Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.caloso
09-12-06, 06:38 PM
This was my "A" race for the year so I've been training with this in mind since May. And as part of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team In Training, I raised over $3000 to fight blood cancer. TNT as a whole raised over $1.2 million for this event alone. So, even before the gun went off, this event was a super positive experience.
I normally sleep pretty well before races so I was kind of surprised how little I slept the night before. It was probably the fact that I did call it my "A" race. If I'd just tricked myself into thinking it was a training race, I probably would have slept like a stone. Anyway, I was up before 5 but that gave me plenty of time to have some oatmeal and coffee, take care of business, and get down to the lobby to meet the team at 6.
At 6:15 we left the hotel on our bikes with our wetsuits and packs full of Gu and Gatorade. I managed to have the only crash of the day when the group slowed at the transition, I wasn't paying attention, and managed to do a typical can't-clip-out-in-time zero speed fall. The transition area was huge, probably the size of a football field in a park on Lover's Point, just where the Monterey Peninsula juts out into the Pacific.
The swim takes place in a protective cove. Hardly any waves, as smooth as any big lake. But the water is cold, cold, cold. And the cove is full of kelp. So much so that the race organizers try to put a fun spin on it by calling it the Kelp Crawl.
Pacific Grove is such a big TNT event that it has three separate start waves just for TNT but I and a couple of other veteran triathletes decided to go with our age-groups and see how we stacked up with "real racers." There were about 100 racers in the Men 35-39. When the gun went off, I went straight in. Usually, I try to hang in the back but I was feeling strong and I'd had a good practice swim the day before and I felt pretty warmed up and acclimated to the water. Things took awhile to sort themselves out. The tide was low and there were lifeguards on surfboards stationed along the rocks to the side. A few guys swam toward the rocks and you could hear whistles and shouts to warn them. I tried to get into a rhythm, only to have it broken up by a guy swimming up my back. Normally, that's bad enough, but with the kelp it was even more frustrating.
Ah, the kelp. It was amazingly thick. It was substantial enough that it could actually support part of your weight and it was faster and more efficient to grab some and pull your way through it than it was to try to keep swimming. Finally, after 250 or so, around the 2d buoy, the water cleared and I finally got into the smooth rhythm I'd tried to establish. Around the 3d buoy and I was beginning to enjoy this. I remembered why I liked swimming in the ocean. But then soon it was back into the kelp forest. I'd try to swim around some of the big groves of it, but the closer to the beach you got the thicker it would get.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y18/CalOso/Triathlon%20at%20Pacific%20Grove%202006/September06026.jpg
Finally, to the beach. At Pacific Grove, the swim is a two loop deal. You have to run on to the beach and around a big rock and then back into the water. I had the good fortune of doing my first lap in 15:30. Since the waves go every 15 minutes, as I headed back into the water, I was right on the tail of the 40-44 year old wave. And of course, right back into the washing machine effect.
But now on my second wave, I was relaxed and so I was able pull by the slower guys and get into open water. Back around the buoys, up onto the beach, and into transition.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y18/CalOso/Triathlon%20at%20Pacific%20Grove%202006/September06039.jpg
I normally sleep pretty well before races so I was kind of surprised how little I slept the night before. It was probably the fact that I did call it my "A" race. If I'd just tricked myself into thinking it was a training race, I probably would have slept like a stone. Anyway, I was up before 5 but that gave me plenty of time to have some oatmeal and coffee, take care of business, and get down to the lobby to meet the team at 6.
At 6:15 we left the hotel on our bikes with our wetsuits and packs full of Gu and Gatorade. I managed to have the only crash of the day when the group slowed at the transition, I wasn't paying attention, and managed to do a typical can't-clip-out-in-time zero speed fall. The transition area was huge, probably the size of a football field in a park on Lover's Point, just where the Monterey Peninsula juts out into the Pacific.
The swim takes place in a protective cove. Hardly any waves, as smooth as any big lake. But the water is cold, cold, cold. And the cove is full of kelp. So much so that the race organizers try to put a fun spin on it by calling it the Kelp Crawl.
Pacific Grove is such a big TNT event that it has three separate start waves just for TNT but I and a couple of other veteran triathletes decided to go with our age-groups and see how we stacked up with "real racers." There were about 100 racers in the Men 35-39. When the gun went off, I went straight in. Usually, I try to hang in the back but I was feeling strong and I'd had a good practice swim the day before and I felt pretty warmed up and acclimated to the water. Things took awhile to sort themselves out. The tide was low and there were lifeguards on surfboards stationed along the rocks to the side. A few guys swam toward the rocks and you could hear whistles and shouts to warn them. I tried to get into a rhythm, only to have it broken up by a guy swimming up my back. Normally, that's bad enough, but with the kelp it was even more frustrating.
Ah, the kelp. It was amazingly thick. It was substantial enough that it could actually support part of your weight and it was faster and more efficient to grab some and pull your way through it than it was to try to keep swimming. Finally, after 250 or so, around the 2d buoy, the water cleared and I finally got into the smooth rhythm I'd tried to establish. Around the 3d buoy and I was beginning to enjoy this. I remembered why I liked swimming in the ocean. But then soon it was back into the kelp forest. I'd try to swim around some of the big groves of it, but the closer to the beach you got the thicker it would get.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y18/CalOso/Triathlon%20at%20Pacific%20Grove%202006/September06026.jpg
Finally, to the beach. At Pacific Grove, the swim is a two loop deal. You have to run on to the beach and around a big rock and then back into the water. I had the good fortune of doing my first lap in 15:30. Since the waves go every 15 minutes, as I headed back into the water, I was right on the tail of the 40-44 year old wave. And of course, right back into the washing machine effect.
But now on my second wave, I was relaxed and so I was able pull by the slower guys and get into open water. Back around the buoys, up onto the beach, and into transition.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y18/CalOso/Triathlon%20at%20Pacific%20Grove%202006/September06039.jpg