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