Race prep has gone well for sprint nats tomorrow morning. I'm well rested but still feel sharp. I've been in the open water every day this week and I'm feeling pretty confident. It looks like its going to be a wetsuit swim for age groupers afterall.
Today I ran the run course with a few easy pickups, and did the swim course with a few starts again. Everyone was at the swim venue today...Paul Tichelaar flew by me in the water, and I did a start simulation beside Whitfield. COOL!
So now its time to remember all the ass kicking I went through this summer to get here. I read a quote from Craig Alexander today that said don't get to the race thinking about winning, just be confident in "expressing your fitness". So that's what I'm going to focus on tomorrow. And going through that monsoon at K-Town long course a few weeks back has given me something to draw on mentally when I'm hurting tomorrow, I'll be thinking about how much that sucked but came out alive. I'll update after I finish tomorrow, can't wait to race!
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
Kelowna!
I got here yesterday morning, no problems with travel at all. Swam 2k easy at the swim site, put my bike together and relaxed for the rest of the day. Its a very pretty city and I've been holding myself back from wanting to climb all the mountains. I've already eyed the mountain I'm doing after I finish my race on Sunday. Real switchbacks up a real mountain!! This is like a revelation to someone who rides in SW Ontario where people dread the Niagara Escarpment.
Today started with 2-3k open water with James, Tom and Ang with a little activation and start/exit practice. I'm feeling ok in the water, not great but not bad...which I guess is more than I could say for the majority of my summer. The big talk here is whether or not its going to be a wetsuit swim...well based on how it has felt the past two days I'm thinking its going to be wetsuit for the age groupers, and probably non-wetsuit for the elite race. I'm not sure whether or not a wetsuit swim will help me, I'll be one of the stronger age group swimmers so I don't know if it will make a difference. I've gone no wetsuit both swims just in case.
I also rode the bike course this afternoon, there's a significant hill within the first 3k which I knew about. Its about 1500m of steep climbing, but after that the rest of the course looks pretty fast. Technical, but fast. So it suits me very well. The key on the course will be to not blow up on the hill, and smash the rest of the 10k loop as its a slight down hill all the way back to the waterfront.
Ok I just have to tell someone this story. When I was doing the bike course I met up with the elite bike course tour, and I saw a female athlete riding a TT bike. So I asked her if she was racing elite, she said yes. I asked her if she had another bike, she said no. She had absolutely no idea that she was racing a draft-legal race, and that she needed a draft-legal bike. Her response was "This is a triathlon bike, why can't I use it?" I have no idea if she even has an elite card, clearly doesn't have a draft-legal ICC since she doesn't own a road bike (for those of you who don't know, draft-legal elite racing requires an international competition card, certifying that you can finish the swim with the pack, and ride road bikes in a pack without killing everyone). Even if they let her start, she'll have to find a new bike in about 36 hours. So, just like other humans, there are lots of stupid triathletes out there too.
Looking down on Lake Okanagan from the top of the climb
Today started with 2-3k open water with James, Tom and Ang with a little activation and start/exit practice. I'm feeling ok in the water, not great but not bad...which I guess is more than I could say for the majority of my summer. The big talk here is whether or not its going to be a wetsuit swim...well based on how it has felt the past two days I'm thinking its going to be wetsuit for the age groupers, and probably non-wetsuit for the elite race. I'm not sure whether or not a wetsuit swim will help me, I'll be one of the stronger age group swimmers so I don't know if it will make a difference. I've gone no wetsuit both swims just in case.
I also rode the bike course this afternoon, there's a significant hill within the first 3k which I knew about. Its about 1500m of steep climbing, but after that the rest of the course looks pretty fast. Technical, but fast. So it suits me very well. The key on the course will be to not blow up on the hill, and smash the rest of the 10k loop as its a slight down hill all the way back to the waterfront.
Ok I just have to tell someone this story. When I was doing the bike course I met up with the elite bike course tour, and I saw a female athlete riding a TT bike. So I asked her if she was racing elite, she said yes. I asked her if she had another bike, she said no. She had absolutely no idea that she was racing a draft-legal race, and that she needed a draft-legal bike. Her response was "This is a triathlon bike, why can't I use it?" I have no idea if she even has an elite card, clearly doesn't have a draft-legal ICC since she doesn't own a road bike (for those of you who don't know, draft-legal elite racing requires an international competition card, certifying that you can finish the swim with the pack, and ride road bikes in a pack without killing everyone). Even if they let her start, she'll have to find a new bike in about 36 hours. So, just like other humans, there are lots of stupid triathletes out there too.
Looking down on Lake Okanagan from the top of the climb
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Sponsor Dealio
My sunglasses/helmet sponsor Rudy Project has some cool new stuff and they want me to give you a ridiculously amazing deal! Send me an email (leave a comment here if you don't know my email) and I'll hook you up. You can get a heavily discounted price on their 2010 new aero helmet, the fastest helmet ever tested in the wind tunnel and used my Team Milram in the Tour this year. Not available to the public until next spring. Or get the best cycling eyewear out there at 40% off through me!
Monday, August 3, 2009
K-Town Long Course Adventures
I couldn't wait to get to this race after blowing up in Belwood a few weeks ago. I haven't done a long course race since the Peterborough half in 07, and I only raced that to finish. So I was excited to actually race long course, as an elite no less because I registered for it when I assumed that I would get my elite card after Belwood.
Got to Kingston on Saturday and the place was buzzing with triathletes, very cool. Everywhere you walked downtown you couldn't get away from middle aged skinny dudes wearing race t-shirts and Oakleys. I checked out transition and found my spot on the elite rack...even cooler!! When I woke up on race morning I knew the weather was once again going to be the key factor in the race. I'm getting pretty sick of racing in rain, I literally have not seen the sun in a single race this year. 40 degrees and baking sun in Kelowna and Gold Coast sounds pretty appealing at this point. Warmup went well but I was still nervous about the race since I really haven't been training for long distance and I've only raced sprints so far this season.
The best way I can describe the swim is, it was a rollercoaster. A wet and evil one. The swim course was 1000m out, 1000m back and the entire way out was directly into the current and white caps. I've swum in rough water before but I've never been thrown around like this. In Vancouver last year it was ocean swells which you can get into a rhythm with to sight and breath, but the chop yesterday was completely unpredictable and the opening 1000m was horrible to say the least. My race strategy was to swim steady so I did my best not to drown until I got to the turn around, then I got into a rhythm and felt strong on the way back. I got out of the water and couldn't really believe my watch...34:55 (35:50 after T1). But rather than stress about an embarrassing swim time I relaxed through transition and realized that everyone's times were going to be slow today. Turned out that the leaders were 30 minutes and change, so the rough conditions affected everyone.
Race strategy on the bike was to once again go steady and get my nutrition right to feel good on the run. After a bit of a mechanical issue having to fiddle with my computer sensor between bladed spokes at 45km/h (I really need a new computer) I got into a good rhythm and felt great. I rode strong and averaged 37.8 to the turn around. The wind got progressively stronger on the way back, so we had a crosswind on the way out and a headwind on the way back. Of course. I went through 40k in 1:05 which I was very happy with but the last 15k was into the strongest wind so my average speed suffered. It rained lightly for the majority of the ride - just enough to make corners and the lift bridge crossing extremely dangerous - but it became a downpour with about 10k left. I still averaged 35.7 over 56.2km, probably my best ride of the year, and got off the bike feeling good despite knowing that a top 3 placing was out of the question. I need a time trial bike if I'm doing any long course next year.
I got off the bike in 24th, a little sucky but I knew I was saving the best for last. I had decided the day before that taking an extra ten seconds to put socks on in T2 would be worth it. I'll suck it up for 5 or 10k, but my racing flats are blister machines so I wanted to make 15k off the bike as comfortable as possible...considering the farthest I've run this year is 17k fresh (and Craig won't be happy when he sees I went that far). I knew that the run was where my race was going to unfold. The plan was to build throughout the run and finish strong with a negative split. It was after all a training race.
I got out on the run course and had made up 4 positions in the opening km and was running 3:50 k's pretty effortlessly. That downpour on the bike went to somewhere between torrential and Indian monsoon season. But I was running well. My building effort on the run ended up equating to even splitting the three 5k's, maybe that's to be expected since I had only decided about three weeks ago that I would do a long course race just for the hell of it. At the turnaround I was in 19th, and although my thoughts of going under 3 hours were out the window given the conditions, I couldn't complain with a top 20. I continued to build and ran through 10k in 38:40ish. I don't remember much about the last 5k because I was doing my very best to block out reality, but I made my way up to 15th and finished strong.
Between it being my first competitive long course race and having done no specific training for it I'm very pleased with the result. I was 5/5 in the elite division, but I was only a pretend elite so I don't really care. I love the challenge of long course races and I think I'm better suited to the physical and mental grind of long course than the maximal efforts of sprint racing. I'll stick with short course for the next couple seasons no matter what but chances are long course is where my future is in the sport. Maybe 70.3 pro?
PS that's not a question.
Got to Kingston on Saturday and the place was buzzing with triathletes, very cool. Everywhere you walked downtown you couldn't get away from middle aged skinny dudes wearing race t-shirts and Oakleys. I checked out transition and found my spot on the elite rack...even cooler!! When I woke up on race morning I knew the weather was once again going to be the key factor in the race. I'm getting pretty sick of racing in rain, I literally have not seen the sun in a single race this year. 40 degrees and baking sun in Kelowna and Gold Coast sounds pretty appealing at this point. Warmup went well but I was still nervous about the race since I really haven't been training for long distance and I've only raced sprints so far this season.
The best way I can describe the swim is, it was a rollercoaster. A wet and evil one. The swim course was 1000m out, 1000m back and the entire way out was directly into the current and white caps. I've swum in rough water before but I've never been thrown around like this. In Vancouver last year it was ocean swells which you can get into a rhythm with to sight and breath, but the chop yesterday was completely unpredictable and the opening 1000m was horrible to say the least. My race strategy was to swim steady so I did my best not to drown until I got to the turn around, then I got into a rhythm and felt strong on the way back. I got out of the water and couldn't really believe my watch...34:55 (35:50 after T1). But rather than stress about an embarrassing swim time I relaxed through transition and realized that everyone's times were going to be slow today. Turned out that the leaders were 30 minutes and change, so the rough conditions affected everyone.
Race strategy on the bike was to once again go steady and get my nutrition right to feel good on the run. After a bit of a mechanical issue having to fiddle with my computer sensor between bladed spokes at 45km/h (I really need a new computer) I got into a good rhythm and felt great. I rode strong and averaged 37.8 to the turn around. The wind got progressively stronger on the way back, so we had a crosswind on the way out and a headwind on the way back. Of course. I went through 40k in 1:05 which I was very happy with but the last 15k was into the strongest wind so my average speed suffered. It rained lightly for the majority of the ride - just enough to make corners and the lift bridge crossing extremely dangerous - but it became a downpour with about 10k left. I still averaged 35.7 over 56.2km, probably my best ride of the year, and got off the bike feeling good despite knowing that a top 3 placing was out of the question. I need a time trial bike if I'm doing any long course next year.
I got off the bike in 24th, a little sucky but I knew I was saving the best for last. I had decided the day before that taking an extra ten seconds to put socks on in T2 would be worth it. I'll suck it up for 5 or 10k, but my racing flats are blister machines so I wanted to make 15k off the bike as comfortable as possible...considering the farthest I've run this year is 17k fresh (and Craig won't be happy when he sees I went that far). I knew that the run was where my race was going to unfold. The plan was to build throughout the run and finish strong with a negative split. It was after all a training race.
I got out on the run course and had made up 4 positions in the opening km and was running 3:50 k's pretty effortlessly. That downpour on the bike went to somewhere between torrential and Indian monsoon season. But I was running well. My building effort on the run ended up equating to even splitting the three 5k's, maybe that's to be expected since I had only decided about three weeks ago that I would do a long course race just for the hell of it. At the turnaround I was in 19th, and although my thoughts of going under 3 hours were out the window given the conditions, I couldn't complain with a top 20. I continued to build and ran through 10k in 38:40ish. I don't remember much about the last 5k because I was doing my very best to block out reality, but I made my way up to 15th and finished strong.
Between it being my first competitive long course race and having done no specific training for it I'm very pleased with the result. I was 5/5 in the elite division, but I was only a pretend elite so I don't really care. I love the challenge of long course races and I think I'm better suited to the physical and mental grind of long course than the maximal efforts of sprint racing. I'll stick with short course for the next couple seasons no matter what but chances are long course is where my future is in the sport. Maybe 70.3 pro?
PS that's not a question.
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