Training in Poway

Training with the Triathlon Squad in Poway.

Challange St. Andrews

Oh Canada!

I love my country. Two weeks ago I had my fist podium on Canadian soil and last weekend I clamed my first professional win in Canada.

The race was Challenge St. Andrews New Brunswick. The day was great for a race: a coolmorning and a hotter afternoon.  The swim location was an estuary of the Bay of Fundy called Katy’s Cove. The cold salt water meant the swim was wetsuit mandatory. We were held out of the water until the last moment. At 7:00 AM the horn sounded as the sun was rising above the trees. I was able to work my way into 4^th place by 400m. The race split into small groups by the end of the swim with John Kenny and Alberto Alessandroni leading out of the water. I came out with Dan Feeney.

Challenge Picture

There was a 400 meter  uphill run to transition, partly over gravel road, so I chose to put on a pair of shoes. I was able to enter transition in 3^rd place and 1 minute behind the leader.

 

The bike was very hilly on nice pavement. The first stretch of two –lane road led into a  two-loop course on divided highway, with long climbs and amazing views of the Bay of Fundy. I had to work hard for 30 km before I caught  Alberto, the current leader. He was riding well and once I was in striking distance I settled into his pace to recover. At 50 km I decided it was time to take the lead and see what I could do. In the last 10km of the bike I was able to start opening up a lead.

I enter transition with a 50 second lead, and after a quick transition I was off onto the run. 

Challenge picture

It was a flat, two-loop course along the Fundy shore and through the picturesque town of Saint Andrews. I started off very quickly, opening up my lead to 70 sec by 5km. 

Challange Picture

By the halfway point I had a 4 min lead. Once I heard that, I settled down and ran the rest of the run at a controlled pace.

It was an amazing feeling to come across the finish line holding up the banner. Both my parents were also competing in the race and it was so cool to be able to run in with each of them when they crossed the finish line!

Shot from: Andrew Lynch

I stayed one extra day in St. Andrews with my Family to explore the area. We went whale watching and did not see any whales. It still was a very fun boat ride.

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

Full Results

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.

St. George

Not every race can be perfect and my latest Ironman 70.3, St. George Utah, was far from perfect. Maybe I was distracted by school and moving out of my house or maybe it just was a bad day. Regardless of why, St. George did not go as I had planned. I will talk about my day of suffering and how it felt.

            The week leading into the race had been a little crazy spending most of my time moving out of my student house and back home. When I got to St. George I had an amazing home stay with Kirk and Charity Nelson. They own a bike shop called IBB Cycle. Kirk gave my bike a nice tune up. I was blown away by the incredible landscape of St. George and was feeling very good and ready to race.

            On race morning I had my usually breakfast of oatmeal and eggs. I was feeling a little nervous but nothing out of the ordinary. When I got to the race site I set up my bike and did a 20min jog to wake myself up. I was able to get in a 20min swim warm up. The water was cold, about 15C but nothing to bad.

            The swim was the best part of the day. I had a good start and quickly moved myself into the draft of the main group. I worked my way up through the group, looking for Tyler Butterfield. I knew that he was right around my level in swimming, and if I could swim with him I would be in a good position. I found Tyler about 800m into the swim. I settled in beside him and started to look around to see if I could move up the strung-out line of swimmers. I saw that a small gap was opening up and I knew that if I could close it I would be with the lead group. I put my head down and went for it, but after about 400m of holding the same distance to the main group I started to lose ground. At about 1400m a group of 3 people, including Tyler, caught me. I jumped on to the back of the group and followed them for the rest of the swim. I had a 24:53 swim, about 1:40 down form the fastest swimmer. This was the closest I had ever been to the front of the race out of the swim, and I was very excited to be in the race.

When I got onto the bike I could see the main group up the road climbing the first big hill. I thought to myself, You just need to close that gap and the race is on. But I was not feeling great on the bike. I told myself that I had to just bike a little harder at the start to try and get in contact with the lead group. I pushed about 10 watts more then I was planning to. Things were going well until about 30km into the bike. I was holding a good power numbers but I was not bringing anyone back. Then things just started to fall apart and I started to struggle just to hold good power numbers on the flats of the bike course. I was doing OK on the hills but was dead on the flats. At about 45km into the bike Trevor Wurtele went by me. I thought to myself, Try to hang in with him, you should be able to ride at his level, but that was not the case. I held on to him for about 5km then he was gone. At 70km there was a big hill and I was out of it, just trying to keep my head in the game. All I wanted was to go was go to sleep.

I started to get tunnel vision and all I thought about was, Keep your legs moving and get to the run.

By the time I got to the run I was out of the race. I went by Paulo who shouted, ‘Just finish it.’ That is exactly what I did, I just ran. It hurt see such slow numbers on my GPS watch, but I could not go any faster, I was spent. At every aid station I got as much water and Gatorade as I could because I was cooking, out on the run, in the Utah heat. When the race was done it was a strange feeling. I was not happy, but not sad, just tired and ready to move on.

I will take everything I can from this race. It is time to get back to work and prepare myself for the next races. I will be staying in California for a month working with Paulo and preparing for 5150 Mt. Trembant, June 20 and Challenge St. Andrews 70.3, July 5.

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

Saucony Run Gear

Saucony has some of the best run gear I have ever used. Here I will be looking at some of their running items that have been in my lineup lately. Just like all products there are ups and downs.

Saucony uses a layering system which is much more efficient then having a bulky jacket for a cold and rainy day, called the Total Run System. All of their products have a graphic on them telling you what conditions it is best used for - Run Dry, Run Warm and Run Shield.

Run Dry cloths are made to wick away sweat. They’re best used as a base layer and to keep you cool on hot days.

Run Warm is made for colder winter days to make sure you do not freeze when you go running outside in Canadian winters.

Run Shield is made to protect you from the elements. Great for rainy and windy days.

I have tested out the Saucony Short Sleeve, and it’s been super light and breathable. The fabric has tiny holes in it to allow for great airflow while wicking away sweat. I’ve also run in the Transition Sportop. This long-sleeved shirt is best for cool spring and fall days. It is not very heavy so I would not recommend it for our Canadian winters. All of these cloths need to be mixed with other Saucony running products to get the right amount for layers for the day.

As for shorts, I am a huge fan of split shorts, and the higher the split the better in my mind. Saucony has the Inferno Split Short to cover that need. These are solid shorts that do not wear out quickly and have some nice colour options.

As for shoes, I primarily use the Kinvara 5 and Type A6, but Saucony has a large lineup of shoes to pick from. The Omni 13 is a much more supportive shoe whereas the Mirage 5 is a medium support shoe. The Kinvara 5s are not for everyone, as these shoes have very little support. They are very springy, and it feels like you are running on grass no matter what surface. With such a soft sole the shoes will cushion your landing and reduce injury risk while running on pavement. I have had very few injuries since I switched over to Kinvaras. With a soft sole these shoes do wear out a little bit faster and I have to get a new pair every 3-4 months. In older versions the side wall would blowi out before the sole of the shoe wore out. This problem has been fixed in the Kinvara 5, making the shoes last longer. I am interested to see what the Kinvara 6 has to offer.

The Type A6 are one of Saucony's road racing shoes, designed to be light and fast. I have had many personal best times in these shoes. They are a little softer and more flexible them some other racing flats out there but this helps to reduce pounding on the pavement. The only drawback to these shoes is that if the ground is wet they tend to slip and lose traction. The Type A6 are perfect for races and fast workouts. I wear them for all my speed workouts, tempo runs and races.

All of this gear helps you #FindYourStrong.

Student Triathlete

I just finished my undergraduate degree last week and sent in some tips to Triathlon Magazine Canada, on how to juggle school and training. Check them out at http://triathlonmagazine.ca/news/the-student-triathlete-fitting-it-all-in/