Post-race report - MSC Gravenhurst Olympic tri

Well, I've now officially finished my first full Olympic distance tri! And the 1.5k swim wasn't nearly as bad as I was expecting. Again the conditions were great for this race. It got very hot for the rest of the weekend but luckily our race was pretty early so we missed most of the heat. Completely by chance, my mom had booked a hotel within 100m of the transition zone, which made for a stress-free race morning.

Luckily this wasn't Lake Ontario we were jumping into without a warmup!!

Swim
This was the most unique swim portion I've done. We were taken out to the start of the swim by boat, jumped off the boat and swam to the start buoys. The start signal was even the boat's horn! (may have missed that...) Once I started I was able to get a draft right away, and the swimmer ahead was just fast enough that it was comfortably uncomfortable to stay behind her. We may have been going off course a bit, but that was nothing compared to how much it happened at Woodstock! I focused on kicking as little as possible and sighting only when I really needed to, and got out of the water feeling like I'd done a good workout but my legs feeling fresh.

I don't think the elite guys were thrilled with the swim cap colour choice this time...

Bike
The bike was a nice combination of rolling hills and false flats (that I swear were going downhill both ways! It was great!) I maintained a good effort throughout, keeping my cadence high, and was happy to see that my speed was significantly faster than my other races this season even though I came off the bike still feeling fresh (ish) for the run.

Run
The first half of the run felt great! The course was rolling hills but I was feeling good so they weren't overly tough. I'm not sure if it was the weather starting to heat up or the longer race distance, but I hit a wall at 5k and painfully slogged my way back over the same rolling course (which was suddenly REALLY hard) to finish in just under 2 hours 22 mins.

Overall I'm very happy with how my racing has been coming along this season, and there is still plenty to work on to keep me motivated. The swim, bike, and first half of the run felt strong and I look forward to what more experience at this distance will do.

Thanks to everyone for your continued support: Multisport Canada/Recharge with Milk and my fellow MSC Ambassadors, teamLPC and the Hurdle Project and my new sponsor MainCycle Hamilton (the bike's running great!).

Thanks Coach Mark, Billy and my family for everything you do. Thanks, Mom, for making the drive out, cheering and just generally making my weekend easier :) And, thanks to you for reading!

Next up is the MSC K-Town tri on the long weekend. And, 7 weeks from then until Barrelman!

Post-race report - Garrison Long-course Triathlon

http://www.forthenry.com/events/garrison-triathlon/

Yesterday I had the pleasure of racing the inaugural Garrison triathlon in Kingston - which also happened to be my inaugural Olympic distance tri! The Garrison tri was put on by Fort Henry National Historical Site and CFB Kingston, so a large proportion of the run course was through the Royal Military College and finished right inside Fort Henry (pictures are coming soon!).

I was very impressed by how well this event was run - the course was incredibly well-marked and the organizers and volunteers were very helpful. Special thanks to Rick's Bike Repair, a sponsor of the race, who did free pre-race bike safety checks and taught me a thing or two about bike mechanics the day before the race!

Also, whoever was in charge of the day's weather deserves a special thanks as well! On a day that had been shaping up to be absolutely miserable conditions (40kph winds, torrential downpour, 12-15 degrees C), it turned out to be close to ideal racing conditions. The wind and rain died down a bit throughout the morning, and without those nasty conditions 15 degrees wasn't half bad. This was especially lucky for me, because I'd only brought my disc wheel, which I wouldn't have been able to ride had the wind actually gone up to 40kph.

Swim:
Because of the initial windy conditions, the race crew decided to shorten the swim from 1500m to 750m - which definitely played to my advantage. We had an in-water start off the dock at RMC. I was able to get on Billy's feet within the first 100m or so (ideal, since most of my drafting practice is with him) and hung on for the whole swim. He had a great swim, and my arms were burning by the end but I came out of the water in 4th with very fresh legs.

Bike:
Since it was still cold, I took the extra time in T1 to throw on a shirt and bike shorts, which was very worth it! The bike course was a there-and-back route along highway 2, an open stretch of highway with lots of rolling hills - but pretty much the only road I ever ride on in Kingston so I was familiar with where the hills were. The way out was into a strong headwind, so it was quite a struggle but I kept my effort manageable and my cadence up and was only passed once. Turning around at 20k brought the huge relief of a strong tailwind for the 20k back. Never has that stretch of road seemed so short! I finished back at RMC in 7th place feeling pretty good but still dreading the 10k run.

Run:
This was a very tough run course, and I was lucky that I've run through most of it numerous times during cross-country season (2.5k of it was on our very own cross-country course). Rolling hills, even moreso than on the bike course, kept the speed in check throughout. I made a conscious effort to start off pretty slow so I didn't burn out partway through, but I couldn't seem to pick up the pace as I went. Luckily everyone around me must have been feeling the same way, and I maintained my position. All-in-all, my pace was much slower than I was hoping for, but getting through my first Olympic distance run gave me a mental boost more than anything else for races to come.

I finished in 7th overall, and 1st overall female. Overall I was happy with the swim and the bike, and hopefully the run will continue slowly coming back as the season progresses. It was a fun first Olympic distance race (although to be fair I have yet to do a 1500m swim so that will be the next challenge!) which will prepare me well for my next one, Multisport Canada's Gravenhurst Olympic tri, on July 18th. Hope to see you there!

Thank you so much to the organizers, volunteers and everyone who made this race a success - I definitely plan to race the Garrison tri for many years to come. Thanks to my coach Mark Linseman and my teammates at LPC and the Hurdle Project for all of your continuous support and camaraderie - I wouldn't be where I am without all of you. :)

Post-race report - Multisport Canada Woodstock sprint tri

Well. First race of the season is now under my belt! I've heard the first race is often known as a "rust-buster", and that definitely applied here. My training has come a long way in the off-season, but putting it all together can sometimes be something else completely. On the other hand, it was great to be out on a race course again, seeing familiar faces and putting all the training to the test.

Swim:
This was a much nicer swim than when I did the Woodstock course 2 years ago - the water was pleasantly warm this time! I got off to a good start, finding feet right away and sticking with a group for a decent part of the course. The water conditions were pretty choppy though and I went a bit off course, losing the pack and having to swim the last bit on my own, but the initial drafting advantage helped me get out of the water in a better spot than my relatively weak swim usually does - 7th woman overall.

Bike:
The strong swim, however, took more of a toll on my body than I'd realized, getting onto the bike and struggling for a good 5 km to recover. Despite my efforts - and my brand-new Campi disc wheel - I couldn't make up positions as I'd hoped and rolled back to T2 still in 7th, having also lost significant time on all the women ahead of me.

Run:
I was happy with my run considering having just started back after injury - before the race this was the part I was really worried about. I started at a fairly conservative pace but was able to hold it all the way through. Woodstock is a great run course and I really enjoyed seeing part of the 3-way battle for second place on the men's side, as I was going out and they were coming back. At the end, my signature sprint finish just wasn't happening - which is a good thing, meaning I pushed pretty hard throughout the race and drained the tank already.

Overall, time-wise this was not a great race but for a first race of the season, I was happy with it. Getting back into racing does wonders for my motivation, and now I know what I need to work on. I'm so happy I was able to start the season with such a fun race, on such a great (and warm!!) day.

Big thanks to Multisport Canada/Recharge with Milk for your support this year and to my fellow MSC Ambassadors who all did so well! Big thanks also to everyone at teamLPC and my Hurdle Project teammates for all the encouragement, and endlessly pushing me in training :) And finally, big thanks to my dad for all the last-minute help with my bike 15 minutes before race start - I would probably have missed the race entirely otherwise!!

Thanks for reading! And if you, also, raced in Woodstock this weekend (or anywhere, for that matter) awesome job, and I hope you had fun!

Stay tuned - my next confirmed race is MSC Gravenhurst but I'm trying to schedule some in before that as well...

Introduction - my first post!

My start in triathlon

I have been a triathlete for 9 years but was passionate about the sport long before then. 9-year-old me just happened to turn on the TV one day just in time for Simon Whitfield’s gold medal finish at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, and I decided at that moment that one day I would be a triathlete too.

At age 9, I hadn’t heard of Kids of Steel or any other kids’ races, so I started by trying each of the sports separately. Coming from a small town there were limited opportunities, but my school did have a cross country team. I joined the team in grade 6 and discovered an immense love of running, and luckily a bit of natural talent as well. In grade 8 I joined the local swim team, and discovered quite the opposite was true for swimming. Win some, lose some I guess. To complete the package, for grade 8 graduation I got my first road bike, which I still have to this day. There was never a cycling team in the area, but my dad and his neighbourhood cycling buddies occasionally let me tag along on their slowest, shortest rides!

In high school I focused mainly on running. I joined the Brantford Track and Field Club in grade 11 which helped incredibly. I kept plugging away at the swimming, competing for 3 years, but never really enjoyed it as much. And I biked in the summers occasionally for fun, but nothing competitive. During that time I did two duathlons, both in Wasaga Beach (the first was a “give it a tri” turned du because of nasty water conditions).

I finally did my first “real” triathlon in Guelph Lake in 2009, on Move-In Day for the University of Guelph, where I was starting my undergrad in Bio-Medical Sciences. I absolutely loved it. Even the swim. I loved combining all the sports into one, it not only changed the racing scene up a bit but it was just more interesting.

As I got into school I got busy, and fell into a bit of a rut. I’d missed Guelph’s cross-country team’s standards by a full minute and a half in the 5k, and I clearly wasn’t going to make the swim team, so I just ran recreationally during the school year. I did some biking and swimming the summer of 2010, and a couple sprint triathlons relying mainly on my run fitness. The next year I met my boyfriend, an often-injured runner, and casually introduced him to triathlon. Luckily, he loved it too, and suddenly I had a training buddy. The summer of 2011 we both competed in several triathlons, and then decided to start looking for a coach.

In early 2012 in a stroke of good luck, I was talking to one of my profs and mentioned needing a coach, and that’s how I was introduced to Mark Linseman and the Loaring Personal Coaching team. The difference of having a good coach compared to training on your own is huge – I began to see results right away in all the sports. I tentatively started swimming more, and with structured workouts I actually started to enjoy going to the pool.

Where am I now?

Originally I was only triathlon training with teamLPC in the summer months, but with even those few months of training I was improving significantly so after the summer of 2014 I decided to stay on throughout the year. As a full-time LPC athlete, I was accepted onto the LPC Hurdle Project, a “not-for-profit fundraiser and support program for elite athletes, future elites, and young professionals who dedicate themselves to their work as well as their sport”.

I competed as an age group athlete the summers of 2012-2014 in only sprint races, and this year I am very excited to have gained elite status and also to be going up to the Standard distance.

I am also lucky enough to be on the 2015 Recharge with Milk Ambassador Team.  Multisport Canada has created this team as an athlete development initiative and also as a way to promote Canada’s largest triathlon series.

I made the Queen’s cross-country team when I started at Queen’s in 2013, and raced for 2 years. Immediately after the 2014 season I was off running with an injury, which for the first time allowed me to focus solely on biking and swimming (a blessing in disguise, I guess?). Both are now feeling stronger than ever going into the 2015 season, so I’m excited to see how this coming season goes!