Like a Fine Wine, Better with Age: Bracebridge Sprint Race Report

Given that I hadn't raced a sprint in 2 years, I had no real goals going into this race other than I wanted to have a faster bike split that my previous 2 years.  I have put a lot of time and effort into my cycling over the last year so I expected to see some kind of improvement.   Other than that I figured my swim probably wouldn't change too much and my run, well who knew.  I knew it wouldn't be as fast as previous years because I haven't been running that fast.  So this was a test to see what I *could* do.

The last time we did this race, we drove up the morning of the race.  This year the start time seemed to be much earlier than previously so we opted to drive up to Gravenhurst the day before and stay the night.  We stayed at the Residence Inn right on the water.   We wandered around downtown Gravenhurst and stopped for a drink at Sawdust City Brewery where I had a most delicious Raspberry Radler.  We made our way back to the hotel and went to grab some dinner.  It had gone from a nice sunny day to overcast and cloudy.   The forecast was calling for a thunderstorm and this time the weatherman got it right.  After dinner grabbed an ice cream and watched the storm roll in.

G watched some TV and I actually sat down and finished a book I'd been reading since MARCH.  We were both in bed asleep just before 10 am.  We were up at 5:15 so we could pack up and hit the road by 6 am.  We stopped at Tim Horton's for a coffee and some carbs and made the 20 minute drive to Annie Williams Park in Bracebridge.

The last time we did this race everyone seemed to show up at the same time so registration got so backed up they had to start the race later.  This year was much better.  We were also there fairly early as well.  We get set up in transition, picked up our kits and got body marked. I ran into two of the women from the Lake Placid Cycling Camp, Carolan and Jennifer.  It was Jennifer's first multi sport event - she was doing the swim bike.  I chatted with them for a while and then went back into transition to finish setting up.  G came over and told me that he saw Paolina and that she was racing.  I started laughing and knew that there was going to be at least one person in my AG that was going to crush me.  I saw her setting up and ran over to her and gave her a big hug.  She asked me what AG I was in and I said hers and she said Oh great.  "Like you have anything to worry about" I said.  It was so nice to see her.  She has such great energy.

She was running late setting up so G and I went into the water and started our warm up.  I did a bit of swimming but felt pretty good as I had done a bit of a dynamic warm up on shore (I am learning this is a good thing for me!).  I did a few pick ups in the water and then found G.  Once we stopped, I quickly realized that this swim was going to be difficult.  It had POURED the night before so the river was high.  This meant that there was a very strong current.  So strong that if you stopped swimming, it would push you down river at a substantial clip.  Fun!  Well, it would have been fun if I had been on a floaty with a beer.  But, I had to swim back into that current.  Oh well.  Nothing you can do about that except moderate your pace accordingly.

Because the swim takes place in a very narrow river, it's a time trial start, which I love.  Even then, it still gets pretty congested and today was no different.   I got in line with the rest of the folks in my age group and waited to for my turn to go.  3-2-1 and I was off.  The first half of the swim flew by, literally, because we were swimming down stream.  I practiced my new stroke / breathing technique and managed to swim relatively straight.  Sweet!  I got into a pretty good groove once I passed a few people.  So much so that I actually managed to pass the first turnaround buoy.  I remember seeing it but I guess because the current was so strong, I overestimated how far it was.  So I had to swim an a nice diagonal to try to get to the other buoy to swim back.

Once I got to the buoy it was like a traffic jam there were so many people.  I swam through a small pack and tried to stick closer to shore where you are less likely to be affected by the current. Swimming back was much more congested than the way out.  Probably due to the current.  I passed a lot of people and I felt like I was actually swimming fairly well.  I'm pretty sure I saw Paolina pass me with about 150m or so to go.  That totally didn't surprise me.  She is a strong swimmer.  Actually she's just strong, period, ha ha.

I finally turned around the last buoy and swam hard to the shore.  I ran up onto the beach and glanced at my watch:  14:53.  W.T.F.  My worst swim at this event.  I ran into T1 and thought I hit lap.  I pulled off my wetsuit, wiped off my feet, threw on my shoes, race bib and helmet.  I grabbed my bike and was off.   As I was running out of transition I realized that I had actually hit STOP on my watch.  So I hit resume, ran out of transition to the mount line on the bike and hit lap again.  One day I will get this right.  Ugh.  I had no clue how long T1 was but it seemed fast.

Sports stats times:  Swim:  15:18 (2:02/100m) and T1:  1:35, which isn't too bad for me!

I recall the bike being somewhat hilly but couldn't really remember much other than two good climbs.  Well, I was wrong.  It's very hilly.  There are two good climbs but there are a bunch of unpleasant rollers as well.  I went out hard, big chain ring, head down, hammering.  There was a fair bit of "on your left"for the first bit but then things spread out nicely.  I was so focused on the hurt I was feeling and the people in front of me that I didn't pay attention to the people coming back so I had no idea where I was in relation to Paolina.   I was riding hard.  My legs were screaming at me like they haven't screamed at me in a while.  I was actually dreading the run because I knew my legs were going to feel like garbage.  I passed a couple of ladies on the ride, but mostly guys that had started earlier.  I got passed by a couple of other dudes but no women.  Whew.  I knew G wasn't too far behind me so once I hit the turnaround, I kept my eyes peeled for him.  It didn't take me too long to see him.   He was about 3 minutes behind me which I figured he'd make up no problem so I was riding scared for sure.  I didn't want him to catch me.   I kept my head down and hammered away.  The next thing I knew I was turning back into the park.  I rolled up to the dismount line and jumped off my bike.  I really need to learn how to do a flying dismount because running in my cycling shoes is annoying and slow.  Things to work on for next year!

Garmin time:  20km:  36:31 / average speed 33.6 kph.  Sports stats:  36:48 / 32.6 kph.  Not sure how I lost a whole km per hour but whatever.  This was officially my fastest time on this course.  :)  What I was even more thrilled with / surprised by was the fact that my normalized power for the 20km was 215 watts and my watts per kg (W/kg) was 3.53!  Woohoo!

I ran into T2, racked my bike and pulled off my helmet and shoes.  I wiped my feet again and yanked on my running shoes.

T2:  53s - not bad, probably one of my faster T2's.

The run starts with an uphill and normally I will plow up this hill but I just don't have that speed right now.  So I ran up it but not all out.  As we exited the park there was a huge puddle and a lot of mud so I slowed down through there so I wouldn't slip.  Once I was through there, I got into a good rhythm and started passing people.  My legs actually didn't feel too bad.  The first km passed in 4:36.  For the first time ever, I didn't go out like gangbusters in the first km.  I was actually able to start picking things up and I felt stronger as the run went on.  I kept my eyes peeled for Paolina as I was running towards the turnaround.  I saw her when I was probably a good 600-700m away from the turnaround.  She was making her way back.  I yelled WOOHOO and she waved.  She had at least 1km on me, probably more.  I passed a couple of other ladies on the way back in but none of them were in my AG.  I was hoping that put me in second at least.

I made the turn into the park and ran down the big hill to the finish.  I'm always thankful that downhill is on grass because if that was pavement, it would be brutal on your quads, ha ha.

Me and my wonky arms! 

I crossed the line and hit stop on my Garmin.  I wandered back around and waited for G.  He wasn't that far behind me.   I was chatting with a couple of ladies at the finish when he crossed the line and came over to me.  We commiserated about our horrible swims and then went over to get some food.  I ran into Paolina and we sat there talking for ages.  I then ran into Meg, a physiotherapist that I used to see at Synergy.  I hadn't seen her in years so it was really nice to catch up with her.

G and I finally wandered over and got some food and then we sat down and looked at our respective times.  My Garmin said 1:15 and change which was wrong because I had stopped it in transition.  I skipped through everything to see what my run time was and it was 22:05.  Gary wasn't that far behind me.  We grabbed some food and then it started to pour so ran for shelter.  The rain let up shortly thereafter and G said he was going to get his stuff from transition.  I finished eating and went to look at results.  My overall time was 1:16:39 and I was second my AG and 3rd overall.  It wasn't my fastest time there but it wasn't my slowest either.  Paolina was 6 minutes ahead of me.  She was the women's overall winner which is totally not surprising.  She's such a strong athlete!  I looked below my name and who so I see, but G, listed right after me.  I beat him by 7 seconds.  W.T.H.  I didn't think that was going to happen.

We stuck around for the awards since G got on the podium as well.  When I checked the results afterwards, I noticed that 4 of the top 5 women on the overall podium were over 40.  OVER 40.  Heck YEAH.  Proof right there that like a fine wine, us ladies get better with age!

It's nice to see some new sponsors at the MSC races, F2C nutrition and Martin's Apple Snacks.  I sampled some F2C recovery product as well as their greens product and I quite liked both of them.  the greens product was especially good, no chalky or gritty taste and the flavour was really nice.  I need to get more greens in my life so that may be something I look an incorporating into my diet.

As usual the race was very well organized, the volunteers were awesome and the free finishing photos are always appreciated!   Next up, my favourite race of the series - Toronto Island.  Here's hoping there's no wind and the water isn't too cold!

Monday Musings: The Holiday Monday Edition

Happy Holiday Mondayyyyyy!

Well we are officially one week into August and I am coming off my biggest week of training since the Lake Placid training camp back in May.   I actually feel pretty good today other than some stiffness in my legs and a tiny headache.  I'm chalking up the headache to the pint of beer and two glasses of wine I had last night, ha ha.

Remember last week when I said that G and I would probably save our short course racing until next year.  Well......that has changed.  We've signed up for two back to back sprint races.  We're doing Bracebridge sprint on Aug 13 and then my favourite, the Toronto Island Tri on August 20th.  We weren't sure the Toronto Island race was going to happen due to all the flooding on the island but they reopened the Island last Monday so the race is a go!  I haven't raced a sprint since 2015 so I'm bracing myself for the hurt.  I suspect I'll be taking a couple of days off afterwards because I'm just not used to racing at that high intensity.  Actually let me rephrase that.  I'm not used to RUNNING that hard these days.  Should be interesting to see what I can manage off the bike.

Looking through my training log, I've definitely put in 3 solid weeks of training.  That being said, I have yet to ride more than 83km on a long ride, ha ha.  I've spent a fair bit of time on my bike, just shorter rides.  I've also made a concerted effort to get into the pool and open water more.  I've been working on my stroke in the pool and I'm seeing a bit more speed but I'm still not catching the water well when my hands enter the water.  I swim much better with paddles but obviously I can't race with those so I have to keep working at it.  That will be my focus for the off season for sure.

This week is a recovery week for me so that means dialling back my volume and a bit of my usual intensity.  We are racing at the end of the week so will be a speed workout.   I'm starting to add a bit of more targeted run speed work back into my training.  My glut and hamstring have been feeling better, still not 100% but definitely better so I'm testing out my legs with a little bit of faster running.  Nothing too crazy but enough that I am getting a bit of harder workout in.  Adding this extra intensity would probably explain why I was so tired on Saturday.   So much so that I gave up on my workout.  Shit happens.  If there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's when I need to listen to my body and pull the pin on a workout.

With that, let's look at my big fat week of training....

Monday:  OFF

Tuesday:  Double ride day:  30km with MGCC in the a.m. and 18km with my TTC group in the p.m.

Wednesday:  2150m swim in the a.m.  9km run with 3x1km repeats at 4:20/km followed by a 30 minute weight workout.

workout = CRUSHED

Thursday:  45.9km ride with Morning Glory.

Friday:  2600m swim, followed by a 25 minute weight workout and then a 2.5km run to test out my race day shoes sock less.

Saturday:  1263m swim at the Quarry followed by a 28km ride in the howling wind.  That was enough.  I was exhausted.   I went to bed just before 9pm that night and slept until 5:30 am the next day.  I woke up rested and ready to tackle a very big day.

Sunday:  83km easy ride with Morning Glory followed by a 17.5km run.  The ride was easy (avg hr was 110 BPM, Garmin T.E was 1.6).  The run was good until about 13km and then my legs were tired.  But that's exactly the kind of workout I needed.   I found that in Tremblant my legs started to fatigue by the 14km mark so I wanted to make sure I got some longer runs done off the bike.

Totals:

Swim:  6013m
Bike:  206km
Run:  29.06km

Total time:  13h 8 minutes.  Yowza!

I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday Monday, despite the crappy weather!   I'm going to spend the rest of my day off getting some baking and meal prep done.  Enjoy whatever you get up to today!

~  Coach PK 

Where Did That Come From? - The Bracebridge Sprint Race Report

It's been a couple of years since I did this race.   G and a bunch of my friends did it last year and I went out to cheer them on as I was racing Iron Girl the next day.  I had forgotten how much I actually quite like this race with it's time trial start in the river.  It makes for a much more civilized swim experience.  They line everyone up youngest to oldest, although the elites go first regardless of age.  Being at the top end of my AG, I figured I'd be last in the group of ladies and sure enough I was.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I had been feeling pretty crappy leading up to this race.  Low energy, really bloated, generally gross. We had also been away so I hadn't done any riding or swimming.  I managed to squeeze one ride & one swim in after we got back and both were ugly.  I was so tired, I actually slept for most of the drive up to the start.   G woke me up so I could see the sunrise and then I fell asleep again.

Red Skies at Morning, Sailors Take Warning....The rain didn't stay away....

We got to the park with about 50 minutes before the race started, which I wasn't happy about.  I know G doesn't like to get up too early but I hate being rushed.  I like to have at least an hour to an hour and 15 minutes to sort myself out race morning.  Seems like everyone else had the same idea because the normally short registration process took forever.  So much so that they ended up pushing the start of the race back by 15 minutes!  That at least meant that I could get a decent warm up in.

I got suited up and made my way down to the river.  I spotted IG / Facebook pal, Christa Davidson before I went in so of course it was time for a selfie, ha ha.  I look like a spaz.

G had gotten in the water ahead of me so I got in and swam out looking for him.  I found him down the river so I swam over to him.  He was testing out his new sleeveless wetsuit.   We swam a little further down the river and then turned around and made our way back.  The race had started so we milled about off shore for a bit until we could see the lead swimmer coming back.  We then shuffled over towards the dock and started filtering into our respective age group places.  Sure enough I was the last one to go in my age group, ha ha.

I kissed G good luck and got in line.  I had no idea what bib number my AG started at so there was going to be a whole lot of calf checking once I got out on the bike.  The line up moved along and then it was my turn to go.  Jason Vurma counted me down and I hit start on my Garmin and off I went.  I took a few strokes and glanced at my Garmin to make sure I had actually pressed start.  I hadn't.  Surprise!  So I hit start and continued on.  I was feeling a little rough.  Definitely not very smooth.  Guess that's what happens when we take a week off swimming.  I caught several people fairly quickly.  I had forgotten just how narrow this river was so there were small packs of people that were pretty much everywhere, that I had to swim through.  I slowed down a couple of times to try to avoid the packs but my goal was to swim the entire thing without stopping, just like I did in Bala.  I was focusing on my breathing and trying to remain calm.  It seemed to work.  I got to the first buoy made it around, swam across to the second buoy, 30m across the river.  It was a bit chaotic.  I had caught a pack of people and there were some people that were back stroking.  I slowed up and navigated my way through the crowd.  I had swam at a comfortable pace on the way out but wanted to push the pace on the way back so I started working harder.  I was also working against the current a bit so I tried to stay closer to the shore.  Everyone else had the same idea so I ended up moving out a bit.  I found some clear water and got into a groove.  I kept my eyes peeled for bubbles, which meant that someone was up head or nearby.  I was hoping a faster swimmer would pass me and I could hop on their feet, but no such luck.  I could see the last green turn around buoy a few meters ahead.  I started to pick it up a bit more.  I made my way around the buoy and swam to the shore, kicking my legs hard as I went.  I stood up and started running.  I glanced at my watch as I came out of the water and saw 13 minutes and change.  Not bad!  I ran into T1 pulling off my wetsuit.

Swim:  13:38

I ran into T1, dropped my goggles by my bike and struggled to get out of my wetsuit.  I could see that one of the ladies in my AG had already gotten out on the bike.  I finally got out of my wetsuit, grabbed my helmet and pulled my shoes on.  Off I went.

T1:  1:33.  The wetsuit struggle was real ha ha.

I had forgotten about the long run up to the mount line here.  I shuffled along in the dirt and then on the paved path to the mount line, crossed it and then got on my bike.  I was in my big chain ring which meant that I had to grind it up the small incline.  I picked up the pace as soon as I got out of the park and onto the road.  I remembered that there was at least one big climb on this course.   I wasn't sure I'd be ready for the hills, but whatever.  I tucked into my aerobars and started to hammer.  The skies had been grey and cloudy all the way up and sure enough, the rain started about 2km into the bike.  Awesome.  At least it wasn't cold out.  I started passing people and calling on your left.  I was about to find out how many women were ahead of me.  With a time trial start, it's even harder to catch people in your AG because there's 5 seconds between each person in your AG.  I came up to one woman in my AG at around the 4km mark.  Caught and passed.  I chugged along and hit the climb.  I had forgotten how flipping hard it was.  I thought maybe I could do it in my big chain ring but my legs were having none of it.  Into the small chain ring I went.  I got up it, flipped back into the big ring and hammered the downhill.

My legs were burning.  I was definitely working hard but I didn't feel like I was going that fast.  I don't have my watch set to see speed, only power, distance and time and I had messed up my bike time because I didn't hit lap, I hit stop, then lap, which meant I was still technically in T1.  I realized that about 1.5km into the bike and rectified the situation.  Normally looking at my bike time I'd have some idea as to how fast I was going but because of that screw up, I had no way to figure it out.  I put my head down and kept grinding.  I could see a Team Canada uniform up ahead and I realized it was a woman in my AG.  That spurred me on to dig deep.  I was slowly but surely reeling her in.  I caught her and passed her.  A minute later she caught me and passed me back.  DAMMIT.   She stayed in front of me until we passed the turn around.  The turn around was at the bottom of a climb so as soon as I got around the pylon, I started to really hammer up the hill.  My Morning Glory rides have been starting to pay off.  I caught her and passed her.  I was fully expecting her to catch me again a few minutes later but she didn't.  I settled back into my aero bars and watched for any other ladies.  I knew that one was still out there as I hadn't seen her or her bike yet.  As I was coming up to the 15km mark, I spotted her.   I put my head down and hammered, caught her and passed her.  I was really hoping I was in first at this point.  My legs were screaming at me and I still had one climb left.  I rolled up to the climb and about halfway up it, someone came up on my left.  I glanced over to see the woman in the Canada tri suit.  DAMMIT.  She blew by me.  I had nothing.  I got up to the top and hammered the descent in the hopes of catching her but she was at least 20-30 seconds ahead of me.  She had started 5 people ahead of me which meant that she had a 25s to play with.  I hoped she wasn't a super fast runner.  I kept her in my sights for as long as possible until she turned into the park.  I got stuck behind a very tall guy when we were turning into the park.  I didn't realize it wasn't a no passing zone so I didn't hammer through here.  I got to the dismount line and went to get off my bike when I heard someone yell "Coming through!" It was G who completely blew by me.  Damn him and his awesome flying dismounts, ha ha.  I shuffled awkwardly along the dirt into T2.

Bike:  37:23 for 20km

I racked my bike, pulled off my helmet and dried my feet off.  They were soaking wet.  I then quickly applied some body glide.  My feet blistered really badly at Bala and I didn't want to have a repeat of that.  Just as I was yanking on my shoes, the girl I had passed on the bike (Jordie) was racking her bike.  I grabbed my sunglasses and started running.  I knew she was a really strong runner so I was going to have to book it to keep her at bay.   She had a 40s head start on me so me being ahead of her meant that she had her work cut out for her.

T2:  57s  

The first few hundred meters of this race is uphill.  On grass.  It's kind of brutal.  But the spectators hang out by here and cheer you on like crazy so it's also pretty cool.   I was dying as I came out of transition.  My heart was in my throat.  You can see how tired I am by my horrible posture.

I knew once I got up the hill, I'd have flat and then downhill for a while so I should be able to get into a good groove.  As soon as I got out of the park, I really started to push the pace.  I caught another woman in my AG.  WTH?  She had a 41 on her leg so she was probably up near the front of our group.  I motored along the road, really pushing the pace.  I knew G was ahead of me as well so I kept my eyes peeled for him.  I hit the first km in 4:18.  Sweet.  I was hurting but at least I was moving well.  And, I wasn't in pain.  My glute was fine.  I felt the occasional twinge but it wasn't affecting my run at all.  YES.  The course goes downhill until the turnaround so I was going to push as hard as possible and hope that I didn't implode when I started climbing back up.  My breathing was ragged but I felt like I was running well.  I could see G up ahead.  I slowly started to reel him in.  He was running well so it wasn't easy.  I hit the 2km mark and saw 4:05 when my watch beeped.  Awesome.  I could see the girl in Canada tri suit up at the turnaround.  She became my carrot.  I figured once I got to the turnaround I'd be able to see where Jordie was as well.  I ran around the pylon and saw Jordie about 250-300m back.  Crap.  She had 2.5km to catch me.  It might be close.  I ran along past the aid station.  I was tempted to grab something but I didn't want to slow down.  I was so focused on catching the girl in the Canada tri suit.  As I passed the aid station the road started to rise.  The girl in the Canada tri suit was slowing down.  I powered hard up that hill, wanting to barf.  She had turned onto the main road and was heading towards the bridge.  I was closing in.  I looked for a place to pass and saw an opening on the inside.  I don't know where it came from but I found an extra gear.  I caught her and passed her.  Both her and the other girl I passed said nice run and I said thanks.  I really hoped she didn't have anything in the tank.  I crested another hill and made the turn towards the park, mentally calculating how much time I had left to suffer.  I didn't let up through here but was a bit careful on the descent to the finish line.  I was sprinting hard when I glanced to my left and saw a familiar figure.  It was Jordie.  She caught me at the line.   She's behind the woman in the black.

I patted her on her shoulder and said nice run as we went through the finishing chute.   Thankfully I knew I had made up about 40s on her so I knew I wouldn't be giving up any points.

Run: 21:23

Final time:  1:14:55 - which was a course PB by about 2 minutes.  Most of that time was made up on the bike but I actually had a faster run this time around than last time!  Not bad for not running much, ha ha.

We milled about for a while, waiting for the results to be posted.  We packed up our stuff, cheered some more people on, got some food and then went to check the results.  G got 3rd in his AG!  He found me, listed a few spots below him.  I was 4th female overall and 1st in my AG.  Sweet.  Another 100 points!  I was really happy G got on the podium.   It makes me really happy to see him up there.  And it made for a cute post race selfie too.

Next up is Toronto Island this weekend.  I'm really hoping it stays warm and doesn't get too windy.  I don't want a repeat of last year.   The weather forecast is looking perfect so hopefully the water stays warm! 

Turn that Frown Upside Down - Bracebridge Sprint Race Report

We came back from our vacation early so we could do this race.  I had originally registered for the Olympic Distance which was on the Sunday but decided that I didn't want to swim 1500m in a race and G had decided to register for the sprint, so I switched to the sprint distance about a month before we went on holidays.

We got home from Lake Placid around 6:00 pm, dumped everything in the laundry, packed up our race bags for the next day and then decided to go out to get something to eat.  G had emailed a friend of ours who is the rep for Zoot to see if she happened to have any Zoot tri shoes in his size that he could try out.  She did and she also happened to have a pair in my size.  So after dinner we headed over to her place to try on the shoes.  We both ended up with a pair of the Zoot Ultra Kiawe's.  They fit like slippers and that's kind of the point as they are meant to be worn without socks.  Both of us were planning on giving them a go in Saturday's race.  I figured it was only a 5km run which is short enough that no real damage could be done in terms of blisters.   They are probably the brightest shoes I own.  This picture doesn't do them justice.  Seriously.  That yellow borders on neon.

It was late by the time we got home from our friends place.  I was hoping to be in bed my 9:30 since we had to be up at 4:30 am.  That didn't happen and it was closer to 10:30 by the time I hit the sack.  Not ideal but what can you do.

4:30 am came really quickly.  I got myself sorted and ate breakfast but felt scattered all morning.  Our plan was to leave at 5:30 am which would ideally get us to Bracebridge by 7:30 am give or take, which would be perfect as the race started at 8:15 am.  We didn't leave the house until 5:45 am.   Definitely off to a rough start.  We get in the car and program our destination into the GPS.  It then tells us that we won't arrive until 8:19 a.m.  Um.  REALLY not good considering our race starts at 8:15.  Now, I know the navigation system in the car is not the most reliable when it comes to calculating accurate travel time but I let it get to me and I sit there stewing for the first 45 minutes of the drive.

Since we left late, we didn't stop for our morning coffee.  We made a pit stop at the first En Route on the 400 for a bathroom break and G figured we could grab a coffee there.  He got in line while I used the facilities.  I came back out to find him still standing in line.  He stalked away complaining that that was probably the slowest line he'd ever been in.  It didn't move at all.  So we left empty handed and un-caffeinated.   So not good.

While we were driving I realized that I hadn't packed a pre-race snack.  Nothing I could do about it now.  At least the race was short so I figured I'd probably be ok.  I then started to think about registration.  I had hoped that there wasn't going to be any issues when I arrived.  Sometimes there is when you change races but that usually only happens if you do it at the last minute.  I switched about a month in advance so I figured they'd have everything sorted out.

We made it to Annie Williams Park at 7:40 am.  The race was a time trial start like Welland was so I figured I'd still have a bit of time to get myself sorted and get a warm up swim in.  At least I thought I would until I walked up to the board where you get your race number and saw that mine wasn't on there.  CRAP.  This meant I had to go line up at the registration tent.  I looked over and saw a line up of about 6 people and only one person at the table.  I started cursing under my breath and I could feel my blood start to boil.  I had originally suggested to G that we leave at 5:15.  I like to allot enough time to get up to the site, get myself sorted and deal with any potential issues that may arise and most importantly, not feel rushed doing it.  That was not the case today.  G came over and took my bike for me and racked it in transition even though I had no idea what my race number was going to be. He could tell I was stressed out.

The guy in front of me had also made the switch from the Olympic to the sprint about 3 weeks ago and he was also not registered.   This was the kind of thing that I like to make sure I have enough time to deal with race morning.   I got up to the table and let the girl know my situation, she made a note and then gave me a new race bib.  I then hustle off to pick up my kit, get body marked and then find my appropriate rack.  G had put my bike on a rack that was for bib numbers higher than mine so I grabbed it and went over to the appropriate rack, which of course was jammed.   I found a small spot and wedged my way in after a lovely lady offered to move her bike over.  It was almost 8:00 am at this point and I was completely frazzled.  I frantically set all my stuff up in transition and threw all my other stuff in my bag, dumped it against the fence and grabbed my wetsuit to get down to the swim start.  I missed most of the pre-race announcements which stressed me out even more.

The only good thing about not being properly registered was that I was seeded towards the back of the time trial start, which meant that I still had a bit of time to warm up.  I got in the water and started swimming.  I didn't go far.  I don't even think I managed to get 200m in before I decided to stop.  I didn't feel good and I really wasn't feeling into this.  I think my head was still in a bad place from my lack of good swimming in Lake Placid.  I found G and hung out with him in the water until it was time for him to get in line.  I was freezing.  The water seemed chilly but apparently it was fairly warm.  I think I was just really apprehensive.

Finally it was time for my group to line up.  I got in with a lot of older folks and a few people that seemed to be around my age.  I swam up to the edge of the dock and waited for Jason Vurma to count me down.  3-2-1 and I was off.  I felt crappy right from the get go.  Normally a time trial start makes for a much more relaxing swim start but I felt anything but relaxed.  My arms felt heavy and I felt horrible.  I tried to calm myself down but I could feel the panic welling up.  I stopped and did breast stroke for a while.  The good thing about this swim was that it was in a river so it was quite narrow so you were always close to the shore.  That helped a bit but the water was also somewhat choppy so I was having problems breathing again.  Once again, I wanted to stop and just get out.  But I put my face back in the water and forced myself to get to that first green buoy.  I made it there and I knew it was only about 30m across the river to the other buoy.  Once I rounded that other buoy I knew I'd be swimming into the current.  Sure enough the swim back seemed to take forever and I felt like I was working much harder.  I kept sighting the last buoy and it never seemed to be getting closer.  I finally made my way around it and swam like hell to the shore.  I got out of the water and glanced at my Garmin.

Swim:  13:39 when I hit the shore.  14:13 by the time I crossed the timing mat, which I seemed to be in no hurry to get to as I walked once I got out of the water.  I felt so out of it, I didn't think I could run.  Once I crossed the timing mat, I started to pick it up.

My bike was situated very close to the swim entrance so it didn't take me long to get there.  I had a lot of trouble getting my wetsuit off and when I finally got out of it I threw it on the ground.  I grabbed my helmet and put it on first, then my sunglasses and then my shoes.  No socks.  This was going to be my first sockless ride ever.  It felt a little weird but not as bad as I expected.  My feet did get a little cold on the bike though.  There is a long run out of transition to the bike mount line and I wasn't moving too quickly.  I finally hopped on my bike and started riding.  My legs felt as bad as my arms did in the swim.  Sloppy and heavy, although to be fair that's kinda how they feel for the first little bit on the bike.  I hoped that it would disappear like it normally does.

It didn't.  Obviously the week of hilly riding and the new bike position had fatigued my legs a fair bit.  I don't recommend taking a training vacation and then racing the day after you get back.  There are also two really good climbs on this course so I was happy that it was only 20km.  There were several times that I felt like I was flying so when I finally saw my average speed, I was a little surprised at how much slower than normal it was.  The bike was uneventful for the most part.  I passed a lot of people and went back and forth with one guy that I eventually dropped on the last climb.   I definitely busted my butt on this ride and my average heart rate proved that.  I rode up to the dismount line, hopped off my bike and fumbled into transition.  Running in cycling shoes is hard.

Bike:  38:43

I racked my bike, pulled off my shoes and to my surprise my feet were still kind of wet.  Awesome.  This was going to make getting my Zoot shoes on very difficult.  I took off my helmet and made my first attempt at getting my shoes on.  I got one on but the other one was really stubborn.  I almost gave myself a calf cramp trying to yank it on.  Finally got it on and bolted out of T2.

T2:  1:13.  The time I saved in T1 by not putting socks on just got added to my T2 but having to mess around with my shoes.  

The first part of the run is on grass and it goes uphill out of the park.  I totally killed myself getting up this hill.  I have to say, the shoes felt great.  I felt like I had good grip, even on the grass and I was definitely light on my feet.  My right knee wasn't sure if it liked them or not - it was a bit sore for the first 1.5km.  I was running without my orthotics so I figured there might be a few aches and pains.  Once I got out onto the pavement, I felt like I was running on a springboard.  I felt like these shoes helped propel me forward.  I definitely felt like I was moving quickly.  I caught and passed no less than 3 women in my AG in the first 2km.  In the last km, I passed another one.  I didn't know where I was in my AG because of the time trial start.  It would all come down to who had the fastest overall time.  But I figured if I was passing ladies, there was a good chance that I would at least be on the podium.  I pushed it hard on the flats, going sub 4:00 min km's at some points.  There was another uphill in the last km of the race and I was going so hard my breathing was coming in short raspy breaths.   I knew that once I got to the top of the hill and turned the corner it was downhill from there.  I rounded the bend and came barreling along into the finishing chute.  I saw G and waved as I passed two guys who were heading towards the finish line.  I crossed the line totally spent.  I checked my watch after I crossed and noticed that the run course was long by just over 1/4 of a km. 

5.25km:  21:43

I had no idea where I was in terms of placing so after we got our usual post race fuel and picked up our cool Apres Velo race t-shirts, G and I went to check results.  I was not listed at all.  Surprise surprise!  So I wandered over to the Sports Stats tent and chatted with the lovely French dude there who told me my overall time and my time for each leg and then said I was first in my age group.  Woohoo!  I said that was odd because I wasn't listed on the results at all.  He looked again and said Oh, it's because you're listed as doing the Olympic race.  Which wasn't scheduled until the next day, ha ha ha.  He switched me over and verified that I was still actually first in my age group. My frown was starting to turn upside down.

We stuck around for the awards and I found out that not only was I first in my age group but I ended up being the 4th place woman overall.  Woohoo!  Before we left I went over to the results page again to see if my results had managed to be posted.  I was curious to see how I fared in each discipline.  They weren't posted,  so on the way home, I checked Sports Stats and found out that I posted the fastest women's run split overall.  

My frown had officially been turned upside down.

Happy Happy Happy

G and I have one more race this weekend and then that's it for our triathlons this year.  After that it's time for me to re-focus on my running.  I'll still do the all the other things because that's just what I do, but running will take priority.  Sub 1:30 half or bust baby!!