Niagara Triathlon

Couple weekends ago, I competed in the Niagara Sprint Triathlon (Swim/Bike). The race included a 750m swim in Lake Ontario, and a 25km bike which included an incredibly steep 2km up the escarpment. The hill was slightly shorter than the one in the Milton Tri earlier in June, however it was much steeper. Going into the race my swimming was continuing to improve and my goal for the swim would be 10:30 which would equate to 1:24/100m. My wave was the third wave to go. In hindsight, I wish before the race I had asked to go into the elite category who would go first, however I started two groups back, which would mean needing to meander through the water passing people, and having to significantly slow down at the turns to get around people. I felt my goal time was reasonable considering the times I had been hitting in the week leading into the race, however, I failed to take into account the effect of swimming in a big lake like Lake Ontario, were the water would be much more choppy than both a pool, and Guliver's Lake, where I have been swimming on a pretty regular basis, which is only 1km the whole way around. In the previous 4 races, I have averaged 70, 72, 72, and 74 strokes per minute respectively, however this race owing to the choppy water averaged 78 stroke per minute, which may not sound significant, but for the first 5:30 of the swim my stroke rate was in the 80s and topped out at 96 stroke per minute ---THAT's my hand entering the water every 0.625 seconds which is very quick for me at least. Even though the overall average isn't probably hugely different from the previous swims, this one in the water just felt like the only way I could move forward was to spin my arms as quickly as possible, and didn't feel like each stroke was taking me very far. This will definitely be something I will look to work on in the coming months: being able to sustain a high stroke rate to make up for the choppy water conditions, but at the same time maintaining a good catch and pull in the water. In any case, I managed to finish the swim in 10:58 seconds which is slower than I wanted, but I was content with it. What I will say is that after the last two days' swims that time is in need of some serious revision. Yesterday I averaged approximately 1:20/100m for 22 100s, will minimal recovery (in some cases leaving on 1:25 [less than 5 second recovery]), and today I did 4 800s and did 2 of the 800s in 11:25 with what I would consider an easy perceived rating of exertion (in other words on a scale of 1-10, 10 represented all out effort, I would rate this around a 6). As 750m that pace time equates to approximately 10:30 for the 750m, and I did that twice. So I'm still feeling very optimistic for the future.

Next was onto the bike, which I where I feel most comfortable. My fixed power meter (brand new spider) was not yet installed on my bike so once again I would be going entirely by feel. This was not optimal considering the hill we were about to face very early on in the race, since helping with pacing up a climb is probably one of a power meters best contributions. Nevertheless, I stormed out of transition and immediately hit the gas. The first 4 minutes before the hill I averaged 43 km/hr. Once I got to the hill the pace significantly dropped, averaging 23 km/hr for the next 4 minutes, however considering many of my competitors were having to walk their bikes up the hill (it was really that steep), I was pretty happy with the effort. I did feel like I probably didn't get my gear selection quite right for that climb, feeling that I could probably have been in a bigger gear - that is another aspect a power meter can help with since it also measures cadence, and my cadence was likely well into the 110 RPM range, which is probably too high. I will say despite the indoor trainer being the best training aid I've ever purchased, the only drawback to it is that you don't get to practice gear selection as regularly. Half way up the climb I considered going up a couple gears, but at that point I was on the steepest part of the climb, and thought that changing gears under this amount of tension could spell disaster so I stuck to it in the gear I had chosen, and got up it nicely. Was putting exhausted  for the next 20-30 seconds, but was right back at a high pace quickly. The final 20 kilometres of the race I averaged 42.4 km/hr with a few good stretches in the 50s. I had figured on the downhill back to the start (it was an out and back course so you would go down the same hill you went up) I could make up the time I lost going up the hill to get my overall average above 40 km/hr however the twists and turns in the descent, and a car going up the hill in the middle of the road which forced me to grab my brakes hard and do a pretty significant fishtail to avoid it, meant that it was difficult to blast my way down the hill and get that average above 40. Nonetheless, managed to complete the 25 km bike in 38:50 for an average of 39 km/hr. Overall I won the race by more than 10 minutes, and in all the day's race including the full Sprint Triathlon I had the second fastest bike split, and fifth fastest swim, so it was a pretty good day.

Next up is the K-Town (Kingston) Long Course Triathlon (Swim/Bike). This one will hopefully draw out some good competition, and will be a good test with a 2 km swim, and a 56 km bike. In the Welland Tri which had the exact same race distance my time for the whole race was 1:55:19, so that will be the time to beat. However, I am realizing that times in Triathlon are very difficult to compare for a number of reasons. One, weather plays a much more significant role than in running race, due to the effect on both the water, and the major effect that wind has on the bike. Also, all races have different transition set-ups, and locations of the timing mats, and locations for mount/dismount lines for the bike leg. For instance, in Guelph the timing mat for the swim was about a 200m run up the beach to the entrance of the transition area. In Niagara, the timing mat was right at the exit of the water. In Welland, you had to go up a flight of stairs to the transition, and then run your bike approximately 200 m out to the road to where you could mount your bike. So it's very difficult to measure improvement by time, however, this week I will have a fully functioning power meter on my bike (it is beauty) therefore it will help judge how good I am really getting on the bike, and then serve as a comparator for future races.

Rose City and the Plans for the Future

The next race on the schedule was the Rose City Long Course Triathlon in Welland, ON on June 26. This was a 2km swim followed by a 56 km bike on a flat course. Heading into the race, I was so pumped about my swimming starting to come back to form thanks to starting to work with a swim coach from Milton, Sheryl Ross. She is amazing, and knows her stuff so well. Her background as a kinesiologist really makes the approach very scientifically based, and has been putting together my swim program which I will be following through the summer, and into the winter. After only 1 session with her I felt my stroke had become that much more efficient. The game plan was to work on basically lengthening out my stroke, so that I'm completing the stroke fully with complete tricep extension, and starting my pull slightly earlier. Also, I've been working hard on maintaining core stability in the water, bilateral breathing, and not lifting my body vertically in the water as I pull through the stroke, so all my power is dedicated to forward movement through the water. So far the workouts have a great mix of drills, and pace work, and it really makes the time fly in the pool, being able to shut down and focus on only my form, and not having to think about what interval I should do next, or combination of intervals to do each day.

So now onto Welland. My swim wave of (ages 18-39) started 1 minute after the 15 pro/elite group. The swim course was amazing. It was at the Flatwater Centre in Welland where they held the rowing events for the paralympics last summer, so it meant that the water was very clean. The course was a simple rectangle swimming about 900 meters out then across to the other side of the river, 900 m back and then back into the swim transition for 2km. Initially, when planning out how long the race would take, my goal time for the swim was 30 minute or 1:30/100m. After the pros went, my wave was sent off. It started at a furious pace, according to my watch I averaged 1:12/100m for the first 200 meters! I reached the 1km mark at 13:46. By approximately 600 meters I caught up to the tail end of the pro/elite group who started a minute before, and began passing. By about 1200 meters I caught a second pack of the pro group and passed them. I completed the 2km in 28:59 for a solid 1:26/100m average pace. This was the sixth fastest swim of the day among all racers in all categories. I'll explain later why I'm especially happy with this result. So now onto my girl Elektra. There was a very long run up to the transition up a set of stairs, and then an even longer run from the transition to the road where we could mount our bikes. Out on the course, the first half was entirely into a headwind (17 mph steady gusting to 30), that was hurting slightly from the left side as well. This meant gearing slightly down to keep my cadence nice and high. I saw up ahead after about 5km a rider slogging it in a big gear, and knew I would catch them shortly. Picked them off pretty quickly and according to strava's estimate, my surge to past was at 816 W, and had been averaging about 300 W for the first 10

kilometres, which is 5.4 W/Kg. After another few kilometres I saw my next victim up ahead by a good margin. It took a while but eventually at about 21km he was within striking distance. I tried to make a move to pass but about 10 m away from him I decided it was not going to be a clean pass so dropped back to a legal distance, regained some energy, then yelled at myself to let er rip. I averaged 340 W (6.1 W/kg) for the next 3 kms, and took a quick look back at the turn, and had him beat. So my position was looking even better. Past another competitor a little later and now made the turn back to the finish. The wind had changed slightly, it was helping a little but was now more of a straight south wind which meant a crosswind. I kept my cool, geared up and pounded it back to the finish. The final 20 km I averaged the highest power average I ever have with 352 W for about 27 minutes. That is 6.3 W/kg!! Tour de France numbers. Over this time I averaged 44.5 km/hr, meaning I completed the 56.5 kms or so in 1:23:13 for an average speed of 41 kph. It was one of the best bikes I've ever done, and my overall time was 1:55 for the win (four in a row). Was hurting bad into that headwind on the first half, but just took it 1 minute at a time. What I was most proud at was that another elite cyclist in my division was neck in neck with me in terms of my bike split, meaning that my swim won me the race, since I was out of the water 4 minutes faster than him. This gives me confidence that I'm not a one trick pony with just being able to win races on the bike, but being able to go toe to toe with some of the better swimmers in the sport which bodes well for my future.

So the game plan is now to do the Niagara Triathlon on July 17 and try to pb the swim. After that I'm hoping my running is back to form, and I'm able to compete in the National Championships which I've qualified for in Nebraska August 14, and then do a half ironman in August as well. After that will likely do Guelph Lake in September, and then another half ironman (Niagara Falls Barrellman) later in September which will be the provincial championships. After that the race season is not quite done, as I would like to do the US National Championships for the Aquabike in Miami in November. Luckily, doing these crazy tough bike workouts right now in the heat of my apartment is probably pretty similar to what weather I can expect in Miami. Today's workout was no joke, 2x7 minutes at 110% FTP, 2X5 minutes at 115% FTP, 1x3min at 120%, 1x 2minutes at 125% FTP. My apartment was 90 degrees Fahrenheit at the time, and with the intensity of the intervals after the fourth interval, I was no lie in tears from the extreme discomfort I was in. I have no idea how but I was able to dig even deeper for the two subsequent intervals with my heart pounding along near maximum, and legs absolutely searing from the lactate surging through them. But how did I make it through, I kept repeating over and over I KNOW I CAN DO THIS. I actually think letting out that emotion stirred up some more adrenaline and helped carry my body through the last two intervals. Forgot to mention that I was carrying a huge amount of fatigue into this workout with a number of difficult workouts in the days prior, including a 172 km long ride from Thornhill to see my grandparents on Canada Day in Trenton. For that ride the final 92 kilometres was completed 2:30 hours for 37 km/hr average speed. It was a beastly ride, and I felt like I could keep going for much longer afterwards which is re-assuring for my future plans to one day compete in Kona for the Ironman World Championships.