(Photo courtesy of Frederick)
I’ve heard that interesting things happen in California all the time (many of which make it onto TMZ…). After the weekend in Long Beach, I can attest to that…
Those “interesting things” began before the camp did. I’m grateful to Andrew for the assist when things didn’t go as planned at the airport.
After meeting with Frederick, we got the bike build done and fit completed. After everything was set, we did a triple brick. One of the important things that came out of that was making sure the gloves were set. During the second brick, where everything was, I remember being the first of the VIs on the run.
After lunch (where a talent agent just appeared), we went into the lagoon for Open Water Swim (OWS) practice. Because of the issues I’d had at Leon’s, I was concerned about swimming with the wet suit. As the time was a bit faster without it, and the water felt good, I did decide to race without it. I didn’t notice the same constriction when I had it on though. I don’t know if that was because of the salt water, if I had missed a wrinkle at Leon’s, or something else. But I will keep an eye on it going forward.
After OWS, we ended the day with breathwork. There weren’t ice baths like at the Pleasant Prairie camp. But it was still a good session.
On the second day, we were at the race site for OWS and bike/run practice. While I wish the swim opprotunity had been longer, it did help us to work through an unexpected first, and work out strategies for it.
I have raced in bodies of water on both coasts and in the Gulf of Mexico. I’ve also swam by myself in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf of Mexico. In all of that time, I had never gotten caught on a kelp tree (or pushed into one by the waves around Hawaii). So that practice swim was something entirely new as the tether caught on a huge kelp tree that was about 30 – 40 meters from the shore.
While we did have a chance to practice bike / run along the shore line, to say it was “chaotic” is dramatically underselling it. IMO, the race needs to have volunteers out there to keep order so people can practice without concern.
After a fairly stressful practice, it was good to end the day with Yoga. 🙂
After setting up transition and making our way to the beach, we were able to get in a brief warm up swim prior to race start.
Having figured out the kelp tree solution, it was a solid swim. I ended up coming out of the water about 90 seconds ahead of where I thought I’d be. Unfortunately, I lost a lot of time due to the rough ground / bunched up path making it nearly impossible for me to do more than shuffle. This was extremely frustrating to me, as I was the first of the ATD1 VI males out of the water, but the last out of T1. 🙁
Once we finally made it out of T1, the bike went well for the most part. While the crash from 2022 still caused some issues, we were able to hit 24-25 mph at points. I did burn too much to get over one of the overpasses though, which came back on the run…
After a normal T2, we headed out with the running bottle. This helped, even though I would keep “red linining” (which is something I’ll be working with my coach on). Even with those struggles, we still had a solid run in “intervals”. It seemed to be a small step forward from some of the prior runs this season.
Thank you to Dare2Tri for all of their help and support throughout the weekend. Thank you to Frederick for all his help, support, and guiding throughout the weekend. And thanks to Andrew for his assist on the trasportation pieces.
I also wanted to thank American Airlines baggage handlers for taking care of the tandem (aka Durable Medical Equipment) during transit. After another carrier’s baggage team crushed the rear triangle, I had not flown with it for almost six years. And I was extremely nervous about how it would turn out. But between their care and the supports within the Scicon case, it all worked out. 🙂 Hopefully I can get back to traveling with the tandem on a normal basis starting in 2026 again!
If you want to save while joining me, use code JGILLIARD10 at http://tinyurl.com/jgsuper !
