Season Recap

Its been a long and eventful season...time for a recap! I'm calling 2009 my training season. I trained how to train, trained how to race, and trained my bottom off full-time for three months.

My training season really began in February when I was running well but was sick of being a crappy swimmer, so I contacted a local athlete by the name of Connor Hammond to teach me how to swim...he's decidedly qualified. A few weeks later I was in Guelph for a coaching workshop (I'll eventually finish my certification) and discussed my goals in the sport with the leader of the workshop, Craig Taylor. After extensive contemplation having to decide between taking the summer off work to join the Provincial Triathlon Centre or be able to afford a new TT bike, I decided that training full-time in a high performace program would be in my best interests to pursue my goals in the sport; getting my elite card and racing pro in ITU and Ironman 70.3 events.

After a bit of a setback in the form of breaking my wrist in a stupid bike crash five days before my first scheduled race, I joined the squad in late May and began the work of learning how to train. After a week of baptism-by-fire training I took off my removable cast and took on Lakeside. I raced conservatively with it being my first race in nearly a year, and after shocking myself by getting out of the water within a minute of the leader, I sprinted to a solid 3rd overall. I was happy with my result but was hungry to push myself harder.

My next race was Guelph Lake a couple weeks later and I was confident from my first race, but wasn't sure what to expect in the significantly more competitive Subaru Series. Maybe I was a little too confident as I took the swim out way too hard and lead the first 300 meters then fell off and was completely anaerobic when I get out of the water in 7th. My legs felt terrible on the bike, I slid out on the turnaround on the slick road (I unclipped and thought I managed to avoid injury but it turned out I banged up my other wrist and caused swelling around the carpal tunnel which meant another removable cast for the other arm for two weeks). I felt surprisingly good on the run and ran my way up to another 3rd with the fastest run split of the race.

After Guelph Lake I got into some heavier training, doing some 70+km running weeks while my wrist prevented me from riding, and I was learning how to really push myself in training. I had to skip my next planned race over a few small lingering injuries so Belwood ended up being my next competition which happened to be right in the middle of my heaviest training block of the year.

I still don't know what to think of Belwood, I had some decent splits but felt awful and finished a disappointing 17th in one of the strongest fields in Ontario this year. My highlight was posting a race-best 19 second T2. Despite being totally burnt out from training I ran a sub-18 5k, but I didn't come away from the race feeling good about it. I took a couple weeks to focus on training and I decided that I would give long course a try just for some experience and a change of pace. I took a couple weeks doing some longer rides but nothing long course-specific and went to Kingston for the K-Town Tri.

I raced elite in Kingston and enjoyed 3 hours of choppy water, wind and pouring rain. I definitely felt the disadvantage of riding a draft legal bike over a 56km bike course but I fell in love with the physical - but mostly mental - challenge of long course. I even split the 15k run and was more than satisfied with a 15th place in my first real go at a longer race. I'll definitely be back next year, with a time trial bike, and see what I can do.

After a week of realizing just how much a 73.2km race took out of me, I pushed through one more week of tough training before starting my first real taper of the year in preparation for age group nationals. The plan was to use nationals as a tune-up for Worlds in Australia three weeks later, and go well under 2:00 there. Things changed.

I got to Kelowna and felt great, swam open water everyday I was there and was focused on race day. I had an awesome swim and was 2nd out of the water, took the lead on the bike with the fastest bike split, and held on with a much slower than expected run to accomplish what I knew I was capable of all season. More than anything I was excited to tell my girlfriend I was a national champion, and tell some bike companies that I'm turning pro next year and need a TT bike.

The next couple weeks were a struggle for motivation and my training suffered. I had tons of fun climbing mountains in BC but my swim and run training was relatively non-existant. Nonetheless I hopped on a plane for OZ a couple weeks later.

When I got to Gold Coast I found myself far too sick with a chest cold that hindered any attempt to train to enjoy the atmosphere of Worlds, see any of the area, or get myself into race mode. I did a few swims with the age group team and a couple light runs and got the feeling that there was no way I could race competitively, if at all. The cold lasted all week and on race morning I got to the venue, did my warmup and after a 20 minute jog I had so much trouble breathing that I was getting dizzy and light headed. I had no choice but to withdraw and come to the realization that I travelled 16000km to be a spectator. But rather than thinking of my season ending with a DNS, I thought of it as ending with winning AG nationals.

My results this year demonstrated enough that I'll be given my elite card next spring, as a few people have recognized that I have some potential with a little more development. So this off-season I'll work harder than ever in the pool and just plug away the meters all winter. I finished my season riding really well, and I want to get a lot stronger. I plan on doing a lot more mileage on the bike not only to get stronger, but to stay a few pounds lighter next season. I learned how to really push myself on the bike this year, so with that and a new ride, I'll be a very strong cyclist next summer. I plan on getting into a serious running program this winter. I became a decent runner of the course of this year and I see no reason why I can't make similar improvements this year. I want to get close to 15:00 for 5k and 32:00 for 10k next season.

More than anything this year I learned that I have a ton of potential and I am still far from reaching it. I'm prepared for the work and look forward to seeing how fast I can get. Depending on how swimming goes I may try some draft-legal stuff, otherwise I want to do a sub 4:20 half Ironman. I have no doubt that I have the potential to one day do a 1:10 half marathon and be a very competitive pro in the 70.3 circuit.