Triathlon!
September 24th, 2011, 11:51pm by JakeSecond race is tomorrow, and the costs are adding up fast! Before the first Sprint Tri (1/2 mile swim, 12 mile bike, 3 mile rune) I bought a wetsuit, biking shirt, Tri shorts & some knickknacks. That went well enough. The swim was sort of brutal, as it was the first time I’d ever been in the water with a wetsuit. First time swimming in the ocean in years. First time ever in a swim race. Longest ocean swim ever. Decent set of waves at the start. Bottom line, totally lost my nerve in the first 30 seconds and struggled through the swim. Shocked when I finished in just 18.5 minutes, about 12 minutes faster than my slow goal and honestly 6.5 minutes faster than expected. Bike was fine, run was great. Results here: http://www.geminitiming.com/posts/pacific-coast-triathlon-results/
So that was with a hybrid bike. Next step required a real road bike. So long money! So long new camera! So long new lens! $1400 (bike) and then some (shoes, pedals, etc.) later, I got a sweet ride that should remove crap ass bike from the excuse list. So there’s that. Back to the point, tomorrow is the Bonelli Olympic Distance Triathlon. A 0.9 mile swim, 24 mile bike and 10K run. This is in a lake, and I’ve got a game plan for the swim. After that, it’s a matter of pushing it on the bike & seeing what I have left on foot.
If that goes well, the next step in this trifecta is the Magic Mountain Man Triathlon, a full half Ironman. 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, half marathon. The bike includes 6600′ of climbing, which means the whole race is UP or DOWN. I do good on both at slight inclines, but this is pretty steep. Will see. If tomorrow is good, then onward in just 2 weeks. If not… I guess I’ll spend the year getting in bike shape & be ready for next fall. The funny part is seeing the reaction of people when I tell them my plan. The bike store guy looked at my not-so-slim physique and asked me “have you ever ridden before?” And seemed certain that there was no way I could complete a half IM. My friend Todd from the Hermosa 24– he was more confident, having some idea of my endurance abilities & commitment even if unsure of my ability on the bike.
So there it is. Wish me luck for the morning. Hope it goes well, if so it’s onward again to the welcoming environs of the Santa Clarita Valley.
September 25th, 2011 at 9:10 am
Good luck, Jake.
September 25th, 2011 at 9:43 am
Good luck!
September 25th, 2011 at 4:52 pm
Congrats on the tri today! Give us the specs on this bike (we’re into gadgets, you know, and this is among the most expensive gadget purchase ever mentioned on The Board!)
September 25th, 2011 at 6:38 pm
Geeze, no kidding on the most expensive front! The bike itself was $1400, and that was “reduced” from $2100. That doesn’t even include pedals! I got a 2011 Trek Ion Pro Gary Fisher edition, which apparently is a big deal? I saw two cycling friends yesterday (that’s half of my cycling friend universe), and let me tell you… these guys are worse than smartphone geeks or camera geeks!
Each immediately (independently) remarked that they didn’t know I had a road bike. Told ’em I got it the day before and immediately… the advice started. One about pedals, the other about wheels. I got the sense they would’ve gladly spent hours discussing the minutiae of which bags to get, how much to pressurize the tires and more.
But yeah, bike people LOVE talking about bikes. And other gear. Runners? A 5 minute conversation once a month is about right. As far as cost… I splurged for the pricier bike when I realized that this little triathlon excursion was already going to cost over $1000 for 3 races + swim gear. But now I’m the paranoid road bike guy, afraid to leave my bike out of sight for even a minute. I can’t imagine locking it up for an hour on The Strand… it would be doomed! That’ll be me rolling my bike into 7-11.
So the cycling portion of the event felt tougher than I expected, more tiring than exhausting. I thought the new wheels would buy me 3 mph, but after averaging 15mph at Laguna Beach, I raised that to only about 15.7 here. Granted, the course was double the length, but I didn’t really hold back any more than the week earlier. Courses were both hilly, will have to check the GPS data to determine which was tougher. The “cobblestone” section slowed me considerably (really just really bad pavement), fortunately that was on a slightly uphill section of the course so safety wasn’t much an issue (although fear of flats was).
There are the wheels: http://helenscycles.com/product/trek-ion-pro-wsd-gary-fisher-collection-72214-1.htm
The swim went MUCH better this week. Got nice & relaxed, kept my stroke the whole time. Slower than molasses, but steady & steady. Bike was even paced for 3 laps, maybe a minute or so faster on the first lap. Run was good, 9:27/mile with negative splits, and my two fast miles were my two last miles. Ran way too hard the last quarter mile, would’ve run harder if I had seen the clock clicking just over 3:30:00. Slow slow slow in the transitions, I took my time to make sure I didn’t forget something. Bike/ run transition was no issue, no problem warming up the legs. Swim to bike, my legs feel soooo heavy coming out of the lake. Maybe it’s the weight of the water in the wetsuit? LOL.
So there it is. I decided that I can complete a half IM, even on a fairly ridiculous bike course. Plan is to ride over Palos Verdes once next Friday (1000 foot & 28 miles total) to make sure the new gearing is acceptable, otherwise I’ll have to buy a triple crank (52/39/30) and swap that for compact crank (50/34) on the front of the bike now. Oh, and I stood up to pedal through a couple of the hills— man does that EVER get me going faster! Probably better than spinning for short steep stuff, but the long hills outside Castaic (6600 feet over 56 miles) means that standing to pedal won’t be a major part of my strategy. Which really is to finish,
We’ll see.
September 25th, 2011 at 7:44 pm
And results are in!
http://raceresults.eternaltiming.com/index.cfm/20110925_Bonelli_Olympic_and_Steamboat_Express.htm?Fuseaction=Results&Class=Bonelli+Olympic+Distance+Individual~All
3:29:57. A full 3 seconds to spare.
October 1st, 2011 at 4:29 pm
I signed up for the Magic Mountain Man Half Iron Distance triathlon. October 9 on Castaic Lake. Since it was only an extra $50, I sprung for a night at Hyatt Valencia, the official race hotel. Not as comfortable as the old Sung manor, but will save a few hours of driving & eliminate many pre-race distractions.