I am doing the fight on triathlon tomorrow in Palos Verdes. Expected water temp is 55 degrees. Ouch! Any suggestions on race apparel. Race starts at 7am and I am expecting it to be cold on the bike.
I think a tri top and tri shorts will be a bit chilly, but then again I don’t want to take too much time in T1. Its only a sprint distance. Any suggestions.
I would do the tri top and shorts with arm warmers on the bike, your legs should be relatively warmed up from the swim and transition. take off arm warmers at t2 if you feel warm.
Go hard on the swim and really, really focus on breathing when you get in the water. Visualize warm water—pretend that you’re swimming in Hawaii. Swimming in cold water is really just a mental effort, in my experience, though breathing is the most important part. It will help you get into a rhythm early on. And don’t be afraid to pee in your suit when you hit the water. Not that I’m going to or anything…
Also, if you can get one, look for a neoprene swim cap—I’ve found that it really helps me stay warm in the water. If you cant get one, try to find two or three swim caps and throw those on.
You’ll warm up plenty fast on the bike course. I’d recommend using a small hand towel to quickly dry off some of the water on your legs and arms and head when you get to T1. It’d only take 15 seconds to get most the water off of your self so that you can warm up on the course.
I don’t think it will be all that bad. Good luck! I’ll be there, too!
Here’s to hoping that the bike course isn’t a draft-fest like so many sprints here have been so far this year. 
Thanks for the advice…are you familiar with the swim? I heard its a protected harbor 
My last ocean water tri I got stung in the face by a jelly fish. No fun.
I’m not familiar with this particular swim, but I’m familiar with LA ocean swims and cold water!
I did an olympic in 54 degree water and 40 degree air and I learned a lot from that. Mostly about staying warm on the bike. If it’s cold enough, you should be worrying about getting warm on the bike, not saving time in transition. I DNFed that race thanks to hypothermia. Apparently getting out of 54 degree water and immediately hopping on a bike and descending a 2 mile hill in 40 degree air makes it hard for you to stay warm. Who knew!? 
As for ocean swims, they’re no worse than sharing a pool lane with other people. Usually there’s two parts to an ocean swim:
Get in the water. Dive under the waves and focus on getting out past where the waves break. Once you’re out there, it’s smooth sailing.
Get out of the water. Coming out of the swim can be really fast if you time your last big push right. Watch out for waves crashing on top of you. Don’t start running until your fingers start hitting sand. Then high-step it out of there!
USC says that this body of water is fairly calm, so it wont be too difficult. But, of course, I’ve never been there, so I wouldn’t know.
Totally protected, inside the Angel’s Gate breakwall.
I’dbe more worried about having to ride up Western twice in a sprint. “moderate incline”? yikes.
i think crying is a good idea; your tears will warm up the water. if you have a full wetsuit, i would consider wearing arm/leg warmers underneath; they’re thin and should dry quickly once you get riding; though on the other side of that, when they’re wet, you’ll freeze. perhaps its better to just have a little longer transition
Totally protected, inside the Angel’s Gate breakwall.
I’dbe more worried about having to ride up Western twice in a sprint. “moderate incline”? yikes.
I’ll be there too.
I have a 12-27 on order, but I’ll be riding my 11-23 tomorrow. Last week I road the course to see how bad it was and found out my rear derailer wasn’t adjusted. That hill in a 53/21 just wasn’t fun. I expect to be passed by multiple college athletes using triples.
The swim is so protected it is almost the same as a lake swim. Just saltier.
I would go with a neoprene cap or at least 2 swim caps.
Looks like a nice day tomorrow.
Good luck and race safe.
The worst part of cold water is the shock of first getting in. Get to the start early and make sure you spend a few minutes getting in a few strokes and are used to numb hands/feet. Once the ice cream headache is manageable go to the start, and when the gun goes off you won’t notice the cold, you’ll be too busy looking for good feet to draft off of!
Did anyone get a good measurement of the run distance? While I have been working on my run over the winter, I don’t think I have gotten that fast.
Oh, I hope it was accurate! Because that was the fastest run I’ve had at a race, ever, despite showing up totally bombed from a tough week of training.
The swim course could have been, uh, better marked. cough And the “bacteria” warning signs weren’t too fun. But whatever. If I wanted clean water, I would had swam in Fiji bottled water.
Other than the poorly marked swim course, that was a fantastic race. I can’t believe how much support the race got from the city. There were more police officers than racers, I bet! For a first year race, that was great.
I did a check based on their Google Earth maps (which seem close to what I remember) and it comes up with 3.7 miles. I think the swim was a little long and the bike was pretty close.
I thought it was a great race. Like you said, tons of public support. I couldn’t believe they got the mayor of LA to start each wave. I liked the hills on the bike and the run. I knew about the hill on the bike, but wasn’t expecting the wall we ran up on the run.
Fortunately, I didn’t see the bacteria warning signs for the swim. The open men were the last wave. Normally I would have been annoyed at this, but by the time we went the swim course was better marked with paddlers and we had a chance to watch the first 4 waves find their way.
They did a great job for their first race. The only thing I would have changed (besides more bathrooms, but that is true of every race) is more signs on the bike. Volunteers are great, but you can’t really hear what they are saying at 25+mph. I didn’t get lost, but I saw a number of people have problems. One girl missed the turn off to the transition area after her 2nd bike lap while I was going through that area on my 1st. She realized what happened and almost did a u-turn right in front of me.