Saturday, June 26, 2010

San Diego ramp up

Stretching before my run today, and about to see if my feet would blow up in racing flats in a distance over 5K.  They didn't luckily, but I should have done this a week ago.

I have a race coming up this Sunday.  It's the San Diego International Triathlon.  Mary, Ian and I are making a short weekend out of it.  We'll be heading down tomorrow morning, spend the afternoon around the pool, and then after the race hit Legoland or the San Diego Zoo on the drive back.

The race distances are a little odd at 1000M/30K/10K.  Longer than a Sprint, shorter than an Olympic.  I guess that makes it a Sprimpic?  Regardless, I've heard great things about this one and I get the impression a lot of people turn up.

As I've done in the past, I am going to make some predictions about my performance so I'm well set up to be super humbled come Sunday.  Here goes nothing...


The Swim - 1000 Meters (1093 Yards)

The swim is a deep water start in a sheltered harbor.  According to the pictures, it looks like it may be down the center channel of a giant marina.  So there will be no waves or weird currents to worry about.  Everyone from my Thursday night open water swim group swears they are not waiting for me at the end of each lap as long as they where a month ago.  So who knows?  Maybe I am getting faster.  The coaching is helping for sure but I'm still working on translating the technique adjustments learned in the pool to the open water.  I'm going to say 2:10 per100 yards, which will make my swim time 23:41.

The Bike - 30 Kilometers (18.64 Miles)

The bike course is supposed to be awesome.  It's a couple laps on the top of Point Loma, which is a small peninsula that sticks out into San Diego Bay.  The Cabrillo National Monument is at the tip.  My understanding that there is a long but moderate climb in, before the terrain gently rolls for the middle of the course.  I don't put climbing on any "Top 5 Raddest Things Of All Time" lists I keep, but I manage.  And of course this all translates into a fast descent out.  Hopefully I can average 19 MPH (I'm not prepared to commit to 20 with the hills) and clock in with a time of 58:52.  It's supposed to be a little windy, so I don't know what effect that will have.

The Run - 10 Kilometers (6.2 Miles)

The run course looks like it is all on sea wall or jetty paths.  So it will be flat.  But again, the wind could be a factor, I'm not sure.  I'll be happy with anything under an 8:00/mile pace.  I usually negative split races so I don't think it's inconceivable that I can run this with 7:50 miles, which would put my run at 48:40.  That said, I've never done anything other than sprint distances before, so managing myself post-bike on a run twice the length will be a new experience.  We'll see how it goes.

With 5 minutes thrown in for transitions that will give me a race time of 2:16:13, which according to last year's results puts me right in the middle of the pack.

I'm really looking forward to this one.  I've done a few races up in LA and a few down in San Diego.  To be honest, I prefer the scene down in San Diego.  As a friend of mine said last night, San Diego is filled with hardcore triathletes.  I'm sure this helps create the vibey scene down there.

Best wishes to anyone else who is racing this weekend.  Off the top of my head I know that Mandy from Caratunk Girl is racing in the LADU Duathlon in Lewiston, ME and Kovas from Midwest Multisport Life is doing the BigFoot Triathlon in Lake Geneva, WI.  Good luck, guys.

12 comments:

Chris said...

Good luck tomorrow. I love that race. I am racing Carlsbad in a couple of weeks.

RockStarTri said...

Good luck!

64 CLASSIC said...

The family weekend sounds fun. It sounds like you have each event planned carefully. Preparation, I like it!! Hopefully the weather, winds, temperatures and all other factors fall into place for you. Best of luck!!

misszippy said...

Sounds like nice distances, actually. Good luck--I hope you beat all your goals!

Pete32 said...

Good luck! San Diego would be a great place to bring the family for a Tri. Love the Zoot shoes.

Kathleen said...

Have a great race and a wonderful time at the zoo or Legoland :)

Glenn Jones said...

Good luck tomorrow! And most important - have fun!

valen said...

all the best from Auckland. I´m in the future here (its sunday 10pm) but I can´t tell you how you finished.

Jennifer said...

I bet you did great. As usual I am a little behind on your post! Can't wait for the RR!

Unknown said...

Best of luck Patrick!

Caratunk Girl said...

Good luck (I am sure you did awesome), thanks for the shout out!

64 CLASSIC said...

Checking back.... looking for an update!! Excited to hear how you did!!

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