Esprit Tri

I started my race season on May 2nd, and it took to mid-September for me to perform to my potential and be completely satisfied with a race. I was happy with my race at provincials, considering I knew I would be relegated to the back of the race given my swim fitness. But Olympic distance is a whole other beast, and it seriously hurts.

I've had a string of bad luck with the Olympic distance over the last two seasons. I was sick for Worlds in Australia last year, and this year I had to pull out of Guelph Lake with injury, then was lapped out at Nationals. Prior to that, I had a good race at 2008 Worlds...but the swim was cancelled there. I have to go back to 2007, my first full season of racing, for my official Olympic distance PB - 2:28.

I finally managed to put together a good race over the distance today at the Montreal Esprit Triathlon festival. The race is unique in that there are five different races that go on the same course (even an ironman!), on the same day. I was a little worried about congestion and drafting, but I was very impressed by the organization and the one of a kind venue.

My race didn't get off to a good start...the pre-race instructions were all in French and there was no countdown. Just a bunch of instructions I couldn't understand, then a half-hearted horn went off a few minutes later. Needless to say I was caught off guard, and got my ass kicked in the swim start.

The swim course is only about 10 meters wide on an out and back course in the Olympic Rowing Basin, so after my late start and getting punched in the nose, kicked in the junk and full on horse-collared and pushed under, I was stuck behind a group for nearly 800 meters before finally finding my way through. I've been in 1000+ athlete mass starts, draft-legal and ITU races, and this was the roughest swim I've ever been in.

I managed to make up a bit of time in the last 700, came out of the water a bit slower that I had hoped but I was happy to be alive and getting on the bike. Now the fun begins. The Olympic course is 9 laps of the wicked fast Gille Villeneuve Formula 1 track. Everyone was keeping honest with drafting, and while I spent my entire ride weaving through long course guys, the multiple laps was a lot of fun and made the ride fly by.

I rode my Powertap so James and I figured if I was feeling good I could aim for 260-270W average. So I locked in at that effort keeping an eye on any wattage spikes and put my head down for 40km. I had by far my best ride of the year - and probably ever - averaged 270W and did 1:02 (edit: Powertap data had my split at 59:23)

The run course wasn't quite as interesting as the bike with two laps around the rowing basin. Which meant 2km of painfully flat and straight pavement, then back...twice. Pretty boring, and very easy to lose focus with my legs burning from a hard ride. I took it out with (what I considered conservative) 3:30 km's which I held up to about 6.5k where the wheels started falling off. At that point it became a matter of survival and a real gut check. I motivated myself by playing this riff in my head (4:33...seriously the coolest riff in the history of music):



The last mile was the longest one I've ever run, but I managed to hold on to a fairly respectable 37 low, and a total time of 2:04:15 for 9th overall at a very competitive race. So officially, a 24 minute PB :) Glad to finally get a decent time beside my name and get the monkey off my back. I will likely end my tri season on that note rather than race Lakeside next week, having finally satisfied the standards I set for myself in racing.

On the international front, some great racing today at ITU World Champs Grand Final, and tomorrow promises to be even more exciting with Paula Findlay gunning for the win and Alexander Hinton competing at his first World Championships in the junior men's race. Best of luck to all, and all age groupers racing in Budapest tomorrow!