2012 tri seaon kicked off amongst the palm trees in the beach town of Oceanside, CA. Oceanside is a half-ironman distance and this girl got to rebel against the corporate branded distance and started season with my own customized tri distance - 69.1! You're probably confused on what this means so you'll have to read on for the adventures of Oceanside 2012...
Plans for this race started last year as the tri babes rallied a group of the Seattle ladies together to celebrate Tesia & Cathleen's irthdays. Tesh's birthday fell on race day, and Cathleen was going to be celebrating the big 3-0 milestone birthday a few days after. This is what occurs when you have friends who are equally passionate/crazy endurance athletes who find the best way to celebrate milestone birthdays or holidays is to go race a half ironman or jump in a pool and swim some crazy yardage. Love it!
Knowing little about the Oceanside race and caught up in the thought of a fun girls weekend I didn't realize that winter training in Seattle would not allow for open water swim training or how cold the water in Oceanside would be in March. Those two things are the only things I would say make training/racing Oceanside a little challenging. Keep that in mind if this race is on your radar and I've offered some tips below on things I would have done differently.
Winter training - That's what you'll be doing if you sign up for Oceanside. This past winter was the first base training season where I consistently put forth a solid and organized (thank you Michael) effort towards the swim-bike-run and started feeling the fitness gains. Normally training in the fall wears on me, but I came out of the fall season feeling strong and pump to start racing whether it was a running or bike race. Fall training rocked. Highlights include epic swim sessions up to 7000 yds, celebrating holidays in the pool with matching swim suits and amazing brunches, and outdoor riding with my bike team. The New Year started with a PR in the half-marathon which helped reassure me that running less and cross-training on the bike and swim was allowing me to run the same times with fewer miles. My heart is completely into this right now and feel passionate and excited about the continued growth in these sports I can aim to achieve. I'm spoiled with friends who are bad ass and continually keep me accountable and motivated to show up to workouts. Definitely can't do this all alone and having a strong community of positive friends is the icing on the cake.
Pre- Race
Took the Thursday evening flight down which put our crew into Oceanside pretty late (midnight).One of the more memorable flights down to a race (like grabbing another person's suitcase from baggage instead of my own!). Slept in on Friday without any alarms which felt luxurious! Although Friday was non-stop for me up to dinner time - unpacked bags, ocean swim with Sean and Dr. Jacob, shake out run, assembled the bike, Sean double checked bike, dropped run transition bag off, and checked out swim/bike transition. If I had to do it over again I would recommend heading down Weds evening and having Thursday and Friday to prep for the race since it's a lot to do in one day. A few girls with us did that and they seemed way more relaxed and organized for race day.
After the day of hustling around we all regrouped at the condo for a pasta dinner and salad followed by an early bedtime in prep for the early alarm scheduled at 4:15am!
Plans for this race started last year as the tri babes rallied a group of the Seattle ladies together to celebrate Tesia & Cathleen's irthdays. Tesh's birthday fell on race day, and Cathleen was going to be celebrating the big 3-0 milestone birthday a few days after. This is what occurs when you have friends who are equally passionate/crazy endurance athletes who find the best way to celebrate milestone birthdays or holidays is to go race a half ironman or jump in a pool and swim some crazy yardage. Love it!
Knowing little about the Oceanside race and caught up in the thought of a fun girls weekend I didn't realize that winter training in Seattle would not allow for open water swim training or how cold the water in Oceanside would be in March. Those two things are the only things I would say make training/racing Oceanside a little challenging. Keep that in mind if this race is on your radar and I've offered some tips below on things I would have done differently.
Winter training - That's what you'll be doing if you sign up for Oceanside. This past winter was the first base training season where I consistently put forth a solid and organized (thank you Michael) effort towards the swim-bike-run and started feeling the fitness gains. Normally training in the fall wears on me, but I came out of the fall season feeling strong and pump to start racing whether it was a running or bike race. Fall training rocked. Highlights include epic swim sessions up to 7000 yds, celebrating holidays in the pool with matching swim suits and amazing brunches, and outdoor riding with my bike team. The New Year started with a PR in the half-marathon which helped reassure me that running less and cross-training on the bike and swim was allowing me to run the same times with fewer miles. My heart is completely into this right now and feel passionate and excited about the continued growth in these sports I can aim to achieve. I'm spoiled with friends who are bad ass and continually keep me accountable and motivated to show up to workouts. Definitely can't do this all alone and having a strong community of positive friends is the icing on the cake.
Pre- Race
Took the Thursday evening flight down which put our crew into Oceanside pretty late (midnight).One of the more memorable flights down to a race (like grabbing another person's suitcase from baggage instead of my own!). Slept in on Friday without any alarms which felt luxurious! Although Friday was non-stop for me up to dinner time - unpacked bags, ocean swim with Sean and Dr. Jacob, shake out run, assembled the bike, Sean double checked bike, dropped run transition bag off, and checked out swim/bike transition. If I had to do it over again I would recommend heading down Weds evening and having Thursday and Friday to prep for the race since it's a lot to do in one day. A few girls with us did that and they seemed way more relaxed and organized for race day.
After the day of hustling around we all regrouped at the condo for a pasta dinner and salad followed by an early bedtime in prep for the early alarm scheduled at 4:15am!
Race Day
Alarm went off at 4:15am and shortly after we biked over to transition 1 (swim to bike) to have first dibs on the bike racks and setup everything up. Good tip that Sean pointed out the day before - if the racks do not have bib numbers designated on them it's best to arrive transition when it first opens get first dibs on the bike rack you're assigned to. I arrived early and got the first spot on the end which meant more transition area room for me :)
Same practice as last year with setting up the bike. Had prepped most of the things beforehand so setup included laying out all the normal things plus some warmer pieces (armwarmers, socks). Looking back now there are two things I want to improve on in the next race - position helmet in transition area better (stumbled over this a lot in T1), ensure both my Garmin and Cateye on the bike are reset/ready so I'm not spending time fumbling over them at the start.
After bike setup we walked back to the condo for breakfast. No big surprises on the pre-race fuel - coffee, steel cut oatmeal/honey, and nuun water. Normally a banana makes it in that mix, but we ran out so adapted. Shortly after taking breakfast in we headed back over to Transition 1 where the swim kicks off. Ran into our Pauole teamies, snapped a few quick photos, and started to suit up for the first race of 2012! Proceeded over to the starting area like a pack of cattle to wait in queue for the wave starts. Only thing crossing my mind was whether I was really ready for all of this to start. Once in the water it was going to be forward moving from there.
Swim - Calm, Relaxed and Tried to be focused
My coach Michael gave me mantras to focus on for each leg so you'll see that at the top of each one which I thought was easy for me to focus on. After talking with friends who had raced Oceanside before I knew the swim leg was going to be cold and a tough mental battle. The trial swim in the ocean the day prior was freezing on top of it being the first open water swim of 2012. My mantra for the swim was Calm, relaxed and focused. I did all of those except for I was far from focused on sighting. I could have improved the sighting and drafting off other swimmers, but the water conditions made it tough. Swimming in the salt water was new to me and there were some sweet swells on the exposed area of the bay where I felt like I was body surfing for parts of the swim. You're also taking in water occasionally so towards the end of the swim I was dying for a beverage of any sort to wash the salt/dry mouth feeling away with. During the swells my sighting really suffered and I ended up over by the kayaks a few times. Had planned to get out of the water faster than I did so walked away not impressed with the swim result and only thing to celebrate was surviving the swim given I had no training in the open water prior to this race.
T1 - Swim to Bike Transition
Longest transition ever. You run up from the water alongside the transition area which is a pretty good distance so expect longer transition times at this race. Given how cold the water was and with the temps down I took time to put on arm warmers and socks before heading out on the bike. Need to spend some more time practicing transition tactics , but overall managed to get out in an okay time with the right things on for the ride.
Bike - ease into it and work hard on the hills
Prior to Oceanside I sat down with Lilia to discuss my race plan and get some tips from her on goals to set, nutrition, etc... After looking at my initial plan she did suggest aiming for a more conservative bike time given the course was hilly and went off some times our friends posted last year. I walked away from that conversation thinking 3:10 might be the realistic goal, but if stars were aligned try to get close to 3 hours. Michael thought I would go faster and I really did not know how things would turn out given I hadn't been riding my TT bike as often as the road bike.
To my surprise I biked my butt off and that fueled me. The entire bike leg went really well - nutrition plan followed to a T (big thank you to Lilia for helping me with suggestions), prepared and did the due diligence with bike prep beforehand so the Murphy's law played out in my favor (thank you Carson!). I continue to fall for the sport of biking...This used to be the leg I viewed as "good cross training" and honestly never really looked forward to the training last year just did it because it was necessary to compete. Bikesale has helped change that view for me completely and team rides, races, and training are things I'm hungry for and look forward to which in returns feeds into the racing. You've got to love the sport to really embrace it!
Did not regret the arm warmers or socks since those served me well on the bike along with the embrocation cream Carson recommend (brilliant old school cycling tricks!). I felt comfortable the entire race (not too hot or cold) even though it was sprinkling and cooler temps. NW riders would not bat an eye at the conditions, but for some it may have been more uncomfortable if they don't ride outdoors much or use a few extra layers.
Michael gave me a specific plan on how to race the bike leg which was super helpful. I went in with a plan and stuck to it. As he warned everyone would come flying out of transition and my focus was to get acclimated to the bike, settle in, and take in some nutrition while letting them pass. After I got through a certain mileage point I picked it up and from then on I was passing riders which felt awesome! Last year this was definitely not the case and what motivated me to change things for this season. Each race I felt so defeated on the bike leg as people would fly by me on the bike. The week prior to Oceanside I had a really good tune at at IVRR road race which was 2 loops that included 2 tougher hills which served as the perfect simulation for Oceanside. I had the hill climbing lodged in my muscle memory and felt ready for hills .
I worked hard on the hills and was motivated by the pace I was going up vs. some of the other athletes who I would see zig zagging up the hill out of the saddles or some who literally chose to get off their bike and walk it up the hills! This past fall I got in a lot of practice with the bike team on hill riding and learned a lot of helpful tactics that served me well in this race.
Run: time to race hard, negative split, and oh damm I missed a U-turn!
The part you've been waiting for...What happened during the run leg? Pure confusion…
This is the part where I take responsibility for not studying the run map before the race. Honestly I never spend a lot of time looking at the run maps for races since it's just running and how complicated can that be!?! I knew from others who had raced the course that there were 2 loops along the beach and figured it would be easy navigation. Sigh...not the case.
That said, what happened is when you come out of the bike transition there was 1 guy (Yes 1 single volunteer for a bloody ironman event) standing in the middle of the road directing athletes that if they just came out of transition that they needed to do a U-turn and run out to a point and back before continuing forward along the race course. Missed this completely (maybe this is when he was taking a breath) as the cones separate the two lanes of runners and I ended up following the natural flow of runners causing me to cut off the first 1.2 miles that loop consisted of. I noticed my miles seemed off from the mile markers but after running races for years you get used to mile markers not always being right. I knew I had 2 loops to run and did just that and into the finish chute I ended after my second loop. After finishing the race ran into my friend Cathleen in the finish area who asked me what I ended up with overall and for the run time. After attempts to estimate on our own she was able to pull up on her mobile which had me at a 1:22 1/2 marathon time. I would have expected to run 1:28-1:30, but definitely not throwing down a 1:22 unless I'm Sam Mazer! After packing up my gear in transition I ran into Kainoa and Laurie on the way back to the condo and explained what happened and it started weighing on me more as they both suggested talking to a race director. An ironman official was nearby so grabbed him to talk to him about what occurred and he ended up being the Director of Operations for the race so was the perfect one to chat with about the situation. He helped me figure out the U-turn and mileage I missed, and at least acknowledged I wasn't the only person that got in that situation. This was a new change introduced on the run course so it's good feedback for them to hear.
That said, I'm not upset at the volunteer who was in charge of the U-turn. He had a tough job and I should have been more prepared (i.e. study the course map). I accepted the DQ and did not claim a time I didn't earn. This could happen to the best of us and the last thing you want is to have people judging you for it. I am not walking away down at this at all since I look back on the race and extremely pleased with the bike split and my run time would have been right where I had projected so all in all I executed well and don't need an official time to tell me how I did.
Overall Race Results - Celebratory Handstands the day after!
Swim (1.2 miles) - 41:21
T1 (Swim to Bike) - 4:20
Bike (56 miles) -2:51:24
T2 (Bike to Run) -2:11
Run (11.9 mile) -1:22:20 (estimated might have ended with a 1:30 half if I hadn't cut the course)
Alarm went off at 4:15am and shortly after we biked over to transition 1 (swim to bike) to have first dibs on the bike racks and setup everything up. Good tip that Sean pointed out the day before - if the racks do not have bib numbers designated on them it's best to arrive transition when it first opens get first dibs on the bike rack you're assigned to. I arrived early and got the first spot on the end which meant more transition area room for me :)
Same practice as last year with setting up the bike. Had prepped most of the things beforehand so setup included laying out all the normal things plus some warmer pieces (armwarmers, socks). Looking back now there are two things I want to improve on in the next race - position helmet in transition area better (stumbled over this a lot in T1), ensure both my Garmin and Cateye on the bike are reset/ready so I'm not spending time fumbling over them at the start.
After bike setup we walked back to the condo for breakfast. No big surprises on the pre-race fuel - coffee, steel cut oatmeal/honey, and nuun water. Normally a banana makes it in that mix, but we ran out so adapted. Shortly after taking breakfast in we headed back over to Transition 1 where the swim kicks off. Ran into our Pauole teamies, snapped a few quick photos, and started to suit up for the first race of 2012! Proceeded over to the starting area like a pack of cattle to wait in queue for the wave starts. Only thing crossing my mind was whether I was really ready for all of this to start. Once in the water it was going to be forward moving from there.
Swim - Calm, Relaxed and Tried to be focused
My coach Michael gave me mantras to focus on for each leg so you'll see that at the top of each one which I thought was easy for me to focus on. After talking with friends who had raced Oceanside before I knew the swim leg was going to be cold and a tough mental battle. The trial swim in the ocean the day prior was freezing on top of it being the first open water swim of 2012. My mantra for the swim was Calm, relaxed and focused. I did all of those except for I was far from focused on sighting. I could have improved the sighting and drafting off other swimmers, but the water conditions made it tough. Swimming in the salt water was new to me and there were some sweet swells on the exposed area of the bay where I felt like I was body surfing for parts of the swim. You're also taking in water occasionally so towards the end of the swim I was dying for a beverage of any sort to wash the salt/dry mouth feeling away with. During the swells my sighting really suffered and I ended up over by the kayaks a few times. Had planned to get out of the water faster than I did so walked away not impressed with the swim result and only thing to celebrate was surviving the swim given I had no training in the open water prior to this race.
T1 - Swim to Bike Transition
Longest transition ever. You run up from the water alongside the transition area which is a pretty good distance so expect longer transition times at this race. Given how cold the water was and with the temps down I took time to put on arm warmers and socks before heading out on the bike. Need to spend some more time practicing transition tactics , but overall managed to get out in an okay time with the right things on for the ride.
Bike - ease into it and work hard on the hills
Prior to Oceanside I sat down with Lilia to discuss my race plan and get some tips from her on goals to set, nutrition, etc... After looking at my initial plan she did suggest aiming for a more conservative bike time given the course was hilly and went off some times our friends posted last year. I walked away from that conversation thinking 3:10 might be the realistic goal, but if stars were aligned try to get close to 3 hours. Michael thought I would go faster and I really did not know how things would turn out given I hadn't been riding my TT bike as often as the road bike.
To my surprise I biked my butt off and that fueled me. The entire bike leg went really well - nutrition plan followed to a T (big thank you to Lilia for helping me with suggestions), prepared and did the due diligence with bike prep beforehand so the Murphy's law played out in my favor (thank you Carson!). I continue to fall for the sport of biking...This used to be the leg I viewed as "good cross training" and honestly never really looked forward to the training last year just did it because it was necessary to compete. Bikesale has helped change that view for me completely and team rides, races, and training are things I'm hungry for and look forward to which in returns feeds into the racing. You've got to love the sport to really embrace it!
Did not regret the arm warmers or socks since those served me well on the bike along with the embrocation cream Carson recommend (brilliant old school cycling tricks!). I felt comfortable the entire race (not too hot or cold) even though it was sprinkling and cooler temps. NW riders would not bat an eye at the conditions, but for some it may have been more uncomfortable if they don't ride outdoors much or use a few extra layers.
Michael gave me a specific plan on how to race the bike leg which was super helpful. I went in with a plan and stuck to it. As he warned everyone would come flying out of transition and my focus was to get acclimated to the bike, settle in, and take in some nutrition while letting them pass. After I got through a certain mileage point I picked it up and from then on I was passing riders which felt awesome! Last year this was definitely not the case and what motivated me to change things for this season. Each race I felt so defeated on the bike leg as people would fly by me on the bike. The week prior to Oceanside I had a really good tune at at IVRR road race which was 2 loops that included 2 tougher hills which served as the perfect simulation for Oceanside. I had the hill climbing lodged in my muscle memory and felt ready for hills .
I worked hard on the hills and was motivated by the pace I was going up vs. some of the other athletes who I would see zig zagging up the hill out of the saddles or some who literally chose to get off their bike and walk it up the hills! This past fall I got in a lot of practice with the bike team on hill riding and learned a lot of helpful tactics that served me well in this race.
Run: time to race hard, negative split, and oh damm I missed a U-turn!
The part you've been waiting for...What happened during the run leg? Pure confusion…
This is the part where I take responsibility for not studying the run map before the race. Honestly I never spend a lot of time looking at the run maps for races since it's just running and how complicated can that be!?! I knew from others who had raced the course that there were 2 loops along the beach and figured it would be easy navigation. Sigh...not the case.
That said, what happened is when you come out of the bike transition there was 1 guy (Yes 1 single volunteer for a bloody ironman event) standing in the middle of the road directing athletes that if they just came out of transition that they needed to do a U-turn and run out to a point and back before continuing forward along the race course. Missed this completely (maybe this is when he was taking a breath) as the cones separate the two lanes of runners and I ended up following the natural flow of runners causing me to cut off the first 1.2 miles that loop consisted of. I noticed my miles seemed off from the mile markers but after running races for years you get used to mile markers not always being right. I knew I had 2 loops to run and did just that and into the finish chute I ended after my second loop. After finishing the race ran into my friend Cathleen in the finish area who asked me what I ended up with overall and for the run time. After attempts to estimate on our own she was able to pull up on her mobile which had me at a 1:22 1/2 marathon time. I would have expected to run 1:28-1:30, but definitely not throwing down a 1:22 unless I'm Sam Mazer! After packing up my gear in transition I ran into Kainoa and Laurie on the way back to the condo and explained what happened and it started weighing on me more as they both suggested talking to a race director. An ironman official was nearby so grabbed him to talk to him about what occurred and he ended up being the Director of Operations for the race so was the perfect one to chat with about the situation. He helped me figure out the U-turn and mileage I missed, and at least acknowledged I wasn't the only person that got in that situation. This was a new change introduced on the run course so it's good feedback for them to hear.
That said, I'm not upset at the volunteer who was in charge of the U-turn. He had a tough job and I should have been more prepared (i.e. study the course map). I accepted the DQ and did not claim a time I didn't earn. This could happen to the best of us and the last thing you want is to have people judging you for it. I am not walking away down at this at all since I look back on the race and extremely pleased with the bike split and my run time would have been right where I had projected so all in all I executed well and don't need an official time to tell me how I did.
Overall Race Results - Celebratory Handstands the day after!
Swim (1.2 miles) - 41:21
T1 (Swim to Bike) - 4:20
Bike (56 miles) -2:51:24
T2 (Bike to Run) -2:11
Run (11.9 mile) -1:22:20 (estimated might have ended with a 1:30 half if I hadn't cut the course)
I competed in the Black Diamond Olympic Triathlon this past Sunday and continuing to be humbled and reminded of the required patience the sport of triathlon requires. Black Diamond is the 5th triathlon I've competed in. 1 Sprint and 4 Olympics sum of my triathlon race experience so far. A little different when compared to my experience in the sport of running which I've been competing in since I was in 7th grade up through the collegiate level. After college I discovered marathoning which carried me all the way into my discovery of triathlons. I'm learning quickly that swimming and biking don't come as naturally to me, but I am starting to respect the process of improvement. I work hard at improving and appreciate every little inch of progress I get from the effort. 
