Thirty Seven was not my race number. I wasn't lucky enough to get number 1111 like Super Dave, or as he prefers to be called now, "DAVE ONE". Thirty seven is how many seconds it took for me to hold off 47th place in my age group over one of PTC's favorite athletes.
Oceanside 2010 was not a race I was looking forward to. If it hadn't been for Jesse, I probably wouldn't have gotten on my bike in the cold. Started ramping up my training 6-8 weeks before the race and thought I would rest the week of the race and treat Oceanside as a training day. Yeah, that's it--a training day. Well, all I can say is it was nice to race on fresh legs, i.e. legs that hadn't been doing excessive climbing and legs that haven't been doing tons of run mileage. I woke up on race day feeling good. No aches, no pains, no sore legs. Hmmm. This would be an interesting day. My focus for the race was a solid bike leaving me good legs for a run. My goal was to run faster than my half marathon at Surf City in early february. I raced Oceanside in 2008, didn't race it in 2009 due to knee issues. My time was 5:21:59 in 2008 and my fitness was pretty high at that time as I was prepping for IMCDA that year. So, I was hoping to go sub 5:30 without excessive suffering.
I drove down to Oceanside on friday afternoon. Left work in Pasadena at 2:30 and arrived at the expo around 445pm. I got checked in for the race and then headed to the hotel to get checked in there. Stayed at the holiday inn right by the race start. I then headed down to the team PTC dinner at 6pm in the marina. It was good to see everyone, but it was kind of chilly out. Fell asleep to Criminal Minds featuring Mandy Patakin. Woke up 4am. Ate a quick liquid meal (400 cal of Carbo Pro mixed in 20oz of half water, half G2, a trader joe frozen oatmeal that I nuked and half a cup of coffee. I laid back down, napped a little and got up at 445 to get dressed and meet PTC Bob, PTC Lynda and PTC Dave One downstairs to ride over at 515. Got bodymarked, set up my transition area, waited in the long honeypot line, and then hung out in T until my 7:37am wave with Jesse who was in the 7:41am wave and Michel. Headed over to the start with Michel. Could not find Allen. We had a big start wave. 226 finishers in my age group.
I lined up on the right side right in the front of my start group. The gun went off and the race was on. Swim was uneventful. Water was not cold. Sighting on the way back in from the turnaround was challenging with the rising sun, but managed to swim around the waves that left ahead of me. Came in at 26:14 (versus 25:14 in 2008). Its a long run to the bikes. I wore armwarmers under my wetsuit and threw on a vest for the ride. T1 was 4:42 (versus 5:09 in 2008).
The bike was a lot of fun. The course felt fast, but it was probably my new Wheelbuilder Aerojet Disk Covers. I received many compliments on my disk wheel during the hilly and windy sections of the ride. The last 10 miles in felt fast too, and I focused on soft pedaling and loosening up the legs for the run. Bike time was 2:52:53 (versus 3:03:18 in 2008). T2 was uneventful and I was out of there fast at 2:52 (versus 4:42 in 2008--but I think I might have hit the porta potty on the way out that year). Run felt good the whole way. A little suffering in miles 9, 10 and 11. I saw a lof of PTCers out there on the run. Thom, Prentiss, Myrick, Jean, Monica, Lisa, Bob and then Michel. I finally saw him about a 1/2 mile past the final turnaround. I knew he had good legs and would be chasing me down. When I hit mile 12, i really picked it up and ran a 7:10 mile in the last mile. I saw Lynda and gave her a shout as she rounded the cone to start her 2nd run lap. Ran in feeling strong. Run was 1:50:13 (versus 1:43:50 in 2008) about :30 faster than my time at Surf City. All in all, a good day.
Overall 5:17:54 versus 5:21:59 in 2008. Personal best 70.3.
The only thing that sucks about this race is training in all the cold and rainy weather we've had this year. I did a lot of computrainer leading into this, as I preferred my warm garage than the cold hills and bike paths. At least I wasn't suffering in a skanky basement in the midwest ! I used the Endurance Nation Out Season Training Plan. They've got some great trainer workouts in there and for running, I teamed up with Steve Mackel, ChiRunning Instructor. He's made a HUGE difference in my running. I also managed to lighten up by about 10lbs in the past 6-8 weeks, which really helped a lot.
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