Wow the summer is flying by way too fast! As most triathletes do, I define my summer by the number of races I do, the destinations I've gone to, and the quality of my performances. So by those standards so far this summer has been pretty awesome...no spectacular race wins, no exotic destinations, but I've been really happy with my performances and seen some good improvements, and still been to some cool events with good company.
After my "fun" block of training after Tremblant leading into XC Nationals, it was time to get some speed in my legs. So here's a brief recap on that. In the past I have really struggled and/or burned myself out trying to flip the switch from lots of endurance and tempo to speed. I love the former, and generally dread the latter. But this year I've benefitted from training smarter and having another year of fitness so the transition was much easier.
The first race in my "speed" block was Age Group Nationals in Toronto
Swim:
I had a good start with mostly clean water but just missed the main pack of contenders in the first 400m, either from lack of focus or swim speed. I spent the next 400 chasing like hell to catch them and at one point got within a couple seconds before it spread out again. So I settled into my own pace and eventually lost about 45 seconds to the group. Fortunately my "bad" swims are significantly better than they used to be so I was still ok with a 22:50 swim on quite a stupid swim course. Not my best 1500, but I'll take it.
Bike:
I kind of picked up on the bike where I left off in the swim. Leaders up the road, trying like hell to make up some ground but my legs said no. Looking at my power data later it was significantly lower than I had hoped for and was disappointed that I have the potential to ride much faster than I did. But during the ride I decided to stop looking at my power and focus on staying aero and smooth and just get the bike done as quickly as possible.
(photo courtesy of Mario Rozansky)
Run:
Getting off the bike I hadn't yet made up my mind as to whether I was going to forget about the swim and bike and focus on the fact that I was still on pace for a great overall time...or mope and give up mentally. Lucky for me I was inundated with support and people yelling my name as I came through T2. The support was amazing and it inspired me to champ T2, and once on the run course I didn't have much choice but to keep up that pace.
Surprisingly my legs responded on the run and I settled into a decent rhythm through the first 3k. When I caught sight of the first athlete ahead of me I picked it up and started to feel strong at 5k. I drew some strength from the pass and set my sight on the next one, and worked my way through a number of runners. I kind of knew that I was having a good run and did not want the opportunity to slip away.
(photo: Theirry Guertin/his lovely wife and personal photographer Corinne)
Despite not having my best swim or bike, and despite just missing my 10k run split PB by a few seconds, I set a new Olympic distance PB and felt great all the way through the run. The support on course was amazing and teamLPC won the club challenge with our team's overall performances and picked up some good prize money! Not to mention Amanda also had a great race with a crazy fast bike split and took a podium spot at Nationals...strong chicka :)
Next up was K-Town Long Course two weeks later. I did K-Town in 2009 as a spur of the moment decision to keep my race motivation high while I was training with PTC Guelph that summer. I think every year since I've talked about doing the race again, and somehow 4 years have passed since. It really is a gem of a race with a ton of history (this year was the 30th anniversary!) and its always insanely competitive.
With the calibre of athletes on the start line I had no intention of trying to get in a lead pack or hanging onto anyone's feet, I just wanted to swim my own swim especially knowing that the 2km out and back course can be very choppy and disorienting.
Unfortunately I kind of threw that plan out the window right away with the first turn buoy less than 100m in. I wanted to get out of the congestion around the first turn but probably burned one too many matches. I spent the rest of the "out" section just trying to recover and settle into a smooth stroke.
I started the negative thought train of "why did I start so hard...why isn't this easier...when the hell is the turn around". But I gave myself a mental kick in the ass and found my swim form on my way back in. I remembered how long and awful this swim felt last time I did it and focused on getting through it better this time, even though the water was pretty rough again.
I got out of the water with a big group including a few pros, right on 30 minutes (and 5 minutes faster than last time!!) which I'm really happy with given the conditions and mental battle. Its pretty rare that I get GOOD surprises with my swim times...usually when I have to work really hard to get through a swim my time goes out the window. So I'll take it!
Onto the bike I kind of knew that I probably worked harder than I should have in the swim. But more on that later.
Through the first few k on the bike I was having similar trouble as in Toronto trying to get my power up early. Its not a great way to start a bike, especially a longer distance race, to be trying to force the numbers so early. I eventually managed to find some power but once again I don't think I really rode to my potential, especially given the numbers I am putting up in training. But Coach James and I have a plan to sort all that out before the next one. I also think part of long course racing is not only gaining experience with the distance but learning to translate training numbers into racing speed with all the variables over longer distances. My focus turned to just getting through the ride feeling ok, and I accomplished that finishing the (slightly shortened) bike with good endurance.
I was really excited to get on the run and see what I could do, but I was probably a little overconfident with my pacing strategy. I tried to keep things in check but starting out faster than my 10k pace may have been a little rich. I hit a serious wall at 4k and on came the negativity again "I trained too hard this week...I don't want to do anymore races this summer...I'm going to run over 60mins and I will hate myself forever." I was really close to walking up one hill until I convinced myself to try to hold it together. The turnaround at 7.5k came faster than I thought (partially because my stupid Garmin 10 told my I hadn't hit 6k yet) and when I made the turn I cleared my head and just picked up my feet.
When I took some time checks at the km marks I saw that I still had a chance to get under 1hr if I held it together, and sure enough I started to feel better heading back. At about 11k the long course run passed the short course run turnaround and I drew some motivation from passing people, even if they were near the back of a completely different race. I kept telling myself that the finish will come faster than I think so don't save anything up. And I was right! My best part of the race was my last 3km, and my official run time was 59:59...WOOHOO...although that also included T2 :) I was actually about 30sec slower than my last time here, likely because I paced much more conservatively last time, or I didn't realize until now how well I must have run then!
(this is exactly how glamorous a long course finish is)
Overall it was not my best race ever, or fastest split time of any distance. But once again I'm happy with the result. When I decided to sign up for Muskoka 70.3, this race went from a high priority race to a really solid training event. Without even knowing or thinking about it during the race, I got exactly what I needed out of it. I took some risks with pacing which I will learn from and certainly won't be as reckless over the 70.3 distance, and when s**t hit the fan I won all of my mental battles and had a good swim and run...and a not bad bike. I know what needs work in the next 4 weeks and I'm excited to give Muskoka a go - the first time I have done two 70.3s in one year.
