Bryan's Vineman 70.3 Report
This race was a great redemption from my last race at Wildflower where I had been sick and suffered on the bike and walked most of the run. Probably shouldn't have even run that race, but oh well, it's in the books.
Woke up at 4am for my applesauce breakfast. Was able to get 3 cups of it down and the banana and sport drink. At RR#2 I wasn't able to eat the whole amount of applesauce I targeted, so this seemed like an improvement 
.
Water temp in the Russian River was in the 70s and felt comfortable getting in with my full wetsuit. Started out smooth and quickly settled into my stroke. There were quite a few of us in my start wave (146) and was bumping into several different people for the first 1/3 of a mile or so. The river is quite shallow in spots, but I was able to keep my elbows high and stay swimming most of the time. At the turnaround it was really shallow and I ended up having a little trouble not scraping for a bit, so I stood and dove forward a few times. Seemed to work pretty well. Turned out I PR'd the swim @ 35:00 minutes.
Transition in the dirt / mud at Johnson's beach is a bit of a bummer, but other than getting dirty, no issues. Being out of the water early is nice, not so many people in the transition area. It's a split transition, so I packed everything up in my bag and was out. Took 4:23, which sounds longer than I thought it was. I guess a long narrow transition area plus putting everything in my bag took some time.
Not too crowded at the start of the bike. Vineman bike starts right on a short hill, so it's a bit of a challenge getting clipped in and riding right away, but there wasn't too much traffic and I got going pretty easily. I've been using my 910xt on my wrist and looking at my power that way was a total pain. I decided during the bike that I would get a new bike computer that I can mount on the bars with a big enough font that my old eyes can see it . Was able to hold my watts relatively steady, although Chalk Hill was a challenge. It is interesting that people cheering on the hill really want you to spike your watts up the hill (what people say to triathletes). I got passed by a lot of people on the bike and had to keep reminding myself that it was OK and they were either just faster than me or I would get them on the run. Ended up putting out pretty much exactly .75 IF with a VI of 1.06. Completed the bike in 3:09:01.
Got into T2 and felt pretty reasonable. Was able to jog my bike over to my transition spot, which was way nicer (grass and cement) instead of the dirt at T1. Not enough porta-potties at T2, though. Ended up waiting 2 minutes there, but it couldn't be helped. Really glad I did, too. A guy on the run in front of me in the first mile was penalized for going in the bushes 
. Got out of T2 in 5:10, so wouldn't have been bad without the stop.
Once I started running I felt quite good. Really had to work hard to keep my pace down, but even though I was really holding back I was already passing people. That probably helped my attitude as well and I was able to run along very happily tracking people down. I was aching to hit the gas at mile 6 and started going a bit faster. At mile 8 I really started to push myself and was passing even more people. Holding back on the bike certainly seemed to work out well and I ended up PR'ing the run, getting it done in 1:45:16.
5:38:50
Good enough for 47th in my AG our of 146. Not quite a PR, I raced a 5:30 in Big Kahuna, but that was almost 8 years ago.
I'm pretty happy with my race execution. I am more motivated than ever to get my FTP up. I really want to be able to ride a little faster. I guess I could have tried to hit .8 IF, but the run turned out well and I'm not sure I would have been able to run as well if I had and the time delta on the bike would have been pretty minimal. Big thumbs up for my first race after EN (not counting Wildflower, where I was sick). Execution advice and training prep worked out quite well and I'm ready for Lake Tahoe.
Comments
Awesome, congrats! Where in CA do you live? My tri club, Pasadena Tri Club, had about 40 in the race.
You definitely had a great race. Congrats!