So I know I said I was going to take a couple weeks off racing to get a solid block of training in before Montreal. Races were going well but I wanted to make sure I'm more fit than ever for the Esprit.
Well...half way through last week while everyone else was heading out to beautiful Kelowna for Nationals I got a little anxious and decided I wanted to jump in just one more race before Montreal. Four tri's in a month? Why not!
So after a pretty solid week of training with some strong swims I hit the road once again to the Chatham Bulldog Sprint Triathlon. It's a very grassroots independent race and my sole reason for racing again was to gain the confidence of a solid swim in a race, as my swimming has been a little inconsistent despite the general upward trend.
Turns out that a few fast guys decided to show up this year, and on a super flat fast course in cool conditions I can say with confidence that it was the best drag race the Bulldog has ever seen!
I decided in my swim warmup that my focus would be staying smooth and efficient since I tend to try and power through the first 200m then have trouble getting a smooth rhythm after. So after a quick start I found Josh Seifarth's feet at the back end of a small lead pack. I was swimming fast but comfortable through the first 500. Eventually Josh pulled away and I came out of the water 30-40 seconds down on a pack of three very strong swimmers.
The bike course was awesome with two flat loops through the provincial park on new pavement...definitely one of the fastest courses out there. I was 3rd onto the bike with no one around me after the first 2km. I had no idea how I was riding because rather than my powertap wheel I was rolling Zipp 1080s (thanks to MultiSport Zone), and my Garmin wasn't giving me accurate speeds through the tree cover. I had trouble finding a rhythm over the first lap and thought I was riding pretty poorly but I came through the first 10k under 15 minutes, and found my legs on the second lap was around 43km/h average over the second 10k. I told you it was fast!
I came off the bike in 27:40 (results had me at 29 low including transitions) and hit the run with 2nd and 3rd right with me and Josh about 40 seconds up the road. As I left T2 James told me to stay with Mike Murray to run down Josh. There was tons of support at the race with Coach James and some of his athletes, Gabbi Whitlock and most of her club, and even a surprise appearance from my sponsor Darryl from MSZ.
Turns out Mike was a little too quick for me and dropped me at about 1k (he went on to run 16:40). My legs were pretty trashed at 2k and I started coming up with the excuses...all the racing I've done lately...maybe it would be ok to slow down just a bit...no one's close enough to run me down. But I managed to shut the little voices out and test my run fitness. I felt good at the turnaround and really pushed myself to find the stride I'm capable of.
At about 15k into the bike I checked my watch and saw that it was going to be really close to try and break an hour for the first time. I started the run knowing that if I ran well I could do it. At 4k I was at 57:00 so it was going to be tough...but still possible. I kept focused and felt strong and went for it. I ended up stopping the clock at 1:00:07, just a few seconds off 2nd and less than a minute down from the winner, with a PB 17:31 5k. We managed to make it quite the race for top 3.
I was happy with my effort and took some big positives out of the race. Swam with a good front pack for most of the swim (and felt RELAXED), rode well despite some fatigue and PB'd the run. I'll take 3rd, knowing I'm going in the right direction and just a few seconds off some strong athletes.
So now I'm REALLY going to take a couple weeks off racing to focus on getting those 7 seconds back and gun for sub-2:00 in Montreal. Thanks to everyone who came out to support (especially my road trip buddy) and making another fun race in a great season!
Monday, August 22, 2011
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Cobourg Sprint
Another weekend, another race. It's almost as if this is my job or something!
I always do my best every year to fit Cobourg in my race schedule. It's not a big event but it's one of the first races I entered and I've been back almost every year since. It's my favourite race for the beautiful venue/town and great course, and the guys at Multisport Canada always do an outstanding job putting it on.
When I got to the race site there was quite a bit more confusion, stress and general panic than usual. The water had turned overnight and the temperature had dropped to 55.6 degrees (usually mid-70s at this race) and wetsuits were mandatory (for good reason). I didn't mind in the least...I like fun challenges. But there were more than a few people pissed off at the world that the water was so cold. I don't get people who get so wrapped up in things as trivial (and uncontrollable) as water temperature at a race. To me that's why triathlon is so cool - everything can go to sh*t - and I just embrace it.
So I decided it wasn't worth a "warm" up in the water and did some dynamic stretching on the beach. When the horn went off I began to understand (just a little) why so many people were freaking out. It was COLD. There's always an initial shock when you hit water like that, but after about 200m I started to get my breathing under control. But as my hands and feet started to go numb I was getting bad pains from the bone in my foot that I broke last year. They made it a two loop swim due to the conditions, and not only did I have no idea how I was swimming with numb hands in rough water, but I wasn't sure if I had reinjured my foot or it was just sensitive to the cold. I was rather perplexed!
Luckily I survived the first lap and my foot was fine running through the sand...although my goggles had completely fogged up with the change in temperature and I more or less did a trip/belly flop diving in for the second time. I was second out of the water with what seemed like a disappointing swim, but really I have no idea how to judge it with the swim split being so meaningless in the conditions.
I was 45 seconds down getting on the bike and figured I would put a couple minutes on everyone over the 20k. But my legs didn't really want to respond and I had trouble staying over 280W (my goal was >300W avg). I put time into everyone else but felt like I was getting nowhere on the guy up the road. So I just focused on riding the uphills strong and descending fast. I think I have a lot of trouble finding a rhythm over a 20k ride, I need something longer to get going.
I figured I hadn't put any time into the leader getting off the bike and thought that if I put 15 seconds into him in transition I could be patient on the run and steadily take off 10sec/km. I came off the bike 30 seconds down so I was confident with where I was, although I really didn't want the race to come down to the run because I had a few hard runs the week prior and my calves were still pretty shot and didn't know how well I could run off the bike. So I stayed patient and relaxed and by 2k (just about when it started to get HOT) I was already in the lead and just maintained a good but controlled effort for win #2 in 3 races. And some more fun with post-race interviews :)
Overall I have to admit I wasn't thrilled with any one aspect of the race. I wasn't fast and I didn't race half as well as I did in Bala a few weeks ago. But I can definitely build off getting it done in tough conditions and reacting to feeling pretty flat on the day. At this point I want to keep racing every weekend but I'm going to take a couple weeks off to get some good training in before the Esprit.
I regret not setting a more concrete race schedule this summer after hardly racing June-July and now wanting to hit every event I can. So next year I'll put a lot more effort into planning out my season, likely around a couple longer distance events. The more I race the more I feel that long course is going to be my strength.
I always do my best every year to fit Cobourg in my race schedule. It's not a big event but it's one of the first races I entered and I've been back almost every year since. It's my favourite race for the beautiful venue/town and great course, and the guys at Multisport Canada always do an outstanding job putting it on.
When I got to the race site there was quite a bit more confusion, stress and general panic than usual. The water had turned overnight and the temperature had dropped to 55.6 degrees (usually mid-70s at this race) and wetsuits were mandatory (for good reason). I didn't mind in the least...I like fun challenges. But there were more than a few people pissed off at the world that the water was so cold. I don't get people who get so wrapped up in things as trivial (and uncontrollable) as water temperature at a race. To me that's why triathlon is so cool - everything can go to sh*t - and I just embrace it.
So I decided it wasn't worth a "warm" up in the water and did some dynamic stretching on the beach. When the horn went off I began to understand (just a little) why so many people were freaking out. It was COLD. There's always an initial shock when you hit water like that, but after about 200m I started to get my breathing under control. But as my hands and feet started to go numb I was getting bad pains from the bone in my foot that I broke last year. They made it a two loop swim due to the conditions, and not only did I have no idea how I was swimming with numb hands in rough water, but I wasn't sure if I had reinjured my foot or it was just sensitive to the cold. I was rather perplexed!
Luckily I survived the first lap and my foot was fine running through the sand...although my goggles had completely fogged up with the change in temperature and I more or less did a trip/belly flop diving in for the second time. I was second out of the water with what seemed like a disappointing swim, but really I have no idea how to judge it with the swim split being so meaningless in the conditions.
I was 45 seconds down getting on the bike and figured I would put a couple minutes on everyone over the 20k. But my legs didn't really want to respond and I had trouble staying over 280W (my goal was >300W avg). I put time into everyone else but felt like I was getting nowhere on the guy up the road. So I just focused on riding the uphills strong and descending fast. I think I have a lot of trouble finding a rhythm over a 20k ride, I need something longer to get going.
I figured I hadn't put any time into the leader getting off the bike and thought that if I put 15 seconds into him in transition I could be patient on the run and steadily take off 10sec/km. I came off the bike 30 seconds down so I was confident with where I was, although I really didn't want the race to come down to the run because I had a few hard runs the week prior and my calves were still pretty shot and didn't know how well I could run off the bike. So I stayed patient and relaxed and by 2k (just about when it started to get HOT) I was already in the lead and just maintained a good but controlled effort for win #2 in 3 races. And some more fun with post-race interviews :)
Overall I have to admit I wasn't thrilled with any one aspect of the race. I wasn't fast and I didn't race half as well as I did in Bala a few weeks ago. But I can definitely build off getting it done in tough conditions and reacting to feeling pretty flat on the day. At this point I want to keep racing every weekend but I'm going to take a couple weeks off to get some good training in before the Esprit.
I regret not setting a more concrete race schedule this summer after hardly racing June-July and now wanting to hit every event I can. So next year I'll put a lot more effort into planning out my season, likely around a couple longer distance events. The more I race the more I feel that long course is going to be my strength.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Next Up
Well I had been planning on heading down to Windsor for a shot at some prize money at the Tecumseh Triathlon last weekend. But my body and brain were ready for a break after two weekends of racing and a little over 20 hours in the car. It seems like I've been skipping out on a lot of races this year...but the truth is it's part of being an elite triathlete - knowing when NOT to race.
So I got back to business and have gotten two good weeks of training in, including some fun miles up in Muskoka once again as I helped out at Multisport Canada's Bracebridge event, and did my best as support crew for Amanda. She also learned a tough lesson that racing can give you a serious mental and physical ass kicking sometimes, but it's been inspiring to see such a positive attitude towards the sport throughout the season. But she will be embarrassed if I write any more about her so I'll get back to the point.
I've been thinking about my training this summer and I feel like I haven't been working nearly as hard as I'm used to, yet I'm much faster/stronger/more efficient in all sports. Sometimes I freak out that I haven't been doing enough, but I think I'm finally learning the definition of consistency...or at least applying it properly. I must be getting better and practicing what I preach because I can think of very few training sessions this year that felt "epic" or even out of the ordinary. I'll even get frustrated when I know I've gone too hard for a certain session.
I'm getting tired of being a training champion and I prefer to actually transfer my fitness to strong races. But every once in a while I'll get a reminder in my training that I'm headed in the right direction - like actually doing a full main set on 1:30 pace time, or average 42-45km/h for long intervals on the bike, or hold sub 3:10s for my favourite run workout (hilly 2k reps).
So up next is just a small event but my very favourite race in the world...MSC's Cobourg sprint tri. It's one of the prettiest race venues out there with a course that's tailored to my strengths...hard bike and fast run. I haven't raced as much as I would like by mid-August, but I've been injury free all summer, I've put together by far the strongest and most consistent year of training since I started the sport, and I'm very excited to see what I can put down in my final races of the year.
One final thing...it has been FAR too long since my last ACMFRP (awesome canadian music for recovery purposes) post!! So I'm leaving you with a beauty this time:
So I got back to business and have gotten two good weeks of training in, including some fun miles up in Muskoka once again as I helped out at Multisport Canada's Bracebridge event, and did my best as support crew for Amanda. She also learned a tough lesson that racing can give you a serious mental and physical ass kicking sometimes, but it's been inspiring to see such a positive attitude towards the sport throughout the season. But she will be embarrassed if I write any more about her so I'll get back to the point.
I've been thinking about my training this summer and I feel like I haven't been working nearly as hard as I'm used to, yet I'm much faster/stronger/more efficient in all sports. Sometimes I freak out that I haven't been doing enough, but I think I'm finally learning the definition of consistency...or at least applying it properly. I must be getting better and practicing what I preach because I can think of very few training sessions this year that felt "epic" or even out of the ordinary. I'll even get frustrated when I know I've gone too hard for a certain session.
I'm getting tired of being a training champion and I prefer to actually transfer my fitness to strong races. But every once in a while I'll get a reminder in my training that I'm headed in the right direction - like actually doing a full main set on 1:30 pace time, or average 42-45km/h for long intervals on the bike, or hold sub 3:10s for my favourite run workout (hilly 2k reps).
So up next is just a small event but my very favourite race in the world...MSC's Cobourg sprint tri. It's one of the prettiest race venues out there with a course that's tailored to my strengths...hard bike and fast run. I haven't raced as much as I would like by mid-August, but I've been injury free all summer, I've put together by far the strongest and most consistent year of training since I started the sport, and I'm very excited to see what I can put down in my final races of the year.
One final thing...it has been FAR too long since my last ACMFRP (awesome canadian music for recovery purposes) post!! So I'm leaving you with a beauty this time:
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Provincials
Quick recap for this one since there isn't much to discuss.
Ever since this event last year I had been looking forward to doing it again, another year stronger and especially after last week's little confidence boost in winning Bala. But there are so many variables in draft legal racing that I was just looking forward to mixing it up and putting in a solid effort.
After an absurdly long drive I got to the race site the day before to find that I wouldn't be able to get a pre-race swim in due to dangerously high levels of e.coli in the water. But it was made pretty clear at the pre-race briefing that we were swimming regardless of the risk. I don't mean to knock the race staff too much because they do work very hard to put this race on for developing/elite athletes. But it was a little disconcerting.
Race morning came around and everything felt pretty good in my warmup. I really wasn't nervous at all before the race, actually I was much more nervous last week for Bala. Everything felt routine and I was just ready to go.
Since I was one of only a few elite/U23's in comparison to the large number of juniors I had a good starting number and had a good position on the start line. But within literally the first second of the race I experienced the first of many times I got "Wiltshire'd".
As the gun went off the athlete behind me - rather than even attempting a swimming motion - grabbed my ankle with both hands and pulled me backwards. As I attempted to retake my position I was intentionally kicked by two more people. How do I know it was intentional? Well most swimmers don't kick with their heels in a normal swim stroke.
I did my best not to let it bother me and just tried to make up ground a little at a time, but I was absolutely disgusted by what went down in that swim. Many of the 40+ juniors were in their first draft-legal race. Maybe it was just some inexperienced/over-excited juniors, I call it blatant lack of respect and sportsmanship and it has no place in this sport, and I wish I had seen their names.
Anyway.
I'll admit that despite trying to shake all that off, I simply didn't have a good swim. Last year my swims were consistently bad. This year I'm just inconsistent...I guess I'll take it.
I was well back exiting the swim and made up 4 or 5 places on the 500m run up to T1. I was in no man's land getting on the bike with a few solo guys ahead of me, a line of stragglers behind me and a 5-6 man pack 1:10 up the road. I rode through another 3 or 4 guys by 2k in and realized that this far back in the race I wouldn't have anyone to work with on the bike. Chase 3 was barely in sight but it was either sit up and wait for a weak pack, or ride myself blind and see if I could put a minute into a 6-man group on my own.
At the first turnaround (5k) I knew at that effort (I averaged close to 45km/h to that point) I would either have to catch them soon or I would completely blow up less than 20 minutes into my race. The next 5k was just staying focused while I was riding at max effort until I finally bridged up on a small hill at 10k. We made a group of about 7 guys and for the last lap I just tried to recover enough to not be useless on my pulls, although the pace of the group was not very hot.
Lead the group into T2 and my legs actually felt pretty decent. But within 50m of the run I had to try to hold back throwing up. By 100m I had to completely stop and emptied my stomach on the side of the run course while my pack ran by. I had swallowed quite a bit of water (and ecoli) in the rough swim and with my effort on the bike my stomach gave in.
I couldn't move or breath for about 2 minutes while I was throwing up...and had to make the decision to either walk 100 meters back to transition and mope that my race at Provincials was done, or suffer through the run while everyone was passing me. Not much of a decision there.
Once I got rolling again I saw James who clearly was wondering why I was 2 minutes behind the group I lead into transition and I told him "I puked up all my breaky!". He told me just to focus on an even split and push through. A few hundred meters later I saw Craig Taylor who must have seen that I was suffering (or just felt bad that I was so far behind) and said "Be tough Ryan". Exactly what I needed to hear.
I was desperate to get some water in me after all that so I was just trying to survive to the aid station. And just my luck, no one could be bothered to set up the aid station for our race. Oh well, time to soldier on. I managed to get my legs moving a bit just before the turnaround, but about a minute later I had to pull over again and purged the rest of the ecoli I ingested earlier. Got going again, and started to find my legs through the cramps and heaving.
I finally crossed the finish line, 5+ minutes back of where I wanted to be, and managed to throw up one more time before finally finding some water. Turns out that - not counting the time that I spent on the side of the road puking - I ran about an 18:45 5k.
Old Ryan would be pretty pissed off about all that. But I'm actually ok with it. That was probably the toughest race I've endured...worst swim start I've ever been in, solo for most of the bike, sick on the run. But I sucked it up and did what had to be done. No excuses.
I vaguely recall mentioning that this was going to be brief. Sorry.
So with that little kick in the ass and a wake-up call that I'm still nowhere near where I need to be to find any success in draft-legal racing, I'm going to get reacquainted with my tri bike. Next up is the Tecumseh triathlon, then maybe a small tune-up in late August before the Esprit tri in Montreal. I'm hoping to find a good Olympic non-drafting race to finish off the year, but the verdict is still out on that.
If you're still reading I just want to share one more thing. My support crew from Bala!
Ever since this event last year I had been looking forward to doing it again, another year stronger and especially after last week's little confidence boost in winning Bala. But there are so many variables in draft legal racing that I was just looking forward to mixing it up and putting in a solid effort.
After an absurdly long drive I got to the race site the day before to find that I wouldn't be able to get a pre-race swim in due to dangerously high levels of e.coli in the water. But it was made pretty clear at the pre-race briefing that we were swimming regardless of the risk. I don't mean to knock the race staff too much because they do work very hard to put this race on for developing/elite athletes. But it was a little disconcerting.
Race morning came around and everything felt pretty good in my warmup. I really wasn't nervous at all before the race, actually I was much more nervous last week for Bala. Everything felt routine and I was just ready to go.
Since I was one of only a few elite/U23's in comparison to the large number of juniors I had a good starting number and had a good position on the start line. But within literally the first second of the race I experienced the first of many times I got "Wiltshire'd".
As the gun went off the athlete behind me - rather than even attempting a swimming motion - grabbed my ankle with both hands and pulled me backwards. As I attempted to retake my position I was intentionally kicked by two more people. How do I know it was intentional? Well most swimmers don't kick with their heels in a normal swim stroke.
I did my best not to let it bother me and just tried to make up ground a little at a time, but I was absolutely disgusted by what went down in that swim. Many of the 40+ juniors were in their first draft-legal race. Maybe it was just some inexperienced/over-excited juniors, I call it blatant lack of respect and sportsmanship and it has no place in this sport, and I wish I had seen their names.
Anyway.
I'll admit that despite trying to shake all that off, I simply didn't have a good swim. Last year my swims were consistently bad. This year I'm just inconsistent...I guess I'll take it.
I was well back exiting the swim and made up 4 or 5 places on the 500m run up to T1. I was in no man's land getting on the bike with a few solo guys ahead of me, a line of stragglers behind me and a 5-6 man pack 1:10 up the road. I rode through another 3 or 4 guys by 2k in and realized that this far back in the race I wouldn't have anyone to work with on the bike. Chase 3 was barely in sight but it was either sit up and wait for a weak pack, or ride myself blind and see if I could put a minute into a 6-man group on my own.
At the first turnaround (5k) I knew at that effort (I averaged close to 45km/h to that point) I would either have to catch them soon or I would completely blow up less than 20 minutes into my race. The next 5k was just staying focused while I was riding at max effort until I finally bridged up on a small hill at 10k. We made a group of about 7 guys and for the last lap I just tried to recover enough to not be useless on my pulls, although the pace of the group was not very hot.
Lead the group into T2 and my legs actually felt pretty decent. But within 50m of the run I had to try to hold back throwing up. By 100m I had to completely stop and emptied my stomach on the side of the run course while my pack ran by. I had swallowed quite a bit of water (and ecoli) in the rough swim and with my effort on the bike my stomach gave in.
I couldn't move or breath for about 2 minutes while I was throwing up...and had to make the decision to either walk 100 meters back to transition and mope that my race at Provincials was done, or suffer through the run while everyone was passing me. Not much of a decision there.
Once I got rolling again I saw James who clearly was wondering why I was 2 minutes behind the group I lead into transition and I told him "I puked up all my breaky!". He told me just to focus on an even split and push through. A few hundred meters later I saw Craig Taylor who must have seen that I was suffering (or just felt bad that I was so far behind) and said "Be tough Ryan". Exactly what I needed to hear.
I was desperate to get some water in me after all that so I was just trying to survive to the aid station. And just my luck, no one could be bothered to set up the aid station for our race. Oh well, time to soldier on. I managed to get my legs moving a bit just before the turnaround, but about a minute later I had to pull over again and purged the rest of the ecoli I ingested earlier. Got going again, and started to find my legs through the cramps and heaving.
I finally crossed the finish line, 5+ minutes back of where I wanted to be, and managed to throw up one more time before finally finding some water. Turns out that - not counting the time that I spent on the side of the road puking - I ran about an 18:45 5k.
Old Ryan would be pretty pissed off about all that. But I'm actually ok with it. That was probably the toughest race I've endured...worst swim start I've ever been in, solo for most of the bike, sick on the run. But I sucked it up and did what had to be done. No excuses.
I vaguely recall mentioning that this was going to be brief. Sorry.
So with that little kick in the ass and a wake-up call that I'm still nowhere near where I need to be to find any success in draft-legal racing, I'm going to get reacquainted with my tri bike. Next up is the Tecumseh triathlon, then maybe a small tune-up in late August before the Esprit tri in Montreal. I'm hoping to find a good Olympic non-drafting race to finish off the year, but the verdict is still out on that.
If you're still reading I just want to share one more thing. My support crew from Bala!
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