Season Review- Part 1

10 steps back, 12 steps forward

Now that the triathlon season is over it is time to look back and evaluate the good and the bad. Some White Chicks quotes are thrown in for smiles. The 2014 season did not pick up where I left off in 2013, in fact it was far from it. I feel I was somewhat spoiled in 2013 as I don’t recall having a bad race (some were better than others, but I was always happy with my results). 2014 started with a stress fracture that forced me to miss the first two months of racing, and trying to get back into it was a struggle.

The Bad

Gravenhurst

Perhaps I still haven’t gotten over this race, but it certainly taught me some lessons. This is how I felt: 

But really I set myself up to have a bad race as despite not running more than 7km easy prior to this race, I expected myself to run a sub-40minute 10km off the bike, all while knowing that this was a particularly challenging course. The swim and bike were okay, but I tried to set off at an unsustainable pace on the run and paid the price. This really taught me about the principle of training and racing to your current ability levels, not where you want them to be.

Nutrition

Without getting into too many details, I have had my fair share of eating problems in my teen years and some of those obsessions have stuck with me. This has led to improper fueling of workouts and races which means I am not reaching my potential. This has impacted my races (another factor at Gravenhurst). I know better, but putting it into practice is easier said than done.

Strength training

Or more importantly- the lack thereof. Full time work sucks (to put it bluntly), and having less time to train than usual, the first thing to be cut from training was strength work. I told myself that doing big-gear work on the bike and the handful of push-ups done before swim practice most mornings would be fine, despite knowing this really wasn’t the case. I don’t know how much this really impacted my racing short-term, but long-term it can lead to injuries due to muscle imbalances. It may have prevented the injuries I ran into in August that forced me to miss racing in Bracebridge.

The Good

Riding my TT bike more

In 2013 I did most of my riding on my road bike, usually only riding my TT bike once a week, twice if I was racing. I love my road bike and I think it is more comfortable for riding, but the position on the TT bike is different meaning that it needs to be practised if you’re going to be (somewhat) comfortable on race day. This year I rode my TT bike 4- 5 days a week, which made noticeable improvements in my ability to stay in aero as well as bike handing skills. This was very apparent during Barrelman in the strong winds.

Keeping up with swim training

By being in Waterloo for the summer it meant that I could train with the varsity swim team. This was extremely beneficial to me as I find it hard to motivate myself to go hard in the pool if no-one else is there. Didn’t make the pace time?

This was very apparent in 2013 when all my swim training was on my own- my swimming got worse as the season went on. Keeping up the intensity and working on other strokes has really helped my swimming and led to some respectable swim times throughout the season.

Barrelman

This is probably the most obvious thing for the “good” list of the season. I was so happy with this race that I had trouble sleeping for the next 3 nights. I had a very different taper approach into this race, which meant keeping high volume until Wednesday morning, then dropping off dramatically until race day. This is in contrast to the gradual 10-day taper that I have used in the past. I felt very energized on race morning. I listened to the advice of others and actually fuelled this race, which was crucial to set me up for a good run. And when Lionel Sanders is the only person who runs faster than you on race day, you can’t complain.

I will have a follow up post to explain the plans and goals for next season, but in summary 

Barrelman!

Wow… I still can’t believe that just happened, race of the season for sure and hopefully only a glimpse of my future potential in this sport. Too bad the season has to end now L

Although I’m sure most people are aware, I should start off on a note about the weather. A week before the race the forecast was 23 and sunny for race day. 2 days out it was forecast for humid and raining. Saturday morning it was a gloomy outlook of thunderstorms all day. But the weather gods came to our aid, and after some brief rain while in transition, it cleared up and turned out to be a beautiful day. Literally couldn’t have asked for better weather for the race.

Arriving at transition an hour and a half before race start meant lots of time to chill and chat with some of the other competitors. This turned out to be extremely beneficial because I was under the impression that I was still starting with my age group wave, and not with the pros. Turns out this was not the case and I got to start in the pro wave, which was a huge relief and could have saved me a lot of stress if I had known this earlier. So it was with excitement that I headed down to the swim start, knowing that I was not about to get pummeled to death by a bunch of other swimmers. Yay!

At 8:59 the pros set off (10 of us I think), which meant a nice clean start. I tried to draft off Angela but this lasted only about 50m or so and as soon as I lost the draft there was no catching up. After that it was a solo swim. The back stretch felt pretty brutal going against the current and waves- probably the longest 960m of my life, but swimming with the current in the opposite direction made up for it and I ended up less than a minute down from Angela (so better than Kingston where I was 90 seconds down).

Off onto the bike the roads were still pretty wet but it was no longer raining. The wind was pretty strong but I was feeling good and didn’t pay too much attention to it. About 2-3km in Lionel passed me and for a fleeting moment I literally had the impression that I wasn’t moving. I looked down at my legs just to make sure I was still pedalling, which I was, so smiled, shook my head in admiration, and kept going. Just after the 10km mark I caught up to Angela and could see she was struggling with the wind. Fortunately for me (at least in this instance), I am a little more compact in stature, so could stay down in aero and keep a relatively straight line- a few times the wind gusts caught me and I had to stop pedalling briefly to make sure that I didn’t end up off the road, but all in all it wasn’t all that bad- I actually enjoyed the extra challenge. I was expecting Paolina to catch me at some point during the ride, but 60km, then 80km, then 85km came and went without her passing me, which was extremely motivating as I knew I had to be riding well to keep ahead of her. I think in the end she was about 45 seconds to a minute back from me in T2 (she rode 2 minutes faster over the 92km).

Off onto the run next- the first couple of kilometers I was feeling a little tired, mostly because of the headwind, but I knew that if it was in my face at the beginning it would be at my back for the finish, so no worries. The run course was beautiful and fairly challenging with some nice hills in there. Kudos to the volunteers as they were all totally on top of having nutrition/water ready for the athletes as they came by. I was intent on laying down the fastest run split I could, mostly just to prove to myself that I could run, so there was no letting up (I think I ran a pretty even pace too). I could feel blisters forming on the bottom of my feet during the second lap, but it was a small price to pay for victory. In to the last couple of kilometers I picked up the pace, glanced at my watch as it read 1hr18min and pushed to the finish, intent on not letting it get to 1hr21min. I was successful (9 seconds to spare), and although the run course was a tad short, it still would have been a PB for an open half marathon distance. Clearly I should always swim and bike before I run.

Post-race I was educated by Paolina on how to open champagne bottles- I still failed. http://instagram.com/p/tOL_O_sXLx/

My result far exceeded any expectation I had and I’m still pinching myself and wondering if this is real. It’s hard to believe that 2 and a half years ago I didn’t really know what triathlons were and didn’t own a road bike. Hard work and many hours of training evidently pays off.

I was asked for honest criticisms and compliments of the race so here it is: I can honestly say I have no criticisms of the race. Everything went off without a hitch (in my eyes)- clean clothes and wetsuits were brought to T2 for us to pick up at the end of the race, my run gear was waiting for me at the right spot when I arrived, the bike course was well marked, police officers were alert and controlling traffic well, volunteers were at their stations and making sure we knew where to go, and the roads were well paved. Same goes for the scenic run course- volunteers and police did a great job, and running past the Falls was amazing. I would highly recommend this race to anyone. Hats off to John Salt and the Multisport Canada Team for organizing a world-class event.

Huge thanks as always to those who have helped me through this season. C3 for providing continuing support, guidance, and training partners, Multisport Canada for having the elite/pro division that attracts the best athletes in Ontario and for supporting their Ambassador Team, I had an awesome boss over the summer, Ron McCarville, who allowed me to have flexible hours some days to train, Jeff Slater, Waterloo Varsity Swim coach, who continues to help me improve in the water, and of course to everyone who actually reads this blog and cheers me on at races- I really appreciate it!! 

Lakeside

Celebrating the fact that I am back in school and free from 8-hour desk jobs (for the time being), I had my highest volume week of training since April 2013 coming into this race. My body handled the extra training well and I wasn’t too worried heading into the race as it was really just a “check the box” race (to get my 4^th race in). I had no expectations; all I had to do was cross the finish line. Then I had one of my best races of the season (arguably the best race).  (edit: just checked and this is actually a lifetime PB for the Olympic distance triathlon)

Swim

This was a two lap swim course in a fairly calm lake. I communicated with a couple of the men standing near me on the start line about what line they were taking (going left or right around the green buoy ahead of us) and therefore had a great start and didn’t  get hit once. We were allowed to dolphin dive the first section of the swim, but barely reaching 5’4” this was useless and I started swimming right away (the tall guy beside me did about 5 dolphin dives). The first lap was very smooth, but coming into the second lap it was a bit of an obstacle course to avoid the two waves that had started after and were still on their first lap. Since I wasn’t worried about my overall time I kept my stroke very relaxed. Evidently I should do this more often as I had my fastest swim time of the season (although they are hard to compare as timing mats at the exit vary in their placement from race to race).

Bike

After a ridiculously slow transition (I told the volunteers that I was demonstrating how NOT to do a transition), it was off onto the bike course. I caught one person in the first 2 kilometers and from then on it was a solo ride. I could see one person occasionally up in the distance, but I wasn’t catching him, and I couldn’t see anyone behind me. After a lot of biking during the week I was feeling fairly tired so didn’t go too hard. I thoroughly enjoyed the tailwind as we headed east, but as we turned again to head south and then west again, my motivation was waning. With no-one around there was little incentive to go any harder so I just kept turning the pedals. Finally, someone caught me in the last two kilometers to bring me back to the fact that I was still in a race and I tried to keep with him (at a legal distance of course).

Run

T2 was a little slow as my hands and feet were cold which made it a little harder to get my running shoes on, but soon I was off with the guy who had caught me on the bike. I thought this was awesome because it looked like I was going to have someone to run with. Unfortunately he only lasted about 900m at my pace and once again I was on my own. I felt pretty good on the run up until about 4.5km when the contents of my digestive system decided they didn’t really want to stay there. The second lap I was contemplating finding a bush, but couldn’t face having a slow time on Sportstats, so continued to run while listening to things shifting around with every step. Not pleasant to say the least. Counting down the kilometers it was a relief to get to the finish line (and the porta-potties) and was shocked and happy to see my time of 2:06:28. My fastest time ever for an Olympic distance race. Although my run time is still a far cry from what it was last year, I am taking the slow but steady improvements with a smile.

2:06:28!!!

The reason for the high volume week is because I have decided that I will give Barrelman a shot next weekend. I am not ready for the season to end and my leg (knock on wood) is still in one piece so I am excited to support MSC with their race- I know it will be well-run as always and a great experience. I have never done a half-iron distance race so this will be a foray into new territory. I have no real expectations other than to try my best. I am sure that I will learn a lot of lessons on race day.

World Championships Edmonton

(**pictures to be added when my parents get around to sending theirs to me. could be a while...)

I should preface this by saying that my frustration and negativity with being injured 3 weeks out from worlds was evidently unwarranted, as although I don’t think it helped me any, it didn’t appear to do too much harm either. With some careful planning around training and some rehab I was able to put in a solid but short block of training before the race which left me ready to go on race day.

Race morning dawned a chilly 7 degrees or so, very reminiscent of London last year. Water temperature was slightly warmer though at 17.7, meaning we could do the full 1500m swim.

Bikes were racked the day before so there was little to do in transition before the race. Then it was down towards the swim start where we waited around for 20 minutes or so before our wave. Chatting with LaurenHeinken and Meg Lamers helped to calm the nerves and treat this as just any other race.

The swim start was on the sand, although there was an immediate drop-off in the water so there was only room for two steps into a dive to get going. The horn went and I dove into the water, did a couple dolphin kicks and began to swim. To my astonishment this left me clear of most of my competitors as they didn’t do the whole dolphin dive thing (I must thank the varsity swim team for teaching me these skills). This left for a fairly uneventful swim. I could see that there was a small group way ahead, but I was expecting this, as there is usually a small contingent of those who come from a swim background that leave the rest of us behind. I wasn’t worried about it because, (apart from Angela Quick) it has been my experience that most age group athletes that have a great swim don’t back it up with a strong bike/run. Two laps of the pond and we were into the long run up to transition. I have to assume that the timing mats were somewhere along the way and not by the water, as the swim times all seemed rather slow, but I don’t know for sure.

Transition went smoothly and it was out onto the bike course. It was a two lap course with one steep but short hill and a couple of long, but gradual hills each lap. One of my bike shoes had been giving me grief all week by not clipping in easily and race day was no exception. It took about 5km before it clipped in and then I started to pick off my competitors one by one. About 13km in I took the lead but kept up the strong pace, hoping to give myself as much of a buffer into the run as I could. Not much happened throughout the rest of the bike course- I got rather cold and could feel that affecting me, but knew everyone else was dealing with the same conditions so didn’t think too much about it.

heading to T2

First into T2 I knew the race was on. There were two girls only a short ways behind and I knew they were capable of running fast. Taking my sweet time in T2 they probably gained another 10 seconds on me, leaving me with about a 20 second gap. I set out at a fairly good pace but due to the layout of the run course (sort of like a “T”) I couldn’t see where everyone else was until about 4km in. Turns out I was putting in a small amount of time to 2^nd and 3^rd place, who were running beside each other. Making sure I looked like I was having a great time (I smiled at them) I increased the pace a bit as we crossed paths, not wanting them to think that they would catch me easily. I have no idea whether this worked or not, but by the turn around at 9km I had put in about 15 more seconds on 2^nd place (3^rd place had dropped back).  Then it was into the final stretch on to the blue carpet and the finish line. The cheers from the Canadian crowds were amazing and it felt awesome to repeat as World Champion on home soil. Although I doubted my ability to run going into the race, I had the second fastest run split, so can’t have done that badly…

Finish chute

Although this was initially to be the end of my season, not racing Bracebridge means that I still need a fourth MSC race to qualify for the elite series awards, so I will be at Lakeside in a week’s time. After a short “break” in Jasper, it is back to regular training. After being on co-op for the past 8 months I am sincerely looking forward to going back to school, because it allows for a lot more training time! :D