bumping into everything.
Directly out of the bike course I grab a gew to start fueling. After the event, I practically loose my voice from saying on your left hundreds of times. As the course evolves, I grow more confident barely slipping between bikes on the right and cones on the left taking race day risk tucked tight in the aero position assuming they have got to know by now faster age group will passing them. As we climb many of the rollers, I enjoy giving encouragement to those I see pushing it. In return, as passed a group and hear some one yell out lets put a bungee on the back of that guys bike, ha! My favorite was on the big climb of the day everyone does not look like they are having much fun so when I pull up, I think to myself how do I get these guys going. All of a sudden I hear this bell, who the heck has a bell on their bike at an Ironman race. Well it was an very old guy, with a big old Texas cycling jersey. Of course, the century type rider. I make my way to him and loudly state this guy took a bell to Ironman, lets all rally with him. I shook his hand and make my will to tackle the hill. At this time, I notice everyone around me has changed spirits to follow suit. Misery loves company and I got people going on the hardest hill the day changing their look of pain to a smile either laughing at me, the bell or the fact that I’m playing around on the hardest part of the course. After that hill, the headwinds were felt and everyone says this portion slowed their time down significantly from their former years time. I went aero and brought a lot of people home who after I passed tried to latch on if not drafting behind me for a brief moment at least remembering to keep pace with me as their pace was faded. I finished the bike course strong.
Not much to be said about T2 transition. The velcro on my bike shoes and the quick laces on my shoes affords a speedy switch to the run.
On the run course, I felt the effects of hammering the bike and my legs were heavy. I only sustained a pace of 8:30 min miles, however, I could run that same pace this half or an ultra so I feel very confident endurance wise and need to refine my brick speed. Finishing the race, I like to jump at the finish line and touch the clock for that final kick finish.
The overall time was as follows:
Swim 35:29
T1 3:23
Bike 2:48:51
T2 1:54
Run 1:52:43
Overall 5:22:20
Next up on the race calendar, Wildflower on April 30th. See you then.
Leading up to the race on Wednesday March 30th I used my pre-race equipment and pre-race nutrition checklist so everything needed was at hand to execute my race plan. Nutrition wise, I was well stocked to fuel my race with a good amount of prep time going into it for items such as pre-cut individually bagged fruit & veggies fueling my 2,000 calorie reserve you take into a race. On a road trip, fast food just makes you slow and their is no real food convenience to be found at a convenient store so its important to pack the right food you will be burning on that race course.
A lot of professionals do things in a well rehearsed, scripted fashion and I quite enjoy pulling off such a hat trick that looks amazing at the moment. My hat trick this weekend was juggling both a weekend Disneyland vacation and Ironman race with the family. But behind the curtain, truth be told that good multi-tasking is not performed ad hoc but rather there are weeks of planning leading up to script out foreseen scenario’s & optimize this exact time.
On Thursday during my taper, I took time out for the kids to bring them to Disneyland along the way. When I arrive at the finish line, having my family there is a priority to me so I involve them in my race plans so every kid including myself gets a turn getting their energies out.
On Friday I pick up my race packet at the expo and spend the majority of the late afternoon by the pool relaxing in vacation mode enjoying the 90 degree Southern California weather.
Saturday is the day of the race which I will walk through below. In addition, Saturday after the race I drive straight home to be there on Sunday to volunteer on the course at our local Visalia Triathlon. That same triathlon community spirit I whiteness the pro’s bring from Ironman Kona Hawaii to Oceanside, I hope to pass along from Oceanside to Visalia.
Saturday morning before the race I wake up at 3 am. I feel great having crashed out at 7 pm the night before. Managing a good night sleep and waking up early is key. My morning routine consist of visiting the hotel lobby for some coffee with a little extra time to enjoy a conversation with fellow athlete’s doing the same. I eat a raisin bagel, OJ and banana with my coffee right on schedule for breakfast to digest 3 hours before the race. Next, I foam roll and stretch while listening to my ipod. I arrive at transition when it first opens and secure the best location on my designated the rack. I proceed to sip on water with my salt/electrolyte & spotlegs supplements at this time. After my transition area is set up, I make my way to the ocean to spend some time gearing up for this environment which is different than the environment I train in at home. Putting my toes in the water the water temp is 58 degrees. I’m ready for today’s onslaught because next to the ocean, I’ve found that calm state before the storm of the race begins.
The 1.2 mile swim loop is in the Oceanside Harbor. The swim start wave for my age group this year is slated 2nd to last which means I’ll have a sea of prior wave start participants to navigate past. The Pro’s are the first swim wave which kicks off a 6:40 followed by the next swim wave every 3 min. My swim wave was number 22 placing it second to last starting at 7:45. Waiting in line for the swim start was over one hour, with the pro’s starting first, so my warm up routine consisted of some light running drills along side the ocean but I did not want to get too warm then go idle during the expected wait time so I made the decision to stretch more instead. I found a comfortable position at the entrance of transition with plenty of room on the rug to lay out and sit next to coach Faron and his wife. During this time I stretch and made light conversation achieving a very calm, no pre-race nerves state. Going by the book I would prefer to warm up and even jump in the water but at Oceanside, entering the water pre-race is not permitted plus given an hour wait for my age group, the best choice I can make to prepare by body for whats to come is to get as relaxed as possible.
I have a tendency to look my age group peers in the eye and get a little bit in their heads to see if there is some knowledge to steal vs. scenario’s to avoid. As I stand in line watching the pro’s finish this poor girl was discussing how stressed she is about racing in the ocean given the ocean may have sharks. I believe she put it this way, there are no sharks in a marathon so a marathon is mentally easy but swimming in the ocean I get so worried about sharks. As the pro’s come in, I recall that sea otter I observed playing next to the harbor boats earlier but apparently she did not. Now sea otters like to swim on their sides and leaving one fin out of the water mimicking a shark fin. As the pack of pro’s swam in, this sea otter though it would be fun to circle behind them fin up. Now as the girl was talking she looked out of the corner of her eye as someone said here come the pro’s and terror struck as she mistook the sea otter for a shark! Of course we immediately corrected her informing her of the sea otter but that would be the worst pre-race jitters anyone could imagine.
First out of the water for the pro’ is Andy Potts by like a minute. This guy has many qualities I would like to emulate as an aspiring athlete. First, watching him leave the ocean and transition to his bike you can see he’s a big guy, not a marathon build but a swimmers upper body build. The epitome of strength. Second, I watched Andy before at Wildflower finish carrying his kid across the finish line to win Wildflower and that speaks to priorities I value being able to do both family and triathlon. Third, before before the pro’s get to put on their sunglasses to disguise their eyes you get to look at them in the eye after a swim and see struggle, they may make it look easy but looking in his eye’s he is experiencing just as much struggle as any one of us will on this same course the only difference is he’s going faster. I’ll take that fire I notice in Andy Potts eyes and apply it to my game face as I enter the 58 degree ocean harbor for my swim start, no complaints, no worries and prepared my focus for the onslaught to come.
To start the swim, I position myself second in line where there is about 20 rows deep. The person I am standing behind is someone I’ve selected like a race horse who would appear to have the qualities I would bet on to win the swim. My game plan is to follow his heels and draft. The attributes I notice is not just the swimmers build and wetsuit & google gear but he is greeting others in the front of the line as if asserting himself as the alpha male swimmer meeting up with competition he last meet at this same venue last year. The harbor entrance is a start but they tell you to stop at the first buoy for a second start. This serves as a great couple minute warm up to gauge my strategy and practice drafting in my selected position. After stopping at the first buoy, I get to regulate my breaths to normalize breathing in cold water. After the second start, my strategy works very well until our age group catches the age group that started before us. Its now a complete traffic jam, I find my self literally swimming over people not doing a straight line to the next buoy & forcing a line between people to go past them. When I look up to spot, I am not only trying to spot the next buoy but make observations on the swim caps people are wearing as anyone not in my same silver cap is someone to pass and anyone in my silver cap is to be followed as they spend the extra effort to cut through the chaos. At the boat basin entrance, the water goes through a lot more up and down wave current which I am familiar with from surfing so I spot during the peak of the currents wave to navigate. Existing the ocean, the prior age groups slowed down and it literally felt like football practice trying to break the line to make my way in. Exiting the swim, you feel like you were just in a washing machine and I’m literally blowing salt water out of my nose, round one the swim leg was way more contact his year than the prior year.
Have you ever tried to run in your dreams where you mind knows you can go faster but there is something strange going on making everything go in slow motion. Well that is the T1 transition experience. Even pro’s feel like they are going slow because you go from competing in a water environment and have to get used to gravity again while at same time blood rushes back to the head as you move from a horizontal swim to a vertical run stance. I run past a lot of people in transition knowing this is foreign to a lot of them who never practice it until race day and I don’t wait in the line that forms but rather zig zag next to the barriers etc. Since everyone is on a single line carpet track, I must look like a crazy train fallen off the track ready to run through barrier walls to make my T1 time. Most spectators don’t see much of the triathlon itself but they do see all of transition so given this sample of how I race, I must look like I’m trying to run through the gauntlet at the old high school football practice, fast but bumping into everything.
Directly out of the bike course I grab a gew to start fueling. After the event, I practically loose my voice from saying on your left hundreds of times. As the course evolves, I grow more confident barely slipping between bikes on the right and cones on the left taking race day risk tucked tight in the aero position assuming they have got to know by now faster age group will passing them. As we climb many of the rollers, I enjoy giving encouragement to those I see pushing it. In return, as passed a group and hear some one yell out lets put a bungee on the back of that guys bike, ha! My favorite was on the big climb of the day everyone does not look like they are having much fun so when I pull up, I think to myself how do I get these guys going. All of a sudden I hear this bell, who the heck has a bell on their bike at an Ironman race. Well it was an very old guy, with a big old Texas cycling jersey. Of course, the century type rider. I make my way to him and loudly state this guy took a bell to Ironman, lets all rally with him. I shook his hand and make my will to tackle the hill. At this time, I notice everyone around me has changed spirits to follow suit. Misery loves company and I got people going on the hardest hill the day changing their look of pain to a smile either laughing at me, the bell or the fact that I’m playing around on the hardest part of the course. After that hill, the headwinds were felt and everyone says this portion slowed their time down significantly from their former years time. I went aero and brought a lot of people home who after I passed tried to latch on if not drafting behind me for a brief moment at least remembering to keep pace with me as their pace was faded. I finished the bike course strong.
Not much to be said about T2 transition. The velcro on my bike shoes and the quick laces on my shoes affords a speedy switch to the run.
On the run course, I felt the effects of hammering the bike and my legs were heavy. I only sustained a pace of 8:30 min miles, however, I could run that same pace this half or an ultra so I feel very confident endurance wise and need to refine my brick speed. Finishing the race, I like to jump at the finish line and touch the clock for that final kick finish.
The overall time was as follows:
Swim 35:29
T1 3:23
Bike 2:48:51
T2 1:54
Run 1:52:43
Overall 5:22:20
Next up on the race calendar, Wildflower on April 30th. See you then.
No comments:
Post a Comment