Welland Long-Course Triathlon 2017 Post-race Report

Leading up to the race

Getting the bike ready to go
pre-race

The Multisport Canada Welland Long-Course Triathlon was my first A-race and first long-course race this season. More than any other season, the focus of my training over the past 8 months has been on long-course racing. That means more lonely long steady effort intervals at a pace that's just slow enough to be boring but just fast enough to be difficult. That being said I really like long-course and think it really suits me.

Welland long-course triathlon is perfect for anyone looking to build up to the longer half-iron distance races. It's distances (2k swim, 56k bike, 15k run) are a nice stepping stone from the standard distance. You add that it is flat and fast, and Welland becomes the ideal early season race for the those looking to get their feet wet (ha, puns) and test the waters (ok that's enough) of long-course racing and for others looking to hone their skills, pacing, nutrition etc. to be competitive in a future half-distance race.

The swim

It's amazing how spectator friendly the swim is at Welland and how many spectators come out to watch. The grandstands that overlook the Welland Canal were full of people which made for a very fun atmosphere. My swim has been feeling good in the past few weeks so for the first time I was excited to get into the water as opposed to nervous. My goal was to catch a draft and hope to swim around 1:35-1:37/100m. Also, for the first time ever I was just as worried about those who would be chasing me out of the water as I was about those I had to try and catch on the bike and run. I'm usually the hunter not the hunted (which is just a cool way of saying my swim sucks). But with guys like Matt Straatman (who ended up having the fastest bike split) and Chris Balestrini (who ended up having the fastest run split) coming out of the water after me, I had to be ready for a role reversal.

Once the gun went off I ended up catching a draft off of someone going about 1:30/100m and challenged myself to stay on their feet as long as I reasonably could without burning too many matches. I stuck with them on the way out and was dropped at the first turn (so about 900m out). I swam solo on the way back and averaged 1:37/100m for the swim. Overall, a good swim in my books (and over 2mins faster than last year). I'll keep working hard in the pool and maybe at Kingston Long-Course in August I'll be able to stay on the draft for the whole time.

The bike

The bike course is flat and fast. That being said, we had a decent head wind on the way out and a tail wind on the way back. It was important to be disciplined on the first half so you didn't burn all your matches for the potential speed gains on the second half (wind or no wind there's not much you can do if your burnt out). For some perspective, my average speed on the way out was 36kph and was 46kph on the way back (not including the loop). I was able to catch about 5 people throughout the bike, and was passed by Matt Straatman at about the 40km mark. I knew that his wave started 1min behind mine, so I worked hard not to let him pull away too much because not only would I have to pass him on the run but I would have to put another minute on him on top of that, which is not easy.

The run

As I started my first lap of the run course I looked up into transition and saw Chris Balestrini coming in off his bike. It was difficult to stay disciplined in the first km of the run knowing he was coming after me and that I had a few people ahead to try and chase down. I'm going to pause here and say that this is one of the things I love about the Multisport Canada races, that they attract strong local competition but do so in a friendly supportive atmosphere. It makes for very fun racing.

Look at those Zizus shine

Anyway, back my story. Chris passed me at about the 9k mark. He was flying and I wasn't feeling great so I wasn't able to stick with him (which would have been a tall task even if I was feeling amazing). Matt looked very strong for the first 10k but faded in the last 5 and I was able to reel him in to secure 4th place.

Top 5 of the day

Post-race

Overall I am very happy with my race. I took 10 minutes off of my time from last year, improving in all 3 disciplines. Multisport Canada put on a fantastic race and it was very fun to race with everyone who showed up. Many of us who raced today are racing in Gravenhurst on July 15th, which promises to be equally as fun and exciting. I would like to thank LPC and the Hurdle Project for all of their support, Multisport Canada for putting on this amazing race and supporting me as an ambassador, and Zizu Optics for the awesome sunglasses that helped get me through the grueling 15k run.

John's entourage

National Age-Group Standard Triathlon Championships 2017 Post-race Report

Leading up to the race

The hotel had Cinnamon Toast Crunch!

                I was very excited for this race. Not only was it the first triathlon of the season, but it was Nationals, it was in Ottawa (meaning I got to make a really fun trip out of it with my LPC teammates), and my race was the first of the weekend (meaning I got to relax afterwards and watch the other races). I raced in the age-group standard distance event Saturday morning. The other events were the age-group draft-legal sprint distance race on Sunday and the elite/pro draft-legal race (which was split into super-sprint distance qualifying heats on the Saturday and sprint distance finals on the Sunday, and involved current and future Olympians – I know right, exciting!)

                I arrived in Ottawa Thursday early evening with Jack (Laundry), did some wandering around the city with James (Loaring), Ben (Rudson) and Garrick (Loewen) – who were my hotel buddies, and relaxed on Friday playing Facebook Messenger games before going to do some very easy race prep on the course that evening. Then it was off to bed early with the impending 4am wake-up Saturday morning.

                A goal of mine for the past couple of years has been to break the 2-hour barrier in the standard/Olympic distance triathlon, and this was going to be the race I did it. I anticipated I would have to swim 1:35/100m (23:45 over 1500m), bike at least 40kph (1 hour over 40k) and run 3:30/km (35:00 over 10k). I was hopeful that doing this would also get me the win in the race. When we got to the race site Saturday morning I was ready to go.

The swim

I liked my new goggles so much I couldn't take them off

                A few weeks ago I did a fun local event in Guelph called the Stroke and Stride; a laid back swim-run race. My T1 was ridiculously slow as I was on the ground struggling to pull off my wetsuit. I could not afford that wasted time at Nationals so prior to heading down to the swim start I loaded so much pam on the lower legs of my wetsuit it would have made even Mr. Christie cringe. Another change for this season was the switch from the cheapest goggles I could find to a pair of reflected Speedo Vanquishers (a difference of only like $12 to $25). This has made a HUGE difference in my open water swimming. I never realized how important being able to see was.

                My swim went exactly as I had hoped. I caught feet early and drafted the entire thing to an average of 1:35/100m. After ~1450m (the course was short) of recklessly thrashing at Nick Kolodzie and Adam Doxtator’s feet while trying to draft them it was off to the transition zone to grab my bike. The pam worked great by the way, wetsuit slid right off.

The bike

My sweet new Zizu sunglasses (thank you Zizu for the support!)

                I was onto the bike knowing I had the tall task ahead of chasing down Adam and Nick (who were 20 seconds up and historically faster cyclists than me), Ben (who was a bit of a wild card on the bike and was about 3mins up on me) and a small group of others whose skillsets I knew nothing about. I focused on holding a consistent effort and getting my average speed up above 40kph. I surprisingly caught Adam about 10km into the 2 loop 40km bike course (I think he was having a bit of an off day). Nick and I traded the lead a few times throughout the course. I put in a gradual surge over the last 10km to create some separation from Nick and Adam and hopefully bridge the gap on Ben as best I could. He actually ended up putting time on me vs me catching up to him. That was not a part of the plan.

The run

                I started the run with my legs feeling a little heavy, but this went away about 1km into the run. I was in 6^th place starting the run. James and Mark yelled at me that I was only 2 minutes down from second place. The run course was 4 loops, each starting with a hill. Knowing it was a slow course I focused on my effort level and didn’t even look at my watch. Slowly but surely I started passing people, gaining confidence each time, and worked my way into 3^rd. On the final loop I looked at my watch and saw my average pace was 3:30/km, and I was feeling good. I picked up the pace a little to see if I could bridge the gap on 2^nd place (though ultimately was not able to do so), and go after that sub 2-hour goal. I got my average pace down to 3:27/km, checked my time as I went down the final hill towards the finish line and realized the run course was short of 10km (it was more like 8.5-9km). I crossed the line and was greeted by teammate (and race winner) Ben. My race time was 1:55:29, which was actually sort of unfortunate because breaking 2-hours doesn’t really count when the course is short. Based on my paces I would have been very close to breaking 2-hours, but this is here-say at this point.

Reflections

                Overall it was possibly my best race ever and was an amazing trip. This weekend both gave me confidence and motivation moving forward with this season.

My attention

quickly turns to the Multisport Canada Welland Long-Course Triathlon this up-coming weekend. I would like to thank LPC and the Hurdle Project for the never ending support, Multisport Canada for having me on their Ambassador team for a third time, and my newest supported Zizu Optics for the amazing sunglasses! Look for me at Welland this weekend sporting my Zizu’s and ready to have a big race in my first long-course event of the year.