The Comeback: Mont Tremblant 70.3 Race Recap - The Bike

Now that my least favourite part of the race was over, I was on to the bike.  This was going to be a solid test of my cycling fitness and fueling strategy.  Because this was an early season race, G and I both felt that we would probably have some room for improvement in Lake Placid.   I knew this course was hard, well, parts of it were anyway, and that you had better not burn yourself out too early because the last 16km of the course is pure evil. 

I came flying into T1 and over to my rack which was very close to the swim entrance.  I had caught Clare, another TTC athlete on the run up to transition and her and I ran to our bikes together.   I dropped my wetsuit, goggles and earplugs, grabbed my helmet, buckled it up and yanked on my shoes.  My feet were a bit cold but I figured they’d probably warm up as the sun was supposed to come out.  It was still overcast when I headed out of transition to start the bike.  I ran out to the dismount line and hopped on Tom Sawyer.  I had put my bike in the small chain ring but realized that even in the hardest gear my legs were spinning too high.  They were raring to go.  So into the big chain ring I went. 

The First 30km:  Pacing myself

Once you leave transition, it’s flat for about 800m then you start to climb a smallish hill.  You descend that a decent clip into a round about and then you start a longer climb up Montee Ryan.  Montee Ryan has two good climbs and an awesome descent.  There is a no passing section on here as well.   I didn’t want to hammer the first climb so I just settled into a good rhythm, ticking my legs over at about 85-90 RPM.   I had taken a GU as soon as I got on my bike.  My plan was to fuel mainly with E-Fuel (roughly 2.5-3 bottles depending on how long I was riding for) plus 2 gels + 1/3 of a Lara bar if I felt like I wanted something solid.  Using primarily liquid fuel meant that I was definitely going to be hydrated.  It also meant that I was carrying all my fuel on my bike, which adds a bit of weight.  But I figured most of it would be gone by the time I got to the really hard part of course near the end of the race.

The first 30km - look at that descent!!! 

 I settled into a good groove, passing a few people, really trying to keep my effort level in check.  My target power was 180w and I figured with the hills on the course, I'd definitely end up somewhere around there.  I find spinning up climbs at a lower power rate really spikes my heart rate so I try to pedal at a slightly lower cadence to keep my HR down, which ends up spiking my power into the 200-215w range.  Yes, that can be hard on your legs if you’re not used to it, but that’s how I’ve been riding for the last few years and it seems to work for me. 

Once we got down Montee Ryan, we turned on to the 117.   This was where I knew I could make up some good time.  I knew there was a long grinder of a climb on the way back but on the way out, you got that amazing descent.  We had one entire side of the highway so there was plenty of room to spread out.  I was very aware of the race marshalls.   The last thing I wanted was to get a penalty for drafting.  It was very difficult to avoid people.  There were draft packs everywhere.   In fact, there were several instances where I was passed by a paceline of guys.  I was so annoyed at one group I said “nice paceline, cheaters!” as they went by me.  The most frustrating part was that even with that pacelining, they didn’t get that far ahead of me.  I caught a bunch of them on a climb again.  Idiots.  I was quite happy to see that a few of them got busted for drafting, as I saw them sitting in the penalty tent on the way back. 

I cooked along the highway, feeling really good.  I tried not to surge too much but I kept coming up on packs of people that were moving much slower than I was and in order to get by them, I had to pick up the pace a fair bit because you only have 25 seconds to make a pass.  When it's a larger group, you really need to make sure you are moving quickly.  This happened a few times in the earlier kms along the highway.  I figured by the time we turned around it would spread out.  

My fuelling was on point, thanks to my new hydration bottle, it was very easy to keep sipping on my drink.  My energy level felt good.  There was never any lag or spike in energy, it remained constant.  I did wish that I had put my socks on as my feet were actually quite cold.  The sun hadn't come out and there was a fair bit of wind on the highway.  The forecast had called for sun in the morning but instead we were greeted with a low lying mist and cloud cover that didn't start to break until we made it into downtown Tremblant.   My legs were also a bit cold but I figured that once the sun came out that would change.

I hit the turnaround and didn't unclip like I usually do.  I can't believe how much better my bike handling skills have gotten.  Thank you Morning Glory!  

The Middle 30km:  Finding my groove

Once I hit the turnaround, I immediately started climbing again.  It wasn't a steep climb, just a bit a long grinder.  I knew the way back to downtown Mont Tremblant was going to be fast, other than the big grinder of a climb.  My plan for that climb was hit the small chain ring and just click over the km's.  Don't burn too much power.   I still had a ways to go before I hit that so I stayed in my aerobars and kept the cadence up.  I was closing in on 1 hour on the bike so I was curious to see how much ground I would have covered when I hit the 1 hour mark.  I got my answer a few minutes later:  33.4km.  HECK YEAH.  That was much better than I had expected.   

I was still feeling really good closing in around the halfway point.  I was starting to get into unfamiliar territory with my tri suit - I hadn't worn it for anything longer than 40km but I made sure I had used chamois cream and body glide to protect my delicate undercarriage.   At 45km I was still feeling ok but I had a sneaking suspicion that things would be different by the time I hit 60km.  I kept trucking along.  The big climb was coming up so I thought I'd take my 1/3 of my Lara bar before I started climbing.  There was a huge group of guys that had passed me on a descent and I caught pretty much all of them on this climb.   When I got to the top, I saw the penalty tent.  It was JAMMED.   The race marshals weren't messing around.

I booked it along the next section of the highway.  It was a long undulating descent that flattened out to an off ramp which we took into downtown Mont Tremblant.  There were a TON of people out cheering.  We did a little u-turn in town and then it was back towards Montee Ryan.  The big descent that I rode down on the way out, I had to ride back up.  So, it was back into my small chain ring again.  I knew what was coming up and I wanted my legs to be ready for it.  The race had definitely spread out by this point.   I noticed that I had only been passed by two women.  Lots of guys, but only two women.  I felt pretty good about that.   In retrospect that didn't really mean anything other than those women started after me and were faster than me on the bike.  I had no clue if they were in my AG or not.  That's the thing about a rolling start is that you have no idea who you're racing.  

The Final 30km:  Into the hills

I was watching my Garmin again as I was getting close to the two hour mark.  I hit 66.8km in 2 hours.  I was exactly the same speed as on the way out, ha ha.  How's that for consistency??  I was still averaging 33.4kph.  My goal was 32-32.5/kph so this was much better than I had anticipated.  That being said, I knew I was going to lose some time in the last 16km of the ride.  

The last 30km.  The km from about 68 to 78 are just plain brutal.  

My tri suit was really starting to be uncomfortable as was my left glut.  That oh so familiar nerve pain was rearing it's head and my glut and upper hamstring were aching.  That did not bode well for the run but I tried not to think about that.  I was getting closer to making the turn from Montee Ryan onto Chemin des Voyageurs so the hard part of the race was closing in.  Aside from the tri suit, I was still feeling pretty good.  I know I spent a large part of my day smiling.  How could I not after last year?

I rode past transition towards Chemin Duplessis.  I was totally shocked at the number of people that were out spectating through here and all the way up the road.  The first climb was lined with people.  It was amazing and it totally gave me an extra boost.  I powered up that first climb just fine.  I was trying to remember how many climbs there were on the way out.  I figured at least 6.  The second one comes right after the first and it's short and steep so I had to get out the saddle for that one, even in my small chain ring.  This section of the course reminds me of the first part of the Muskoka course.  Just bloody brutal.   I passed another photographer and waved and he made some comment about me not working hard enough, ha ha.

I continued chugging along, trying to spin my legs as much as possible through here.  Even in my easiest gear, I still had to get out of the saddle to get up some of the climbs.  This section is SO hard.  My quads were absolutely screaming at me towards the last big climb.  I was lucky if I was doing more than 10kph.  I was a little concerned that perhaps I had gone a little too hard earlier on.  Nothing I could do about that now except hope that I don't cave on the run.  I noticed that my Garmin wasn't matching the signs on the race course.  I seemed to be roughly 2km behind the course signs.  Oh well,  that just meant I'd be off the bike sooner, ha ha.

I hit the last climb and as I came around the bend I saw the turnaround.  Once again, I made it around a turn without unclipping!  WHEEEE!   I knew the way back to transition was going to be way faster than the way out.  When I looked at my Strava results for that segment, I was over 4 minutes faster on the way back, ha ha.  There was another no passing zone on Duplessis, at the big sweeping descent due to a couple of very serious accidents that have happened at previous races.  Luckily when I hit that zone, there wasn't anyone in front of me so I took full advantage of that and pedalled like mad.  Before I knew it, I was back into the crowds along the bottom of Duplessis and turned back in towards transition.  I jumped off my bike at the dismount line, glanced down at my Garmin and was shocked at what I saw.   2:42 and change.  Holy crap.

I crossed the timing mat and ran into T2.  

Official bike time:  2:43:01 for an average of 33.13 kph.   For the data geeks out there, my normalized power was 182w.  Pretty much where I thought I'd be.  I was hoping I'd have HR data to share but for some reason my HRM didn't work after the swim.  Probably due to the amount of body glide I put on in the morning, ha ha.  

I consumed 2.25 bottles of e-fuel, 2 GU and 1/3 of a coconut Lara Bar.

I managed to gain 13 spots from the swim to the bike.  I exited the swim in 23rd, came off the bike in 10th.  

Not too long ago I could only dream about holding a pace like I did for 90km.  My cycling has seen massive improvement in the last year.  Looking back on last year, had I not gotten injured, I don't know that I would have put as much time in the saddle as I have.  It's certainly paid off and I still feel like I have some more gains to make, especially climbing.  Which is good because Lake Placid ain't flat.

I'll be back tomorrow with the final leg and some post race thoughts.....

Thanks for reading!

~ Coach PK

Mont Tremblant 70.3 Race Recap: Pre-Amble + Swim

We had originally planned on heading to Tremblant on the Friday but a few weeks ago G thought it would be better if we left on Thursday so we booked an extra night at the Tour des Voyageurs where we had booked the rest of our stay.  That actually worked out really well as we got into Tremblant by about 5:30 which gave us time to check in and pick up our race kits.  Picking up our kit on Thursday meant that we avoided the complete insanity that we saw on the Friday and Saturday.  The line up to get race kits was ridiculous both days, probably due to a few things 1) the fact that there was a sprint and olympic race on the Saturday and the fact that they increased the number of people racing the 70.3.  We looked at the numbers in comparison to last year and last year there was just under 2500 people that finished and this year there was almost 2900.  That's HUGE.

As usual, the check in process was smooth and efficient and the volunteers were amazing.  So friendly and enthusiastic.  This years swag ended up coming in very handy.  It was a small over the shoulder pack which I ended up using pretty much every day.  The race t-shirt was kinda gross and was actually too big for me, even though I ordered a small.  I think they do that on purpose so you go and buy Ironman branded race stuff, ha ha.   We went for dinner and a beer at La Diable and then went and met up with Irina, Zin and Louis at La Forge.  We were sitting on the patio and the bugs were brutal and the temperature really started to drop so we called it a night and headed back to the condo.

Friday was overcast and rained on and off for most of the day.  We lazed around in the morning while it rained and as soon as we saw a break in the weather, we walked over to the swim start and went for short swim to test the water.  It was chilly but once you got used to it, it was lovely.   We swam about 600m and packed it in.   It was looking like it was going to rain again.

After the swim we went back to our condo and got ourselves sorted to head down to do some shopping at the Ironman Village.   I have gotten to the point where I don’t feel I need anymore Ironman branded race gear, I’m happy with whatever swag we’re given in our race kits.  That being said, IF the race shirt design is really cool or I really like the colours, I’ll buy it.  The stuff at Tremblant wasn’t bad but I didn’t love it.   I was happy to see a bunch of Women for Tri stuff there so I ended up buying the trucker hat I had been eyeing on the IM website.  I had also wanted to try Roka goggles and there were a TON of them there so I ended up buying a pair.  I liked them so much I wore them on race day (I did a short swim the day bfore to test them out and I loved them so much I opted to wear them).  We wandered around the rest of the booths that were set up and G scored a sweet pair of Zoot Solanas for $70.  There were a ton of Zoot shoes on sale probably because Zoot has stopped making every model except for the Solana and the Ali’i.  So there were deals to be had for sure. 

We hit up Le Shak for lunch and I got a message from a fellow instagrammer / blogger that she was heading into the Village.  I have been following Nathalie on Instagram for a while (and just started reading her blog a couple of months ago) and we had said we should try to meet up.    So G and I wandered over to the Grand Café for a post lunch cappuccino and she met us there.  What a lovely woman.    I felt immediately comfortable with her.  It’s funny when you meet online people for the first time, sometimes it’s just awkward.  You feel like you know a lot about the person but then when you meet them, they seem different than what you see on social media.  Nathalie was exactly the same as her social media voice.   We chatted for quite some time about where things are at for her in terms of her health.   She wanted to talk to me about the potential of working together once things get sorted out with her health.  I hope that I we get that opportunity.  

We parted ways and then G and I went back to the condo and started organizing our race bags.  This was a new thing for this year.   We had done a couple of races where you had bags for each leg of the race and while it keeps things organized, it was a bit of a pain in the ass having to rummage through each one in transition.   We made up all our race day bottles, lounged around and then went out to dinner. 

Saturday

I slept like a log on Friday night.  I don’t think I got out of bed until 7:30 on Saturday morning.  I could hear the  sprint and Olympic distance races happening.    G and I made breakfast, had some coffee and generally lazed about for a couple of hours.  I had wanted to do another swim to test out my new goggles but we couldn’t get into the water until after 11 am so we opted to take the bikes out for one last spin to make sure everything was a-ok.   We rode up Montee Ryan and turned right at the roundabout  and made our way into the old village of Tremblant.   There’s a bike / coffee shop there that does excellent cappuccinos so we stopped to have a coffee on the deck.   We ran into Irina and another FMCT athlete, Mellen.  We chit chatted a bit and then I went out on the patio to sit in the sun.    After our little pit stop we rode back into Tremblant, took the bikes back up to the room, threw on our running shoes and did a 2km run off the bike.   My legs felt good.   4:45-4:50/km pace felt comfortable.  That’s exactly what I was hoping for.    When we got back in, I grabbed all my swim stuff and we booked it down to the beach.  I had to be at the 70.3 sign for 1:30 for the Toronto Triathlon Club picture   I did a quick swim, which totally sucked and put me in a foul mood.  It was choppy and I swam really slowly, even though I felt like I was swimming well.  On the plus side, the new goggles were awesome.   I put the bad swim out of my head and we hustled back to the condo so I could change and run downstairs to join the group.   My swimming had been bothering me as of late, I felt like I was struggling in open water and I was swimming so much slower than I normally would.  I was trying not to let it bother me too much.  There was nothing I could do about it at this point except give it my best.

I met the TTC group and we got our shot done.  It was nice to meet a few more club members and see some familiar faces (hi Brenda, Nancy, Clare & Andy!).    

We ended up winning first place in the Division 1 Tri Club points!  woohoo!

I went back to the condo and G and I got our bikes and brought them down to check them in.   With that done, we were off to the 4:00 pm athlete briefing.  We met up with our friend Deanne and her friend Barb.  It had to be the fastest athlete briefing ever because it was going to POUR.   

We found out that we only had to use the transition bags to bring our gear into transition.   They wanted to avoid having big bags and boxes etc around bikes.  We were allowed to have a mat or towel by our bike with our stuff on it.   WHEW.  With that done, all that was left was a nice dinner at Coco Pazzo and hopefully a good night’s sleep, then it was GO time.   In retrospect, I would have saved dinner at Coco Pazzo for post race.  It was a great meal and one that definitely warranted a glass or two of wine.  Next time, ha ha. 

I was actually pretty tired so I went to bed at 9:30 and fell asleep right away.   I woke up at 1:44 am to go to the washroom and that was it.  I spent the rest of the night tossing and turning.  I couldn’t turn my brain off.  I’ve finally figured out that the stressful part of racing for me is race morning and remembering all the things and making sure I leave myself enough time to get to the start to warm up.  Once I’m down at the start, I’m good.  There is sense of calm that comes over me.  It’s like my brain says ok, you’ve got everything, now it’s time to get down to business. 

The Swim

Despite getting up really early, G and I still had to hustle down to the swim start.  I felt a bit rushed and freaked out a bit about the possibility of not getting a warm up in.  They were singing the National Anthem which meant that the pros were going to start right after.  I was wedging my wetsuit on in the parking lot while G was in the porta potty line.  I ran into Irina, Zin. Mellen and Louis and wished them good luck.  G finished up and we ran over to the last pick up truck and tossed our swim bags in there.  We made our way down to the beach and had to shove our way through all the spectators.  The beach was packed.  This year they had decided to try a rolling start vs. wave starts so there were signs all along the beach where you needed to seed yourself according to your expected swim time.  It was a bit chaotic.   G and I made our way through the crowd.  I wanted to get into the water so I kissed him good bye and gave him a hug and we wished each other good luck.   I went into the water and got acclimatized.  I swam out a few hundred meters did some pick ups, breast stroked a bit, swam some more and then turned around and made my way back.  I ran into my friends Linda and Lois and we swam back into shore together.   As I stood up, I heard my name and turned to see Jody, another friend I’ve met through social media and whom I’d see regularly at MSC races.  I gave her a hug and we wished each other good luck.  I turned to give Linda a hug and high five and I gave Lois a big hug and wished her luck.   Her and I were both injured last year so we sat on the sidelines together and cried at the start.  Not this year.  Both of us were grinning from ear to ear. 

I scuttled off to try and find out where I should seed myself.  I wove my way through the dense crowd on the beach.  It seemed so much bigger than last year, especially when you were looking at it from the water.   My plan was to seed myself with the 32-35 minute group, towards the back.  Well, there was one problem with that, I had no idea where the back of that group was.  So I pushed through a few people along the shore until I could see the 32-35 minute sign, I then stopped and asked a couple of people around me what they were planning on swimming.  One person said 36 minutes, someone else said 35 minutes so I thought ok, I’ll just stay here.    The next thing I knew I was being funnelled into a smaller chute and we were making our way to the edge of the water.  We stood under and arch and there were three openings that looked like subway turnstiles.   There were two volunteers with long flags that were letting people through.  Before I knew it I was standing there waiting for the flag do be raised.  1-2-3.  Go.

The two athletes with me took off into the water.  I waded in and started my watch.  Once the water got up to my waist I started swimming.   I gotta say, the start was very civilized.  Yes, there were people around me but not once did I feel like I was caught in pack or boxed in with slower swimmers.  I got into a good rhythm right away.  I was remarkably calm which made me smile.   Of course I had a Rush song going through my head – I had the chorus of Roll the Bones on repeat  .  Those of you that follow me on Strava were probably wondering WTF I meant with my post titles.  Those were the lyrics I had on repeat throughout the swim and the bike.  “We go out in the world and take our chances, fate is just the weight of circumstances, that’s the way that lady luck dances…”  I can honestly say that was probably one of the best swims I have ever had in a race.  There was ZERO panic.  None.  I was relaxed, my breathing was regular, there was no gasping, nothing.  I was really surprised when I started catching people.  I can only assume that people didn’t really seed them selves all that well.  Realistically I probably should have seeded myself a little further up, but, I never felt like I got held up by anyone slower.  It would have been nice to have some fast feet to follow though.  My watch buzzed signalling 500m and it seemed be really fast.   I wanted to look but that would have meant stopping.  So I kept motoring on.  I didn’t sight much because we basically swam up inbetween a row of boats.   I would sight every so often to see how far the red turn buoy was.  As I got closer to that buoy, I could feel the chop in the water increase.  I’m not sure what was going on there but I was getting smacked in the face every time I tried to see where I was going.  I slowed down a bit here to get my bearings.  I got around the buoy and got back into my rhythm.  I was staying a bit far out from the buoys.  There were a few other folks that were out with me, the majority of people were sticking closer to the buoys.  My watch buzzed again and I couldn’t believe I was already at 1000m.   I came up on a guy that was breast stroking and as I passed him he decided to start swimming.    He swam right up beside me and got right in my bubble.  He then started swimming at me.  I don’t think he had any idea that I was even there.  I stopped, popped my head up and waited for him to pass then I went around him and settled back into my groove.  I felt like I was swimming really well.  I felt strong and I felt in control.  I’d feel the occasional twinge in my right calf but nothing major.  My last long open water swim at Barrelman, my right calf cramped so hard I had to stop swimming.   I could feel that starting to happen when I swam at the quarry the week before so I was a bit worried that would happen again.  I stopped kicking with my right leg for a bit and that seemed to help.     My watch buzzed again to signal 1500m.  Only 400m left.  I started working a bit harder.  My right calf started to get crampy.   I stopped kicking and just started pulling to try to hold off the cramp.  I could see the shore and hear the announcer.     I started kicking again and my calf cramped.  Not super hard but enough that it hurt and I couldn’t kick with that leg.   I could see the water was getting shallower.   I was so close.  I could see people starting to stand up.  I felt that the water was still too deep so I kept swimming until my hand almost touched the bottom.  I stood up but it was still a bit too deep so I did a dolphin dive and that caused my right calf to really cramp.  I stood up and started to unzip my wetsuit.  I glanced down at my Garmin as I touched the shore and I saw 34 minutes and change – YESSSS!!!!  I got the wetsuit off my arms as I came out of the water and luckily got the first two wetsuit strippers.   They yanked it right off me and I grabbed it and ran.   I sprinted by so many people on my way into transition.   The hard part was over and now the fun was going to begin.

Official swim time:  34:56  1:48/100m - squeaked in just under my goal time of 35:00 minutes!

I’ll be back tomorrow with the bike and possibly the run.  We'll see how long winded I get!

Thanks for reading!  

~ 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!