All smiles on a fantastic day at Guelph 1 Oly Tri!

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!

Oly tri swim course to the other side, over and back! Thanks to LPC athlete Lisa Tong for sharing this great photo. Check out her site at myoverloadedgymbag.com.

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.

Super happy coming into T1 after the run up the hill post 1.5 km swim!

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.

Time for a bike ride!

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.

Happy on my new Specialized Shiv TT bike!

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!

Enjoying the downhill to the finish!

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.

Upright and smiling!

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