Race Report: Santa Barbara Triathlon

On Saturday, August 25, I participated in the Santa Barbara Triathlon - consisting of a one mile swim, 34 mile bike ride and 10 mile run.  I raced the Alcatraz Challenge earlier in the year, but this was my first triathlon for 2012 and a true "tune-up" for the Ironman Arizona.  The weekend consisted of a late evening drive on Friday night to Santa Barbara, with a stay at a hotel approximately 5 miles from the transition area.  At first, I contemplated just riding the bike over the the race site, but thought better of it later. 

My initial goals:
-   Top half of age group
-   40 minute swim
-   135 minute bike
-   95 minute run
-   270 minute (4.5 hours) total time.  This time would place me in the bottom half of the 2011 results, so I knew I would need to push it and beat the time goals to reach my overall position goal.

Race Day: Saturday morning was quite wet - though not raining, there was a heavy mist and damp road conditions.  Participants were warned over and over about a steep and dangerous downhill and to take it easy on that slope.  Breakfast consisted of safe foods: a peanut butter and banana sandwich.

Swim: 33:56.  Faster than I expected by six minutes.  Not to shabby.  I'm pretty happy with this result.  At this pace, I would finish IMAZ swim in 1 hour 26 minutes, well before the cut-off time.  The swim was a fairly straightforward course; swim out and make a turn around a buoy, then swim to additional buoys marking a u-turn, and finally a left turn around the final buoy leading you up to the beach.  It took a few minutes for me to find my rhythm, especially in the choppy water conditions, but I've swam through choppier conditions in Long Beach (and surfed in stormier conditions also) so it didn't faze me much.  That, plus the swimmer traffic I had to deal with.  Being a middle-of-the-pack swimmer at best (though more likely the back-of-the-middle-of-the-pack swimmer), I usually (and recommend others to) wait on the beach for an extra few seconds to let the ultra-competitive and fast swimmers in my wave to start first, in order to avoid getting kicked and swam over.  Probably in part because of the race adrenaline and in part because I was just anxious to get started, I ran into the water with the entire group. 

Using unilateral breathing for most of the swim, breathing every other stroke to the side facing land.  It looks like I did a better job of swimming straight on the way back than during the first portion of the swim.

T1: 2:07.  Fairly quick, I was hoping for a sub-2 minute transition, but this was pretty close.


Bike: 1:49:07.  Beat my goal by just over fifteen minutes and put up a respectable 18.6 mph average.  This was my strongest portion of the triathlon, and judging by the results posted, compared to other participants, a stronger cyclist than swimmer or runner (no surprise there).  The bike portion had three challenging hills, especially the third one, and ended with a nice downhill portion which allowed me to rest my legs in anticipation of the run.  I took downhill portion relatively easy, generally not pedaling at all in part to save my legs but also in part because of damp conditions.

Apparently we were cycling in underground tunnels.



Cervelo P3, oh how I covet thee.

I must admit, I'm a bit envious of all those participants on true triathlon bikes.  Those suckers are so fast on the flats.  I battled with the same few individuals throughout the bike portion; there were definitely people faster than us and many who we passed, but the few of us seemed to be evenly matched.  I would see those same handful of people pass me on the flats on their triathlon bikes, but then catch up to those same people on the climbs.

One of the other goals of this triathlon was to stay in the aero position for as long as possible.  I was able to stay in the aero position fairly comfortably for extended periods of time, with exceptions of the downhills (which I tried to take easy), some of the tight turns (a bit sketchy at times), and portions of the climbs (this I need to work on).

T2: 2:50.  Had to take a tinkle break, which made my T2 times a bit longer.   I wore a one-piece tri-suit, which made the pee break a little bit more work than I anticipated.  Need to work on peeing while swimming.  This triathlon was the first time using the one-piece tri-suit.  I liked it but need to decide whether I will continue using the one-piece or go back to two-piece.  Luckily, at Ironman, they provide a changing tent so you can change your entire outfit.  That means I'll be riding in actual cycling gear and running in actual running gear - no tri suit needed.

Run: 1:22:56.  Beat my goal time by 12 minutes!  Oops, forgot the Garmin on the bike.  But this translates to an average of 8:18 minutes per mile.  Pretty good for me!  The run itself was all uphill for the initial 5 miles, and then a return on the same route.  I pushed myself on the run, legs felt relatively fresh.  In fact, I'd say my legs felt fresher in this triathlon than any other triathlon to date, which is saying quite a lot since this is the longest triathlon I've done.  Around mile 2.5 or so, my left quad started to tighten up a little bit, but I kept a mental check on it and kept my strides quick and short.  The tightness went away and I just kept pushing up the hill.  The return trip wasn't so bad, although the last mile seemed like the longest mile ever, surely in part due to the anticipation of just being done!

All told, it may have been a good thing that I forgot the Garmin on the bike, since there were no numbers telling me how well or how poorly I was doing and I had to go solely by perceived exertion instead.  This allowed me to push myself pretty hard and still keep a good pace through all ten miles of the run. 

Post-Race:  Great to have a long triathlon under my belt this year.  Transitions went pretty smoothly and this was a great tune-up leading up to Ironman Arizona.  In October I plan on doing an Olympic length triathlon, the Bonelli Park Triathlon.  Very happy with the results, with overall placement in my age group just above the halfway point, at 27th out of 59 finishers.  Overall time was a significant 40 minutes faster than I originally anticipated.

For nutrition, I had a packet of Gu at immediately out of T1, then another one at about mile 3 or 4 of the run, but I think I probably should have taken some solid food too. I had half a mini-Clif builders bar at the beginning of the run and didn't eat the other half until 8.5 miles (probably should've eaten it earlier).  This is pretty light on calorie intake and I'll be increasing intake for training/racing.  The end of the run definitely became a little more difficult due to tiredness but I was so far into the run already that I knew any nutrition wouldn't make a difference until I was done already.

Admittedly, I think my goals were on the conservative side, in part because I had not done a full triathlon this year.  Bonelli Park will see more aggressive goals, based on the results here and in training.

This was the first race I've done without friends participating as well, though I had a support crew with me.  A big thanks to my support crew for being out there, cheering me on and having a ready supply of happy snacks and an extra water bottle at the finish!

Sunday: Sunday was another early early morning to get ready to play cheerleader as the support crew did the sprint triathlon. Once again happy to report goals were achieved and the triathlon bug is taking another victim!

Following the triathlon and lunch at a local joint, the drive back home was a bit long due to traffic.  After arriving at home and cleaning up a little, I went to take a nap at 4:30pm, figuring it's perfect timing for a pre-dinner nap.  Then I woke up at 7:30am Monday morning just in time to get ready for work. It was a nap of epic proportions and a new personal record!

Looking Ahead:  A few things I need to keep in mind and work on leading up to Bonelli Park and Ironman Arizona:

-  transition work: running start onto the bicycle out of T1; feet out of shoes while still on the bicycle leading into T2.

-  work on maintaining the aero position during climbs.

-  remember the Garmin.

-  continue working on race-day (and training) nutrition.

Alcatraz Challenge.  Santa Barbara Triathlon.  Bonelli Park Triathlon.  Ironman Arizona!