Big Kahuna HIM Race Report - (The Readers Digest Version) It’s All About The Chocolate Dipped Ice Cr
Sunday, September 11, 2011 - Air temp was 60 at start and got up to 70 on the run. Perfect!
Set-up:
- Have not done a triathlon all year
- Last tri I did was one year ago - this one. I did 10 day taper and was ready to race it.
- 4th time doing Big Kahuna
- Catered training race for IMAZ in November
- Goals for this event:
- Dial in nutrition (reacquaint myself)
- Have faster transitions
- Get a feel for overall fitness to date.
- NO taper: Typical training week this week with 12 mile run Thursday and this run was capping off a 40 mile run week.
Swim: 31:01
Not bad. You swim around the Santa Cruz pier. Water was 59 degrees and after a few in-and-outs of the water I was acclimated before the race began. 4 minutes slower than last year. Missed a buoy and had to back track a bit. Just kept it free and easy.
T1: 6:21
After exiting the water and running 30 yards or so on the sand you then run 3 blocks or so to transition. This time I was 49 seconds faster than last year. No socks for bike.
Bike: 2:44:35
Felt great on the bike. Was in aero position 100% of the time and held gears well. A little "hot" in the beginning but then settled in nicely. Avg speed was 20.4 MPH on a rolling course. No real flat sections and no real climbing, per se. 15:22 faster than last year. Was out and back on Pacific Coast Highway and when I made the turn around at Pigeon Point I got slapped in the face with a head wind. UGH! Made for a long ride back and I pulled back on the watts a bit to save some matches. Overall happy with my ride. IF was .777.
T2: 2:49
Nice T2. Had hard time getting socks on. Need to work on that. 37 seconds faster than last year.
Run: 2:26:38
Beautiful run along the bluffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean . . . . but UGH! The bigger run week and no taper left nothing in my legs. Had nothing to do with the bike. Legs felt fine. No soreness or fatigue Just zero pep. I knew this was gonna happen so was no surprise. The 12 mile hilly run on Thursday plus the other mileage beginning of the week took its toll. But the run wasn’t my goal. So I suffered it out one mile at a time. Chatted up the other runners, and did everything I could to keep my buddies behind me at bay (long history of them passing me the last 3 miles of several HIM's - I ended up beating them by 47 seconds - curse broken). Last ? mile was on the sand. Run was 9:52 slower than last year.
Post mortem:
Overall time was 5:51:26 and a 5:06:00 HIM PR for me.
Did I meet my goals?:
Transitions:
Beat last years transition times. T1 was pretty smooth except for putting on the gloves. May just put them on aerobar ends at IMAZ and put the gloves on once I get on the bike course. T2 had some issues with getting socks on. Need to work on that. But overall, goals met!
Nutrition:
Nailed the nutrition on the bike. Took a couple of big swigs of my 3 hour Infinit bottle. YUCK. That won't happen again. Need to sip and chase with water. On the run I over drank and got sloshy at times. Did pee one time so I was hydrated. So goal met!
Overall Fitness:
Though my run sucked, as expected, I was 5:06 minutes faster overall than last year with no taper and on tired run legs. So I am more than happy with where I am at to date. Just need to keep hyper focused on the run for these remaining 10 weeks leading up to IMAZ.
Closing:
It’s a tradition to get a chocolate dipped ice cream on the Santa Cruz Boardwalk after this race for me and my buddies. Several times on the run I was thinking about that and here I am enjoying it with the finish line over my right shoulder.
That’s it. Rock on everyone.
Comments
Ya, did a major training reset a week ago today to simply forego the HIM taper and push through and just make the HIM a long training day. Need to keep the focus IMAZ and not lose days tapering and then recovering. Only 10 weeks to go!
I figure if I did taper I would have been down in the 5:30's for my finish time, easily.
Ahhh, Big Kahuna...the memories...that was my 1st and 2nd HIM ever, back in '05 and '06. Would like to go back and crush the course someday!
The best (and worst) nastyass burrito I ever had was at the Boardwalk after my '05 race. Disgusting nasty thing, but it tasted SO good after my first HIM!
Great job on the AZ build up. That's just where the race fits in. Perfect way to light up the snap you need for the end of training. Congrats!
Great race to you as well. I can't believe you had not done a Triathlon all year. I had not done a race in 3 months and was feeling apprehensive prior to this race I can't imagine how longer would have felt. Great job.
Thanks,
JN