Weekend Report - Santa Barbara Triathlon and More

Quote "OOH" - Body Marking Girl when I told her my age


A few things I learned from the Santa Barbara Triathlon

1.  My Swim sucks - For the life of me I can't figure out why my swim in the pool is so strong and in a wetsuit in open water I suck.
2. That bike course is totally fun to ride but it is one hard ride too.
3. Test your running shoes, test again and test again. I ran in these shoes 3-4 times on various different runs and had no issues. During the race my left foot felt like it had a rock in it the entire way. No matter what I did it was there. I have my theories and one of them is that it's my foot and not the shoe with the problem. We'll see when I resume running again this week.
4. Strength - I said last Friday that I view strength long term. Clearly it's the right strategy and clearly I have more work to do. I look around the transition at the faster 50 year olds and they all have a great deal more muscle mass than I do. Look at #1 and maybe I'm not strong enough, look at #2 and although I rode really well, the tough course took the spirit out of my legs. At mile 8 on the run my strength was gone. It's a sure sign that strength is a weakness and one I know I need to work on for sport and for life.
5. To the guy who set up next to me in Transition. Yes my bike was gone when you got to your bike. Yes my bike was there when you got back into transition. Yes that was me heading back on the run in fact you even said "There you are". I had you worried didn't I? Blame my idiocy that was confirmed by the starter on the beach. I read Men 40+ in wave #1. Apparently that was for those who asked to be in wave #1 with the Elites. When I asked the starter to confirm that all men 40+ were in wave #1 she confirmed. I didn't even know until after the race that there was a separate start. You won the age group but you already know that. We'll have a laugh about it next time.

Traffic - Remind me to take the train. Yes the train is slow but at least on the train I can do things. I take that back a little because to pass the time in the car I listed to a great podcast. For some reason my random selection of Rich Roll Podcasts always hits on a winner. Maybe all of his podcasts are great but I doubt it. This one however is one worth listening to Rich Roll and Dan Harris. It took me 5 hours to get home. That's a bit crazy anytime but even crazier after racing hard. Thanks Rich for some inspiration.

It's a good life...