Disclaimer: I've thought about how to write my race reports and settled on giving you a look into what goes through my mind throughout the day. I'm not so witty and clever like many others I read so you just get to kind of see what happens in my brain throughout the day.
Race Morning/Pre-Race
Alarm goes off at 5am, I lie awake in bed and for a moment,
don’t really feel like racing today. I shake off this last moment of doubt and
fix up some breakfast: 3 Eggs and a smoothie, my go to light breakfast. I had swum in the lake a week prior to the race and had been feeling off since then.
All week I just didn’t feel that well, especially Saturday, almost a hungover
stomach feeling, but not much you can do so the day must go on. My goal back in March was to come into this race under 180lbs,
something I’ve only been three times since 2004. I thought I would lose weight
while in Wainwright, but I was wrong. I came back heavy, at 192lbs, but managed to get it
down to 185lbs by race day, it would have to do. This would also be the first
time I raced with a HR monitor. I train with one all the time and thought it
would be a good way to gauge my effort on race day. Now that I've brokenly described a few lead up things to the race, I'll get on with it.
I grabbed my gear and was on my
way, 45min later I arrived down at transition, a little before 7. I began my
last preparations for my bike, adding bottles, filling tires, and any last
adjustments before race start. I donned my outdated, not perfect fitting
wetsuit and went for a quick warm up, just 50-100m, find a couple friends and hang
out for 5-10min waiting for the start gun.
Swim
Goal: Under 38min Actual: 37:08 (1:51min/100m) 108th Overall
Goal: Under 38min Actual: 37:08 (1:51min/100m) 108th Overall
I positioned myself near the front of the swim, something I
would have been hesitant to do in the past. With goals of swimming faster, I
knew I needed to be on the feet of fast swimmers. The gun went off and so did
600 athletes. As always the first few hundred meters consists bumping into
people, feet in the face, hands on legs, and trying to find open water. The swim out to the first buoy was about
900m and for me involved trying to stay on people’s feet, which I found
difficult, staying on line and overall just settling in. Around the first buoy
and I had 700m to the next one, I felt slow in this leg, but had a lot of space
to swim so plugged along. At one point, an athlete attempted to swim through me and pulled my timing chip down from my wetsuit. RANT WARNING: I will never undersatnd why swimmers think they can go through someone. I've had this happen a few times now. I get it, feet will be slapped and even the odd leg, but when I do that to someone, I look for open water and make my next strokes toward it. What possesses people to continue swimming into someone I will never understand, it slows both parties down and usually results in me trying to kick you in the face. Annnnyway, I decided to stop and tuck it back underneath to ensure I didn't lose it. Around the last buoy and I put in a strong effort for
the last 400m to the beach.
Overall Swim Impression
Very happy with the result of the swim, though I felt slow
at times so there is definitely room for improvement, I need to keep focused at
all times during the swim, instead of settling in to a comfortable pace and day dreaming a bit.
Despite these feelings, I hit my goal times and am very pleased with the start
of my race.
T1: 4 minutes
I rushed out of the water, got my wetsuit peeled off with a
bit of trouble and headed to my bike. I caught one buddy just leaving and
another right behind me. I put my gear on, had my sunglasses fog up and headed on
out.
Overall T1 Impression
I lost some focus here and cost me a bit of time. I was
hoping to keep T1 at 3min or less. I think the key is to really be conscious of
what I need to do as I’m coming in from the swim. Also being very simple and
succinct. More practice at home as well.
Bike
Goal time: Under 3hrs Actual: 2:49 (32.1km/hr) 103rd Overall
Goal time: Under 3hrs Actual: 2:49 (32.1km/hr) 103rd Overall
Just starting the bike |
Exiting the lake (Ken Anderson Photography) |
I would describe this bike as a fast course. A large section of it you are either climbing a longer slight grade, or descending it. My plan for the race was to keep it steady up on the uphills and hammer on the downhills. I came in at 185lbs so I am at a slight disadvantage for the uphills but an advantage for the down. I played hopscotch with a gal for the first 70km of the race. She passed me on every uphill and as soon as we began to descend I would take over. In training I found my steady efforts to have a heart rate of 140 on average and would sometimes get up to 150 when I started pushing it. This was my first race using a HR Monitor and I found that I liked it, I also noticed that my HR would not get under 150, but I didn’t feel like I was pushing too hard so I kept my eye on my HR but kept the pressure on. On the way out we faced a slightly angled headwind, so I pushed hard knowing that the way back involved a long descent into town with a tailwind. Once I had the wind at my back I kept pushing to maxmize on speed, so I guess all day I kept a strong effort on the bike. I took in nutrition as best as I could, but my stomach was not feeling well at all.
Round the corner and back out |
Overall Bike Impression
I knew the course would be relatively fast and I am happy
with my result. The last 3-4 weeks my training on the bike faded a bit, I think
with a bit more threshold work, I could drop another 5-10min off. I’m happy to
have had my HR average 155 and it not be too high for me, something I wouldn’t
have guessed during training.
T2
T2 is pretty cut and dry, come in, put on running shoes and
grab hat with 4 gels in it, then go. As I left T2 I went to the portapotty and
as I approached a lady said, just take her out. I gave her a quizzical look and
was hesitant to open the door, she took action, opened the door and pulled her
4 yr old out with her pants still around her ankles just so I could use the
washroom. That was about the only thing that was interesting in T2.
Run
Goal: Under 2hrs Actual: 2:10:29 (6:11min/km) 237th Overall
Goal: Under 2hrs Actual: 2:10:29 (6:11min/km) 237th Overall
I knew this leg of the race was going to be a challenge in a
few different ways:
1)
I have had a relatively small amount of run
training through my preparation for this race.
2)
Running has been the biggest issue when it comes
to injuries. During training for this race I suffered from left knee IT Band
issues, left leg peroneal strain, right achilles issues, right medial knee
pain, and right hip flexor tightness/pain.
3)
The training I have been able to do is most slow
running, not much for speed=not much for fitness. The longest run I got in
during training was 11km.
To the run, I came out of transition greeted by my dad who
gave me some words of encouragement and quickly ran into another friend Dom
that made it out with his camera, hence some of the running pictures. The first
KM of the race is slightly uphill which brought about a burning/tight feeling
through my lower legs. I figured this would disappear eventually and kept on
trucking. My goal was to run, at a minimum between aid stations, if not more. I
kept this up for basically the first lap, (2x10.5km loops). It took about 40min
for my legs to finally come around and feel they were meant for running. My
stomach didn’t improve much so I stuck mainly to water and coke and choked down
a few gels. Around the 45min mark came some lateral left knee pain, likely IT
Band stuff. This is the thing that plagued me during IMCDA and so I was quite
nervous when it came on. Luckily it settled at a rather uncomfortable ache and
I was able to run as much as possible before taking quick walk breaks.
Last few steps (Ken Anderson Photography) |
Finish 5:40:36 159th Overall and 24th in my Age Group.
Overall I am very pleased with my result. It was an
extremely difficult training season riddled with one injury or another almost
the entire time. I am happy to report a Swim PB by 7:30min and I swam an extra
100m, so very pleased with that result and I feel like I can be faster yet. A
bike PB of 28min, on what I would say is a fairly fast course, but again, I
have more to give. I set a run PB by 14min for the Half Iron distance, but I don’t count
it as a PB as I have run a half marathon faster. What I am most pleased about
though, is I finished with far less pain/injury than I expected. To come in
with just a little knee pain when I was expecting so much worse was the best
part of the day.
Special thanks to Dom, Josh, and Robbie for coming out and cheering me on and of course to my Dad because none of it would be possible without the support from him and my Ma
So what’s next?
Special thanks to Dom, Josh, and Robbie for coming out and cheering me on and of course to my Dad because none of it would be possible without the support from him and my Ma
So what’s next?
Well I just bought a mountain bike, so I might have a go at the
Xterra Canmore Offroad Triathlon in August, but the big push will be for the
Banff Sprint. I’m changing gears and looking for speed. My goal? To win my age
group and qualify for the Age Group World Championships in Chicago next year.
If I train hard, I feel I have a shot at it….depending on who shows up of
course. Last year I could have won my age group, the year before, not. It’s
kind of like a lottery, we will see.
I loved this. It felt like a really sober account of your triathalon, and made me both laugh, and mad at the dick trying to swim through you. In Vancouver people try driving through you with their cars. Where are they even going?
ReplyDeleteMost inspirational Jim-Jam. I started running under 2 months ago. I did my first 5 k a few days ago, and this makes me realize what small beans I'm trying to grow my beanstock with. Best start planting some... longer beans? Best of luck with your next "BHAG"! (you can vomit at that if you want).