MSC Welland Long Course

Round two of the MultiSport Canada Series went down this weekend in Welland. Welland has been a mainstay on my race schedule for the past five seasons as the wicked fast course offers a great benchmark for early season fitness.

This year brought some exciting new changes with the new distance - now the same as my long-time favourite K-Town's 2k swim, 56k bike, 15k run - as well as the new venue at the Welland International Flatwater Centre (the same swim/T1 venue as Barrelman). I've always loved the Welland event, but I was blown away with the sheer awesomeness of the WIFC when I checked it out on Saturday night:

Calm before the storm

This race was one of my higher priority events for the season since it carried the highest series points of any event, and I felt that the distance would suit me well. I'm focusing on mostly shorter distances races this year but my strength definitely lies in long course, so this one was a great target for me. My goal was to use my long course experience to my advantage against some of the young dudes with higher top end speed and hope to outlast them. Turned out it took all of my strength and experience just to finish the damn thing, but I'll get to that later!

Swim:
My goal for the swim was pretty simple, and perhaps a bit counter-intuitive. But I wanted to finish the swim feeling really good. I've come to realize that most of my best triathlon swims have come when I was relaxed, focused on form and trying to stay as efficient as possible in the water. The flip side of that is virtually every time I try to hammer out a new swim split PB, I inevitably go anaerobic in the first 200m and feel terrible not only for the rest of the swim, but usually most of the bike too. Knowing that I can swim xx:xx time in the pool is meaningless if I can't get on my bike feeling good afterwards. So after feeling pretty brutal for my entire race in Woodstock, my goal in Welland was to stay more in control of my effort, focus on my internal pacing throughout the race, and build within each segment as well as the overall race itself.

The swim course was one of my all time favourites I've ever done in the calm and clean water of the rowing basin which made for an amazing start to the day. There was only a handful of athletes in the elite wave which made for a pleasantly uneventful swim start. After a few fast strokes I settled right into a comfortable and efficient rhythm and gradually built my effort throughout. I was basically in no man's land for most of the swim with 4-5 athletes well ahead and the rest somewhere behind.

When I hit the far end of the swim course I brought my effort up another notch, and the very slight chop coming back helped me keep a good turnover. With about 500 meters to go my LPC teammate Adam Doxtator who swam with me in Woodstock came past, so I jumped on his feet and got towed along back into shore. I knew that I must have had a decent swim to get out with him and more importantly I felt great getting out of the water.

Bike:
Once we were on land the conditions were going to play a big role for the rest of the day with strong winds and nearly 40 degree humidity. After a quick T1 that included getting my sleeved suit over my shoulders and zipped up, I was on the bike just ahead of Adam. My goal was once again to build my effort throughout the bike, knowing from past experience with the old half distance that the last 15k of perfectly flat and straight road can feel like forever if you're overcooked or uncomfortable in the aerobars. I also didn't want to go too much above my goal 70.3 wattage knowing that the run was going to be a sauna.

Adam passed me around 5k and I knew from Woodstock that he is a strong rider but an equally fast runner. I didn't want to "legally" sit on his wheel with TriOn's tiny 5 meter draft zone, so I focused on my own effort and as I got into a good rhythm I kept him well within sight for the first 30k. It was starting to get pretty lonely out there with nobody else close to me until I passed Angela Quick around 45k who was crushing it out there! But I managed to stay focused and felt good throughout until I backed off slightly in the last 5k in anticipation of the run.

I didn't look at my power numbers during the ride, electing to focus purely on perceived effort. But I finished the ride right on my goal of a strong 70.3 power output at 255W with nearly perfect even pacing (1.01 VI, 258 NP [3.6W/Kg] for the data junkies). I was happy to stay a little on the conservative side with a tough run ahead, but that was still more power than I pushed over 20k in Woodstock two weeks ago!

Run:
After a slightly longer than usual T2 to get socks, visor, Garmin and a handheld water bottle on, my legs were good at the start of the run but it was HOT.

I was pretty confident in my run fitness going into this one and more than anything else I really wanted to throw down a big run at this race. Not only have I had some breakthrough standalone run times this season, but just a week before the race I ran 5x2k tempo off the bike in similar heat faster than my current Olympic-distance run PB. I knew I had to respect the conditions but I was excited to see what I could do after a well executed swim and bike.

I settled into a comfortable 3:58 pace to the turnaround of the AWESOME 3-lap run course and got my first check on who was around me. I was in 4th with Adam about two minutes up the road, and about 3-4 minutes ahead of another LPC teammate Billy Bostad who has nearly identical run times to me. I was feeling pretty good and had my "hot weather menu" down for each aid station - ice down the suit, sponge on the neck, and coke/water as needed along with the gatorade I had in my bottle.

Just before the end of the first 5k I started getting a bad cramp in my chest and my first thought was "not this again..." I slowed slightly but it only got worse. I certainly didn't expect to be in the hurt box so early, but it was also early enough that things could turn around if I managed it well and didn't let it dictate my race. I walked about 100m as I tried to stretch it out and breath deeply, then slowly got back into an easy run. When I finished the first lap I was feeling a lot worse for the wear than I would have expected but my average pace hadn't dropped as much as I thought. I saw Alex Vanderlinden at 5k who told me I was looking good...I figured he was just being super nice but was face-palming behind my back, but later he said everyone appeared to be suffering equally.

I told myself to settle into whatever pace I could manage for lap 2, then empty the tank on the final lap. It felt a little too much like the back half of a 70.3 for my liking, but my long course experience paid off as I focused on my cooling strategies, getting whatever fluids in that my stomach agreed with, and not letting the conditions or how I felt affect my mindset. I was passed at some point by someone who was running very well, and at the final turnaround I knew that I'd have to keep it together to stay ahead of Billy for a top-5. Fortunately I think everyone was hurting just as badly and I managed to hold onto 5th and maintained what I would consider a respectable 70.3 run pace.

At first I was disappointed in my run, not only because it was well below what I felt I'm capable of, but because that was my biggest goal for the race. I certainly have some homework to do in terms of sorting out these stomach issues that are becoming more than just a fluke in my longer distance races. But it was a big mental victory for me to get through that run after being reduced to walking with a LONG way still to go. It would have been very easy to give up on all of my performance and placing goals and just get to the finish line. And the swim and bike felt infinitely better that in Woodstock two weeks ago, so I'm confident that I'm putting the pieces together with the bulk of the season still left.

I have to say another congrats to all of the teamLPC members who dominated the podium again including Jack Laundry who destroyed his first go at long course. And congrats to everyone who battled out a very tough day. Another top-5 for me at this race means that I've started the season with some good points in the bank for the series, and I'm looking forward to chasing some more throughout the season. And now that I've got a good swim and bike under my belt I am extremely motivated to run well at my next crack at this distance in Kingston! Thanks again for the read!

MSC Woodstock: Mission Accomplished

Race season is finally here!

It was a "get the job done" kind of day at Multisport Canada's season opener in Woodstock this past weekend. Nothing out of this world, in fact I know I have a lot more in me. But I got exactly what I needed out of this race and it was an all-around awesome day.

This year is a pretty substantial departure from my racing plans over the past several seasons. After Louisville last year I decided to spend a year staying a little closer to home and getting back to my roots racing the Multisport Canada series. So that meant not only a very different approach in training with a lot more hard yards and a lot less long training days, but it also presented a very different yet exciting challenge for the season. I'm chasing points in the MSC Elite series, which means putting together at least four solid results throughout the season to be in the running for the prize purse at the end of the year. Quite honestly I've always admired the journeyman career of the "average" ITU or WTC pro travelling and chasing points for a living, so this year is my very small and humble taste of a similar goal.

That being said, I've planned my season around some key races that feature higher points and courses that suit my strengths to challenge for a top-5 in the overall series. And first up was the season opener in Woodstock. I was actually a bit wary of choosing Woodstock as one of my races; it typically brings out a number of strong athletes kicking off their year and I wasn't sure how I'd fare against some seriously speedy dudes. But as the season opener it also carries some bonus points so my goal was simply a top-5 overall placing to ensure that I started the year off with a decent number of points banked. And after some surprising early season fitness tests that included a big 10k PB of 34:18, a best-ever time trial at LPC TT#1 and a couple solid CX results, I was cautiously optimistic about how I'd stack up in Woodstock.

I could sum up my race simply by saying that after the first ten seconds, it was an hour of my body doing this:

Despite lining up with a solid elite field I decided to take the swim out a little more relaxed that usual. Those who are long-time readers of this (you ROCK) know that I often struggle to translate my pool fitness to the open water early in the season. This year I've tried to be really diligent with finding my balance and rhythm in my wetsuit, which has been an ongoing and frustrating struggle for me over the years. So at the gun I decided to let the fishies swim away while I focused on trying to stay efficient and not burn myself out too early. It's hard to tell exactly how the swim went as all of our times are on the slow side, but it looks like I was about a minute off the main pack of pro's. Not great, but not bad. A better start to my open water season than the past couple years.

After a good T1 I could just barely see the guys up the road who would eventually make up the top-3. I thought I had a shot at getting up there and I'm confident in where my bike fitness is at right now, but unfortunately my legs had other plans. I couldn't find a rhythm and struggled to push my usual 70.3 wattage, but rather than mope about my power output or dwell on how I felt I knew I had to stay focused with plenty of strong guys not too far behind. The wind was keeping things pretty interesting too! I got off the bike in 7th, a little further back than I had hoped but I still had a good shot at getting my top-5.

Out onto the run it was a similar story, I wasn't feeling all that great and had to fight a lot of negative thoughts. Fortunately it was only 5k so it still went by pretty fast! I managed to reel in one athlete about 2k in, and I knew that if I just held it together I could still move up into 5th. When the top-3 went by coming the other way I was encouraged that they were at least in the same zip code...based on how I felt I thought I'd be going backwards all day but I must have been moving a little better than I thought I was. With about 800m to go I caught 5th and just managed to hang on through the finish.

At the end of the day it wasn't a standout performance but I'm still really happy with the result. I managed to stay focused on a day that I wasn't firing on all cylinders and still picked up 5th in what will likely be one of the most competitive races in Ontario this year outside Nationals. I know my fitness is good, probably the best it's ever been in June, and I think this race will really help kick things into gear for the rest of the season.

In good company with this group, who not only triathlon better than me but are also better at knowing what to do with their hands for the podium shot

The race was made even better by seeing lots of familiar faces and teammates coming out of hibernation to kick off another season. Team LPC brought out a strong contingent of athletes who all threw down big efforts. It was also fun to hang out with a number of my fellow Recharge with Milk Ambassadors, most of whom are long time friends in the sport but there are also some newer faces to the series. As I've said since the first Multisport Canada race I entered in 2007, no other race series has such a strong community feel and sense of camaraderie after the event.

And of course it was an honour to toe the line with a strong field of homegrown pro's who always inspire me to keep pushing myself harder. The legendary Lionel Sanders took the win, and what was even more impressive than his race was the number of pictures he took with people after the race. Having known him and raced him since he got into the sport it's pretty amazing to see how many people he has inspired, and we truly couldn't ask for a better ambassador for our sport.

Next up for me is the new Long Course distance in Welland in a couple weeks. This is a big one in terms of series points and the distance suits me well so its one of my higher priority races this season. I can't wait to check out the new course and race venue at one of my favourite stops on the series schedule. Thanks for following along and stay tuned for the next one!