Vineman Analysis

The most interesting part of this whole event, to me, was how much more time can be shaved off of Basta's overall time. Even though he took 32 minutes off his Oceanside time, there's at least another half hour or so to be saved before he 'peaks' at this.

How?

Well, not on the swim. He swam 1.2 in 37:20. That's a 1:46 pace. In Oceanside his pace was 2:12, so I'm very pleased with this improvement. It helped, certainly, that this was a quiet river as opposed to a somewhat rough ocean, but still. That's a fine pace. Maybe he'll get a little faster as he continues putting in the laps in the pool, but there's no need to work on this further. He said he felt great in the water the whole time and felt fresh when he got out. That's just what we wanted.

T1 was nice and fast. No room for improvement there.

The bike. He averaged 18mph on this course, as opposed to 16mph in Oceanside. They are different courses, but probably comparable. Vineman is a lot of rolling hills, Oceanside is a lot of flat with a few big hills. Vineman roads were poor -- rough with a lot of potholes. Oceanside roads were smooth and beautiful. Vineman was colder and everyone had numb fingers and toes the whole way. So I'd say his biking has improved quite a bit. He's certainly ridden a lot more, and a lot more difficult terrain these past few months.

But the winner in his age group did 21mph. The top 5 all did 20+. He can get another 20 minutes off the bike by increasing his speed, which means more time on the bike, working those hills, honing that technique. He'll get there.

It also means better nutrition. If you read the race report you'll remember that he shouted, 'I'm hungry!' as he was leaving T1. Well, we'd made peanut butter and honey sandwiches for the pre-swim morning, but he didn't eat his. He'd had a protein shake at 4am, then a Gu just prior to his 7:26am start. That was it for pre-race calories.

Then, on the bike, he didn't eat hardly at all. It being cold was a big part of that. He'd brought along 3 mini Clif bars but ate just one during the course of the whole 3 hour ride. The cold also meant that he didn't drink much of his water or electrolytes, either. He had another Gu about 10 minutes before dismounting the bike and starting his run. Seriously -- not enough calories! If he had fueled himself properly he no doubt could have pushed the bike a little harder.

A bit of drama in T2. He couldn't find his shoes. He knew his rack because he'd committed it to memory well beforehand. This was his rack, but it was packed with bikes and he didn't see his transition towel or shoes. He searched a couple other racks, but no. This was his rack. It looked like a bunch of guys had just dumped their bikes there, taking advantage of it being an end spot, even though this wasn't where they'd laid out their shoes.

At last, Basta saw the corner of his transition towel peeking out from under some guy's aero helmet. He lifted the helmet, and sure enough, there were his running shoes, visor, and transition towel wadded up under there. Intentional sabotage or just a guy being a self-centered jerk? We'll never know. Basta had to push a bunch of bikes down the rack to make room for his, taking care not to tip over the whole rack. Then he was able to rack his bike, put on his running shoes and visor, give the aero helmet a strong kick and send it skittering away, then take off running. T2 time, 4:51. A good 3 minutes wasted there, but what can you do? Things happen in events.

Basta's toes were numb and his feet felt like cement for the first three miles. Everyone was complaining about their numb feet as they headed out on the run. The tri bike might have made his legs feel less heavy, but they wouldn't have prevented the numbness from the cold.

By now he was really hungry. Really hungry. He was stopping at aid stations and taking in Gatorade, but he soon realized they were offering more than just liquids. After that, he ate what he could at each pause. Pretzels. Oranges. More Gatorade. But he was still hungry. No wonder with as little food as he'd eaten.

He said he felt like he could run faster, and he knew he should try to push it harder, but he just couldn't summon the energy to do it. That's simple lack of energy. His body was fit enough to run much faster, but he just didn't have the calories on board to do it. Not smart.

At the turnaround point he saw that they were handing out cookies. He ran past that, thinking, "I don't eat cookies," then turned around and said, "I need the calories!" He stopped, took a big cookie, and ate the whole thing while standing still. He said he was famished at this point and all he could think was, "'Hungry! Hungry! Hungry!"

That gave him enough energy to finish the run, but it wasn't a good run. 9:15 pace. He did 9:31 in Oceanside, so it's better, but still. I was hoping he'd do more like 8-8:30 pace. I know he could have if he'd been properly fueled.

So there it is. More time to be gained on the bike, lots of time to be gained on the run. The tri bike should give him some more time in both. We'll focus a lot more on nutrition. He understands that, conceptually, but in the passion of the event he threw all of that out the window and went by how he felt until it was too late.

But even under-nourished as he was, he finished a lot stronger. Not just in time-savings, but in how his body felt. At Oceanside, as he crossed the finish line he was huffing, puffing, gasping, and exhausted. He staggered off to Athlete Food with me supporting him, and there he sat on a bench for a good long time. Afterwards we went home and he went to bed. The next day his right leg was locked up and it took about 3 days before he loosened up and could walk normally. He was tired for a good two weeks after Oceanside.

At Vineman, he crossed the finish line looking fresh as a daisy. No disorientation at all. After chowing down on two full plates of food and chatting with other finishers for a while, we went wine tasting. Our hosts had a dinner party that night and Basta was up as late as all of us. The next day he felt fine. A little stiffness that went away once he got moving.

Training. It's a good thing.