Last weekend I competed in my first sprint triathlon at the classic sprint distance: 750m swim, 20K bike, 5K run. The race venue was Guelph Lake 1, which also served as the 2014 Triathlon Ontario’s Club Championships. I was excited to be participating with team LPC!

Race day was beautiful. Gorgeous, in fact.

My home support crew dropped me off about 7:20 am, lots of time to prepare for the 9 am start time. Since having kids, I’m late for many things, but a race is not one of them. That would just add unwanted stress to an already energy-charged situation!

I got a great bike spot in transition, arranged my stuff (although I would later re-arrange at least twice, okay four times) and headed to the registration and body marking area.

I’m never sure where the time goes on race morning (chatting to friends? bathroom line-ups? re-arranging my stuff?) but soon it was time to warm-up. I fretted over this as I wanted to do a bike warm-up but that meant removing my bike (obviously) from the rack and what if someone took my awesome spot? and when did I become so competitive? Yikes. I stared at my bike for a solid 5 min before making the decision to do it. I spread my stuff out over my space (thereby undoing all the set-up I had done) and put my wetsuit over the bike rack before doing a quick out and back ride to check my gears, brakes, etc. Next came a run warm-up of ~5 minutes on the run course trying to reign in my nervous energy. More transition organization, a GU gel, sport drink, and it was time to put on my wetsuit and head to the water, with a stop at the LPC tent to wish good luck to everyone racing, borrow some PAM for my wrists and ankles, and thank those who came out to cheer.

I had time for 5-10 min in the water, which is very helpful for calming the nerves. I was in wave 4, so 9:09 would be my start time. These 9 minutes felt long. I used to spend such time thinking of how I could get out of what was about to happen (who would notice if I just snuck off to the side and let the race happen without me? Of course I know that this would strike fear in the hearts of race organizers thinking that a swimmer had gone astray or worse). Now while I wait for my wave to go, I’m still nervous, but I just want to get swimming! I worry instead that my goggles will leak when I put them back on or that they are too foggy. 9 long minutes.

Finally, the horn!

I’m happy with my swim. I could not have asked for better conditions. I started way to the left (thanks Coach James!) and it kept me out of congestion, at least until the second buoy where I had clearly moved in towards the pack as expected. I had no problems at the buoys in this race, I fought through head down and hard strokes and then re-gained my rhythm on the other side. I had practiced this hard/easy/hard in a swim workout and it gave me confidence, knowing I could settle back down after a hard effort. I picked off one buoy at a time until I was soon heading into shore. I was pretty sure I was on-track pace-wise, although I really had no way to tell until Coach Mark yelled “You are right where you want to be” so I took that as a good sign. As it turns out, I was even a bit under my goal pace. It is hard to tell from SportStats as, if you truly want to know your swim time (and your pace/100m), you have to subtract the time it takes you to run up the hill (assuming you kept track of this on your own) and then recalculate and this is all assuming that you swam a perfect 750m and not a few extra (or more) metres, which, for me, is doubtful. Regardless of the numbers, this was my best swim yet by a long shot! Swim/run up hill time: 15:42

I sprinted up the long hill to T1. The day before at a practice session, Coach James had said “Don’t try to impress us by sprinting by the LPC tent, you should be catching your breath from the swim”. Oops. It was the first time I wasn’t hopelessly winded from the swim (this is good and bad; I’m more fit? I didn’t swim hard enough? Likely a bit of both) so the sprinting just kind of happened. Admittedly, I was a bit winded in T1 itself so next time I’ll slow down on that hill.

T1 = 1:47. My fastest yet. PAM works.

After almost wiping out at the bike mount line (getting on, which is a first even for me), I was on the bike course. My biggest achievements over the next 20 km were as follows: I drank some sport drink ~4 times, I didn’t unclip at the turn-around despite being close to other riders, I passed others going up the 2 biggest hills without blowing the effort budget, and I held my overall speed over 30 kph (SportStats had initially credited me with 32kph but given that the course is in fact only 19 km, not 20 km as advertised, this was a generous overestimation). The downside of my bike split? I would say I biked tempo/hard effort, but not hard effort the entire way. I’m a bit disappointed in this, but I was really focused ahead to the run and trying to be patient. Regardless, I was 2-3 min faster than last year on this less-than-smooth bike course (in the sprint duathlon) and I’m not done improving yet! Bike time: 37:29

 

T2: 1:11. A bit slow. I remembered to grab my Garmin off my bike and my hand-held water bottle so I could drink while moving rather than taking time to drink in T2 or wait for a water station.

I love to run off the bike. I think it might be my strength in this sport. Then again, it could just be that when I get to the run, I can relax a bit as I have made it to this point without a mechanical failure of some sort (goggles, tires, chain, etc) and I know I can just run. The 5K run course at Guelph Lake is rolling hills, far from flat and the first/last kilometre is the hardest. I gradually brought my pace down to where it should be (hitting goal pace at 3K) but then, as they say, I ran out of real estate. I was still very happy with my run; a negative split run on a non-flat 5K course and just under my goal run pace overall, at 4:44/km. My best run off the bike in a race yet (knocking 3 minutes off my time from last year’s duathlon, same bike/run course). I know I’ve got more in me and will work on getting to race pace more quickly next time. I’m especially happy that the mental demons didn’t even enter into this run. Not once. Again, this is good and bad: I’m better at shutting down those negative thoughts? I wasn’t going hard enough to get to that place? Likely a bit of both. Run time: 23:40

I had prepared myself ahead of time (because quick math is not my strong suit late in a race) that if all had gone well, the finish line clock should say ~1 h 29 min because my wave started 9 min late. So, when I saw 1 h 28 min and change, I knew I was in good shape and I crossed the line with a time of 1:19:47, 4th (of 36) in my age-group and a high-five from Coach Mark!

All in all, this race was about execution of a plan and patience early on so that I could hit my run pace and finish strong. Mission accomplished. Could I have gone harder? Maybe. Am I happy? Absolutely. With the confidence from this race, I can go forward, push harder and see what happens next. Up next? Valens sprint triathlon, July 13th.

A huge thanks to Coach Mark for the detailed and challenging training schedule, awesome feedback and all-round support, as well as Coach James, fellow LPC athletes, and my family and friends for tremendous support and encouragement, and to the many volunteers who made this day happen.

Thanks to you for reading!

Cheers,

Lindsay

 

I’ve recently become hooked on triathlon. I love the training, the racing, the camaraderie (and competition!), and the logistics of executing a good race plan, while challenging yourself to be the best that you can be on any given day. As a relative newbie to this sport, I’ve spent much time reading about the experiences of others and have enjoyed endless race reports by both professionals, elites, and age-groupers (like myself, competing against those in the same sex and age category, e.g. Female 40-44 years). Race reports can be inspiring, fear-inducing (do I really want to know that the water can be so cold that you lose feeling in your hands for the rest of the race?), calming (good to know that there will be 100 in your swim start, not 500 fighting to get to the first buoy), funny, and just plain useful. I enjoy writing so I thought I’d start my own race report blog but then decided that now is not the time given that life is busy (ah, the dreaded “b” word) and maybe I’d get to it in 5 years or so when I (magically?) have more time. As you’ll see below in my inaugural blog post, this concept of “maybe in 5 years” has emerged as a central theme.

Bottomline? Why wait? Starting now, here is my first blog post: my backstory to becoming hooked on triathlon.

My first triathlon, Guelph Lake 1 try-a-tri in June 2010, was at the suggestion of a neighbour who, like myself, had 2 young kids (then ages 3 years and 10 months) and a busy career. I took it as a challenge to ramp up the exercise and get some fitness back after the birth of my second child. I’d been running on and off for several years, had done a fair bit of mountain biking in the pre-kid days, and had taken up swimming during my two pregnancies (although as my triathlon training took-off I would soon realize that I really knew nothing about proper swimming technique!) so it seemed as good a time as any to try a triathlon.

I can’t remember well enough to do a full race report of that day, but I remember two things: 1) I almost drowned (or choked, I can’t be sure which one was actually going to do me in) wearing a wet suit for the first time (despite reading this VERY warning in all the newbie triathlete literature; I understood it, I just didn’t think it applied to me!). I survived by doing head-out breast stroke for most of the 375m swim, never so happy to reach land!

2) by the time it was over, I knew I would do it again some day! I was 15/75 (53:31) in my age group (AG) that day, having bombed the swim, but made up time on my bike (albeit, a heavy mountain bike without clip-in shoes) and the run (although I vastly underestimated that “run off the bike” feeling and had never heard the term “brick workout”, referring to practicing running after biking). Although I enjoyed my first triathlon overall (and, admittedly, my type A personality was drawn to the challenge of this 3 sport event), I decided that now was NOT the time to pursue this. With a young family and a busy job, I put triathlon on the back burner, hoping I would be able to return to it in maybe 5 years time.

I spent the rest of 2010 and the 2011 season focusing on running, aiming to become faster over shorter distances. At the time, this decision was based out of necessity (the dreaded “b” word: busy job, busy family life, etc); I refused to give up exercise entirely so I found a way to make the most out of limited time by swapping longer distances (I’d previously enjoyed half marathon training) for speed work. I see now that this decision was pivotal in how things would play out.

With huge thanks to weekly track workouts with the Guelph Victors running club, all was going really well and I ran a then 5K PB (22:27) in October 2011. Unfortunately, it was the same day that I felt my toes “snap” (okay not quite, but not good either) underneath me.  Ignoring this for as long as possible (until the day I had trouble standing and walking while teaching my undergraduate class), I finally got the diagnosis in January 2012. A bone scan showed multiple stress fractures in my toes, undoubtedly brought on by over-training in a single sport (running) and, wait for it, no cross training (i.e. swimming or biking). Finally realizing that time off from pounding the pavement was essential, I bought an indoor trainer so I could ride my road bike in the basement, reacquainted myself with the campus pool (for water running and swimming), and stayed away from land running for several months. I knew it wouldn’t be smart to return to running exclusively (even when I was fully recovered) so, as my best friend Sara Purcell would say, “I made lemonade out of lemons” and decided I’d give triathlon another go, sooner rather than later!

In summer 2012, I registered for two try-a-tri races on the pretense that I couldn’t run much yet so I should keep the run distance short, but really it was the swim that terrified me most so I was more than happy to stick to the short race distance.

Later in the summer, I improved my overall time on the same course and came home with a medal for 2nd in my AG.

In all honesty, my stress fractures were not completely healed and even the little amount of running I was doing was becoming uncomfortable. I would eventually take a good SIX months off from land running (October 2012-March 2013, with the exception of a short New Year’s Day run, as I couldn’t break THAT tradition!) at which point I jumped into triathlon with both feet and haven’t looked back!

In the 2013 season, I completed Victoria’s Duathlon on a super hot May long weekend…

and then Guelph Lake I Sprint Duathlon (at the last minute I bailed on the triathlon, not ready for the water just yet!).

My attitude towards the swim changed while on our yearly holidays in the Maritimes where I got lots of open water swim practice and learned to love my wetsuit (and to put it on without exhausting myself in the process)! After we returned from the east coast , I did my first two sprint triathlons where I successfully swam my first 750m freestyle in the open water without panic! YES!

My first sprint triathlon was Orillia (750m, 33K, 7K). I enjoyed the swim so much I swam an extra ~100m by sighting for the wrong buoy. Rookie!

Next up, 2 weeks and 1 miserable chest cold later, was Guelph Lake II (750m, 30K, 7K)

Overall, 2013 was a fantastic season, completing my first two sprint triathlons and remaining injury free! I felt strong and healthy and excited to train over the winter months.

Fast forward to my birthday, January 2, 2014 and the most amazing surprise birthday present from my husband, Glenn Parsons. I was signed up for coaching with Coach Mark Linseman of (James) Loaring Personal Coaching!

I was going to be part of team LPC! This was something I had hoped to do maybe 5 years down the road, but it was happening now!

Best. Present. Ever. Thank you, Glenn!

The LPC coaching, structured workouts, group and solo training, use of excellent training venues in and around Guelph, and the support of awesome coaches and teammates have been outstanding. I was worried I’d have to find many more hours in my day and week, but that hasn’t been the case. Focused, purposeful training, diligent planning (and commitment to the plan), and a supportive family are key. Oh, and you can’t be afraid to let the laundry pile up or the garden get a bit overgrown!

An emerging theme of this backstory: Why wait? We all know life is short, so get out there and enjoy!

I’m excited that the 2014 race season is underway!

Thanks for reading!

Cheers,

Lindsay