Location - Hansen Dam Park near Pacoima, the Valley region of Los Angeles. My first tri of the 2015 season.
The weather is always a crapshoot here, and of course we got a mini-heat wave this weekend. The swim is in an urban lake, called Recreational lake, and the day prior to the race the temps were easily in the 90s. Oh well. Brought the sleeveless with me just in case, set up my transition, got body marked, had a banana and a Gatorade. The air was easily in the upper 70s, and when I went for a pre-swim - the water was easily 85.
Swim. The course was 3 laps around the lake, and about 1/3 of the loop you had some blazing sun in your face. I was in the second wave, which got going at around 6:48am. The course was merging with the incoming waves during the start of each loop, and of course I would run into the incoming swimmers EVERY time. The course was pretty loosely measured, and I swam at least 1700 yards. Out in 32:53. Meh, hate swimming in a muck.
T1. Nothing too eventful except that someone managed to rack their bike next to mine facing the same direction so that their bullhorns were tangled with my front brake cable. Took about 30 seconds to unscrew this, without dropping the other bike. 2:14
Bike. The course was 2 loops, claiming to be 22 miles. You climb on some rollers and false flats for about 5 miles, and then bomb down. I ended up with about 19.7 miles total distance on my bike. Anyhow, I was shooting for about 200w per loop. At the end of the first loop hit some nasty crack in the pavement, and heard a pop coming from the wheel. Slowed down a bit, the front wheel seemed to be intact. However, going up the second loop felt really hard for some reason. I was starting to get passed by chicks, people riding road bikes... more road bikes on the way down... wtf... avg power up to 214w. Dismounted in T2 and immediately saw that a spoke was broken. FML. Had to carry the bike in. 54:13.
T2. In and out quick. Was getting pretty hot, so poured about 1/2 bottle of water on the head and chest. 1:12.
Run. About 70% trails, . I knew that I was not going to be able to medal, so decided to just treat it as a tempo run for a marathon. It was a bit hilly, so 7:15 min/mile was about the right pace. The organizers did set up at least 8 or 9 drinking stations, so hydration was not an issue. The last 1/2 mile were a bit of work since we basically went down a dirt ditch and then up the said ditch. Was over before I knew it. 46:46, 2:17:19 total, 4th in my division, 17th overall.
Got a bagel, bananas and water and went home to cry to momma. The wheel turned out to be ok, just had the spoke replaced the next day. Silverman is next, and then IMAZ.
The weather is always a crapshoot here, and of course we got a mini-heat wave this weekend. The swim is in an urban lake, called Recreational lake, and the day prior to the race the temps were easily in the 90s. Oh well. Brought the sleeveless with me just in case, set up my transition, got body marked, had a banana and a Gatorade. The air was easily in the upper 70s, and when I went for a pre-swim - the water was easily 85.
Swim. The course was 3 laps around the lake, and about 1/3 of the loop you had some blazing sun in your face. I was in the second wave, which got going at around 6:48am. The course was merging with the incoming waves during the start of each loop, and of course I would run into the incoming swimmers EVERY time. The course was pretty loosely measured, and I swam at least 1700 yards. Out in 32:53. Meh, hate swimming in a muck.
T1. Nothing too eventful except that someone managed to rack their bike next to mine facing the same direction so that their bullhorns were tangled with my front brake cable. Took about 30 seconds to unscrew this, without dropping the other bike. 2:14
Bike. The course was 2 loops, claiming to be 22 miles. You climb on some rollers and false flats for about 5 miles, and then bomb down. I ended up with about 19.7 miles total distance on my bike. Anyhow, I was shooting for about 200w per loop. At the end of the first loop hit some nasty crack in the pavement, and heard a pop coming from the wheel. Slowed down a bit, the front wheel seemed to be intact. However, going up the second loop felt really hard for some reason. I was starting to get passed by chicks, people riding road bikes... more road bikes on the way down... wtf... avg power up to 214w. Dismounted in T2 and immediately saw that a spoke was broken. FML. Had to carry the bike in. 54:13.
T2. In and out quick. Was getting pretty hot, so poured about 1/2 bottle of water on the head and chest. 1:12.
Run. About 70% trails, . I knew that I was not going to be able to medal, so decided to just treat it as a tempo run for a marathon. It was a bit hilly, so 7:15 min/mile was about the right pace. The organizers did set up at least 8 or 9 drinking stations, so hydration was not an issue. The last 1/2 mile were a bit of work since we basically went down a dirt ditch and then up the said ditch. Was over before I knew it. 46:46, 2:17:19 total, 4th in my division, 17th overall.
Got a bagel, bananas and water and went home to cry to momma. The wheel turned out to be ok, just had the spoke replaced the next day. Silverman is next, and then IMAZ.