I am excited to share my first Olympic distance (1.5 km swim, 40 km bike, 10 km run) triathlon experience! While I tend to note what needs work (Type A, yes?), I am overall VERY happy with my first race at this distance. I know there are improvements to make, but that’s what keeps me motivated for the hard training ahead!

Swim: 32:14 (2:08/100m, includes run up the hill). I had some major anxiety in the days leading up to this 1.5 km swim. I had recently done a 1500m continuous swim in the pool, but the pool has walls you can push off from after each 25m. Oh, and a lifeguard. The lake is different (however, a huge shout out to the many kayakers who help keep us safe out there) and I haven’t always had good experiences. My goal for this race was to complete it without any “panic-induced-middle-of-the-lake-I’m-quitting triathlon-forever-thoughts” (see my Woodstock report). To achieve this, I knew I would have to stay relaxed and keep my effort moderate/steady (on an effort scale of very easy-easy-moderate-steady-tempo-hard-very hard, this is, admittedly, closer to the easy end). I struggled with this; keeping the effort moderate in a race wasn’t really my thing, but I made myself commit to this. When the horn went off, I counted to 5 (okay, 3) and then started behind everyone else in my wave. Guess what? Best. Swim. Ever. I swam from buoy to buoy, did some drafting (although she really didn’t like this and her intense kick made me move on ahead), and I was actually (wait for it…) a bit disappointed when I swam by the last buoy! I could have kept going, which is a sure sign that my effort was on the low side, but as Coach Mark wrote in Training Peaks “relaxed = fast”, “not-relaxed  = slow”. Absolutely true. I didn’t exactly swim fast, but my time was right where I expected it to be (~30-31min in the water) and arguably my most relaxed, effort-controlled swim yet. I came out of the water smiling as I started the run up the hill to T1.

T1: 1:48. Compared to Woodstock where I had to sit down from dizziness and disorientation, I was breathing well and got out on my bike in an okay time.

Bike: 1:13:44 (32.54 kph). I’m new to riding a TT bike with a power meter. I love it, but I’ve had some inconsistent watts (power numbers) and for someone who likes data (me!) this is annoying because the &@^# numbers are driving me nuts! I had a goal wattage in mind but when I got going, my numbers weren’t even close to this and when I tried to push up to those numbers, the effort seemed too high. After about 5 km I realized my watts were going to be a lot lower than the goal I’d set out for myself, but I felt like I was riding well, doing a lot of passing (typical for me as my swim is slow) and the effort based on breathing and my legs seemed right. All that training based on effort was about to come into play. In hindsight (never really that accurate?), maybe I was holding back on the bike worried I’d blow up in the 10 km run, never having done this bike/run combination before. Add the 1.5 km swim to the front of this and I was in brand new territory! Overall, I was happy with my ability to ride in aero most of the time (downhills still need work), to drink from the built-in system (although I ran out of water) and to have a gel while in aero. Overall, it was my best (and longest) bike in a race yet and I know there’s more to come. I’m still not sure about the effort and watts; if those watts were correct (and, really, why wouldn’t they be?) then I know I can go harder, but that will come with Oly tri experience I think.

T2: 1:22. Strangely, as I was bent over switching bike for running shoes, I got an intense knot in my stomach, like it was being twisted. For a brief second, I thought my race was done, but I straightened up slowly and jogged out of transition as it loosened up again. Weird.

Run: 50:13 (5:01 min/km). Heading out on the run, I felt like I had a good amount of energy (plus I quickly had another gel) and my legs felt pretty good. The course starts off a bit hilly and then flattens out somewhat, before some trail running (and some small hills, which Coach Mark seems to think are flat?! I’m thinking we have different definitions of flat!) with two different turn-around spots (which makes a great course for cheering on other athletes) and then back through the campground and those same hills, ending with a nice downhill to the finish. I was hovering around my goal pace for the first 5 km (for some reason I had the km auto-lap turned off, but I was glancing at overall pace, although mostly going by effort), but fatigue was setting in and I knew my pace was slowing on the trail sections; admittedly, my brain was cutting me some slack (and I was letting it…), saying “finish happy and strong” versus “go till you puke” and I was definitely playing the “it’s my first longer race” card. I had a good last km and indeed a huge smile at the finish! My running off the bike in a race isn’t where I’d like it to be yet this season, but I will continue to work on this!

In my pre-race number-crunching I figured that 2:35 – 2:40 was a reasonable goal for my first go at this distance. At the finish line, the clock said 2:45 something, which, minus the 6 min for my wave start, is a time of 2:39:22.

A few minutes later I checked my phone and texts from Glenn showed my swim, bike and run splits and that I’d come 5th in my age-group. The top 3 overall women in the race were all in my age-group and I was thrilled to squeak onto the podium with such amazing company!

Overall, I really enjoyed the Olympic distance and I am looking forward to another one later in the summer at Wasaga Beach!

Thanks to the organizers of the Subaru series and all the volunteers, as well as LPC Coaches, Mark, James and Alex for supporting, cheering, and for making this such a fun team. Thanks to my usual crew of family and friends for always supporting me, and to you for reading.

Cheers,

Lindsay

To say I was excited for my first sprint triathlon of 2015 would be an understatement.

Coming off an off-season of personal best times in the pool (still slow but, progress is progress!), lots of quality time on my bike using virtual power in Trainer Road (including two FTP tests where a goal was improved mental toughness, as well as fitness), both indoor and outdoor track sessions, plus an incredibly awesome full week of training with fantastic athletes and coaches at Team LPC Florida Camp, I couldn’t wait for the triathlon race season to start! Add to this a recent 10K PR on a hilly course at the Bluenose race weekend in Halifax and things were shaping up nicely! or so I thought…

Two weeks before the Woodstock Sprint Triathlon, things started to go south. First, an eye infection left me unable to wear contacts for two weeks and feeling overall quite miserable (and a wee bit sorry for myself). I got through some bike and run workouts wearing glasses (progressive lenses, not exactly ideal for exercise) and survived the pool without hurting myself (or anyone else), but my energy level was unusually low and about to get lower. Three days before Woodstock, a trip to the doctor indicated strep throat and an ear infection. Combined with my recovering “pink eye” I felt like the poster child for common toddler sicknesses! I couldn’t even blame these three (3!) infections on my kids; these ones were all mine. Ugh.

Nonetheless, I was headed to Woodstock!

Here’s how it went.

750 m swim: 16:04 (2:08/100m; 8th/21). After some pretty typical chaos at the start, I found some space and settled down, feeling pretty relaxed and swimming fairly straight towards the first turn buoy. Turning, and heading across to the next buoy, I felt really good and even caught a bit of a draft for a short while. Unfortunately, after turning at the next buoy to head into shore, choppy water caused some problems, which I let turn to panic and ultimately breathing issues, leading me to stop and tread water in an effort to calm down. Somewhere between here and solid ground I decided I was “never doing this again” and we all know this is not a good place to be in a race, or in the middle of a lake for that matter.

20 km bike: 39:48 (30.14 km/h; 4th/21). Nothing new on race day, right? But I had a brand new-to-me time-trial bike with a power meter that I was dying to use in a race! I’d been on it a handful of times, but I hadn’t mastered reaching for the water bottle and it hadn’t been properly fitted (and I knew the seat height/position was far from ideal given I could only really reach the gear shifters with my fingertips) but I figured it would be okay for 20 km. Repeat after me: Nothing new on race day. Actually, the bike itself went pretty well in terms of my watts and overall speed (especially given its a slower bike course with the timing mat positioning and uphill start), but I think my inability to eat and drink and some cramping in my left leg were setting me up for some trouble ahead.

Run: 24:18 (4:51/k; 3rd/21). I felt quite good for the first half and I even got down around my goal pace by the second kilometre.

Then, near the turn-around, my legs seized up. I’m still surprised at how quickly this happened. My legs just wouldn’t turn over fast enough. I spent the next little bit moving slowly and trying to analyze the situation – was this from no hydration or nutrition on the bike? Over-kicking in the swim plus bike not quite comfortable so legs cramping up? Day 3 of antibiotics for the strep/ear combo? Forgetting that 5 km after a hard effort swim and bike is not the same as 5 km flat out? Just not my day?

Somewhere in the last km, I bounced back a bit, but a little too late to catch the 3rd place woman in my AG (she finished 16 sec ahead, having passed me somewhere around 3.5 km).

Overall, I finished 4th in my AG in a time of 1:22:47 with a finish line photo that likely won’t make the family Christmas card! However, this photo sums up my attempt to gut it out to the end.  I left it all out there. Literally.

Apologies to the volunteers taking off my timing chip and a huge thank you to the medical tent for being within stumbling distance. One chocolate milk later while hanging out with LPC teammates, my thoughts of “never doing this again” started to fade…next up, Guelph Lake 1 Olympic Tri!

Thanks to MultiSport Canada and all the volunteers at Woodstock for such a fantastic event and to Coaches Mark and James and all of team LPC for making training and racing so much fun. An extra thanks to Coach Mark for his excellent training plans, support and patience as I continue to work toward my goals for 2015 and beyond!

Thanks to Glenn, Alice and William and my family and friends who continuously encourage me and to you for reading.

Cheers,

Lindsay