New LA Triathlon Oly course is going to be a beast....

Jul 9, 14 10:46

Post #1 of 50 (6563 views)

Other course issues aside (which are significant), the course itself is I think going to be quite a challenge.

The swim exit will have a very long sand run out of the water, like Venice, but then a nice little climb up the hill to transition.

As mapped on mapmyride, Oly bike course will have nearly 2,000 feet of climbing in 23.5 miles (may be a little high depending on how MMR calculates elevation). As a reference, I believe the oceanside 70.3 has about 2400-2500 elevation gain total over 56 miles. The climbing starts right out of T1, no way to get the HR down.

Then 4 loops of a 2.5K Oly run that includes about half on sand and a climb up the same ramp from sand level to transition, 4 times. I live down there, the existence of hard packed sand will depend on the tide, and high tide is at 8:50 that day. There's not gonna be a heck of a lot of hard packed sand, and what there is will be canted towards the sea.

Last edited by: ChrisM: Jul 9, 14 10:47

Re: New LA Triathlon Oly course is going to be a beast.... [ChrisM] [ In reply to ]

Jul 9, 14 14:11

Post #2 of 50 (6449 views)

5 loop bike course and 4 loop run course. Seems like a lot of repetition ;)

_______________________________________________________
John Kenny, Pro Triathlete, USAT Certified Coach - http://www.frenchcreekracing.com
Philly Masters and Open Water
Swim and Multisport Events

Re: New LA Triathlon Oly course is going to be a beast.... [ChrisM] [ In reply to ]

BrentwoodTriGuy

Jul 9, 14 14:14

Post #3 of 50 (6440 views)

Still ZERO chance I'll sign up.

Maybe if they'd move it to a month prior to September.

Re: New LA Triathlon Oly course is going to be a beast.... [BrentwoodTriGuy] [ In reply to ]

Jul 9, 14 14:28

Post #4 of 50 (6414 views)

BrentwoodTriGuy wrote:

Still ZERO chance I'll sign up.

Maybe if they'd move it to a month prior to September.

I ain't signing up regardless of when it is.

Re: New LA Triathlon Oly course is going to be a beast.... [ChrisM] [ In reply to ]

Jul 9, 14 14:37

Post #5 of 50 (6401 views)

Is it draft legal. ITU races are draft legal. A 5 loop course seems like a nightmare if it isn't draft legal. How are they going to monitor people so they don't cut the course?

Seems like a bunch of accidents waiting to happen.

Re: New LA Triathlon Oly course is going to be a beast.... [mikemojo] [ In reply to ]

Jul 9, 14 15:01

Post #6 of 50 (6367 views)

mikemojo wrote:

Is it draft legal. ITU races are draft legal. A 5 loop course seems like a nightmare if it isn't draft legal. How are they going to monitor people so they don't cut the course?

nope. Honestly the course is so narrow course cutting will be clear to competitors at least, but there is not enough room on those roads for two lanes of bike traffic with 1500 riders and a moto. So expect drafting and no enforcement

Quote:

Seems like a bunch of accidents waiting to happen.

yep

Re: New LA Triathlon Oly course is going to be a beast.... [ChrisM] [ In reply to ]

Jul 9, 14 15:42

Post #7 of 50 (6331 views)

Did they post wave starts? If they kept the waves small and separated them by 5-10 minutes there will be less congestion on the road and less drafting and no TdF style bike pileups. But then late waves will be running in the heat and that sucks for them, and for cops who need to stick around longer for the traffic control, and the local community who need to put up with the race on their local roads.

Re: New LA Triathlon Oly course is going to be a beast.... [Dilbert] [ In reply to ]

Jul 9, 14 15:47

Post #8 of 50 (6326 views)

Dilbert wrote:

Did they post wave starts? If they kept the waves small and separated them by 5-10 minutes there will be less congestion on the road and less drafting and no TdF style bike pileups. But then late waves will be running in the heat and that sucks for them, and for cops who need to stick around longer for the traffic control, and the local community who need to put up with the race on their local roads.

Well, that's the weird thing, The website describes some new start called Swimstream. Not based on AG waves, but self seeded time trial start, I guess, up to 400 in the water at a time? So at some point most every oly racer may be on the course. By the way, there's also 2 180 degree turns (on at the bottom of a big downhill) and I think 10 90 degree or greater turns PER LAP.

It's going to be either very good or very bad

From the site
SwimStream� Starts

Here's how it works:

Participants will be allowed to self-determine at which time they begin the swim portion of HTLAT. Those with the fastest anticipated swim time will be encouraged to start in the earliest grouping or stream. For the Olympic Distance, this would be below 22 minutes; for the Sprint it would be below 11 minutes.
The swim chute will be no different than our previous construction or other swim starts you've seen. Volunteers will be holding a sign that has a specific time on it (similar to a run pace for a half or full marathon). Swimmers should line up in their appropriate anticipated time. Note, just like a running event, we will not force someone in a specific time/pace. It is on the honor system. This will allow some variability if friends, members of a triathlon club, co-workers from the same company, or family members want to swim together. We want swimmers to have maximum comfort and relaxation when entering the ocean.
Once a stream enters the start chute, swimmers will move toward the end of the chute, cross the timing mat and proceed directly into the water. Similar to a funnel. Your time starts when you cross the SwimStream timing mat. We will have streams of approximately 100 swimmers each (e.g., 100 swimmers in the under-22-minute Olympic swim stream). We will run streams of swimmers until we get 400 participants in the water. At this point, athletes will be allowed into the water as earlier streams of swimmers finish and come up onto the beach. Lifeguards and our swim coordinators will assist in controlling the flow of the swimmers (like turning off and on a spigot).
Once the Olympic distance race is in the water, we will have a approximately 10 minute gap and then start the Sprint under-11 minute swimmers, and so on until all the competitors have left the beach. The Sprint will start once the Olympic swimmers are past the turn buoys heading south.
We strongly encourage warm-ups prior to the swim start. Those will be north of the swim course and at the participant's discretion.

Last edited by: ChrisM: Jul 9, 14 15:48

Re: New LA Triathlon Oly course is going to be a beast.... [ChrisM] [ In reply to ]

Jul 9, 14 15:50

Post #9 of 50 (6318 views)

Oh, forgot one important thing. There is very little parking in the area. Mostly streets, taken up by residents. There is a parking lot available but not more then a few hundred slots and most of that is transition. Curious as to how they are handling that.

Re: New LA Triathlon Oly course is going to be a beast.... [ChrisM] [ In reply to ]

Jul 9, 14 15:51

Post #10 of 50 (6315 views)

If I'm reading that right they will spit everyone out in about 30-40 minutes total, oly and then sprint (so they end up on he bike course at the same time brilliant!), and they will all be doing a multi loop bike course on narrow streets and with 180 turns. Weeeeee! Get yer high speed camcorder ready so we can see those bike pileups.

Re: New LA Triathlon Oly course is going to be a beast.... [Dilbert] [ In reply to ]

Jul 9, 14 15:52

Post #11 of 50 (6307 views)

Dilbert wrote:

If I'm reading that right they will spit everyone out in about 30-40 minutes total, oly and then sprint (so they end up on he bike course at the same time brilliant!), and they will all be doing a multi loop bike course on narrow streets and with 180 turns. Weeeeee! Get yer high speed camcorder ready so we can see those bike pileups.

And they say they want a course that will rival Chicago and get the Brownlees/Gomez/Jorgensen/etc out here to race it..... ummm yeah

Re: New LA Triathlon Oly course is going to be a beast.... [jkenny5150] [ In reply to ]

Jul 9, 14 16:43

Post #12 of 50 (6259 views)

jkenny5150 wrote:

5 loop bike course and 4 loop run course. Seems like a lot of repetition ;)

5 loop bike course = lots of fast riders lapping slow riders who often don't stay to the right. RD should know better. I wouldn't get near this race on a dare.

Re: New LA Triathlon Oly course is going to be a beast.... [ChrisM] [ In reply to ]

Jul 9, 14 17:11

Post #13 of 50 (6225 views)

I'll be there.

But only with my camera to document the carnage on the bike course.

I can't really see a second year of this happening...

Forget speedwork. Speedwork is the icing on the cake and you don't have a cake yet. - MattinSF

Basically they have 9 tenants, live life to the fullest, do not turn the cheak, and embrace the 7 deadly since. - TheForge (on satanists)

Re: New LA Triathlon Oly course is going to be a beast.... [Dilbert] [ In reply to ]

Jul 10, 14 7:18

Post #14 of 50 (6084 views)

Yeah, sucks for the cops who voluntarily take the job and get forced to get paid all that overtime ;)

_______________________________________________________
John Kenny, Pro Triathlete, USAT Certified Coach - http://www.frenchcreekracing.com
Philly Masters and Open Water
Swim and Multisport Events

Re: New LA Triathlon Oly course is going to be a beast.... [ChrisM] [ In reply to ]

Jul 10, 14 7:40

Post #15 of 50 (6059 views)

ChrisM wrote:

Dilbert wrote:

Lifeguards and our swim coordinators will assist in controlling the flow of the swimmers (like turning off and on a spigot).

Yep, just like a spigot.

_______________________________________________________
John Kenny, Pro Triathlete, USAT Certified Coach - http://www.frenchcreekracing.com
Philly Masters and Open Water
Swim and Multisport Events

Re: New LA Triathlon Oly course is going to be a beast.... [Lazy Ben] [ In reply to ]

Sep 15, 14 14:11

Post #16 of 50 (5854 views)

And somehow they just made a really hard course into a really fucking hard course, with a big climb on the run (3X) before you start your soft sand run. Any bets on how many folks finish the oly under 3?

Re: New LA Triathlon Oly course is going to be a beast.... [ChrisM] [ In reply to ]

Sep 15, 14 14:31

Post #17 of 50 (5825 views)

Oh my god...that hill sucks on a bike as it has a couple of really steep sections, running up it three times in a race is going to hurt.

With that, and all the loops on the bike as well, if they don't have timing mats all over the place a whole bunch of people are going to be skipping loops left right and centre.

Forget speedwork. Speedwork is the icing on the cake and you don't have a cake yet. - MattinSF

Basically they have 9 tenants, live life to the fullest, do not turn the cheak, and embrace the 7 deadly since. - TheForge (on satanists)

Re: New LA Triathlon Oly course is going to be a beast.... [Lazy Ben] [ In reply to ]

Sep 15, 14 14:33

Post #18 of 50 (5819 views)

Not only that hill, but up the dirt bluff before it (and down it). If anyone breaks 3 they cheated :)

Re: New LA Triathlon Oly course is going to be a beast.... [ChrisM] [ In reply to ]

Sep 15, 14 14:43

Post #19 of 50 (5803 views)

I signed up for the Super Sprint because my wife and I just had a baby. Since then, I have had 0 time to train. I might pick up my packet and skip the race. This race seems so disorganized and you can't get a straight answer. I liked the old(er) LA tri even though point to point was a pain and they were just making tons of cash off the shuttles. The few times I have rode the bike course, make me want to ask them what they were thinking. They could have used Catalina and gone into Redondo Beach down to the power plant and back a few times. There are some inclines there, not straight climbs.

What has happened to Pacific Sports?

Re: New LA Triathlon Oly course is going to be a beast.... [ChrisM] [ In reply to ]

Sep 15, 14 15:01

Post #20 of 50 (5767 views)

My legs are hurting just thinking about that.

Not sure if I'll be able to get out and watch but I am very glad I'm not signed up for this. Not really because of the run because that would just hurt but the bike course sounds downright dangerous if they get a decent turnout.

Forget speedwork. Speedwork is the icing on the cake and you don't have a cake yet. - MattinSF

Basically they have 9 tenants, live life to the fullest, do not turn the cheak, and embrace the 7 deadly since. - TheForge (on satanists)

Re: New LA Triathlon Oly course is going to be a beast.... [Lazy Ben] [ In reply to ]

Sep 15, 14 15:16

Post #21 of 50 (5739 views)

And where the hell everyone is going to park is beyond me. If you don't turn up early you'll end up at redondo pier.

Forget speedwork. Speedwork is the icing on the cake and you don't have a cake yet. - MattinSF

Basically they have 9 tenants, live life to the fullest, do not turn the cheak, and embrace the 7 deadly since. - TheForge (on satanists)

Re: New LA Triathlon Oly course is going to be a beast.... [Lazy Ben] [ In reply to ]

Sep 15, 14 15:20

Post #22 of 50 (5734 views)

Lazy Ben wrote:

And where the hell everyone is going to park is beyond me. If you don't turn up early you'll end up at redondo pier.

I'd say that's better, then 2 miles down. The website says no parking in the lot, but there's metered parking on the esplanade.... what, 200 spaces for 1500 racers? I used to live a block from transition and parking sucked on nice weekends anyway. This is going to be epic

I also heard they are putting hay bales at the bottom of the descents. Not sure if it's good they are doing that or bad they think they need to (I know the answer to that....)

Re: New LA Triathlon Oly course is going to be a beast.... [ChrisM] [ In reply to ]

Sep 15, 14 15:32

Post #23 of 50 (5717 views)

Yeah, now I think about it I probably would park at the pier and ride down if I was racing. At least your car wouldn't be hot when you got back to it.

It's going to cool down a little for the weekend by the looks of the forecast but still mid 70s. A 10% chance of rain which would just about guarantee mass carnage on the bike. All we would need on top of that would be 10 foot surf.

Forget speedwork. Speedwork is the icing on the cake and you don't have a cake yet. - MattinSF

Basically they have 9 tenants, live life to the fullest, do not turn the cheak, and embrace the 7 deadly since. - TheForge (on satanists)

Re: New LA Triathlon Oly course is going to be a beast.... [ChrisM] [ In reply to ]

Sep 15, 14 20:09

Post #24 of 50 (5587 views)

Though I don't live in CA, I'm familiar enough with that area, having done a long run from the Redondo Beach Pier up through the Palos Verdes area. Just from quickly glancing at the bike course, that is a horrible bike course, and I've only briefly been in that area. No one who actually lives in that area could have designed that course, right??

Re: New LA Triathlon Oly course is going to be a beast.... [oceanswimmer] [ In reply to ]

Sep 18, 14 14:49

Post #25 of 50 (5380 views)

Did you check out the updated run course? The climb on each lap isn't just up the dirt hill, but all the way up Paseo de la Playa with a turnaround at the top (PV border)...3 times for the Oly, twice for the Sprint. This race is going to be epic!

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