Spring Sprint Race Notes - 2025

For the first time I've been able to land a podium spot. Sure it's a local race and a sprint distance but I think it's pretty damn cool and I'm excited about it.

The Spring Sprint is an early season race in San Diego. The swim is in Mission Bay and the weather is always a bit iffy. Last year I raced the international distance and it dumped for an hour before the start. This year again it rained but not nearly as hard. It was mostly cloudy and cold. The water on the other hand was almost 70º!!!! It was something like 15º warmer in the water than outside.

One of the things I like about the San Diego races is that it starts in waves as opposed to self-seeding. The benefits are that you get to actually race and your placing at the end isn't adjusted. You get to really be in a race.

Swim

The swim start was an in-water start. I think I like in-water starts (when the water is warm) because you don't get the crazy spike in heart rate as much. I positioned myself at the front of the group on the right side near the pier. It was a straight shot to the first buoy and I didn't want to swim more than I had to. At the gun I went hard. There was a person on each side. The person on my left faded back quickly and the one on the right was only able to hang for before I dropped them. A the first buoy I made the left turn first. Since I breathe to my left I was able to see I was putting a lot of time into the group. I tried to remember to kick (I often don't) get on top of the water.

By the time I got to the second buoy I had caught the slower swimmers in the previous wave. The disadvantage to swimming fast is running into to people and navigating the crowd. The positive part is that you forget how hard you're swimming and just trying to get clear as soon as possible.

As I exited the water I was able to take a peek and see I had 30 seconds to a minute on the next person. I took a second to get my balance and then climbed the steep ramp and ran across the extremely rough pavement to my bike.

7:55 for 525 yards. I think I should be faster but at this point, I might need to be realistic and accept that right now my open water swimming is not as strong as my pool swimming.

T1

I got to my bike and shed my sleeveless wet-suit quickly. Put on my shoes, then helmet, then bike and took off for the mount line. I had wanted to attach my shoes but testing the day prior the rubber bands were to thick and I didn't feel comfortable with the flying mount.

2:21. Probably would be under 2 mins if I hadn't put on shoes first.

Bike

My goal was to be around 230 watts on average. That's pretty close to my threshold and seemed accurate enough. Coming off the swim and the sprint through transition my heart rate felt high. Looking at the data it was consistently around 163-169 the entire leg. The hard part about this distance is you don't have time to "settle in". You've get moving fast.

This particular course is a challenge because it's 2 loops and there are 3 sections with hair pin turns where you need to slow down considerably. So my normalized power was 215 and somewhat far from my goal, however, if I highlight the sections where I could work, I was right on the money hitting 229 normalized. So I am pretty satisfied with the performance.

28:11 for 10 miles. I was hoping to be closer to 25 minutes. Considering how congested the course is, the weather, and those hair pin turns, I'm pretty happy with this. I was second fastest on the bike and first into T2 💪🏽.

T2

Ugh. I'm pretty disappointed with T2. I spent too much damn time getting my shoes off and on here. I went sock-less and my feet were damp and my running shoes would not slide on. I did not feel comfortable taking my feet out of my shoes while on the bike. I really should have, though. It would have given them time to air dry, I think. I probably lost 30 seconds in transition because of this.

1:52. I missed out on second by 30 seconds and this transition could've been it.

Run

The run is my weakness. It has been improving steadily but it's still where I lose the most ground. As I left transition I saw the next person behind me coming in. My attitude was, "let's race" but also, I needed to be smart.

It wasn't long before I was caught. Initially I was doing 7:20 pace but when the other athlete caught me I tried to hang for a while. As my heart rate crept up to being maxed, I decided I needed to pull back some. I might have relaxed a bit too much on the second mile and then really finished hard on the final mile.

Lap Splits

1. 7:16

2. 7:23

3. 7:12

23:01 on the 5k. My fastest 5k ever (even the threshold test a couple of months ago 🤯)

Overall

In the end I finished 3rd. My first podium and my official time was 1:03:12. It was my first experience actually racing and I want more of it. It was nice to be in the kind of shape where I could compete and earn a spot on a podium. Also, I was 15th overall for my gender and was only 5 minutes out from first. Just consistent improvement across the board.