The wetsuit's buoyancy helped a lot, as I didn't really feel like I was needing to propel myself with my legs very much. Got out of the water okay, jogged over to where my bike was while I was pulling the top of my wetsuit off. That went fine, and I got one foot out easily, but the left foot, where my tracking device was, proved to be problematic. I wasted some time getting that leg off, then quickly put on socks, shoes, helmet, and phone in arm holder, and started riding out of the transition zone before they told me I had to run with my bike to the Mount line on the course. Once I was on the bike, I worked my cycling gloves on (may not use them next time), adjusted my trisuit, and put my sunglasses on. This course had much of its relatively small elevation gain after a flat first 1.5 miles. When it started to tilt up, I went to drop into my lower chainring, and my chain came off. Couldn't get it back on by switching back to my upper chainring, so I had to stop and put the chain back on manually, which was frustrating and time-consuming. From there on, I stayed in my upper chainring to avoid repeating the issue. It did give me an adrenaline boost, and I was pushing some serious power on these modest gradients. Nobody was passing me, and I was passing a fair number of people, doing my best to let others know I was coming up on their left, to avoid any accidents. The roads were closed off, which was excellent. I got through the bulk of the climbing and got into my aero drops to make time. Out toward Cabrillo National Monument, riding a little way past the entrance before turning around and riding back to the start on the same roads. The return was net downhill. I think my average speed at the turn was about 17 mph, and I pushed the pace on the return, either in the aero drops on the flats and slight downhills or keeping pedaling when the gradient got steeper down. I didn't have my heartrate monitor on, so my Wahoo was not sync'ed to the heartrate on my watch, no Relative Effort data.
Avg speed = 20.1 mph. Total mileage = 11.9 mi
Avg power = 200 W. Weighted avg power = 212 W
Total elevation gain = 580'
Training Load = 55
Intensity = 96%
The bike ride seemed to go by quite quickly, and I was back in the transition area hanging my bike up and switching to my running gear. That second transition went more smoothly, I kept my sunglasses on and put on a cap as well. Ran through the other transition zone, through the beach, and then on sidewalks that largely ran by San Diego Bay. I was already warmed up, and I ran the first mile in 6:57. Was regularly passing folks, trying to pay attention to those runners who might have been in the same wave as me. I knew it would be very difficult to have a negative split run after this first mile, so my intention was not to slow down rather than try to speed up. Second and third miles were only slightly slower. After mile 3, I was starting to feel fatigue in my legs and had a little bit of a stitch in the side, but I kept going and saved a little something for a final kick to the finish line. I think one or two younger runners passed me near the end, but other than that I held my own. Ended up with a PR for 5k, which was gratifying in itself. Got to the finish line feeling good and also feeling like I didn't leave too much in the tank.
Avg pace = 7:01/mi
Total distance = 3.49 mi
Elapsed moving time = 24:30
Again, unfortunately, I don't have heartrate data from this run, would love to know how far I pushed it. I went and stood just past the finish line, dropped off my tracking device, then walked over to the area where the live race results were available. It was here that I saw I had placed first in my age group (65-69), which was unbelievable and truly gratifying. I went and found some shade, let Ann know I had finished, and savored the moment. She showed up in about 15 minutes or so, and we walked over to the race results tent where she saw what I had done. She was really excited, texted the girls and Kathy as well. My official time was 1:16:49. I had hoped to be under 1:20, so mission accomplished. Was particularly gratified by the swim and run legs, where I outperformed my expectations. We stayed around for the awards ceremony so she could get a picture of me on the top step. Thankfully, the second and third place finishers were there as well, so it was a good picture. I sent the pic out to the Bisikleta group and got a lot of nice comments back throughout the day. Also very gratifying. We walked to where Ann had parked, then she drove me back to Spanish Landing, where I had to jog some more from where she dropped me off to where my stuff was. It was all good, gathered everything up and rode back to where I had parked the car at Liberty Station. On the drive home, the feelings of exhaustion and hunger started kicking in, but they were manageable. I ate a relatively light lunch when I got home and kept drinking fluids through the rest of the day. Had a nap in the early afternoon, then Ann and I went to Orfila to have a glass of wine and listen to music on the patio. We found a table that was far from the music, but it was still a nice little interlude. Then we drove to Emily and Caleb's place to check on the cats. Max was friendly, Kenzo less so. Were there for about 20 minutes or so, then we drove home. Dinner was light, evening was blessedly quiet.
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