Finally, my first race report of the year! Not an important race but I feel like telling you about it. I'll post pictures later if I find any.
I was a little nervous about this one with it being my first road race and having no idea what to expect. I felt like I was doing my first tri again...wondering whether or not I was going to drown in opening 100 meters of the swim. Bike training has gone really well this year - good enough that all my roadie buddies are telling me to give up triathlon for road racing - but Springbank is known as a sketchy course with narrow roads, rough surfaces and tight corners...nothing like 18 laps in the rain for my first road race.
A little Muse on the big 4km commute and a good warmup and all was good. I'm in my element when I get on my bike, and did it ever feel great to start a ride with the "lead pack"...that doesn't happen to me in triathlon. But within 10 meters of the roll out someone bailed in front of me and I was forced to play catch up through the first 15k working my way through the pack.
On lap 9 (20k) Multisport Zone posted a prime so I decided to be a hero and try to make my entry fee back. I ended up 2nd in a good sprint but the increased pace split the group from 50+ down to 20 or so. I was in the hurt box trying to hop back on the train after the sprint and a failed "hey we made a gap, let's go" but managed to survive and chilled for a few more laps on the back of the lead group.
Things got pretty nervous in the last few laps but I was just staying out of the wind and not get caught at the back. On the last lap I made my way up to the front but two riders got away and the group didn't bother trying to chase at all. I still wanted the experience of getting a good sprint in so I tried to position myself well coming into the last 800m.
Unfortunately I picked the wrong wheel and found myself on the front with almost 300m left so I had to go. Note to self: 300m false flat/headwind solo sprint is not ideal. I got well off the front of the pack but two guys came by with 50m left. I managed to get one of them at the line and finished 4th.
I really wanted to win but I can't be too disappointed with top 5 in my first road race. I'm going to try to hit a few more this year and see if I can get the sprint right. If I get on a good wheel (or an actual lead out) I can outsprint anyone.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Friday, April 29, 2011
Switching Gears
What happens when you're too lazy to train for three sports at the same time? Pick one!
I like bikes. They're shiny and funky and generally expensive-looking. And having been diligent with my bike training through the winter on the rollers and the Computrainers at Multisport Zone, my power numbers suggest that I'm moderately competent riding my shiny expensive bike.
So this weekend I'm entering my first road race to have some fun and get comfortable in the pack. I'm only racing in the S4/M3 division so there is little glory to be had, but on the notoriously sketchy 18-lap Springbank course things might get interesting. It will be a game-time decision as the whether I go for the hero move and ride off the front, or suck tire for 17.9 laps and unleash my sign sprint - which is no longer being measured by my Powertap, but rather the Richter Scale.
The following weekend I'm headed down to Windsor for a 60k team time trial put on by a local bike shop. I have no idea what to expect with that one, besides knowing I'm much better at road/crit riding than TT. But I need to get comfortable riding hard on my tri bike with a flat and fast half ironman coming up in 8 weeks.
After all that I'll start being a triathlete again, with my first real 5k at the Toronto Marathon weekend May 15th. I was running well a month ago but have put more energy into the bike lately...so we'll see where I'm at.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Where Were We
That's an excellent question...and I hope I haven't alienated all my little RP followers having not updated this thing in a month. The truth is not a whole lot has been going on since getting back from my Florida camp. But while I'm sitting here listening to Radiohead, watching some dorkus ride in circles past my house on a shiny new tri bike without a helmet...I figure it's time for an update.
Speaking of Florida...
I miss the sun.
London Ontario had one of the worst winters in recorded history this year, and good ol' Canadian weather has followed that up with a particularly miserable spring. It's now late April and I've had my bike outdoors a total of three times so far this year. It's a good thing I decided against heading back to St. Croix 70.3 this year...my training would have been utterly useless.
On top of the crap weather and resulting lack of motivation to leave my warm bed, my gimp back has been acting up a bit again. There isn't much logic as to when it gets bad, but when it does I'm basically limited to sitting on my ass watching The Big Lebowski, and staring at the pretty girl at hot yoga as often as possible. Come to think of it...being injured ROCKS!
But the limited training has allowed me to put some serious thought into the upcoming season. My training has gone well this year but I find myself more motivated to head out in the rain to train alone than hit a start line...and I'm learning the hard way that it's not sustainable. I've had to miss a couple early season races and had one of my key events cancelled, so while most triathletes are in tri season already my "racing" thus far has been three tempo effort 5k's.
I recently realized something: I cannot swim. That's nothing new. However, I have discovered that I can ride a bike, and sometimes I can even run. That is, of course, when I'm not napping.
I'm always one to focus on my weaknesses first, but lately I've been wondering what the hell I'm doing with this draft legal stuff. It is a lot of fun but I don't enjoy the training, and all philosphical "just do your best...it's not about winning...it's about the process" crap aside, I'm never going to race well when I sh*tcan the swim, bust my ass on the bike riding solo, then run two minutes slower than I'm capable of if I was sitting in a pack on the bike.
Long workouts have always been my favourites - long runs, endurance bricks...workouts so long that you find yourself running in the rain 4 hours in, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. So it looks like rather than focusing on ITU this year I'm probably going to hit a couple halfs, some non-drafting Olympic events, and one or two draft-legal development races. I've been struggling to put together a race calendar I'm happy with, so all I can tell you is I'm gearing up for Multisport Canada's Welland Half Iron as my first big target for the season. Time to get comfy on the tri bike and learn how to time trial!
Speaking of Florida...
I miss the sun.
London Ontario had one of the worst winters in recorded history this year, and good ol' Canadian weather has followed that up with a particularly miserable spring. It's now late April and I've had my bike outdoors a total of three times so far this year. It's a good thing I decided against heading back to St. Croix 70.3 this year...my training would have been utterly useless.
On top of the crap weather and resulting lack of motivation to leave my warm bed, my gimp back has been acting up a bit again. There isn't much logic as to when it gets bad, but when it does I'm basically limited to sitting on my ass watching The Big Lebowski, and staring at the pretty girl at hot yoga as often as possible. Come to think of it...being injured ROCKS!
But the limited training has allowed me to put some serious thought into the upcoming season. My training has gone well this year but I find myself more motivated to head out in the rain to train alone than hit a start line...and I'm learning the hard way that it's not sustainable. I've had to miss a couple early season races and had one of my key events cancelled, so while most triathletes are in tri season already my "racing" thus far has been three tempo effort 5k's.
I recently realized something: I cannot swim. That's nothing new. However, I have discovered that I can ride a bike, and sometimes I can even run. That is, of course, when I'm not napping.
I'm always one to focus on my weaknesses first, but lately I've been wondering what the hell I'm doing with this draft legal stuff. It is a lot of fun but I don't enjoy the training, and all philosphical "just do your best...it's not about winning...it's about the process" crap aside, I'm never going to race well when I sh*tcan the swim, bust my ass on the bike riding solo, then run two minutes slower than I'm capable of if I was sitting in a pack on the bike.
Long workouts have always been my favourites - long runs, endurance bricks...workouts so long that you find yourself running in the rain 4 hours in, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. So it looks like rather than focusing on ITU this year I'm probably going to hit a couple halfs, some non-drafting Olympic events, and one or two draft-legal development races. I've been struggling to put together a race calendar I'm happy with, so all I can tell you is I'm gearing up for Multisport Canada's Welland Half Iron as my first big target for the season. Time to get comfy on the tri bike and learn how to time trial!
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Florida
Greetings minions!
Clearly I didn't do so well with posting updates while I was in Florida...I was too busy living the dream. But I'm back to real life now and I can tell you all about it!
Coach James and I drove down a week prior to the LPC Florida camp to get some extended warm weather training in before all the campers arrived. I've been to Clermont for a track camp so I knew the running would be good but I was surprised with how great the riding was on my pretty new Cervelo R3.
I didn't even have a chance to stand over my 14lb superbike before packing it up (generally not advisable for a training camp or race), but it was instantly the best bike I've ever had BY FAR. I never want to ride anything else. More responsive, more power, no more back pain!
Ok back to the camp. I had a few days of easy training on my own and with James before my bike buddy Charlotte came down and we put in some great swims (10x200, 21x100, 400s...) and long rides in before all the campers arrived last Saturday.
The LPC camp officially started on Sunday with a couple easy workouts while everyone got a feel for things. My goal at the camp was to provide a positive example of how an elite athlete trains and recovers through a big week...it wasn't easy with everyone motivated to have an "epic" week of training. But it was a very positive group and they made it a lot of fun all week.
Wednesday was a big day with brick intervals and an open water swim at Lake Louisa State Park, the same venue as last week's ITU North American Sprint Champs. 3x 11k bike/1 mile run, on tired legs after Tuesday's 100k bike/10k run. Turned out I had a great sparring partner in Lionel Sanders who is a monster on the bike and an even better runner. Watch for his name in the 70.3 circuit in the near future. On the first rep we averaged just under 44km/h on the bike and ran a sub-5 minute mile. I got dropped pretty hard on the last two reps (I don't remember the last time anyone dropped me...many years ago) and only averaged 40 on the bike but I held 5:18 miles. Here's James attempting to conduct an LPC interview a few seconds after my last rep:
I pushed myself to the brink of death on Wednesday and I was pretty burned out the next day. It was a struggle to get through 3500m of active recovery in the pool so I had to take the afternoon off while everyone else had a long ride out to Sugarloaf. I was pretty disappointed but I was already ten days into a big two weeks of training so I wasn't entirely surprised. But Friday was the last official day of the camp with the Orange Grove 10 mile run so I wanted to finish off strong.
The RTC squad did the Grove run a couple times on their camp a couple weeks back so I knew that it takes a strong run to break an hour over the loose and rolling terrain. But my run wasn't supposed to be any faster than "tempo" so James told me I wasn't allowed to go under 1:10.
Well I started running and despite having nothing left in my legs I could tell I was running pretty well. So I got in my little zone and at the half way point I was at 30:50. The back half is usually known to be a little slower with more hills and heat but I decided I wanted to see how close I could get to an hour. I finally saw the finish through the fog and stopped my watch at 59:42. But before I had a chance to feel good about my time...Lionel came in with a 54:23. Over a minute faster than the best time posted by the RTC/NTC squad. We're pretty sure that's the fastest time a triathlete has ever posted.
We had a few more easy workouts before hitting the road Saturday afternoon for the long drive back to crappy weather and some more indoor riding. But it was a great camp and I put in over 50 hours of training over 12 days. A few big efforts and some confirmation that I'm much stronger now than I was in peak form last year. And it's only March.
Clearly I didn't do so well with posting updates while I was in Florida...I was too busy living the dream. But I'm back to real life now and I can tell you all about it!
Coach James and I drove down a week prior to the LPC Florida camp to get some extended warm weather training in before all the campers arrived. I've been to Clermont for a track camp so I knew the running would be good but I was surprised with how great the riding was on my pretty new Cervelo R3.
I didn't even have a chance to stand over my 14lb superbike before packing it up (generally not advisable for a training camp or race), but it was instantly the best bike I've ever had BY FAR. I never want to ride anything else. More responsive, more power, no more back pain!
Ok back to the camp. I had a few days of easy training on my own and with James before my bike buddy Charlotte came down and we put in some great swims (10x200, 21x100, 400s...) and long rides in before all the campers arrived last Saturday.
The LPC camp officially started on Sunday with a couple easy workouts while everyone got a feel for things. My goal at the camp was to provide a positive example of how an elite athlete trains and recovers through a big week...it wasn't easy with everyone motivated to have an "epic" week of training. But it was a very positive group and they made it a lot of fun all week.
Wednesday was a big day with brick intervals and an open water swim at Lake Louisa State Park, the same venue as last week's ITU North American Sprint Champs. 3x 11k bike/1 mile run, on tired legs after Tuesday's 100k bike/10k run. Turned out I had a great sparring partner in Lionel Sanders who is a monster on the bike and an even better runner. Watch for his name in the 70.3 circuit in the near future. On the first rep we averaged just under 44km/h on the bike and ran a sub-5 minute mile. I got dropped pretty hard on the last two reps (I don't remember the last time anyone dropped me...many years ago) and only averaged 40 on the bike but I held 5:18 miles. Here's James attempting to conduct an LPC interview a few seconds after my last rep:
I pushed myself to the brink of death on Wednesday and I was pretty burned out the next day. It was a struggle to get through 3500m of active recovery in the pool so I had to take the afternoon off while everyone else had a long ride out to Sugarloaf. I was pretty disappointed but I was already ten days into a big two weeks of training so I wasn't entirely surprised. But Friday was the last official day of the camp with the Orange Grove 10 mile run so I wanted to finish off strong.
The RTC squad did the Grove run a couple times on their camp a couple weeks back so I knew that it takes a strong run to break an hour over the loose and rolling terrain. But my run wasn't supposed to be any faster than "tempo" so James told me I wasn't allowed to go under 1:10.
Well I started running and despite having nothing left in my legs I could tell I was running pretty well. So I got in my little zone and at the half way point I was at 30:50. The back half is usually known to be a little slower with more hills and heat but I decided I wanted to see how close I could get to an hour. I finally saw the finish through the fog and stopped my watch at 59:42. But before I had a chance to feel good about my time...Lionel came in with a 54:23. Over a minute faster than the best time posted by the RTC/NTC squad. We're pretty sure that's the fastest time a triathlete has ever posted.
We had a few more easy workouts before hitting the road Saturday afternoon for the long drive back to crappy weather and some more indoor riding. But it was a great camp and I put in over 50 hours of training over 12 days. A few big efforts and some confirmation that I'm much stronger now than I was in peak form last year. And it's only March.
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