After a disappointing race at ITU Monroe last saturday (27th overall, partially due to a horrible swim,) things are finally starting to look up for my swim after yesterday’s Subaru Vancouver Half Ironman. The day breaks down like this:

Being a 6:30am start, my day started pretty early (up at 3:45am,) which seemed even earlier after a bad night sleep (tossing and turning, seems to be a trend the last few nights.) But alas, the show must go on, so after some breakfast it was off to the race site at Jericho beach. Mum decided to brave the early morning start, and came out to watch the race. Best Mum ever, she was up before 4am too, and on a sunday no less!!!!

Coming out of the water, RIGHT behind Martina

Arriving at the race around 5:15am, I quickly got into transition and set everything up. It was still cloudy as heck, but it had stopped raining and looked like it would start to slowly clear up. After a short warm-up run, and a bit of a swim (the water wasn’t actually too cold today either,) I was toeing the start line, in my Nineteen Frequency, ready for action! Beside me was Elliot Holtham, Anthony Toth, Scott Curry, Rachel McBride, and Martina Wan, among others (all great swimmers.) Since I’ve been having some trouble with the swim lately, my goal was to go out hard, and try to settle into a solid rhythm on someone’s feet who was pushing the pace.

With a blast of the airhorn, the race was off!!!! Smashing, bashing, kicking, and punching (typical of a triathlon swim start,) I fought hard to keep a good position. I was sprinting hard, and managed to get myself into clear water. I noticed the faster swimmers making a bit of a wide right arc, but I held my straight line to the first swim buoy. Around it I went, and I realized that I was in open water, with nobody in front of me (except for the front pack of guys, slowly pulling away.) I was feeling amazing, and settled into a great rhythm right away. After loop one, it was out of the water and around the beach buoy, and to my amazement, I was pretty far ahead, and within spitting distance of the lead pack! All I could hear was screaming and yelling of the crowd in excitement, along with coach Bjoern yelling some kind of encouragement (I think; if you’ve ever had to get out of the water mid-swim to run around a buoy, you’d know that you’re in a state of confusion and utter discombobulation, so you never really know WHAT’S going on! For all I know coach could’ve been screaming that the weather looked like it was clearing up.) Back into the water I dove, with a hard sprint to keep my time down. Closing in on the final stretch of water, I noticed someone pulling up beside me in another Nineteen wetsuit. I thought it was Andrew Powell, a friend and training partner. Then another person pulled up beside me, and I was pretty sure it was Martina Wan. I looked again, and I was really sure. “Boy,” I thought, “Martina must be having a REALLY bad swim today, if she’s been on my feet this whole time!!” Martina has been swimming extremely well lately, so I thought it weird she’d be swimming around me. Coming out of the water, all I could hear was Coach yelling “you’re only 1min 30sec down from the leaders!” I was amazed!! I thought they could swim faster than that. Then coach yelled my time out, “25:30.” That helped slam me into another gear, as that was amazingly fast for me.

out of T1, 1min30sec down from the leaders!

Finally, a great swim!!! Must’ve been my Nineteen Frequency;)

Out onto the bike, I knew I had some work to do. It was a tough bike course, 4 loops (each loop included a big hill climb and 3 turn around points,) making it 91km’s. I managed to take the lead for about half a loop (after the two leaders took a bit of a detour,) but by the 3rd loop, Toth, Curry, and Holtham had caught me and pulled by. I wasn’t feeling it on the bike, even though my nutrition was bang-on (using Eload and FLY in my bottles, as well as a hand-full of Eload GELS throughout,) I started to feel the fatigue in my legs climbing the start of the 3rd loop (from some heavy training this week, part of my build for Ironman 70.3 Vineman.) I tried my damnest to keep up with Elliot, (which I was able to accomplish for the 3rd loop,) but as I lost sight of Anthony and Scott, Elliot started to pull away starting the 4th loop (when I really started to feel the fatigue in my legs.) I decided I would try to save a bit for the run, as I was starting to hurt.

Heading out, got some work to do!!

Pushing hard through the middle of the run

Finishing the run strong, keeping up form!

Coming into T2, I got the coach’s report that I was 5mins down from Scott (the leader,) and about 1:30 down from Elliot (3rd.) My legs just didn’t seem to get into running until about 3 or 4km’s into the run, and even then, they left something to be desired. I ended up running alone the whole run (other than on the second loop, when I ran into a bunch of athletes on their first loop, which was REALLY motivating, as many were good friends of mine.) My feet started to hurt mid-run (I race sockless,) so being a learning experience, I’ll be racing halves in socks from now on. I just pushed as hard as I could the second half of the run, hitting my Eload Gels and water to keep my energy up. It was frustrating to not be gaining on the leaders, especially when a podium spot was right in front of me, and I was having a rough run. I never really got into my ‘zone’ on the run (highlighted by the fact my Mum told me I looked tired out there and wasn’t running as fast as I usually do when I race,) and I definitely found it tougher to mentally push myself without having Elliot within sight. My New Balance Minimus shoes performed brilliantly (a minimalist shoe, with only a 4mm heel to toe drop, giving me a great feel for the ground.) My goal was to keep reminding myself about form and technique, which I feel I did well. I just ran strong, and still managed to break out the second fastest run of the day (a 1:15:04 for the 20km’s.) I’m SUPER glad I wore my new Compressport Ultra Silicon calf guards today, as my calves were probably the ONLY part of my body that felt perfect the entire day! They performed their job with perfection, keeping my calves fresh. Even today, the day after the race, my calves feel outstanding!

Some post-race words with announcer Jordan Back

Finishing just off the podium, in 4th place with a 4:06:13 clocking for the half ironman, I was pretty happy with my performance for a training race. I learned a ton of valuable lessons during the race (which is great, seeing as it was my first half ironman in a LONG time,) lessons that will no doubt help me in my debut professional race at Ironman 70.3 Vineman in two weeks, as well as the Subaru Sooke Half Ironman 3 weeks after that.

It was great to be out at the race, and to watch a lot of friends have some outstanding performances, many people setting PB’s for the half-iron distance. Special thanks to the volunteers, who made the race possible, as well as everyone who came out to cheer for the athletes!!! I have to thank Coach Bjoern especially, as he was in a half-dead state with the flu, but still made it out to coach us through the race, and make sure everyone was prepared!! Thanks Bjoern!!!

Also a thanks to all my sponsors, who’ve made training and racing this season a possibility. Without their support, I wouldn’t be where I am now.

That’s it for now, time to put in a solid week before the taper to the Vineman Half in two weeks. Time to get down to business, to prepare to race some of the best pro’s this sport has to offer!!! Happy training and racing people, enjoy the summer sun that’s finally arrived:)

Sitting here on race morning, looking outside the windows at the weather, I’m feeling this pit in the bottom of my stomach.

Rain.

Cold.

Being from the Lower Mainland, you would think this doesn’t phase me. Maybe it doesn’t, maybe it does. I just finished watching last weekend’s ITU World Championship Series Kitzbuhel, and THAT was rain. Kind of puts the rain here into perspective, as it most definitely isn’t raining THAT hard! It brings back a concept that someone told me, when I first started triathlon, that if it’s raining on race day, it’s not JUST raining on me, it’s raining on EVERYONE! So everyone is gonna get wet, and affected by the rain. Some deal with it well (think Alistair Brownlee in Kitzbuhel, blazing away from the field in the pouring rain,) some not so well (memories of ITU Pan Am Cup Kelowna last year, for myself!)

After watching some videos and listening to some music to get myself amped up about the race, and to ignore the fact that I’ll be getting wet, I decided to jump over to the faithful Weather Network, to see what the weather might hold in store for us later (our race doesn’t start until 2:45pm, which is generally the norm for ITU Elite Men’s races. A fellow I talked to yesterday said he’s started a race as late as 4:30pm!!!!)

Holy JUMPIN’ JEEBUS!!! What do I see, but something that put’s a smile on my face, and brightens my day (literally!!)

Approx. weather at race start!!! WOOHOO!!!!

So perhaps the weather just might cooperate after-all:)

Looking at the ITU website’s start list, and seeing the competition at the race briefing yesterday, it’s going to be a FAST field! With some of Canada’s top athletes, like Andrew Russel and Andrew McCartney, as well as some high ranked ITU elites (Hunter Kemper,) there will be some devastation on the course today for sure.

The goal for today? Try and keep my loss in the swim minimal, and keep within a certain percentage of the overall leader (try not to get lapped!lol) Realistically? With the 44 dude field, I’d like to finish top 20. We’ll see how it goes, as I pulled my right shin/calf muscle running on knobby grass two days ago, while jogging an easy 30 minutes (really, who pulls their shin muscle? What’s with that?!?!?) It really depends how it holds together on the run, as to how well the race goes. With a two loop swim, 8 loop bike (5km loops, that gives me only a small margin of error in the swim, as I can’t get lapped on the bike!!) and a 4 loop run (an absolutely beautiful run course, it’s a 10,830m course, on a perfectly paved course around a man-made lake (you can actually watch the ENTIRE RUN COURSE from transition, such a spectator friendly course.)

Time to get everything together, and get ready to head down to transition to watch the start of the Elite Women’s race (including Vancouverite and fellow Lifesport athlete Martina Wan.)

Best of luck out there to everyone today (including Elliot Holtham, a friend of mine with a TON of talent, competing in his first ITU Pan AM cup.) Happy racing, and happy training!!!

6 days away from the next big race, and I’m starting to feel the nerves a little. My next excursion to the triathlon battleground is down in Monroe, Washington, for the ITU Pan American cup next Saturday. I’ll be traveling down with Elliot Holtham (another elite competing,) and I’m getting REALLY excited! My last big ITU race was a bit of a bust, (or a huge learning experience, glass half-full 😉 haha,) so I’m hoping this race will be a bit of a different experience. The field looks a lot smaller than Kelowna was last year, but still has some amazing athletes, many of whom can swim like a fish!! This seems to be my downfall, although my swimming has been improving lately (with careful guidance from Coach Bjoern.) Fingers crossed for a wetsuit swim this time ’round!!

This should be a good week, the focus is on this race. Hopefully the weather hangs in there for us, it would be great to have a nice sunny, hot day to race on!!

I hope everyone can get out and enjoy the sun this week, and Happy Father’s Day to all the dad’s out there!!! Hope it’s a great one!

Happy Training 🙂

The only thing better than racing on a beautiful spring morning, is pulling off a win at that same race. That’s exactly what I was able to do out there in Shawnigan Lake at the Olympic distance triathlon, and what a day it was!

Lifesport was able to hook me up with a homestay, the two most fantastic hosts I could imagine, Al and Anne Brunet. They lived directly across the lake from the transition area (no, seriously, he had binoculars so we could check from his porch who was over at transition,) in a gorgeous house with a huge basement suite, where I was staying (the whole thing ALL to myself!) They were so inviting and generous, the best place to stay in Shawnigan Lake;) I arrived two days before the race, and got myself all nice and comfortable.

So race morning went smoothly, as we had a late race start (8:30am) I was in NO rush to get up at any ridiculous time (which is the usual, around 3:30-4am in some cases,) so I arrived well rested with lots of time to spare. After drinking down a bottle full of Eload and Fly (carbohydrate drink,) and my warm-up run, it was time to get in the water. My new Nineteen Frequency SL wetsuit is outstanding! I’ve been using a Frequency from 2008, and when I got the 2011 model, I thought it was the same thing.

WRONG!

Exiting the water in the Nineteen Frequency

As soon as I put it on, I realized there were some MAJOR advances in the technology. The neoprene was is far more flexible, and much thinner through the shoulders and arms. I have much better feel for the water, and almost no restriction through the shoulders. Although my swimming hasn’t been too great lately, it helped me out of the water in third place, just back from the leader. After a quick T1 (something I always work to improve on,) I got out on the bike in first place.

Hammering away at on the bike

Then I never looked back. Cruising on my Jamis Xenith T2 time trial bike, I hammered away at the two loops for the olympic course. Posting the fastest bike split by almost three and a half minutes, (helped, in part, by the advanced aerodynamics of the T2,) it was into transition and out on the run course.

On my way to a strong finish!

With a huge lead on the rest of the race, it felt like I was racing the clock, to see how fast I could run. The run course is a beautiful trail through the woods, but the downside is you can only see a short distance ahead and behind you, making for a bit of a lonely run (if nobody is within about 30 seconds of you.) It felt like a bit of a time trial, just me and my thoughts.

Solid start to the race season

After finishing the race with a good hard kick, and some finish-line socializing (which I must admit, I’m quite a fan of!! Blah blah blah, that’s me, haha!) I thought it might be fun to go run the back half of the Half-Ironman course and cheer on the other athletes. I ran almost to the turn-around before I came across Rachel McBride, who had a fairly substantial lead on the rest of the field (who also just recently came third overall in the PRO race at 70.3 Boise, only her SECOND HALF EVER!!!)

It was a great day for me, a win is always a great way to start a season, and I was really excited that the rest of the Lifesport Crew had some great races as well (Elliot Holtham slammed a second place overall, his first half-ironman ever!) Great work to everyone who was out there racing, and thanks to Coach Bjoern for all his support in the lead-up to the race, and during the race.

Next triathlon on the list? The first big ITU race of the year, ITU Pan American Cup Monroe, in Washington State on June 25th. Should be a good day, as long as I can keep it together in the swim ;P

‘Till next time, happy training!!

Last sunday was an AWESOME day out at Jericho Beach with the Lifesport Crew and Coach Bjoern!!! A solid hill repeat session of running, followed by the first ocean swim of the year in my new Nineteen Frequency SL wetsuit. Wicked suit, very thin through the shoulders, so NO restrictions. Coach floated around on his new blow-up kayak, making sure we swam hard enough, haha!

Me, Amy, Rachel, Andrew, Coach Bjoern (and yes, he DID wear the toque on the kayak,lol) Stephanie, Anita, and Elliot post-swim. It’s a pose-off!!

Then hit up only the GREATEST RESTAURANT EVER, the Naam!!!!! The greatest place around, all vegetarian/vegan food, the whole gang had some good eats. 

Get’s me ready for the next session;)

Thanks for the awesome training guys, SO much FUN in the sun at Jericho Beach!!! LOVED IT!!!

Getting ready to go out for a pre-race ride this morning, I’m wondering if there is going to be rain today or not. Now, I know if it’s raining on me, it’s raining on everyone, but does racing in the rain ever suck!! The outlook for tomorrow should be cloudy with sunny periods, and a high of 16 (although the 13degrees in the water is going to be a killer,) so hopefully a decent day for racing.

I’m looking forward to hanging out with the Lifesport crew at the race site later, and to see if I can possibly survive the freezing water (although with my new Nineteen Frequency Wetsuit, along with the neoprene cap and booties, I should be doing just fine.)

Time to get out on the Jamis Xenith T2 to see how the race rig is rolling. Good luck to everyone racing tomorrow!!!

Pre-swim jitters

On monday May 23rd, I raced in not only the first triathlon of the season, but the first elite race of the year too (only my second draft-legal race EVER!!) Boy, what an eye-opener AGAIN!! It reinforced my need to get better in the swim, as my results were not that great due to a poor swim.

I was feeling pretty good on the day, after a fairly had week of training, I was about as ready as I was going to get. With a 10:45am start time, I had LOTS of time to sleep in, and get all warmed up. The weather decided to cooperate for us that day (thank God!!) so we stayed pretty warm.

Breaking away from riders

With the odd distance pool swim (a 740m swim,) due to the fact that it is a 25m pool, extended another 12m’s by a movable bulkhead. My swim hasn’t been that great lately, and it showed in the pool. I was hoping to swim on Ryan Smiley’s feet (which I usually have no problem doing in open water, with a wetsuit,) but I was dropped pretty quickly, and ended up one of the last out of the water.

Tight turn on the Jamis Race

Now, as most people who’ve ridden in a pack before would know, if you race with a pack it is a lot easier than being out on your own, as you take turns pushing really hard out front (while everyone rides your draft,) and then riding in the draft for a bit and getting a slight break. The pack will almost ALWAYS ride faster than a solo rider, especially in draft legal triathlon. The front 6 guys had packed up, and I ended up pushing myself through the wind the entire ride. I was happy with my bike split, crushing the course on my Jamis Xenith Race and averaging 41kms/hr, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to make up any ground on the main pack.

Getting my run on!!

Out on the run, my goal was to try and run some guys down. On tired legs, on a VERY hilly course, I was able to make the 4th fastest run of the day, a split I was pretty happy with. Unfortunately, again, I wasn’t able to make up any time on the leaders of the race, so ended up finishing in 7th overall. I know that I need to get a lot faster in the swim to be competitive on the draft-legal circuit, but it is difficult seeing as I’ve only been swimming 4 years, and the top guys have been swimming since they could barely walk!!

Great job to Jeff Symonds, who won his second race in as many weeks, just crushing the course out there for the win. Another E-Load athlete, Jeff really ripped it up, and I look forward to racing with Symonds in some non-draft races later this season.

#1 fans: Sister Rachel, Mum, and the girlfriend De Anna!

I’d really like to thank my family and friends for all coming out, even my massage therapist, Matt Halverson (http://www.backontrackmt.com/our-team.php) came out to see the action. All the cheering definitely helped me get to the finish line a bit faster, always gives me a great rush to hear people screaming “GO FASTER!!!!” haha

The next race on the schedule is Lifesport’s Subaru Shawnigan Lake Triathlon, this sunday coming up (May 29th.) It’s a non-draft legal race, much more to my forte, and hopefully there’ll be a much better result!! ‘Till then!!!

A TON has happened over the last few days here in Vegas, especially with the three big rides Roman and myself did.

The new bridge to Arizona, at Hoover Dam

Roman and I at the Hoover Dam, Nevada side

Our first big ride, down to the Hoover Dam, was definitely my favorite ride we’ve had so far. The weather was unreal, getting up to 35 degrees C over at the dam, it was amazing out all day. We did thousands of meters of climbing that day, as it was all up and down to and from the dam. Out near the dam is a 33MILE bike path, perfectly paved, that is ONLY for cyclists, runners, walkers, etc. It was perfect for riding on, some places we were just flying along at high speeds, with hairpin turns. The dam was an experience itself, Roman knew a lot of the history of the dam, and imparted some of that wisdom on me. Halfway across the dam you are in Arizona (and yes, that means crossing a time zone!) We officially rode 1 mile into Arizona. After the dam, it was some epic climbing all the way back to where we split off (Roman got to keep riding WITH a tailwind,) and then it got REALLY hard for me, as I was fighting a crazy headwind for about 45 minutes to get back to my hotel. It was ugly, as the winds out here get REALLY ugly in a hurry.

“It’s not THAT high, only a hand length….”

Just up from the Dam, Arizona side

Ripping along the 8ft wide, 33mile long cycle path

Roman prepping for the descent with magazines in the shirt!!

The next day (wednesday,) was the height of our climbing experience here, as we rode all the way to the top of Mt. Charleston (which is somewhere between 7000-8000ft high.) The worst thing about the climbing? Headwind.

Top of Mt. Charleston, over 7000ft!!

ALL…..THE….WAY…..

That’s right, 30km’s of hard climbing (avg grade around 13%,) and it was COLD that day. As we got to the visitors center at the top, we were warned we should head back down as a weather system was moving in. Now, we weren’t prepared for the cold that day (duh, we’re in VEGAS, it’s supposed to be WARM!!!) so we prepped for the decent by putting magazine’s in our jerseys to block the wind, and I went so far as to buy a pair of socks from the visitors center, cut the toes off, and used them as calf guards (compressport calf guards would’ve worked WAY better, but these got me down good enough, lol.) It was a chilly but FAST decent down.

After hours of 120kmh wind climbing, summit of Mt. Potosi

Thursday was by far the most memorable ride I think I will EVER experience, as it was the highest winds I am ever likely to see. It was our longest ride day, and the winds were 120km/hr most of the day. It was insane I tell you. Roman was blown off the road a few times (no thanks to his ZIPP 404’s,) and I was slapped around by the wind pretty good too. We climbed Mt. Potosi (around 5500ft at the summit,) with the 120km/hr headwinds the whole way. Imagine climbing in your small chainring, biggest cog, yet still only turning about 55rpm, pushing on average 250+ Watts. THEN, some of the gusts hit so hard that they literally STOPPED us in our tracks, and I had to stand and push as HARD as I could, JUST TO KEEP MOVING!!!! It was frightening sometimes, especially on the decent. That was a whole ‘nother monster unto itself, as it took us 2.5hrs to climb to the top of the mountain, and about 15 minutes to decend (averaging well over 70km/hr coming down.) That day was FREEEZING too, yet again we were unprepared for the cold.

Banner’s gonna break off in the wind

You’d think we would’ve learned eh? Guess not.

Old Freemont street on the strip

We rode through the strip near the end of our ride, which was amazing to see. I’ve never seen hotels that big before, it was overwhelming. I got majorly rained on RIGHT at the end of my ride, it started to come down hard about a mile from my condo, so I narrowly avoided the worst of it.

Dinner in the Aria Hotel

But then I had to do a brick run in it:( Ugly, I was tripped up a few times by the wind. I’m telling you, intervals are almost impossible to do at certain pace zones when the wind can stop you on the spot. It’s a different experience, one that I can put into perspective at home (we’ll NEVER have winds like these at home, they would shut the city down!) That night, Roman and I went down to the strip for dinner, and to check things out, as that was his last night here. Delicious dinner, and I won $17 at the roulette table in the Aria. It was awesome, even though I’m not a gambler at all, the lights at night just astound the senses, it’s very difficult to really take it all in during a short little trip through.

My first experience on ‘The Strip’

Think I might have to go back some time;)

After yesterday’s easier day, I’m ready to ramp it back up, and the weather is now steadily improving (although it’s still really cold out.) They say that it is oddly cold this last week, and of course it’s supposed to heat WAY back up right after I leave (seems to be my luck in life.) Oh well, I’ll make the best of it, at least it’s not raining right?

Time to get out there and RIDE!!!

After one of the BEST sleeps I’ve probably had in a long time, I woke up on saturday feeling very refreshed. After a delicious breakfast, including my favourite new thing to eat, a GIANT breakfast smoothie with frozen berries, almond milk, yogurt, and all my ‘extra’ little macro/micro nutrient and protein mixes, I got to work putting my bike together. After some mild persuasion, I got it all ready to roll. Then it was time to hit out on the open road!

Riding the “small” hills

I had heard about a good little route that goes through the Red Rock Canyon, that was supposed to be a really hard climbing route. I kinda bypassed it, I decided I’d ride the canyon on sunday, and just cruised through the different valleys around Vegas, stopping in at local bike shops and stores to check things out. Post ride was a big brick run, and since I dont have a car, I threw a backpack on and finished the run at the grocery store to pick up a few odds and ends (such as after-sun lotion, stupid me I got a sunburn!!) Suffice to say, my first full day of training was AWESOME, it must’ve gotten up to the high 20’s, maybe even close to 30 degrees. Lots of exploring for sure.

Speaking of exploring, I noticed a few things:
1. there are a TON of smoke/hookah shops in vegas. And I mean a LOT.

Fueling up post training, chicken fajita style!

2. Think there’s a lot of Sushi joints in Vancouver? I dont think our precious Vancouver can hold a candle to Vegas, TONS of them EVERYWHERE.

So after some great training, time for some dinner and hopefully an early bedtime.