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.
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