Sunday June 3rd marked my "triumphant" return to triathlon racing, with a sprint distance triathlon (Navy Trident Sprint at CFB Shearwater) where I'd crush the swim, cruise the bike and unleash hell on the run. At least, that's how it was supposed to work, except that my "unleash hell on the run" is slightly quicker than your average Galapagos Tortoise. But, alas, this was not to be.
With air temps at about 5C on race morning and a large try-a-tri contingent, the organizers opted to replace the swim with a run instead, so now we were doing a duathlon. The swimmer, doing an 'effin duathlon. Well, that sucked. Still racing is better than sitting at a desk all week, so might as well get on with it, however, one of my big objectives was to see how my new Garneau one piece fit in the swim, couldn't do that now, but at least I'll be able to ride and run in it. By the time my wave lined up (I was in the final wave "fast wave" since we were seeded by expected swim time.) it had warmed up to a balmy 7C or so.
because of the cold temps, I had brought a sleeveless cycling vest that was hanging up in the closet. threw that in the bag and said "yup, prepared". And I would have been, except that when I was getting dressed in the locker room I found out that the zipper had completely corroded in the years of non-use and I could not close the thing. time to improvise. I unzipped the tri suit and put the vest on underneath the race suit, and least that gave a bit of wind protection, even if it did look ridiculous.
time to go rack the bike. not only was it cold, it was windy. seriously windy. I found an empty spot on the rack, and then watched the wind push my ride a(and everyone elses) downwind to the end of the rack. I reracked a competitor's bike that had been pushed off, and grabbed the towel that I was going to use for my transition spot. tied that around the rack to give a bit of friction for the nose of my saddle to grip, and then my bike stayed in place.
first run went fine. out and back along the trail, I crossed the mat at 9:55 for 2.5 km (my garmin got the distance at 2.26km.) then cruised into transition. found my bike after an initial wrong turn, then run shoes off, helmet out, noticed that the wind and banging around of the bikes on the rack had snapped the heel elastics on my shoes, then ran out through transition to hop on and start the ride. short uphill then a right turn to a tailwind section where I got my shoes on and strapped up, then made a left turn up another short hill and "BOOM" the gust of wind came and knocked me about 2 feet sideways in mid turn. stupidly decided to stay in the big ring on the next left into the gale force headwind, then another right turn and another right to the longest tailwind section. this was at the top of the hill where the winds were strongest and funneling through various buildings near the runway at CFB Shearwater. After nearly getting knocked on my ass in the chicane sectiion at 45km/h or so, I was pretty cautious through that section on subsequent laps (4 lap course). The bike was basically 42 minutes of hanging on for dear life and trying to not crash.
finally rode back down the hill into T2, dismount and try to remember how to run off the bike for the final 5k run (actual distance per Garmin was 4.5km) . Legs were complete jelly, but got my bike racked and helmet strapped to the bike (as per officials instructions) and shoes back on with out a hitch, then back out of transition to start the second. for the first 200m or so, I was thinking "this is going to be a very long day", but gradually my legs started feeling better and better. got passed early on the second run by a few guys, and of course the leaders went flying past me to start their second lap of the run as I was still finding my legs after T2. but then I started feeling better, and felt strong for the remaining 4k to finish the second run in 22:36 and negative splitting the second 5k by 15 seconds, and the second loop was probably 10 or 15 seconds longer than the first loop because of the finishing chute. Plus I was busy thanking all of the volunteers on my last loop of the run, so that slowed me down a bit.
Overall, I was pretty happy with my 1:15 time and 26th OA I can improve from that. As expected, SBRCanuck kicked my ass, outrunning me by 5 minutes and outbiking me by 5 minutes as well, for a very solid 6th overall and 3rd AG on a very tough day. My arms and shoulders are surprisingly sore today, probably from trying to keep the bike upright on that course.
A few lessons learned from the race:
1) check all equipment. I really should've checked my vest before I packed it, but I didn't even think of it. Had it been a triathlon instead of a du, I would've been screwed in T1.
2) had a Hammer Gel right before race start, and that seemed to work fine with my stomach. I also had some HEED in my drink bottle, a new PRO aerofuel, and I decided that I don't really like that system. I like it for the extra room it gives my forearms, but I don't like actually drinking out of it, found that the straw was in the wrong place all the time. I'm gonna go back to a regular BTA ziptied between the armrests.
3) I need new running shoes. my legs feel fine, not sore at all, but the bottom of my right foot (the outside - lateral arch) feels like someone was hitting it with a sledgehammer. I didn't notice it during the run, but as soon as I stopped it was pretty painful. On the plus side, I did use that as an excuse to not have to mow the lawn in the afternoon.
4) I do need to swim in the tri-suit, I need to know if it's gonna open up like a parachute in the water or not. It feels very comfortable though, I'd have no issues doing a 70.3 in it.
5) I need to have my other race wheels set up for really windy days. I was riding trispokes yesterday, and they were a real handful. I also have a pair of Zipp 303 tubulars hanging up in the garage from my roadracing days, but the tubs need to be glued on. Those would have been ideal on a day like yesterday. That will get done before the next event.
Next race, Muncie 70.3
Swimming Workout of the Day:
Favourite Swim Sets:
2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly
With air temps at about 5C on race morning and a large try-a-tri contingent, the organizers opted to replace the swim with a run instead, so now we were doing a duathlon. The swimmer, doing an 'effin duathlon. Well, that sucked. Still racing is better than sitting at a desk all week, so might as well get on with it, however, one of my big objectives was to see how my new Garneau one piece fit in the swim, couldn't do that now, but at least I'll be able to ride and run in it. By the time my wave lined up (I was in the final wave "fast wave" since we were seeded by expected swim time.) it had warmed up to a balmy 7C or so.
because of the cold temps, I had brought a sleeveless cycling vest that was hanging up in the closet. threw that in the bag and said "yup, prepared". And I would have been, except that when I was getting dressed in the locker room I found out that the zipper had completely corroded in the years of non-use and I could not close the thing. time to improvise. I unzipped the tri suit and put the vest on underneath the race suit, and least that gave a bit of wind protection, even if it did look ridiculous.
time to go rack the bike. not only was it cold, it was windy. seriously windy. I found an empty spot on the rack, and then watched the wind push my ride a(and everyone elses) downwind to the end of the rack. I reracked a competitor's bike that had been pushed off, and grabbed the towel that I was going to use for my transition spot. tied that around the rack to give a bit of friction for the nose of my saddle to grip, and then my bike stayed in place.
first run went fine. out and back along the trail, I crossed the mat at 9:55 for 2.5 km (my garmin got the distance at 2.26km.) then cruised into transition. found my bike after an initial wrong turn, then run shoes off, helmet out, noticed that the wind and banging around of the bikes on the rack had snapped the heel elastics on my shoes, then ran out through transition to hop on and start the ride. short uphill then a right turn to a tailwind section where I got my shoes on and strapped up, then made a left turn up another short hill and "BOOM" the gust of wind came and knocked me about 2 feet sideways in mid turn. stupidly decided to stay in the big ring on the next left into the gale force headwind, then another right turn and another right to the longest tailwind section. this was at the top of the hill where the winds were strongest and funneling through various buildings near the runway at CFB Shearwater. After nearly getting knocked on my ass in the chicane sectiion at 45km/h or so, I was pretty cautious through that section on subsequent laps (4 lap course). The bike was basically 42 minutes of hanging on for dear life and trying to not crash.
finally rode back down the hill into T2, dismount and try to remember how to run off the bike for the final 5k run (actual distance per Garmin was 4.5km) . Legs were complete jelly, but got my bike racked and helmet strapped to the bike (as per officials instructions) and shoes back on with out a hitch, then back out of transition to start the second. for the first 200m or so, I was thinking "this is going to be a very long day", but gradually my legs started feeling better and better. got passed early on the second run by a few guys, and of course the leaders went flying past me to start their second lap of the run as I was still finding my legs after T2. but then I started feeling better, and felt strong for the remaining 4k to finish the second run in 22:36 and negative splitting the second 5k by 15 seconds, and the second loop was probably 10 or 15 seconds longer than the first loop because of the finishing chute. Plus I was busy thanking all of the volunteers on my last loop of the run, so that slowed me down a bit.
Overall, I was pretty happy with my 1:15 time and 26th OA I can improve from that. As expected, SBRCanuck kicked my ass, outrunning me by 5 minutes and outbiking me by 5 minutes as well, for a very solid 6th overall and 3rd AG on a very tough day. My arms and shoulders are surprisingly sore today, probably from trying to keep the bike upright on that course.
A few lessons learned from the race:
1) check all equipment. I really should've checked my vest before I packed it, but I didn't even think of it. Had it been a triathlon instead of a du, I would've been screwed in T1.
2) had a Hammer Gel right before race start, and that seemed to work fine with my stomach. I also had some HEED in my drink bottle, a new PRO aerofuel, and I decided that I don't really like that system. I like it for the extra room it gives my forearms, but I don't like actually drinking out of it, found that the straw was in the wrong place all the time. I'm gonna go back to a regular BTA ziptied between the armrests.
3) I need new running shoes. my legs feel fine, not sore at all, but the bottom of my right foot (the outside - lateral arch) feels like someone was hitting it with a sledgehammer. I didn't notice it during the run, but as soon as I stopped it was pretty painful. On the plus side, I did use that as an excuse to not have to mow the lawn in the afternoon.
4) I do need to swim in the tri-suit, I need to know if it's gonna open up like a parachute in the water or not. It feels very comfortable though, I'd have no issues doing a 70.3 in it.
5) I need to have my other race wheels set up for really windy days. I was riding trispokes yesterday, and they were a real handful. I also have a pair of Zipp 303 tubulars hanging up in the garage from my roadracing days, but the tubs need to be glued on. Those would have been ideal on a day like yesterday. That will get done before the next event.
Next race, Muncie 70.3
Swimming Workout of the Day:
Favourite Swim Sets:
2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly
Last edited by:
JasoninHalifax: Jun 4, 18 8:11