Wasaga Beach Olympic Triathlon 2016 Post-race Report

      I fell off my bike a few weeks ago, and as I discussed in my K-Town race report, my ribs took the worst of it. As far as I know, I didn't suffer a broken rib, but I'm learning that even a bruised rib can take some time to heal. I believe this is largely because it is very easy to aggravate. Sleeping, twisting, moving my arm certain ways, don't even get me started on sneezing, and oh ya, pretty much any form of physical activity. As athletes we tend to push the limits regarding when to return from an injury so we miss as few days as possible. I was on the side of too soon a few times with my ribs which probably set their recovery back a little more than it would have otherwise been. Needless to say, my training has been very inconsistent leading into Wasaga Beach, but my training all winter and early in the season was good so I figured I would see what happens at Wasaga.

       I got to spend the night in Collingwood the night before the race, and with a late start time of 10:30am, I was able to get plenty of sleep. I did Wasaga Beach last year and the swim was very challenging because the waves were strong. I expected the same this year. And combined with my lack of swimming in the weeks leading up, my main focus for the swim was to get through it without any rib pain, which was a success.

        The same thing that happened last year at Wasaga Beach on the bike happened to me again this year: my legs felt weak and tired. I'm not sure if this was from the wavy swim or from being out of shape, but it was frustrating and very mentally draining.

      Shortly after starting the run I felt some pain in my foot (something that happened a couple weeks ago from trying to run with sore ribs because my gait was messed up). I dropped out of the race after 5k because I decided it wasn't worth worsening my injury.

         Despite the race not going well I still had a great time, which shows me that my enjoyment of the sport isn't necessarily dependent on performing well. I was hoping this wouldn't be the case, but unfortunately I'm going to have to end my season early and pull out of Barrelman, which was the focus of my training over the past year. It's very disappointing, but I've learned that I don't just enjoy the racing, but the process of training and preparing, which is a very satisfying realization. Right now it's about resting up and getting back to it. Next season the vast majority of my season will once again be geared towards competing in the Multisport Canada Recharge with Milk Series and Barrelman

Kingston Long-Course Triathlon 2016 Post-race Report

       Kingston is one of my favourite races and is therefore always a premiere race on my schedule. Maybe it's because it's the hometown race, maybe it's because it always brings out some of Ontario's best or maybe it's because I love the long but not long course feel of the distances. Nevertheless, one thing is for sure, for as long as I am racing triathlons I'll be making the trip on the long weekend to Kingston to do the long course triathlon. Last year, Kingston was my first long course race. This year my training was a lot more conducive to long course racing and I was excited to tear it up.

       I had a bit of a tumble on my bike last Tuesday and wasn't quite sure how it would affect my race today. I'm not exactly sure how it happened, but I forgot to clip in on my left side at the start of a ride and slid off my pedal. I scraped up my side and hands pretty good, but the main problem was that my ribs on my left side got pretty beat up. This made it pretty difficult to swim and makes it difficult to breathe while I run.

       Luckily I was able to do the 2k swim with no issues. The plan was to start out steady and maintain good form throughout the swim. My pace felt pretty good but I ended up being a minute slower than last year. I'm not sure why I am swimming so poorly this year but it is definitely a weakness I have to correct. It's a long race but it's tough to make up 7 minutes on the leaders out of the water. Pulling myself out of the water onto the dock was pretty painful on my ribs, so I entered T1 in a considerable amount of discomfort.

      For the bike we had a headwind on the way out and a tail wind on the way back, which I prefer. I really like the 56.2k distance on the bike. It requires a considerable amount of endurance, but you still get to bike at a pretty fast speed. I was able to pass a few people and did the bike in 1:27:19 (~38.6kph); 30 seconds faster than last year, which I was fairly happy with.

      My run was going to be the big question of the day. I have been running exceptionally well this year, but feel like I haven't had the chance to display this at races yet, and was determined to make Kingston the race where I showed what I can do on the run. My first 3 races this year (Woodstock, Guelph Lake, Welland) were extremely hot so my run felt like a jog. I had a fantastic run at Gravenhurst 3 weeks later, but went off course and ended up adding 2 minutes to my overall time. I was fit and motivated to have a big run at Kingston, but I was unsure how I would feel with my bike crash 2 weeks ago, especially after swimming 2k. Unfortunately as soon as I started my run I knew it wouldn't be great. I got that familiar cramp right under my bruised rib that I have been dealing with the past 2 weeks and didn't feel like I was able to open up during the run. Despite this, the run actually ended up going not terribly, but I finished the race feeling like I had tons of energy left that I wasn't able to unleash because my ribs were preventing me from running as fast as I could have. I ended up in 6th place overall behind some pretty fast dudes, so I have absolutely no shame there.

      The weather turned out and this race was a ton of fun. Thanks to Multisport Canada for doing a great job at this iconic race, and thanks to LPC for providing a great group to train with leading up. I've got 4 weeks to heal up before Multisport Canada Wasaga Beach Olympic Triathlon and am looking forward to some solid training with LPC in the meantime.

Gravenhurst Olympic Triathlon 2016 Post-race Report

        Last year, Gravenhurst was my very first Olympic distance triathlon. And like many of the races I do with Multisport Canada, I end up having a great time and coming back the following year. Because I was and always will be a rookie, I for some reason thought it would be a good idea last year to get my race wheels set-up with my new latex tubes the night before in the hotel room. I was not very experienced at changing tires/tubes so I stayed up late fumbling with my new race wheels and ended up puncturing one of my latex tubes. Luckily, I appear to be learning from my mistakes, as this year I made sure my bike was set-up and ready to go with plenty of time the day before. Emma and I stayed at a friend's cottage in the area the night before and woke up well rested for the race.

      The swim is fun at this one because they drive you out to the middle of the lake in one of the iconic boats from the Muskoka Wharf, push you out of the moving boat and make you swim to shore. This course can be tough if sighting is not one of your strong suits, which is typically the case with me, but I was fine this time and was able to have a pretty good swim.

       The plan for the bike was to crush it to test how well I could run after really going for it on the bike. My legs didn't really have it today though so I wasn't able to push it as much as I would have liked, but nevertheless the hilly winding roads made it a fun bike course.

      I felt fresh and ready to go heading into the run. Despite doing this race last year with no issues, I for some reason randomly took a left when I was supposed to go straight during the first km and found myself off course. Maybe it was because so many of my LPC teammates had issues on the bike and I wanted to fit in, maybe the sun was in my eyes, or maybe I'm a rookie for life and didn't look at the course maps ahead of time. But whatever the reason, it happened, and despite feeling fast and relaxed and finally having a good run this season, I finished in 37:05 (funny enough in about the same time I did it in last year without going off course). My first km (where I went off course) was about 5:30, and my remaining kms were about 3:30, so I would say the run was good for a 35:05, which I am (or would have been) very happy with. It's a little frustrating finally being able to run in less than 35 degree weather, and despite feeling good still messing up getting a fast time. But it's motivation to go and crush it at Kingston in a couple weeks, where I had my best race of the season last year.

      This race was as always a ton of fun. I will certainly be back next year. And I even got to enjoy the cottage life afterwards.

What's camping without a boat selfie.

Welland Long Course Triathlon 2016 Post-race Report

     My feet hurt. And so do my legs, and my sunburnt skin, and pretty much my entire body. The Welland Long Course Tri, despite being a flat and fast course, was tough. Mother nature certainly took its toll. Do I have any regrets about racing? No way.

     Apparently when making summer plans I can't tell the difference between June and July. I found out on Friday (June 24th) that a daylong outdoor concert I got tickets to wasn't July 25th like I thought, but it was June 25th, aka tomorrow, aka the day before Welland. I didn't want to miss the concert, and there was no way I was missing Welland, so I went to the concert and was 'that guy' sitting in the shade, drinking water and eating a carb-loaded beaver tail. I may have been a buzz kill to a few rowdy fellow Billy Talent lovers, but I was able to not get too much sun, stay hydrated and take in a bunch of carbs from the various food vendors. And yes the show was awesome.

     After a solid 4.5 hours of sleep it was off to Welland. I was feeling strong and ready to go. The Welland Long Course Tri (and the Kingston Long Course Tri) is a unique distance: 2k swim, 56k bike, 15k run. Although I've only done this distance once before in Kingston last year, and although my body doesn't currently agree right now, I think it is my favourite. It presents all of the aspects of long course racing that I enjoy, but doesn't actually take all that long to do, relatively speaking of course. Not to mention the Welland venue is fantastic. Smooth swimming in a canal, a super flat and fast bike course, and a 3 loop run along the canal.

      My swim is certainly not my strong suit, and this is a long race. Therefore, the goal for the swim was to not start too fast, maintain a smooth relaxed rhythm, and try and catch some feet to draft. I never really found anyone to draft, but stayed smooth and relaxed (maybe a little too relaxed) and came out of the water feeling fresh.

     The goal for the bike was to stay strong and relaxed. It's a fast course and I wanted a fast time. The first half of the bike was into the wind and I was moving well and felt strong. On the way back we had the wind at our backs so it felt a little easier. I was moving well and was on pace for a fast time. Nothing was going to get in my way. Except for a freight train. Not metaphorically. With about 3k to go in the bike there was a train sitting across the road. Luckily the driver must have realized there was a race, so he backed up to let us by, and I didn't end up sitting there for that long. According to my watch I biked 1:26:50 (38.7kph), whereas on Sportstats my time is 1:27:54, so I must have been stopped at the train for about a minute. Despite this unexpected incident, it was handled well by Sportstats and the race crew, they just ended up subtracting the short time we were stopped at the train from our overall time. Overall it was a strong ride and I felt good heading into the run.

       The goal was to open the first 3k no faster than 3:50s, then build throughout the race. In a long course race, especially when it is almost 40 degrees out, the first 3k of the run are in my opinion the most important part of the race. It's easy to take them too fast and doing so will make the remaining 12k much slower and very painful. I opened my first 2k exactly as planned, but at that point I got a sharp cramp under my right rib. I slowed it down a bit and ran a 4min k, and it went away so I picked it back up again. But at the 10k mark it came back and stuck around for the rest of the race. I'm still not sure what caused the cramp. If anyone has any ideas let me know. I drank a bottle and a half of sportdrink on the bike, although I guess it's possible that wasn't enough. It could have been because I was riding hard in the aero position for so long and it made my ab muscles tight. Or it could have simply been an unavoidable consequence of the heat. If anyone has experienced anything similar please share.

     Despite being broken, beaten and scarred by mother nature and my first long course race of the season, I had a great day. The race was really well organized, the venue is awesome and I love the unique distance. If there's one thing I can say for sure, it is that for as long as I am doing triathlon, I will be racing the Welland Long Course and Kingston Long Course races. Thanks to Multisport Canada for putting on a great race and having me as an ambassador for the sport, and to the LPC hurdle project for the continued support. Next up is the Multisport Canada Gravenhurst Olympic Triathlon, after of course the Canada Day fireworks at the LPC time trial this Friday.

June 2016 Multisport Canada Training Article

It's all in the little things

I wanted to make one of my Multisport Canada training articles on all of the little things you can do in your daily routine that can actually end up having a significant effect on your performance and training. Small habits that are easy to incorporate but are often overlooked by athletes (myself included). Somehow it took me years to get these very simple things figured out, maybe because I didn't realize collectively how large of an impact they would end up having on my performance (and general well-being), or maybe because I wasn't sure how to implement them. Regardless, I now consider these simple habits essential components of my training, and hopefully I can convince you to incorporate some of them into your routine.

1) We'll start with the easiest and most obvious one, notwithstanding my opinion that its importance is still vastly underrated. The first tip is staying hydrated. And I don't mean hydrating properly during exercise (although this is obviously important as well, and something that I mess up more times than I don't), but I mean staying hydrated throughout the day, every day. This is an important distinction. About 6 years ago when I first started triathlon, and had been running somewhat competitively for a few years prior, my legs felt like they were ALWAYS TIGHT AND TIRED, both during and not during exercise (quiet grammar police). I had no idea why. It turned out the issue was a result of not being properly hydrated. The simple fix was to carry around a reusable water bottle, everywhere, and sip on it throughout the day. This is one of the simplest but most effective tricks I've ever incorporated into my training. There's 4 items I bring with me pretty much everywhere I go: my phone, my keys, my wallet and my water bottle. I dare you to try and catch me without it this summer.

2) The next point I want to bring up is a CONSISTENT core/strength routine. I already did an article on exercising the glut med, so I won't talk about it again, aside from reminding you that it is the most important exercise you'll ever do as a runner/triathlete. I just wanted to highlight the importance of performing a consistent gym routine. This doesn't have to be in a gym however. For the past year, I've been doing 20mins 3x/week of simple, mostly body weight exercises in my apartment. 20min strength workouts are probably the shortest that I've ever planned into a gym routine, but I've been able to do them consistently week after week, month after month and have seen better results than I ever have while trying to do longer gym sessions, less consistently.

3) Next, I want to bring up something that I think a lot of endurance athletes simply don't realize may be an issue. And that is iron levels. I think low iron and/or anemia effects more endurance athletes than you may realize (yes, guys too). It's something that I constantly struggle with, as do many other runners and triathletes that I know. Something you can always try to do more of as an endurance athlete is incorporate iron and vitamin C into your diet, and if needed maybe consider supplementation.

4) My final suggestion is making small, sustainable changes to eating healthy. This is more about developing the habit than anything else. I find something that worked really well for me is making a goal to get 2 servings of fruits or vegetables every day. Canada's Food Guide recommends closer to 8-10. But starting by making sure you get 2 every day, no matter what, is a good start and will build the habit of incorporating them into your routine.

You can catch me at the Multisport Canada Welland Long Course Triathlon this weekend. If you see me at the finish line and I am still conscious, make sure to say hi.

Woodstock Sprint Triathlon 2016 Post-race Report

The weather forecast the night before the Woodstock triathlon was wild. Not only was it insanely hot, there were thunderstorms all day. Luckily, the thunderstorms held off and it actually turned out to be a nice day... for the spectators. Humid and windy is not exactly great racing conditions, but compared to thunderstorms cancelling the race, I welcomed it with open arms.

This was the first race of the season. After a longgg fall/winter/spring of really solid training, I was ready and excited to finally get the race season underway. This was the first year that I spent the entire 'off' season training with no racing (aka no cross country or indoor track season); just training all the way from October 2015 until, well, now (aside from the Around the Bay 5k in March). The combination of a long winter of training, not having to worry about my thesis this summer (I'm finally a real person with a real job) and because I'm feeling really fit, I have decided to do a lot of racing this summer. Because I enjoy racing local, I'm able to fit in a lot more races because travel time is relatively minor and inexpensive. I am therefore excited that I am back again as an Ambassador for Multisport Canada and the Recharge with Milk Triathlon Series, I will be competing in many of their races this year.

This was the first race that I decided to implement caffeine (a known, legal performance enhancer) into my pre race routine. I stopped at a Tims on the way to the race site and got my medium coffee, which contains 205mg of caffeine. I know from testing this out during workouts (once), that if I finish my coffee 1 hour and 15 mins before the race start, I won't have to go to the bathroom during the race, but the benefits of the caffeine will not have worn off.

My swim has historically not been my strong suit, and this season is no different. The goal therefore for the swim today was to stay relaxed, maintain good form and not kick too much, so I could have a strong showing on the bike and run. The goal was to swim 12:00, which is a reasonable pace for the training I have been doing and one in which I would hopefully not drop too far back in the race. However, I got to the transition zone in about 13:30. This was disappointing but I wasn't going to let it ruin me because I knew I had the potential to post some fast times on the bike and run.

Despite the tough winds on the bike course, I thought my bike went really well. I felt strong and was able to catch and pass about 15 people, which put me into the top 10 heading into the run, my strongest leg of the race.

As soon as I started the run I knew it was not going to be as fast as I was hoping. Maybe it was the tough winds on the bike or the humidity that had developed, but the run was tough. Luckily, I think everyone else in the race felt the same way. I was able to run down a couple more people and finished the race in 7th.

Overall it was a very solid first race of the season. I would like to thank the LPC hurdle project for their ongoing support, as well as Multisport Canada for having me back as an ambassador this year.

Luckily, along with chocolate milk, they had pepsi post race instead of coke.

Next up is the club champs at Guelph Lake next weekend and then Multisport Canada Welland Long Course Triathlon the following weekend.

Winter Recap, Looking Ahead

          The racing season for many of us begins in about 8 weeks at the Multisport Canada Recharge with Milk Woodstock Sprint Triathlon, which is the (un)official rust-breaker for Ontario racing. Throughout the winter we try desperately to find ways to analyze and assess how our training is going: TTs, FTP tests and other assorted acronyms, but the first real test is always that first race. In this blog I'll go over some of my winter results and what some of my goals are for the upcoming season.

          I finished school at Queen's in October (random month to finish, I know) and have subsequently moved back to Guelph. This has allowed me to do a sizable portion of training over the winter with my LPC and Hurdle Project teammates. Aside from the training, I am currently working full-time at Gryph's restaurant on campus (until it closes April 22nd), actively (some may say desperately) looking for a job for the summer and beyond, and doing a sizeable amount of volunteering in the community. Needless to say, I am pretty busy. Despite this, the training is going very well and I have been able to remain remarkably consistent, which is one of my personal goals for the season.

          On February 2nd I swam an 800m TT (time trial). Very much like your stereotypical triathlete, I was more nervous about diving off of the blocks than I was for the TT itself. Turns out I was worried for nothing, it wasn't as bad as I thought (aka they let me avoid the dive and just push off the wall - with only minimal ridicule from my Hurdle Project 'teammates'). My goal was to swim 12 flat, however I ended up going 12:29.5, which was a bit of a disappointing performance.  Later, on February 21st, I swam a much more laid back 800m TT. I came through 400 in 6:00, right on pace, but finished in 12:15. So I am still a little off of my goal for the winter, but like I say, the real test will be the actual races when we get out into the open water.

          March 3rd was the Around the Bay 5k road race that myself and a few other LPCers competed in. There was a snowstorm the night before the race but the morning of, the roads were clear and weather posed no issue. If anything, I seem to perform better in the cold than the heat, so a temperature of about -10 on race day meant it was time to break out the short shorts. The race went well. Around the Bay 5k is 2.5k out and 2.5k back. There was a chilly wind on the way out so I tucked in with a pack and put in a bit of surge at 2k knowing I was very close to goal pace and that this is typically the time in a race where you fall off of pace (as I could feel happening with this pack). The way back was slightly downhill and the wind was at our backs so I put all of my focus on my pace and pushed it to the cool indoor finish line that Around the Bay puts together. My goal for about a year now has been to go sub 16 (something that a few years ago I thought I would never be capable of doing), and I went 15:57.

          The following weekend was the final LPC FTP (functional threshold power) test of the winter. More appropriately named the '20 minutes of unrelenting agony test', it is essentially a 20 minute all-out effort indoors trying to achieve as high of an average power as possible. This 20 minute value is later multiplied by .95 to estimate the power you would be able to hold over an hour of all-out effort, but I will focus on my 20 minute power in this post.  A bit of a history on my FTP tests. In 2015 I did a test in December and again in April, where I improved from 305Watts to 351W. When I did the test this January, the average power I was able to hold over the 20 minutes was 327W, much higher than that time last year. This past weekend I averaged 341W. So a little disappointing from what I thought may have been possible. I weighed in at 75kg before the test, so my relative 20 minute FTP was 4.55W/kg, which is actually similar to last year's because my weight is down a bit this year. But this is the problem with these winter tests is that you can over think and over analyze your results, when really, as I have been saying, the real test is really that first race. I am feeling very strong on the bike and am confident that despite the FTP test results I am stronger than last year, so will not let it deter me.

            This post has been longer than I was expecting, so if you made it this far congratulations, you have too much time on your hands. But I'm glad that you did because I have one more thing to mention, and it is by far the most important. I am thrilled to be a part of the Multisport Canada Recharge with Milk Ambassador team again this year. Their contribution to young/student athletes is invaluable and I hope it doesn't go unnoticed, it certainly doesn't by me. And of course I will be representing LPC and the Hurdle Project again this year and would not be where I am without them.

Look for me at the following races this summer:

Woodstock Sprint Tri

Guelph Lake Olympic Tri (Club Champs)

Welland Long Course Tri

Toronto Triathlon Festival Olympic Tri (Club Team Challenge)

K-Town Long Course Tri

Wasaga Beach Olympic Tri

and once again... the Barrelman Half Iron Distance Tri

             You may have noticed that all of these races are local. Aside from them all being very fun and well organized, there will be more than enough competition at each of them. Look for me at the finish line and feel free to ask me about my race and talk to me about yours.