Mont-Tremblant

Mont-Tremblant was an amazing day. There was not a breath of wind the entire day and 21c. The day started with a boat ride to the race cite from my great home stay. ‘When I cannot arrive by helicopter, I like to arrive by boat.’ I set up my Transition zone and had a good warm up.

The water was perfectly calm as 22 pro men lined up. There was a silence as we waited for the start and then the canon sounded. All the male Pros dashed into the water. I had a very relaxed swim coming out of the water in the main chase group and in 6^th position. It was my best swim so far.

I ran my way into 3^rd place by the time we entered into the transition zone. On the bike I let Paul Ambrose set the piece and we quickly caught the two leaders. Once Paul had taken the lead we were quickly over taken by Tyler Butterfield, Jesse Thomas, Cody Beals and Richie Cunningham. The group stayed together for the next 40km until the Green Flash (AKA Lionel Sanders) came by to make us work our butts off too keep up. Lionel over took the main field right at the base of a very large hill and all of use had to counter with a massive surge in our power output just to stay with him. It started to rain in the last 20km of the bike make the road a little slick. On Lac Superior at the last turn around Paul crashed and put lost a far amount of time. I was able to navigate around him safely

and stay in contact with the lead group. The group stayed together for the rest of the bike until Tyler took the lead. He was able to get an 8 second lead going into the tranisition zone.

I had a little trouble with my second transition. Which put me in 5^th place going onto the run.

I put in a big push at the start of the run and I was able to catch Lionel and Jessie in the first km. As I went by Tyler, he gave me a little cheer. He just did not have the legs after his great performance in Ironman Brazil three weeks before. Once I had caught up to Lionel and Jessie I settled into there pace. I thought ok you are in a good position now lets go and win a race. It was very cool running with Lionel how I have training and raced with for years while we both were at McMaster University. Lionel and I had some great comradery out there, at one point I even passed him a water cup when he was not able to reach one. I felt extremely relaxed until 12km into the run. Then it was mind over matter. The three of us where still together 15km into the run when we started to get into the hilly section of the course.

Jessie was the first to pop. I was able to hold onto Lionel until the 17^th km. Then he just started to pull away and there was nothing I could do. I just focused on myself and thought okay now lets minimize the time he puts into me. When I finally saw the finish line I was so excited and emotional. I finished 2nd place.

It was such an amazing day and to be able to race against people I consider stars and Heroes in the sport. Lionel and Jessie are legends in there own right. I still remember meeting Tyler for the first time one year ago in Huatulco and having dinner with him, John Rassmussen and Barrie. The hole pro field was full of great people and it was amazing to race against all of them.

I am now getting ready for Challenge St. Andrews on June 5.

Huge thank you to: C3, Kinetico, Royal Containers, Caledon Hills Cycling,  Saucony, Nineteen, Awake Chocolate, Compressport, SMITH Optic and my parents.

Full Results Ironman 70.3 Mont-Tremblant

Poway training block

I have spent the last five weeks in a focused training block. After competing at St. George 70.3, I made my way to California to work with the Triathlon Squad. I have been eating, sleeping, and breathing Triathlon with this great group, working to improve in all aspects of the sport. It started out rather cold in California, colder than in Ontario at the time. There also was a far amount of rain for the first week but California sure does need it. 

I biked solely on my TT bike, climbing all sorts of mountains in California to get myself ready for a hilly race in Quebec. 

We did a track workout once a week, which was very exciting since I have not been on a track in over a year. It helps a lot to do some speed work with the ITU guys.

Having the ocean so close by has been great for open water swimming. We go to the site of the San Diego ITU Triathlon once a week to open water swimming. The group of ten or so people is perfect to practice sighting and moving around in the group.  After the five weeks in California I made my way to Miami too see Rachel. It was a lot of fun puttering around Miami. It was pretty cool to swim in both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans in one week. I saw a stingray jump out of the water while I was swimming in Miami witch was really cool. 

Now I am back in Caledon doing some final preparation of Mont Trembant 70.3.