Oceaside 70.3 Race Report
Race week was stressful thanks to work, which I hadn’t expected, but it is what it is, just dealt with it and went on. Not sure it affected me but I was worried about the stress I was in. Drove down Friday mid morning from Seal Beach to Oceanside, about 75 miles, checked into my hotel in Carlsbad grabbed a nice Sammie and beer to settle the nerves. Carlsbad is about 5 miles from start line with minimal traffic in the early AM and headed up to the Expo to check in and peruse all of the goodness I won’t be purchasing.
Got to see an old friend from HS that I only really see at this race b/c they live in SF. Her fiancée is a FOP and by that I mean top 10 in his age group 34-39 and a 2x Kona qualifier. I have a man crush on him but we won’t talk about that.
This is my 3rd time doing Oceanside so I have my race day game plan down.
Race Day
Woke up at 4:30, ate my bagel and banana, starting in on my Gatorade and out the door with the Wife at 4:45. Got to Oceanside parking lot at 5:00 parked, put my headlight on, kissed the wife goodbye and told her I would call her when I got to T-1 and tell her which row I am at.
Swim – 31:39
4th wave, start time 6:50 (finally an early wave!). Pretty uneventful swim as the Harbor was much mellower than last year. No rollers come through the mouth of the harbor. 5 min improvement over last years time, I’ll take it! Water was warm, 62 degrees. No complaints. I will take that swim time any day of the week. I didn’t go out to hard but felt that I lose a little bit of steam in the last 2 –300 yds. Div rank, 79
T1 –4:10
Uneventful. Have to run the length of the transition to north end then enter T-1 and fine bike at front of transition. Got lucky and a volunteer was waiting in my row, ripped off suit and she took everything and put it in my bag for me. Definitely saved me time. Put on helmet, shoes and took off. Good time in my opinion.
Bike – 2:53:58
Oceanside bike course can bite you hard if you aren’t ready for it. 1st 25 miles are flat, middle 20 are hills and last 11 we are treated with a nice headwind. This year was a little different, slight headwind for the first 20 flat miles before we turn onto the base and head into no man’s land (back side of Camp Pendleton). Watts were looking good, right around zone 3 and kept rolling along.
Entered Camp P and the wind picked up which was weird but as reported by weather man. Sounds great a head wind for 25+ miles, 20 being filled with hills. Started the hills and the power spiked per usual and tried to keep it around my FTP (300). Got to the first hill and watts spiked to 332, this baby is steep so I just dealt with it, didn’t push just grinded up the ½ mile sucker. Then comes Basilone which is 4.2 miles and this is where things started to go bad I think, power crept up to around 275 and stayed there for the duration of the climb.
Last 10 miles of the ride back to T-2 weren’t that bad. The head wind only showed up with about 6 miles to go, no the usual 11 which was very nice.
Got into Civilization and near the Pier all the fans were cheering, really nice to get back to civilization and see all of the madness. Div rank 79, Avg 19.31 mph. PR bike by 2mins.
Nutrtion – ½ cliff bar, 400 calories of Hammer, 2 Hammer gels and 2 salt pills. Been doing this for method and have had no problems.
Avg Power - 247 (zone 3), Max power 907, Max Avg power (20Min) 274, NP - 271, IF - .92, TSS - 244
T2 – 2:16
Missed my rack spot, find it. Sit down (fastest way for me to get socks and shoes on after many years of testing) put on socks, shoes get up start running, turn around get Garmin off bike and start running out. Put hat on. Overall not back, missing my rack and forgetting my garmin cost me about 30 seconds. Happy.
Run – 2:08:35
CRAP, it all goes wrong here. Right off the bat I am telling myself to SLOWDOWN, SLOWDOWN and it is hard. Mile 1, 8:36, mile 2 9:04…okay now we are good. Mile 3 – 9:41 uh oh starting to realize that I biked for SHOW and am running to survive. Drank coke and water at the aid stations and felt it helped but the legs were heavy and just started to get heavier as the day went on.
Towards mile11 started to get a pinching pain in my left hip, which really didn’t help the mental game as running was already hard enough. Run was crap and that’s what I get for pushing the bike to hard. It is what it is and need to focus on the consist pacing part of my riding. Div rank 115
Total time – 5:40:35
Look Back
Pissed at myself for pushing the bike although it didn’t feel like it. Goal was sub 5:30 as this year I have actually had a specific plan and training to specifics not just distance and time. The race F up was my fault and I need to focus on the bike pacing.
Nutrition was good. Never felt sick, sloshy hungry.
This is my first race report. Hope it wasn’t painful.
This was also my first race as an EN'r.
Comments
Good times shouting at ya on the course. I hope to see you Saturday!
Chris,
What gearing is your bike? What was your cadence up that first big hill just inside the base. Cali is a course where there are several sort-free minutes to be had by knowing where to pay and save. You'll do better next time with the experience you gained!
@Rich - ran a compact with an 11x23, cadence was low 40 - 50
Well, that's yer problem right thar! I would ride that course with 26-11 or maybe 25-12 with a compact. 23-11 and compact is WAY too low for you on that course.
Figures, just switched to a standard and 12x25 on the road bike and a compact and 12x25 on the tri bike. Test it all out tomorrow at Mullholland.
Joe, Mullholland went great. Put a 12x28 on the back and made a huge difference on the climbs. Even some that I have been doing for years that were painful were not that bad. Wish I would have done this years ago.
Live and learn, and move on. Just think how you will now be able to keep your VI low over hilly race courses.....
I understand you can't ride Ocenside except for races, but you can work on keeping VI low on hills on any of the ABP rides. Just pick a hilly route and see how it goes target .80 IF for long segments -- say 20 to 30 minutes.
Sorry to ping an old thread, but just wanted to thank Chris for a great race report. I'm racing Oceanside Saturday and I love the bike discussion as I am also prone to overcooking the bike.
I'm running 11x28 with compact