Valens Triathlon

This past weekend I took part in one of the new races in Ontario this year, Valens in the Subaru Series. My goal this season is to get to the start line of 70.3 Worlds fit and healthy (ie. not burned out) in September, and knowing my tendency to load up the first part of my season I've had to make an effort to be patient with my race schedule and not overextend myself...or my wallet, before the important events.

Since banking a solid half in Knoxville and a couple good races in June, July is kind of a transition period before the higher priority races with K-Town Long Course and Worlds coming up. Valens worked perfectly in my schedule as a short low-key event and about a 20 minute drive from Amanda's place in Guelph. I was also excited to check out the new event with what looked like a fun run course.

Despite spending a lot of time in Guelph and riding in the area, I had no idea that Valens Conservation Area existed until I saw the new race on the Subaru calendar. But it was a great venue for a laid back local race. After a quick warmup and surprise visit from Coach James and a couple LPCers we were off, and Amanda followed a couple waves later in the swim-bike.

After the cramping issues I had in Guelph Lake I decided to take a conservative approach to the swim and tried to stay smooth and relaxed rather than flailing through the 750m as I often do. Its hard to tell how the swim actually went with all of the swim times being quite slow but I kept my effort in check and was out of the water in 3rd or 4th with one athlete about 15 seconds ahead and another who swam very well about a minute up on me.

When I got on my bike and could see the flashing lights of the lead vehicle through the rain in the distance I knew it was just a matter of time before I'd get up there. But my run was a bit of a question mark heading into this one since I badly bruised my foot during a brick workout after Guelph Lake and hadn't really put in a decent run since. So I wanted to take the lead on the bike early and bank as much time as possible in case I wasn't running quite to my capabilities. I also had a bit of extra confidence in my aerodynamics thanks to my brand new Rudy Project Wing57 helmet, which was super comfortable on a windy and humid day.

After about 8k of heading into a strong headwind I passed the second place athlete as he was overtaking the leader, then I had a long section of tailwind to put my head down and try to get away. I haven't been in the lead of a race since 2012 before I had the setback of missing most of the season with a concussion...man it felt nice to be chasing the lead vehicle again :) My power wasn't great but my Garmin had my average speed at 39.2km/h for the 25.5k which I was pretty happy with given the conditions and the tricky exit/entrance into the park which I DID NOT want to champ just because I was in the lead.

The pre-race email for this event mentioned that the majority of the run course was on trails, and if it was raining they would likely get very muddy. So I took my lesson from Xterra Milton last year where I made the mistake of wearing racing flats on a greasy trail run, and brought my Salomon trail racers this time which turned out to be the perfect choice for the terrain and conditions.

I ran well through the first 2k and loved the trails, but after that I started to get some bad stomach cramps...my first thought was "sh*t not now", and then the more productive thought came, "try to relax and belly breath." My stomach was off the night before but I chalked it up to pre-race jitters and didn't think about it again until then.

Unfortunately it only got worse for the next couple minutes until at just before 3k I was doubled over throwing up. I was about to start feeling sorry for myself thinking how embarrassing it would be that the leader of the race might drop out. But lucky for me Coach James was running the opposite way down part of the run course at that exact time and said "you're in the lead, have no choice but to suck it up!"

There was only one turnaround where I got a chance to see that I still had a comfortable lead, and based on the pace that the second and third place athletes were running I just had to keep running to keep the lead. So the rest of my run was at "puke threshold" which was slower than my half ironman pace, but luckily enough to take the win.

I had mixed feelings as I crossed the finish line at what Amanda described as a lazy jogging pace. First off I was thrilled just to be finished because it was a very uncomfortable run. I was also really happy to finally get another race win after 2 seasons with a lot of podiums behind some strong pro's. Then I was disappointed that I couldn't enjoy the run course because I LOVE trail runs, and I could have run 3 minutes faster on another day. I also felt like it took away from the result that I had a disaster run but still won the race.

But ultimately I got what I needed out of the race, my swim was more controlled and I'm slowly putting the pieces together to swim well in September, another good bike split which has consistently been my strength this year, and I sucked up a mentally challenging run. If I wasn't leading the race I more than likely would have dropped out, and I adjusted my effort and expectations to meet the realities of the day. And I only had that cushion on the run because I had the fastest bike split by over a minute, and I've worked hard on the bike this year. So maybe it wasn't my best performance ever, but I've had to wait a long time for this one! Its exactly what I needed as I switch back to gearing up for longer distances again...a little extra confidence and fitness after consistently solid efforts in the first half of the season.

I was just as happy for Amanda who has faced a lot of challenges this year, but took the win in the swim-bike and threw down the fastest bike split of any female on the day. She's worked extremely hard despite things not going her way this year and I can't wait to see her put it all together with the effort she's been putting in.

LPC Domination Triathlon (formerly known as Guelph Lake)

This past weekend was Ontario Club Championships at the Guelph Lake Tri Weekend. Despite it being practically a home-town race and one of the biggest events in Canada, somehow I had never done the Olympic-distance race at Guelph Lake. I've done the sprint many times, including one of my best results last year, but the one time I raced the Olympic in 2010 I pulled out on the run with an injury. Its a good honest course and always brings lots of strong competition, so I was looking forward to getting the monkey off my back, putting in a big effort and doing my part to help Team LPC with some championship points.

Coming off a solid race last weekend including a PB bike split I had some confidence that my fitness is going in the right direction but I was still a bit nervous not knowing what to expect from the course and a deep field. But there was an awesome contingent of LPCers at the race, with lots competing and plenty more coming out to support. Weather was perfect, warm-up was good and I lined up together with four other LPCers.

Swim: 24:03

My focus for the race was to be patient and build throughout each segment, and try not to get overly excited off the start with the strong competition. I had nice clean water off the start and slotted behind Mark and Chris knowing they would likely swim around 21 minutes. I held on to them for a while, then started to go backwards from 500m to the far turn on the course until I finally found find a bit of a rhythm on the way back into shore and brought back a bit of time and distance on the small group (pretty much all LPCers) ahead of me.

I was really looking forward to getting on the bike and seeing if I could ride myself to the front of the race, unfortunately my legs had other plans. When I got out of the water my hamstring cramped badly and would not let up as I ran, then hobbled, then walked up the long hill to transition. So I did the only thing I could, I sat on my bum and watched a stream of athletes run past while I took my wetsuit off and tried to stretch it out. Fellow LPCer Garrick Loewen aka my little brother (who won the sprint event!) ran down to see if I was ok, likely thinking that I had been bitten by a shark.

(photo cred. Ken Whitlock & BPT)

Eventually it loosened up enough for me to stand up and slowly make my way up to T1 and get on with my race. The good news was that I later found out, not counting my little picnic stop, my 1500m swim time would have been right around 22-flat, which is a solid swim for me and my best of the season so far.

Bike: 1:02:15
It would have been really easy for my to give up at that point with the race well up the road and not being sure how my legs would hold up on the bike. And Ryan from a few years ago probably would have. But I put it out of my mind and changed my focus to putting down a good bike split and going from there. After all it was Club Championships and I wanted to contribute some points to LPC.

Luckily I felt ok getting on my bike and settled into a good rhythm. My plan was to focus on not burying myself on the early hills and really work the flatter middle 30k of the course. My power wasn't as good as in Welland last weekend with my hamstring a little twitchy but I was still making progress and picking off athletes. I managed to move up quite a bit with a relatively good bike split, not my full potential but some reassurance that my bike fitness is continuing to improve with my big races still many weeks out.

Run: 38:23
I had the run in the back of my mind through the whole bike wondering if my legs were going to cooperate with me. But I settled into a good rhythm right away. I really wanted to take down my Olympic-distance run PB which would mean aiming for sub-37. I really liked the run course with a mix of terrain and surfaces that seemed to make it go by faster.

I was right on pace through the first 5k (18:22) and it felt manageable to hold. I had made my way into the top-5 on the road and I could just barely see Coach Mark up ahead around 7-8k. I decided to take a bit of a risk and pick it up knowing that I'd have to put in about 15sec per km to catch him. And then everything cramped up again. My last km was at Ironman shuffle pace just trying to hold it together without getting re-passed with my quads, hamstring and diaphragm cramping up. I was a little too optimistic with my pacing, but I'm not going to take down any PBs without taking a risk now and then. I ended up in 6th with Mike Hay just nipping me in a later wave.

So it may not have been the smoothest race I've ever had, but I met my goals of a strong Olympic-distance race/effort and helping out the team with some points. And I can't finish this without sending special congrats to Jack Laundry and Garrick for picking up the overall wins this weekend. LPC ended up going 1,3,4,5,6 for the men and 2nd for women in the Olympic, and had equal domination in the sprint. I haven't yet heard if we've officially won the club championship based on participation and age group placing, but there was no question that LPC is the dominant club in Ontario these days and its a lot of fun to be a part of it.

Obviously the biggest question I had coming out of the race was where those cramps came from, and how I can avoid that happening again. I'm confident that it wasn't nutrition related, but I've identified a few potential causes that I'm addressing moving forward with my training and prep leading into my higher priority races. All things considered it was another successful race in my season-long prep for 70.3 Worlds. My fitness is good and still going in the right direction, and I've got plenty of time to work out the kinks. For now I'm back to some more hard training with a few weeks before my next race.

MSC Welland: 2 for 1 Race Reports!

A month after opening my season at Rev3 Knoxville I couldn't wait to get my Ontario racing season rolling. I had planned on starting out with Multisport Canada's Binbrook race the week prior, but with Amanda racing the Welland Half I decided to hold off for one more week and make it a weekend getaway to this flat and fast event.

I couldn't have been happier with my race in Knoxville to start my season, and after recovering well from the race I put in a few good weeks of training in preparation for some shorter and faster races through the middle part of my season. I had posted some solid bike workouts and I was looking forward to seeing what I could do in Welland, which is just about the flattest bike course out there.

Swim: 11:10 (1:30/100m)

The sprint event in Welland is a time trial start, something I've done once before in Bracebridge a few years ago. Some people love the TT start, I guess I'm pretty impartial as it means racing through a steady stream of athletes through the first half of the race.

The one advantage of a TT start is not having to start as fast as a mass start race, but I kind of threw that out the window right away and took it out hard...I guess out of habit. The 750m went by really quickly and while it wasn't my best swim I felt better than in Knoxville and I'm alright with my time. I think I have to accept that if I'm focusing on long course racing without the luxury of training full-time, I can't expect to be PB'ing every swim and still see steady gains on my bike and run fitness. Regardless, I had a not-bad swim and was set up well to push the bike.

Bike: 44:16 (40.7km/h)

After a quick T1 I was steadily moving past athletes who started ahead of me, and by 4-5k into the bike I had settled into a good rhythm and knew I was riding pretty well. We were heading into a pretty good headwind on the way out but I managed to keep my average speed at 39km/h at the 15k turnaround. At that point there were only 4-5 athletes ahead of me despite starting in 57th position.

Once I made the turnaround I was pushing my biggest gear most of the way back and felt strong with my average speed slowly creeping up. Its been a long time since I've felt that good on the bike in a race and I was riding with a lot of confidence. I had a lot of fun on the bike course but unfortunately I got stuck behind cars on the way out of, and back into town. After getting my average speed close to 41km/h near the end of the bike I got stuck behind a couple cars and had to come to a complete stop as they made their way through a stop sign, not wanting to risk going around them and getting DQ'd.

It was really tough to keep my frustration in check given how well I was riding but I knew that nothing positive would come from dwelling on it. Its a reality of local races with open roads. Fortunately my little slow down didn't affect the end result at all, but I was agonizingly close to grabbing the top bike split from pro Wolfgang Guembel. But if that's the only minor complaint I have with my race, I guess it went pretty well! I ended up with my fastest bike split ever, a nice confidence boost moving forward.

Run: 28:47 (3:51/km)

I was 4th onto the run course and by that time the race was totally spread out with the varying start times. I felt pretty good despite pushing the bike but I had no idea what my position was relative to the three athletes ahead of me who had all started quite a bit earlier.

Not much happened on the run besides a good amount of suffering, and I ended up in 3rd with the 3rd best run split (behind the two who beat me). I felt pretty good and I'm confident that I ran faster than my half ironman pace, and after spinning over the run course the next day it looks like the course was 300-400m long. Regardless it was a fun race and I was really happy with the result and how I felt throughout. I'm looking forward to continuing to build on my fitness and see what I can do for the rest of the season!

Race Report #2!

After finishing my race it was time to change roles and become support crew/gear sherpa for Amanda's race the following morning. Having experienced a whole lot of ups, downs, blowups and gear malfunctions in my long course racing, I tried to give her some words of advice and encouragement, but the great thing about long course is that ultimately the only way to get to that finish line is to go through all of that yourself and find the mental strength to come out the other side. I know that Amanda is not one to write up race reports but having seen her put so much time and effort into her preparation for this race, I feel like talking about it on her behalf!

So after some nerves (mostly mine!) the gun went off in her race and off she went, along with a few LPC teammates! I managed to catch her swim start and - unique to Welland's course - again about 1500m in thanks to the swim course going under a bridge before turning around and finishing. Her plan was to stay relaxed and swim comfortably and she nailed it. I barely managed to see her get on her bike after a fast transition and away she went for a fast 90k.

I had expected her to ride around 2:40 (a conservative effort for her), so when 2:45 rolled around and I still didn't see her I started to think that something happened out there. Turns out she took a page from my book and flatted around 37k. Luckily for her, our friend Jason was racing in the swim-bike event and he just happened to be only a couple minutes behind her at that point and helped her fix it. I know far too well how much it SUCKS to flat in a big race and I know that she was really bummed because without the flat she was right on her target wattage and well under her target time. I did my best to give her a quick pep talk on a short out-and-back at the start of the run and told her to forget about it and take the run 1km at a time.

Unfortunately her bad luck wasn't done, and around 7k of running right on goal pace she tripped on some loose gravel on the run course and took a big spill and had to tough out an extra long 22km run course! But through all of that adversity she made it through and got to the finish in a very respectable time despite everything. I know that she was disappointed with how everything unfolded, and for good reason considering everything that went wrong, but I'm confident that she will take a ton away from this race and she's going to be strong for the rest of this season! We've both bottled up lots of motivation to tackle this race again next year and take some serious time off our previous results there.

Spring Update and Rev3 Knoxville

What happened to the first five and a half months of the year? It was the winter that never ended, and all of a sudden its race season in Ontario as of this week, and it seems like summer has caught everyone by surprise. I haven't even done an open water swim workout yet!

For those who read this (are you still there?) I have to apologize as it seems like racing is my only impetus to write. Someday I may feel the need to write more on my thoughts and opinions of this funny sport, but for the most part my "story" these days is similar to most triathletes out there. The everyday balancing act of getting in my training around work and life...sometimes I hate it, wish I could just train full-time and race elite, other times I'm sick of putting all of my spare time and money into the sport and regret that I can't afford any far away exotic travels this year. But for the most part I love the daily challenge of balancing it all, and just seeing where it all takes me.

This weekend was my first tri of the year, Rev3 Knoxville. But to give the full story of the race I need to back up and recap my winter/spring (as briefly as possible).

I left off last season with Ironman 70.3 Muskoka, my big A race of the year where I set the goal of qualifying for 2015 70.3 Worlds Champs in Mont Tremblant this September. I was really happy with my preparation, effort, and result and got my qualifying spot with a full year to prepare for Worlds.

I finished that race on such a high that I wanted to keep racing every weekend until the snow started flying. Unfortunately I had a minor nagging injury that I had to take care of first, so I called it a season despite my motivation being extremely high. Coming off a good race, having good fitness and plenty of motivation proved to be a difficult way to start the off-season. I set some solid but realistic goals for 2014 and couldn't wait to get rolling.

By the time the holidays came around I was still water running, having 3 different diagnoses on my foot/achilles/calf, none of which I was satisfied with and no amount of rest was helping. My power numbers on my bike seemed to be going down by the day and in the pool I was swimming slower than I had in years. It seemed like the harder I worked, the slower I got. On top of that I changed jobs and at times was working 50+ hour weeks. It was tough, and I let it affect my consistency when I was sick of feeling like every workout was a failure. I seriously considered just taking the year to play on my mountain bike every day. It was a feeling of discouragement that I hadn't had in years, and after coming off one of my best seasons ever I felt like I had gone backwards on every level.

I guess I still haven't gotten the whole "off-season" thing figured out yet, trying to balance a lighter training load, working on skill and strength, and being ok with occasionally seeing the numbers drop off in the short term for longer term gains. I was reluctant to even go to LPC Florida Camp for a while but I knew I needed a week away from the grind and some quality time with Amanda and all of our LPC friends. Rather than think of training camp as a "test" of my early fitness or a chance to boost my training, I used it as a big, warm and sunny reset button for my training, motivation and attitude.

Florida was exactly what I needed...I had some surprisingly good workouts at the start, had a few moments of feeling completely discouraged again when the fast guys were leaving me in their dust, then got my s**t back together and finished the camp with some great workouts on the hardest and longest days. It was a huge mental victory to know that my fitness was in fact there somewhere and I can thrive when fatigue is at its highest. It was also a huge bonus to have Amanda there, this time as an official member of teamLPC :)

So I came back to Canada (and snow, and indoor riding) with the goal of letting go of any thoughts of a "bad" winter of training, and letting Florida be a springboard for a strong and consistent spring of training. And instead of pushing back my race season until I deemed myself "fit enough", I decided to add some forced motivation and sign up for Rev3 Knoxville Half on the May long weekend.

Whether it was the fear of being unprepared for a half, or a change in attitude and expectations, I managed to put together a really solid block of spring training. I decided to take my power meter off my bike and ride by feel for a month and take motivation from FEELING good vs. determining the success of my ride based on my output. My run fitness came together, and I even hit a swim PB (the day after running a half marathon). My original goal for Knoxville was strictly to break 1:30 in the run...something I know I am more than capable of, and have been getting a little closer to each time (on progressively harder courses). But I started to get really excited to race!

Ok now for the race report...

I hit the road down to Knoxville with my title sponsor (aka mom) on Friday, and got there on Saturday just in time for the practice swim. I had a mini spaz attack when my new wetsuit that I was really excited to use felt extremely uncomfortable during my 15 minute swim but luckily I brought my old suit as a backup and decided I would use that for race day, and spend more time fiddling with the fit of the new suit when I have more time and patience.

I got my gear together, put my Powertap wheel on for the first time in over a month (having no idea what my power would be, I'd use it as a pacing tool rather than basing my effort off of it), and drove the bike course....

On race morning I felt good, but really nervous. I knew training had been going well recently but in the back of my mind I still thought about my less than perfect winter of training. I guess there's no better way to see where you're at than race a challenging half ironman in May!

Swim: 30:17

I had plenty of clean water starting the swim, and likely took it out far too relaxed because of that. I saw a small group ahead of me within the first 400m but I seemed to be content to sit on some feet and chill. My stroke didn't feel great and I wasn't sighting all that well so I figured I might as well save some energy and draft. I wasn't thrilled with my time, but given that it was my first open water swim and first wetsuit swim I can live with it. More importantly I felt really good getting out of the water and likely made up all of the time I may have gained from swimming harder to gain 30 seconds.

Bike: 2:34 (35.1km/h)

There was a lot of talk about how challenging the bike course is in Knoxville...overall I would say it is comparable in difficulty to Muskoka, although Muskoka is 4k longer (edit: my average speed was identical to Muskoka last year, but my average power was about 3% higher...so very slightly more challenging I guess). I felt strong getting on my bike and was riding through the previous waves of athletes from the Championship distance race that went off 15 minutes prior.

About 5 minutes into the ride I was moving really well, and all of a sudden it sounded like I had a flat tire. I got out of my aerobars and heard my tire ticking on every revolution. Being paranoid of what happened in Mont Tremblant last year when my tire bead blew out and locked up my back wheel, I stopped thinking I had a flat. I checked out my tire and it was still full pressure but found a gel wrapper stuck to it, which was dragging through my frame each time around. I regretted stopping so quickly before being 100% sure I had to, but given my history with flat tires I guess you could say I was just being diligent. And hey, 30 seconds in a 4+ hour race really isn't the end of the world. So on I went.

I have to admit that on the challenging course, riding through less experienced athletes from earlier waves, I had to make some daredevil passes on some of the descents not only to maintain my speed, but to stay safe vs. hitting my brakes on a fast downhill. So to those athletes that I scared the crap out off...ma bad. There were a few times in the first and last 10 miles (ie. the technical sections) that I got stuck behind vehicles, that were stuck behind slower athletes. It was a little frustrating, but nothing you can do about it. I mostly managed to pass safely without doing anything too stupid. Mostly.

At 25k into the bike my average power was about 10W higher than in Muskoka last year. It didn't feel too bad but I wanted to stay conservative, after all my goal was on the run. Around this point in the half there is an out-and-back section, and its the only point of the race where you can see your competition without the other race distances on the road. I was in 4th place, with one athlete (in my age group) just up the road, and 2 more about 2 minutes ahead. I let my motivation get the better of my pacing for a while and made my way into third. I was riding well but from 40-60k I basically saw nobody, with plenty of wind and rollers but little opportunity to get out of the aerobars. My power dropped a little, partially because I knew the big climbs were at 70-80k, and partly because it was starting to hurt. But after mile 40 the end seemed to be in sight and I managed to ride really well over the last 15 miles. I came off the bike feeling better than I ever have...for the first time I felt like I actually raced a 90k bike, vs. simply surviving. My average power was a good boost from Muskoka last year, and I felt comfortable and aero throughout.

Run: 1:28:39 (4:12/km)

Out onto the run I felt pretty good, but also felt the fact that it was my first race of the year and my body wasn't really sure what was going on. My legs didn't feel great but I got into a rhythm for the first 3-4 miles, ticking off roughly 6:30/mile (just over 4:00/km). Conservative but also realistic.

It started to turn hilly right around mile 4, starting with a very long and steep hill to the championship-distance turnaround (about 4.5 miles in). The half marathon then continued into a neighbourhood that didn't have any crazy steep climbs, but you were either going up or down long rollers for the next 2 miles out and back. I figured my pace was going to fall off, not fulling realizing how challenging the run course was. But when the turnaround came in sight I was in good position and still on pace for a 1:28 half.

I certainly didn't feel good coming back through the hills, but I managed to maintain my pace fairly well. Last year the hills would have destroyed my legs and killed my pace. When we finally got out of the neighbourhood and back onto the paths I kept my mind occupied by obsessing over exactly what pace I needed to maintain to break 1:30. As with the bike, it hurt, but I didn't really slow down at all. At 18k it was back onto the road to head back to the race site, and my pace finally started to drop. I had to really bring up my effort to get close to my goal pace. But there was no way I was letting that damn sub-1:30 slip. I dragged my butt over the final uphill to the finish, and it turned out I really didn't slow down much through the whole race.

I finished in 4:36 which was good for 4th overall, 1st in my age group by a decent margin. I'm not typically one to "sportstats creep" but it looks like I was only beaten by athletes who routinely are first-overall age groupers at IM and 70.3s. The winner who was only 3-4 minutes ahead of me is a 9:00 Kona/sub-4:10 half IM athlete, which is where I would like to be in the not too distant future. Long story short, I was really happy with my race and it was a huge confidence boost to achieve my running goal on likely the hardest run course I've done so far. I can't wait to see how my fitness reflects in Mont Tremblant, which seems FAST in comparison to Knoxville and Muskoka.

I got some pretty good swag for winning my age group too! Overall I'm always impressed with Rev3 events, and this was a nice surprise. I wish there were more around to compete with WTC...I'd choose Rev3 over Ironman every time, but sometimes it comes down to the closest and most convenient events.

So its back to the grindstone, and I'm going to put my early season fitness to use and have a go at some shorter distance Ontario events through June and July. I'm really looking forward to getting back to basics and racing hard at the local races through the summer that I often miss when I'm training for 70.3s.