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Oceanside Race Report - 1st OA Female
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I always enjoy reading race reports from others, so while a bit slow on getting round to doing it, I thought I would post a couple of thoughts on last weekend's race at Oceanside where I had a bit of a breakthrough and came in as first female age grouper. For background I live in NYC and work full time in banking, but manage to get to train around 17-20 hours a week. Focus of build is my first full at Santa Rosa, and this was a bit of a test run of the kit and tune up as well as a super fun weekend. My third time on the course, so knew what to expect etc.


The swim: The morning was grey, and I thought the conditions were pretty calm compared to what they could have been. There were a few big rollers but mostly the surf was probably a couple of feet at best. They allowed a warm up out to the breakers so I enjoyed a quick dip to acclimate myself. I was wearing the HUUB Brownlee Agilis. Previously I’ve always been a ROKA fan girl and loved the Maverick X with arms up tech, but being on the broader side I found it tough to get enough shoulder space and a good fit elsewhere and was looking to try something new. I did some research and as a weaker swimmer I liked the sound of the 43% neoprene tech HUUB were pushing and had a great call with their team and they recommend I tried a Men’s Small Tall. I was pretty nervous as I was outside of the weight range but when I got it, it fitted like a glove, and combined with the new Wattie Champion Speed suit my shoulders get completely unrestricted for the first time (much better than the old suit). I lined up in the 33-35 min corral, perhaps a touch optimistic but I have been working hard on the swim so was feeling like I wanted to give myself a shot. It was a rolling start and they had 5 of us go at a time. The beach run and surf entry was pretty fun, and besides a few mouthfuls of water it wasn't that traumatic. I thought there was a pretty decent current pulling us north and felt like I was making great progress. When we turned around the buoy the sun had rose and it was so bright. Being a bit nervy I like to swim right by the buoys and this was a great tactic for the day as when were head on you could see them - a bit of luck.

Overall swam a 32:49 or 1:44/100m which put me in 13th AG. Really decent swim for me given I swam a 37 at Indian Wells where i had a bit of a nightmare with the cold water, so was pretty stoked.

The bike: The bike is typically my favorite part of the race (and where my race starts). Its also nice to ride outside and was only my third time on my tri bike this year (eek!). Overall the ride was pretty uneventful despite the hills which I’ve found historically has broken the field up, the race, perception of reality, felt a lot “busier”, it was also prettier than I remember, likely owing to all the recent rain. Objectively my power was pretty OK (I think my 3rd best), avg 230 for the ride, though I never felt like I got up to speed. I let the power creep up to 290-310 on the hills, especially the hill from hell as they call it,but also the other two which are easy to forget about but still stingers. One thing that was sure is that it made those 3-6 min intervals around 300 I’ve been doing well worth it! Equipment wise I was decked out to the nines as wanted to test everything for Santa Rosa, and was riding the Canyon Speedmax SLX 9, with a Zipp 858 NSW up front and a disc on the back. I was running GP 5000s on latex (well the plan was... I had a rear flat in transition - doh!), ceramic speed bottom bracket, OSPW and Chain. I used the integrated hydration and flat kit and an extra CX Elite bottle along with an ISM PN 3.0, Rotor 155 cranks and the power tap P1s. Nutrition wise I did a 750ml bottle of scratch passion fruit, and then a 500ml of double concentrate that I haphazardly mixed with water from the third aid station and 3 cliff gels, 2 vanilla and 1 double espresso with 100mg of caffeine, the latter which I took with about 30 mins to go. In total around 540 calories which is on track per hour for what I hope to get down in the Ironman. Coincidence or not post taking the caffeine gel, I started feeling good around the 2hr mark, perhaps the Diesel engine had finally warmed up and it crept into my head that I might have a good run in me.


Overall rode a 2:37:14 or 21.3mph with 2,474ft of climbing for 230w or about 3.3w/kg, good enough for 1st AG. Coincidentally I thought it was a pretty slow day, I rode 20w higher and was only 1 min faster than last year (disappointing or what!) and while I didn’t check past the top 20 OA women, I think I had the 2nd fastest non pro female bike split (the fastest being a 2:35)

The run: Historically race tactics for me have been “hang on” and “try and not loose too much” on the run, but this race was different. I’d jumped into the NYC half after a big training day a few weeks back and knew I had 1:30 ish pace In the legs if I reached for it. Coming off the bike, a friend let me know I had 6 mins on the AG win and I was in 3rd OA with scope to close in on 2nd. Mission accepted. Despite the race plan I had envisioned being a gradual build from 7.40s down to the 6.40s in a wonderful controlled manner; that didn't quite happen I clicked a 6.36 as my first mile. With huge support from the wattie crew and a lot of friends on course my stoke level was high and my pace level remained pretty hot (for me), clocking a 6.52, 6.43, 6.56, 6.49, 6.55. Now for a true runner this isn’t that fast but for me, this is kind of the upper end of where I train as I haven’t built my cake enough to get to ice it with speed work, so it *feels* fast as I literally have little experience running faster. I was pretty in the zone and focused the whole time, sometimes I would count, sometimes I would mutter “let the shoes do the work”, yes the 4%s are that good (IMO), and when my HR spiked, I went with “keep it calm”. The next update I had was that I was 11 min up on the AG win and in 2nd overall, now just don’t mess it up I thought. My legs started to tire and I clocked a 7.10, 6.56, 7.15, 7.04, 7.15, 7.05, 6.54 as my final miles, so a bit of a fade but not too bad considering. Basically one mile a bit easier, one mile a bit harder. Kept it interesting and kept me focused. Nutrition wise I took on 2 SIS Salted Watermelon gels, one at mile 4 and one at 8, then just water at every aid station and packed my suit full of ice at every opportunity. About a mile from the end I learned from another friend, I was in 1st overall, I had a feeling it might have been because of a DQ but I told myself I was allowed to own it, even if I was in compete shock that I had actually just laid down 1:30 off the bike (prev. best 1.33 which was at IW and a bit short) and taken the age group win at a huge race like Oceanside.

Overall a 1:30:23 or 6:54/mile pace for 1 AG and 2nd fastest among top 20 OA women (fastest 1:29:17)

So all in all 4:46:47 for 1st OA and I think 16th Female (including the pros). To sum it up I’m over the moon with the day, the training leading up to it and my execution. While I don't think the field was as stacked or fast as prior years I’m super stoked and trying to own it and take confidence from the day


Let me know if have any Qs!


Lucy (Stapleton) Brash
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Re: Oceanside Race Report - 1st OA Female [BrashTri] [ In reply to ]
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awesome race Lucy, you really put it all together and shows good signs looking ahead to Santa Rosa!

Mike Plumb, TriPower MultiSports
Professional Running, Cycling and Multisport Coaching, F.I.S.T. Certified
http://www.tripower.org
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Re: Oceanside Race Report - 1st OA Female [BrashTri] [ In reply to ]
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Congrats! Nice write up about the day.

Any comments on how you spend your training time between swim, bike and run? How about training zones or effort between the three?

TIA
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Re: Oceanside Race Report - 1st OA Female [Mike Plumb] [ In reply to ]
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Thanks Mike and for setting me up the day before, the chain was silky smooth!
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Re: Oceanside Race Report - 1st OA Female [BrashTri] [ In reply to ]
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Training peaks tells me, by time... last month was 58% Bike, 22% Run, 17% Swim, 3% Strength/PT stuff which I think is pretty accurate.

In terms of sessions on the bike I normally have 1-2 recovery-ish sessions, 1 hard Vo2/threshold session, 1 kind of prep session (easy with pops or something), an endurance-y ride and a long ride. On the run I've been super injury prone so mostly run on the tready, mostly pretty easy with one or if I'm lucky two kind of workouts (either a bit of a build or gentle hills) and then a long run which I do outside and that normally is either a build or has some mile to 5k efforts in it. Swims are a mix of long and short stuff, but mostly try and work quite hard.

I'm coached by DarkHorseTri/Steve Johnson and have been doing a better job at sticking to the plan this year!
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Re: Oceanside Race Report - 1st OA Female [BrashTri] [ In reply to ]
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Great job out there!!

Team Every Man Jack.
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Re: Oceanside Race Report - 1st OA Female [BrashTri] [ In reply to ]
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Congrats on a great race. Good luck for IMSR.
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Re: Oceanside Race Report - 1st OA Female [BrashTri] [ In reply to ]
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BrashTri wrote:
...
So all in all 4:46:47 for 1st OA and I think 16th Female (including the pros). To sum it up I’m over the moon with the day, the training leading up to it and my execution. While I don't think the field was as stacked or fast as prior years I’m super stoked and trying to own it and take confidence from the day
...
Lucy (Stapleton) Brash

Don't sell yourself short! That's killer execution and you gotta just own it. You can't control who shows up on race day, but you can control whether you show up, and you sure did. Great job. And a great write-up. Thanks for sharing!
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Re: Oceanside Race Report - 1st OA Female [BrashTri] [ In reply to ]
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Congrats. Nice write up!
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Re: Oceanside Race Report - 1st OA Female [BrashTri] [ In reply to ]
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Great race and awesome write up! I wish more people would be as detailed as that and include what worked for them nutrition wise.

Looking forward to hearing about your Santa Rosa experience!
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Re: Oceanside Race Report - 1st OA Female [BrashTri] [ In reply to ]
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Thank you for sharing. Many years ago I used to work in NY, in banking too, I did a couple of Du/Tris. Where do you train?

I was lucky enough to have a swimming pool in our complex and run in Liberty Park (we lived in Jersey near the Holland Tunnel) but most bike training was on a turbo as commuting by bike wasn't possible.
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Re: Oceanside Race Report - 1st OA Female [tanzbodeli] [ In reply to ]
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Appreciate the boost, thank you!
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Re: Oceanside Race Report - 1st OA Female [newManUK] [ In reply to ]
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Nice, I live near hudson yards on the west side. I mostly swim at MPHC on 43rd and 10th and then heavily use the trainer and treadmill and get out and up up to the palisades some weekends if the emails/call schedule inst too bad and out around the city on the weekends - park and bridge runs are my fav!
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Re: Oceanside Race Report - 1st OA Female [ In reply to ]
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I'm just speechless. You are so fast and congrats!!
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Re: Oceanside Race Report - 1st OA Female [s13tx] [ In reply to ]
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1st OA female was daniella Ryf...
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Re: Oceanside Race Report - 1st OA Female [synthetic] [ In reply to ]
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synthetic wrote:
1st OA female was daniella Ryf...

We all know she meant overall among age groupers.
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Re: Oceanside Race Report - 1st OA Female [BrashTri] [ In reply to ]
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Amazing performance Lucy, especially in the context of your work life and travel! You are super impressive. Wishing you all the best for final push to SR!
Christine
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Re: Oceanside Race Report - 1st OA Female [synthetic] [ In reply to ]
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synthetic wrote:
1st OA female was daniella Ryf...


Now you're officially in the needless asshole category of ST members. Congrats
Last edited by: jkhayc: Apr 11, 19 11:02
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Re: Oceanside Race Report - 1st OA Female [BrashTri] [ In reply to ]
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Congrats! Out of curiosity, if you live in NY, why are all your races in CA?
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Re: Oceanside Race Report - 1st OA Female [jkhayc] [ In reply to ]
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jkhayc wrote:
synthetic wrote:
1st OA female was daniella Ryf...


Now you're officially in the needless asshole category of ST members. Congrats

I was going to say, he must be fun at parties.


And congrats again Lucy!
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Re: Oceanside Race Report - 1st OA Female [BrashTri] [ In reply to ]
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Dang, impressive race! You were pushing a lot of power on the bike at 230 avg. What IF were you riding at? Or what is your current FTP? You definitely paced well on the bike to pull off that kind of run. Congrats!
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Re: Oceanside Race Report - 1st OA Female [JoelO] [ In reply to ]
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Wow awesome write up and congrats!

I'm in NYC as well and curious as to where you do your training?

And also what % do you ride indoors/outdoors?
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Re: Oceanside Race Report - 1st OA Female [BrashTri] [ In reply to ]
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BrashTri wrote:
For background I live in NYC and work full time in banking, but manage to get to train around 17-20 hours a week.

Straight up baller...

and great race too.
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Re: Oceanside Race Report - 1st OA Female [BrashTri] [ In reply to ]
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You're a stud[dette?].

Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.
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Re: Oceanside Race Report - 1st OA Female [BrashTri] [ In reply to ]
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Great job! Thanks for the write up!
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