Wasaga Beach Triathlon

This was my third race of the year with Multisport Canada and was very happy to see the later start time at 10:30, meaning I could sleep in and still get to the race.

The swim takes place in Georgian Bay and provided for some rough waters to start the race. Although I am not afraid of these type of conditions, I have little practice in them and was uneasy about how it would go. I tried to find feet at the start but ended up losing them as we got closer to the first turn buoy and found myself swimming with Andrew Bolton and Jack Laundry.

 This became my motto for the swim and was glad to get out.

My only goal in this race was to have a really fast bike split, hoping to get close to an average of 38km/hr. However, once I was on my bike a heavy week of training seemed to catch up with me and my legs were burning. I avoided getting any draft from a couple men that passed me as I wanted to know how fast I could do the course, not how fast I could do it with assistance. For the first 15km I got the gap between Angela and myself down from over a minute to about 20 seconds, however those men that I avoided drafting caught up to her and the three of them used the 5meter drafting rule to its full advantage. There is no doubt that at 5 meters you still get a significant amount of drafting effect and I got extremely frustrated as I saw them pulling away from me, after I had been catching them. I did my best to keep my head in the game for the rest of the ride although will admit that I was more than a little pissed getting off the bike. (I am not saying they were cheating, it was smart racing; but I do think that the drafting rules should be changed for pros/elite age groupers so that we can have a fair race).

In transition I was surprised to hear Steve Fleck say that I was only a minute down from Angela (we ended up with almost identical bike splits). I put my shoes and socks on and headed out onto the run course. I made quick work of the minute and just past the 2km mark I passed Angela and didn’t look back. My run split was as terrible as it has been all year so not much to say about that.

Thanks to Multisport Canada for another great race venue- I will be in Georgina in 2 weeks and then Barrelman after that. See you there!

Thanks again to those supporting me: Nineteen Wetsuits, Blade Carbon wheels, Louis Garneau, Skechers, C3 and Kristen Pawlick from Wishbone Athletics. 

Timberman 70.3

I was able to travel to this race with another pro, Cindy Lewis, which made life a lot easier, not having to worry about directions (we had a GPS) and having some company for the long drive to New Hampshire. After a 12 hour trip we arrived Friday night in the town of Alton. If you are ever travelling to New Hampshire, don’t go to Alton- there is nothing there. Also, under no circumstances whatsoever should you stay at the River View Motel- despite what the false reviews on expedia tell you, you will be lacking hot water and lights, and those will be the least of your worries.

don't stay here. just don't do it.

Saturday provided some unwanted adventure as I went out for my morning run and encountered a less than friendly dog that was not contained in his yard. I survived, my clothes did not.

not supposed to have holes here...

Timberman was my first actual IM branded race, not that it means much other than more people, both pros and age groupers. We arrived very early at the race site Sunday morning so that we could park there and not 20km away, so I had lots of time to chill before the race started.

I had a bit of a mental ‘reset’ before coming into this race. Somewhere along the way this season my thoughts had become a lot more self-defeating, which was sucking the fun out of racing. So I really wanted to come into this race with more confidence and positive thoughts. In previous races I somehow got it into my head that I was the worst swimmer in the world and should just try to get on anyone’s feet that I could, although that was quite erroneous thinking. This may stem from the fact that when I swim with the varsity swim team I actually am the worst swimmer, but swimming with triathletes is not the same thing. So with this in mind I lined up at the swim start right by Rachel Joyce (one of the top swimmers in the sport) with the intention of trying to get on her feet. Go big or go home right? For the first 25m or so I was in her wake, but not surprisingly she started to pull away. Even though I lost her feet, the extra effort put in at the beginning of the swim meant that almost everyone else was behind me and I had a really clean swim, no violence. About 400m in I caught up to 2 people and decided to swim with them as we turned the corner. Since the next 900m was directly into the sun I thought it best to let someone else do the sighting while I chilled on her feet, rather than me pulling her and getting blinded by the sun. Once that stretch was over and we turned to head back to shore I pulled up a bit to push the pace a little more. We ended up exiting the water just over a minute behind Rachel Joyce and 1 other person, which for me is an outstanding swim (in comparison, I was 3min back from the leaders at Challenge Knoxville in May).

Lake Winnipesaukee. we swam somewhere in here

T1 went very smoothly and quickly, as I had planned out my route through transition to my bike prior to the race (and therefore was faster than the other two I was with).

The bike course was decently challenging with some good climbs and descents. Angela Naeth caught me fairly early on but was evidently way out of my league as I could not stay with her. I did stay with Heather Jackson when she caught me for several kilometers, but she gradually pulled away and I basically rode solo for the rest of the ride. I passed one person but two people caught me in the latter part of the ride as I was fading from the effort put out to begin with. Definitely something to work on but overall was not a bad ride. 

I entered the run in 6^th place and was feeling pretty good to start off with. The run course was fairly challenging with some good steep hills as well as long gradual hills. About 8km in my quads started to cramp up and there didn’t seem to be anything I could do about it. Still relatively new to the distance, I have not figured out a good fuelling strategy for the run as my stomach seems to be very sensitive; each race seems to be a new test to see what I can handle. So far flat coke is winning, although I’d like to find something more tolerable. The second loop was definitely a struggle and I ended up getting caught by one person with about 5km left to go. I tried to go with her but wasn’t able to sustain it so ended up in 7^th overall. Not a bad day considering the field of women that showed up.

Overall it was a great race- some people have complained about the conditions of the roads but those sections were really not that long and anyone with two eyes and a brain can navigate the potholes without too much trouble. The volunteers were awesome and they had ice-cream at the post-race food tent, so you can’t really ask for much more ;) (apparently ice cream is REALLY popular in New Hampshire. It’s like the Tim Hortons of Canada. Definitely a good thing J ) And I made some pretty nice sand castles at the beach waiting for them to open up the parking lots. :P

finally a can with my name on it ;)

Thanks again to those who are supporting me- Nineteen, LouisGarneau, Blade Carbon Wheels, Skechers, C3, Multisport Canada, and Kristen Pawlick from Wishbone Athletics.

Update + Bracebridge Race Report

The last couple of weeks

Social media makes it very easy to believe that every other athlete is out there putting in 'epic' workouts day in and day out without rest, recovery days, or bad workouts. Because this isn't the case I have written a very candid report of the last 3 weeks of my training, which have gone, in all honesty, terribly.

A few days before the race in NYC three weeks ago I started to feel slightly low on energy, although I brushed it off as pre-race nerves (which may or may not have been the reason). The race itself did not go well and I was frustrated with the result, mostly because the effort level and resulting splits did not seem to match up. However, these things happen and I was (mentally) ready to get into another hard block of training in preparation for Timberman 70.3 (which is next weekend).

I did the normal recovery routine post-race, although I did not bounce back as quickly or as well as I have in the past. The next couple of weeks seemed to be a continual downward trend in performance, although my list of excuses for it was as long as Santa’s naughty list. I told myself to stop being a wuss, things would be better tomorrow. Always ‘tomorrow.’ Unfortunately ‘tomorrow’ never came and workouts became poorer and even difficult to finish. Still I maintained that I was just being a wimp and that nothing was actually wrong.

Last weekend was intended to be a hard few days of training in Collingwood. Friday was okay (just okay, I survived at least). However, on Saturday’s bike ride I self-imploded by the 40km mark and was sent home early, where I spent the next 14 hours practically comatose in my bed. I have NEVER cut a bike ride short because I was tired, so I was rather unhappy with myself; but I was EXHAUSTED (not a word I use lightly). Sunday and Monday were taken very easy, with the intention of getting back at things on Tuesday. A few minutes into Tuesday morning’s swim practice it became very evident that 2 days had not been enough and my body was still in a hole (more like a gigantic crater). My coach got wind of this and told me to take the rest of the week off. This was very hard to take mentally but I knew it was for the best, so I spent the rest of the week doing nothing. This was actually the lowest weekly training volume I have had in 5 years.

There are likely a number of reasons that contributed to how I was feeling. While on paper the training I have been doing this season makes sense, with gradual progressions in duration and intensity, our bodies are not machines there is no magic plan that works for everyone. Perhaps mental stress played a role. Blood work results indicate that dietary changes need to be made. Maybe I really just needed a couple more rest days. Regardless of the reasons, the down time served its purpose and I was excited to go to a fun, no-stress race in Bracebridge.

The Race

Bracebridge is one of my favourite races on the Multisport Canada circuit and I try to make it out every year that I can, so was happy to be here this weekend.

The swim is a time-trial start, with the pros/elites starting 15 seconds apart. As my luck would have it, Angela was starting 15 seconds behind me. I knew if there was ever a race that I could get on her feet it would be this one and that was really the only goal of the day. About 500m in both Sean Bechtel and Angela caught me, with Sean leading the way. I tried to jump in with the two, but this didn’t last long before Sean had dropped us both and I swam the rest of the way with Angela. #goalachieved

I didn’t rush with my transition and therefore needed to chase Angela down on the bike, although there wasn’t a huge gap so it didn’t take long. About 7km along I actually made the pass and enjoyed the bike course the rest of the way. As I still felt like I was on the edge of the hole that I had been in all week I didn’t push the pace but chose to simply enjoy the fact that I was racing on some of the best roads in Ontario. Coming back past Santa’s village provided some excitement as a local person (not a racer) on their mountain bike decided to cross over to the wrong side of the road and ride directly at me as I was going 50km+/hr down that hill; I swerved to avoid him and not 10 seconds later a pick-up truck pulled out from a parking lot, blocking both the on-coming traffic in the opposite lane and then stopping in my lane as he saw me, completely blocking the entire road. I slammed on my brakes and slid through the sand on the side of the road, safely making it around the blockage. Gotta keep me on my toes I guess?

Onto to run I felt pretty crummy, although having not run for an entire week this was not a surprise. Again, no need to overly exert myself, just a solid effort to close out the race.

finishing up

Thanks again to everyone who has supported me thus-far:  Nineteen wetsuits, Blade Carbon Wheels, LouisGarneau, Skeckers, C3, Multisport Canada, and Wishbone Athletics.

Next weekend I will be headed to a very competitive race at Timberman 70.3, the rest of the season is TBD.